Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish shows available for you to stream at home. We put a lot of thought into our selections, and our debates on what to include and what not to include can sometimes get a little heated and feelings may get hurt, but so be it, this is an important service for you, our readers. With that said, here are our selections for this week.
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10. (tie) For All Mankind (Apple TV Plus)
What we have here is an alternate history situation, one where the space race of the 1960s didn’t end, thanks in large part to Russia beating America to a handful of important achievements. The show is now in season three, so there’s plenty for you to dive into if you want, which you probably should, in part due to a bunch of space cowboys doing cool space cowboy things, and in part because all your television-obsessed friends won’t stop talking about it. Win-win. Watch it on Apple TV Plus.
10. Loot (Apple TV Plus)
One of the biggest problems with television these days is that there are not enough shows that star Maya Rudolph. That’s why it is nice to have Loot, an Apple series that stars Rudolph as a billionaire who learns how the rest of the world lives. It’s a good start. Maya Rudolph is the best. Watch it on Apple TV Plus.
9. Moonhaven (AMC Plus)
Good news for mankind: this show takes place 100 years from now when the Moon hosts a utopian colony. The bad news, though, is that there are shadowy forces at work and a conspiracy and a murder and all that jazz. So an intrepid pilot teams up with a detective, and we’ve got a sci-fi procedural vibe going on, which will hopefully be able to vanquish the evil at work. Emma McDonald, Dominic Monaghan, and Joe Manganiello star, but try not to think too hard about that Magic Mike XXL convenience store scene while you’re enjoying this gorgeous-looking show about the very fate of civilization. Watch it on AMC Plus.
8. Black Bird (Apple TV Plus)
There are a couple of reasons to watch Apple TV+ latest original, the prison drama Black Bird. First, it marks one of Ray Liotta’s final performances on-screen – here he plays a decorated cop who’s “not mad, just disappointed” that his son has followed in the footsteps of the criminals he once hunted. Second, it gives Taron Egerton, the guy who should’ve won that Oscar for a musical biopic about a Queer British icon, a chance to showcase his chops – the serious kind. Third, it’s based on an unbelievably true story about a guy named Jimmy Keene who wiped clean his 10-year sentence behind bars by getting reassigned to a maximum-security prison, buddying up to a criminally-insane serial killer, and eliciting a confession from the guy so that law enforcement could pin down all of his victims. Personally, we’d take the decade of commissary snacks and toilet paper rationing. Watch it on Apple TV Plus.
7. Everything’s Trash (Freeform/Hulu)
Phoebe Robinson gets the showcase she’s needed and deserved for a long time with this one, a show about a brash semi-famous podcaster who gets roped into running her brother’s political campaign. Robinson knows a little something about podcasting from her run as a co-host of 2 Dope Queens, so one assumes there is gold to be mined there. This one is cool on a number of levels. Watch it on Hulu.
6. Stranger Things 4 (Netflix)
The second chunk of the fourth season of Stranger Things doesn’t have the same hefty episode count as the first but it is still, in a word, epic. And that’s not because of its cinematic runtimes. Well, not entirely. It is partially due to the cinematic runtimes. But all those minutes are packed with all of the 80s nostalgia, Dungeons and Dragons references, demonic possessions, prison breaks, rink parties, and secret government experiments you could ask for. Who knows what song from the 1980s it will rocket to the top of the charts next. But, no matter what takes place (or who doesn’t make it out alive?), the joy of this season is watching the rest of these weirdos and misfits band together to save each other … and themselves. Watch it on Netflix.
5. The Last Movie Stars (HBO Max)
Through an examination of recovered tapes made for an abandoned memoir and conversations with many of his own contemporaries, Ethan Hawke explores the life, career, and 50-year marriage of iconic actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Having spoken briefly with Hawke about the project a few months ago (and about Newman’s late career brilliance), it’s clear that this will read as a passion project from the ever-busy and intellectually curious actor/storyteller. Watch it on HBO Max.
4. Rap Sh!t (HBO Max)
Rap Sh!t is the latest show from issa Rae and, as such and as you expect, it is extremely good and extremely on-point. The story follows to estranged Miami high school students who reunite to form a rap group, and is just littered with everything you’d expect to see given that description, as well as a fair amount you probably did not expect to see. It’s a good time. Get in there. Watch it on HBO Max.
3. The Rehearsal (HBO Max)
Nathan Fielder is back with another show that toes the line between awkward and brilliant. His first go-round was Nathan for You, the Comedy Central series where he “helped” people “fix” their businesses. Now he’s got this project, in which he “helps” people plan out conversations and various personal interactions in very, very deep detail. It’s a lot and it’s hard to explain on paper (please do imagine Nathan Fielder pitching this to a confused HBO executive), but it also sounds like a perfectly imagined Nathan Fielder show. Worth a shot. Watch it on HBO Max
2. What We Do in the Shadows (FX/Hulu)
The good news here is that the vampires are back. The bad is that… well, there’s not really any bad news. How could there be? This show remains relentlessly fun and silly in a way that almost feels like they’re getting away with something, like someone in charge stopped paying attention and they’re just running wild in their own little sandbox. This is, to be clear, a compliment of the highest order. One of our best shows is back and still humming along in peak form. This is worth celebrating. Watch it on FX/Hulu.
1. Better Call Saul (AMC Plus)
There’s so much we know and so much we don’t know about what’s on the other side of Better Call Saul‘s finale. So much anxiety over what happens to Kim Wexler and, ultimately, what happens to Jimmy/Saul after the events of Breaking Bad. But as the season premiere demonstrated, the thrill is in the journey (with surprising turns, masterful storytelling, and gripping visuals), not just in the destination, meaning sit back, relax, and try and enjoy the shooting star that is this all-time best series’ final notes. Watch it on AMC Plus.