Each week our staff of film and television 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.
15. Wicked Little Letters (Netflix)
A British mystery-comedy starring Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley? Yeah, that’ll do. Wicked Little Letters is about an English seaside town in the 1920s that gets upended by scandalous mail (or whatever they call it there). A boisterous Irish migrant named Rose (Buckley) is charged with the crime, but as the townspeople, including buttoned-up local Edith (Colman) do their own investigation, “they suspect that something is amiss, and Rose may not be the culprit after all.” The trailer is very charming.
14. The Decameron (Netflix)
Tony Hale has a pretty solid track record when it comes to comedies. Buster in Arrested Development, Gary in Veep, FORKY in Toy Story 4 (do not hold Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip against him). Next up is The Decameron, which is like if The White Lotus took place during the bubonic plague pandemic (or as actress Jessica Plummer described it, “Love Island, but back in the day”). The social satire is getting rave reviews for being “the best apocalyptic ensemble comedy since Clue.” Grab your juice and start watching.
13. Futurama (Hulu)
Last season on Futurama, Fry, Leela, Bender, & Co. took on an Amazon-like company formed by Mom; caught a rage virus; and got turned into toys (that was a weird one). In season 12 (which is technically the second half of season eight if you go by production order, but let’s stick with Hulu’s season designations for the sake of ease), the gang “embarks on mind-bending adventures involving birthday party games to the death, the secrets of Bender’s ancestral robot village, A.I. friends (and enemies), impossibly cute beanbags, and the true 5 million-year-old story behind the consciousness-altering substance known as coffee.” Guest stars include Danny Trejo, Cara Delevingne, and Kyle Maclachlan. (Read more about the new season here.)
12. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (Hulu)
A while back, I remember seeing someone online make the case for Planet of the Apes as the most consistently good movie franchise. That’s overstating things (how soon we forget Ape Lincoln?), but there are more keepers than stinkers in the series, especially among the recent films. Surprise box office hit Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes needed to justify its existence following the strong conclusion to the Caesar trilogy — and it did. The 10th overall Planet of the Apes features typically CGI work and a stirring story about determination. You won’t hate every ape you see, from chimpan-A to chimpan-Z.
11. Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Paramount Plus)
2023’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem made a decent amount of money at the box office and received strong reviews — but doesn’t it still feel under-appreciated? It’s a really good movie (and should have been nominated for an Oscar over Elemental)! Paramount Plus spin-off series Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is set in the same universe as Mutant Mayhem, and the animation looks just as cool as it does in the film. The voice cast of the Turtles (Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon) is back, too, as well as Ayo Edebiri as April O’Neil.
10. Mr. Throwback (Peacock)
It’s a Happy Endings reunion! (Kind of!) Mr. Throwback brings together Happy Endings creator David Caspe and star Adam Pally in a mockumentary series about a memorabilia dealer who reunites with a member of his sixth-grade basketball team: a fellow named 10-time NBA all-star Steph Curry. The cast also includes SNL favorite Ego Nwodim and The Afterparty’s Adyen Mayeri.
9. The Instigators (Apple TV Plus)
A Damon / Affleck movie that isn’t Matt and Ben?!? Now I’ve seen everything. The Instigators stars Matt Damon and Casey Affleck as unlikely partners in a heist, but when things go south, they “find themselves engulfed in a whirlwind of chaos, pursued not only by police but also by backward bureaucrats and vengeful crime bosses.” The rest of the cast is stacked — including Hong Chau, Michael Stuhlbarg, Paul Walter Hauser, Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Toby Jones, and Ron Perlman — although following the Road House debacle, it would be nice to see a movie directed by Doug Liman in a theater again.
8. The Umbrella Academy (Netflix)
The Umbrella Academy season 4 bids farewell to the Hargreaves family, including Victor (Elliot Page), Luther (Tom Hopper), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Number Five (Aidan Gallagher), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Diego (David Castañeda), and Ben (Justin H. Min). Guest stars include David Cross as “a man desperate to reconnect with his estranged daughter” and real-life married couple Nick Offerman and Megan Mullally as college professors. (You can read more about the final season here.)
7. They Shot the Piano Player (Netflix)
Did you know that the number one movie on Netflix for much of this cursed week has been The Emoji Movie? Yes, the movie where Patrick Stewart plays a talking pile of poop. This simply will not do. Instead, why not check out a quality animated film, like the vibrant They Shot the Piano Player? The origin story of Bossa nova “captures a fleeting time bursting with creative freedom at a turning point in Latin American history in the ’60s and ’70s, just before the continent was engulfed by totalitarian regimes.”
6. Emily in Paris (Netflix)
She’s still Emily, she’s still in Paris, and she still has questionable outfits.
5. Immaculate (Hulu)
Still not on the Sydney Sweeney bandwagon? You will be after watching Immaculate. The horror film stars Tank’s mom as a devout American nun who travels to a convent in Italy where things aren’t quite as they initially appear. Hate it when that happens. The wild ending, in particular, is pretty great.
4. Solar Opposites (Hulu)
Solar Opposites doesn’t get as much love and attention as Rick and Morty, another science-fiction/comedy animated series, but it should. The show goes to some truly unexpected places, including The Wall and SilverCops side-stories, and the voice cast of Dan Stevens, Thomas Middleditch, Sean Giambrone, and Mary Mack do fine work as the chaotic former residents of Planet Shlorp. I would die for the Pupa (assuming it doesn’t kill me first).
3. Industry (Max)
This third season of Industry, overall, convinces me that there will be a future moment when this series will move beyond scoring critical acclaim and maintaining a loyal but relatively modest audience. Years into the future, this show could catch on with a whole new audience and be streamed into oblivion in a Suits-like way. That USA Network show maintained a dedicated enough audience to last a decade, but years later, the show’s exploding popularity on Netflix led NBC to double back and find new life in the franchise. It’s very easy to imagine Industry someday harnessing broad streaming appeal in the same way. (You can read our review here.)
2. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Max)
The world did Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga dirty. Maybe it’s not a stone-cold masterpiece like Mad Max: Fury Road, but few films are. The George Miller epic deserves better than making less money at the domestic box office than It Ends With Us. It has the best action sequence of the year, Anya Taylor-Joy rules, and Chris Hemsworth gives a genuinely Oscar-worthy performance. Also, there’s a character named Pissboy. Fire up Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga on Max and make it the hit it should have been when it was in theaters.
1. Bad Monkey (Apple TV Plus)
Scrubs, Ted Lasso, and Shrinking creator Bill Lawrence’s comedy empire expands with Bad Monkey, a good show with a fun premise: Vince Vaughn plays a former cop who is now a health inspector in the Florida Keys. “But after stumbling upon a case that begins with a human arm fished up by tourists, he realizes that if he can prove murder, he’ll be back in. He just needs to get past a trove of Floridian oddballs and one bad monkey,” according to the plot synopsis. The show is based on author Carl Hiaasen’s novel of the same name, and has fun summer binge written all over it.