Every single week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.
10. The Pitt – Max series
Dr. Rabinavitch (Noah Wyle) is no mere one-dimensional TV doctor or idealistic fledgling physician, and that’s part of what makes The Pitt more than a mere ER retread. The looming feeling that this is also The Bear in a medical setting doesn’t hurt the show’s appeal, either. WBD hasn’t yet revealed if Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital’s emergency room will deliver another shift, i.e. a second season, yet, but this series has gone over so well that it’s hard to imagine Max leaving more on the table if cast and crew are game.
9. Marianne – Netflix series
Never underestimate the power of horror to trend when real-world matters grow so stressful that stories about demons feel like a great way to immerse the psyche. Of course, that isn’t the only reason why this cancelled French horror series suddenly started trending on Netflix, but it’s gotta be part of the cause. The idea that writers can vanquish evil spirits is comforting, if only to imagine a sense of control over upsetting circumstances, but also, The Ring references will not stop, in case you’re wondering whether you should cover up your TV after watching this one.
8. Prime Target – Apple TV+ series
Sure, this series has been largely panned, and it will not land on our list of best Apple TV+ shows, but it’s kind of a fascinating exercise in how streaming services are doing their best to squeeze into the spy-thriller resurrection. That is to say, Apple TV+ does an incredible job with both sci-fi, drama, and comedy series, but this show (even with Leo Woodall starring and Ridley Scott producing) feels like a permutation of what’s already streaming, only with prime numbers being a possible means of mass destruction.
7. Paradise – Hulu series
Sterling K. Brown and Dan Fogelman are having a This Is Us reunion over on Hulu for a thriller series that could alternately scratch your escapism itch or feel too close to home. Without spoiling anything for the first three episodes already streaming, Brown portrays a security agent fronting a team that is tasked with protecting the president (James Marsden), but this show isn’t a meat-and-potatoes conspiracy story. Like This Is Us, expect non-linear storytelling that helps build context behind the overriding mystery of the series. A slower burn than many streaming series of the same nature helps this show stand apart, and the test for future seasons will be whether audiences will be patient enough without tidy explanations at every turn.
6. You’re Cordially Invited – Prime Video/Amazon movie
Reese Witherspoon still manages to be queen of the romcom in a time when romcoms are more miss than hit. Will Farrell stars in this story about two wedding parties that storm the same destination venue, and there really isn’t room for both parties to be comfy. As the relatives of the betrothed couple, Witherspoon and Farrell spend most of the movie making the audience wonder who will sabotage the other first, but chaos reigns supreme here in what’s essentially a fluffy movie meant as escapism.
5. Invincible – Prime Video/Amazon series
No rest for Mark Grayson. Steven Yeun’s superhero will enter his Blue Suit era (and possibly lean into darkness for real) this season while Walton Goggins’ Cecil will gain a backstory and completely lose Mark’s patience. This season should also deliver more of JK Simmons’ Nolan, and this series could grow positively cataclysmic ahead of the already renewed fourth season. The slow-burn aspect did drag the series down during the second season, and viewers will not be mad to see less teasing and more development. The same goes for House of the Dragon‘s pulled second season punches, so perhaps there’s a lesson there for the streaming future.
4. The Recruit – Netflix series
Noah Centineo’s espionage thriller is trending at the same time as The Night Agent, but the two couldn’t be more different with their flavors of espionage. Centineo (as CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks) also seems thrilled to throw himself into potentially risky and definitely humiliating seasons for laughs, and it’s no wonder that the most recent trailer for this show made use of a well-known Green Day song to line up the physical comedy of Owen’s ability to land in the most dumbfounding scrapes while embroiled in a South Korea scandal. There’s a time and place for an actor who can laugh at himself, and this show has done marvelously at harnessing that vibe.
3. Severance – Apple TV+ series
Arguably, this week delivered the most intense episode that creator Dan Erickson and director Ben Stiller have offered up so far. Mark, Helly, the other Helly, Irving, and Dylan, will never find their dynamic to be the same again. This episode managed to outdo the weirdness of the goats-and-Gwendoline-Christie episode, and this season is also giving the most unexpected side stories (like Merritt Wever being such a centering force as Dylan’s wife), a well-written whirl. As for Milchick? Dude doesn’t get any kinder or more trustworthy with each passing moment.
2. The Night Agent – Netflix series
All the adrenaline, all the action, and all the suspense over Peter’s status as Double Agent pales in comparison to the question of whether Rose will return for the third season of this ridiculously popular spy-thriller series. And you know what? That’s just fine. The next season has already begun filming in Istanbul, and maybe the first two chapters will be sitting on the Top 10 Netflix TV series list of all time when this show returns. The Night Agent is not without flaws, but Shawn Ryan knows how to make addictive television, and spin off news could be coming soon as well.
1. Apple Cider Vinegar – Netflix series
The internet must have been hankering for a new grifter show because the story of Belle Gibson’s tour of pathological-lying terror is upon us and perhaps trending too much. Super gross scene or not, this chronicle of two “wellness” influencers (Kaitlyn Dever as Gibson and Alycia Debnam-Carey as Milla Blake) is being swallowed whole, and the story of Gibson’s downfall echoes what happened when her followers learned that she faked a cancer diagnosis and not only spread her dangerous lies with her own popular app but profited handsomely as well. Fear The Walking Dead viewers who have missed Debnam-Carey will enjoy seeing her with new ferocity here, and Dever nails it.