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. A Man On the Inside (Netflix)
SNL. The Comeback. The Office. Parks and Recreation. Brooklyn Nine-Nine. The Good Place. Rutherford Falls. What do all these shows have in common? Michael Schur. Regis Philbin’s son-in-law (it’s true) has either written for and/or created all of them. He’s one of the most important names in comedy this century, and he has a new show on Netflix. A Man on the Inside follows retired widower Charles, played by Cheers and The Good Place legend Ted Danson, who goes undercover in a retirement community to solve a mystery.
14. Creature Commandos (Max)
If you enjoy the Harley Quinn show and/or James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, you’ll love Creature Commandos. The animated series tracks a secret team of incarcerated monsters — including Frankenstein, The Bride of Frankenstein, and G.I. Robot — who are recruited for missions deemed too dangerous for humans. “When all else fails… they’re your last, worst option,” the Max description reads. Every episode was written by Gunn, while the cast includes Indira Varma, Sean Gunn, Alan Tudyk, Zoë Chao, David Harbour, Maria Bakalova, Frank Grillo, and Viola Davis. It’s a fun introduction to the new DCU.
13. Black Doves (Netflix)
In Black Doves, the always wonderful Keira Knightley plays Helen, an undercover professional spy who has been passing on her politician husband’s secrets to the shadowy organisation she works for: the titular Black Doves. But when her secret lover Jason is assassinated, an old friend (Paddington’s Ben Whishaw!) is tasked with keeping her safe. Together, they set off on a mission to investigate who killed Jason, which, as often happens with these kinds of shows, leads them into a vast conspiracy. Pepe Silvia will be watching.
12. Carry-On (Netflix)
Carry-On makes a (mostly) single-setting thriller star out of the unsung heroes of the holiday season: TSA agents. Ethan (played by Taron Egerton) is tasked with outsmarting a mysterious traveler (Jason Bateman at his most menacing) who blackmails him into letting a dangerous package slip onto a Christmas Eve flight. Carry-On is directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (Orphan, The Shallows, and Black Adam, but don’t hold that last one against him) with a script from Ratchet & Clank (!) writer TJ Fixman.
11. Secret Level (Prime Video)
Created by Tim Miller (Love, Death, & Robots), Secret Level is an animated anthology series with original stories set within the worlds of video games. There’s Armored Core, Mega Man, Pac-Man, Spelunky, and The Other Worlds, among others. The voice cast includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kevin Hart, Keanu Reeves, Gabriel Luna, Temuera Morrison, Ariana Greenblatt, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje.
10. Conclave (Peacock)
Discover what all the fuss over the vaping cardinal is about. Directed by Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), Conclave is about the messy drama behind selecting a new pope. Per the official synopsis: “Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope’s wake, secrets which could shake the foundations of the Church.” Such drama queens.
9. Dexter: Original Sin (Paramount Plus)
The Dark Passenger-verse expands with Dexter: Original Sin, a prequel to the original series and Dexter: New Blood. This one is set in 1991 and follows Dexter Morgan (played by Patrick Gibson) as he transitions from student to serial killer with guidance from his father Harry (Christian Slater). Michael C. Hall will reprise his role, sort of, as the voice of young Dexter’s inner monologue. Will there be a treadmill? Find out!
8. Laid (Peacock)
Stephanie Hsu, who really should have won the Oscar over her Everything Everywhere All at Once co-star, is joined by Zosia Mamet in the new series Laid. The “f*cked up rom-com” is about a woman who finds out that her former lovers are dying in unusual ways, and must go back through her “sex timeline” to figure out what the heck is going on.
7. Juror #2 (Max)
Juror #2 received such a tiny theatrical release, we wrote an entire post about how to see it. It’s Clint Eastwood’s possibly final film for chrissakes! Thankfully, the film is now on Max, so more people can watch the throwback legal thriller starring Nicholas Hoult as a jury member going through a moral dilemma. It’s the most 1994 movie of 2024 (complimentary).
6. Squid Game (Netflix)
Netflix’s most-watched show ever is back. Squid Game season 2 sees the return of Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae), a.k.a. Player 456, who has only one goal: to end the horrifying competition for good. This time, Gi-hun finds himself “locked in a tense battle” with the Front Man (Lee Byung-hun), as well as trying to survive against the other competitors. Squid Game is the rare water-cooler show in the “death of the monoculture” era. Keep up if you want to know what your co-workers are talking about.
5. The Front Room (Max)
The Front Room failed to make much of an impression at the box office, but maybe it will play better at home? Just don’t watch it with your in-laws: the A24 horror film is about a pregnant woman, Belinda (played by Brandy), who does not get along with her husband’s stepmother (Kathryn Hunter), to put it lightly. The tagline: “All Hell Moves In.”
4. Missing You (Netflix)
Missing You is the latest work from mystery writer Harlan Coben to be turned into a Netflix series. This one follows a detective who discovers the love of her life, who went missing years earlier, on a dating app. His reappearance “forces her to dive back into the mystery surrounding her father’s murder and uncover long-buried secrets from her past,” according to the official synopsis. It’s an intriguing premise from the “King of Netflix.”
3. Lockerbie: A Search for Truth (Peacock)
Colin Firth with white hair? Yes please. Lockerbie: A Search for Truth is inspired by the true story of Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, killing 259 passengers and crew and 11 more on the ground. It’s up to Dr. Jim Swire (Firth), whose daughter died in the incident, to find out exactly what happened.
2. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Netflix)
War is, generally speaking, bad… but I would not oppose a second Revolutionary War on the U.K. for getting Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl before the U.S. did. Just saying. Feathers McGraw returns in the new claymation masterpiece from Aardman. This time, the evil penguin aims to enact revenge on our cheese-loving heroes for getting him locked up in prison by reprogramming Wallace’s robotic garden gnome.
1. Mayfair Witches (AMC Plus)
Along with Interview with the Vampire, Mayfair Witches is part of Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe on AMC (which has seen a surge in popularity since the shows were added to Netflix). Season 2 of Mayfair continues the journey of Rowan Mayfair (played by Alexandra Daddario) after giving birth to the demon Lasher (Jack Huston). As per AMC: “She is determined to understand what he has become – human or monster? – and to use him to fulfill her purpose as a healer, but when tragedy strikes, she must put aside her own desires and fight to protect her family.” To paraphrase Elton John, the witch is back.