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 Gorge – Apple TV+ movie
This Miles Teller and Anya Taylor Joy-starring film is proof that damn watchable movies can head straight to streaming as a matter of course. It doesn’t hurt matters at all that the score was crafted by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and this also doubled as a Valentine’s-season release that gets the job done, genre style. This creature feature leans hard into sci-fi with Sigourney Weaver boosting those vibes with hefty action scenes and some horror vibes to boot.
9. The Substance – Mubi movie
Did Demi Moore get robbed at a recent ceremony? Perhaps, but real ones know what she went through in this movie that also reinforces Margaret Qualley as the most adventurous young star in Hollywood today. Director Coralie Fargeat has not yet revealed what her next project will be, only that it won’t be a sequel, and she’s busy writing. If you haven’t caught wind of The Substance yet, please stay away from food in the process.
8. Zero Day – Netflix series
You’ve never seen Jesse Plemons look more well-groomed and ambitious and unlike his Breaking Bad “Meth Damon” character than here, but let’s get real: Lizzy Caplan steals this series from beneath the entire ensemble cast. Don’t be too afraid of the subject matter, either, even if you are looking for escapism rather than anything semi-political. Narcos creator Eric Newman knows how to walk that line while still delivering entertainment, and he somehow pulled that off with Robert De Niro as an ex-president who helps trace a cyberattack.
7. A Thousand Blows – Hulu series
The Peaky Blinders movie cannot come soon enough, but while we wait, Steven Knight has a new gangster show. This pre-Tommy Shelby series dives into the underground boxing in 1880s Victorian London, but equally important will be a showcase for another historically reigning gang, the Forty Elephants. This entirely female crime syndicate shoplifted, blackmailed, and seduced to gather loot, which they sold while amassing riches, but plenty of testosterone will also be on display, including a slight Peaky crossover with Hayden Stagg actor Stephen Graham on hand as formidable fighter Sugar Goodson. Did Graham bulk up for the role? You’d better believe it, and one of the more promising aspects of Knight writing a historically-based series is that he will not sacrifice story for the sake of nitpicky accuracy.
6. Daredevil: Born Again – Disney+ series
Following Matt Murdock’s cameo in last year’s Echo miniseries, Hornhead becomes the first of Marvel’s The Defenders to surface in his own series on Disney+. Then again, he is not alone, and the viewers will reap the benefit of not only Daredevil but his frenemies, too. That includes Charlie Cox’s Murdock sitting down with Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin for intellectual dueling, and Jon Bernthal’s The Punisher is back to spread some mayhem, too. Is Jessica Jones next for a Disney+ series of her own? Please.
5. Toxic Town – Netflix series
The third The White Lotus breakout actress Aimee Lou Wood co-stars (alongside Doctor Who‘s Jodie Whittaker and The Diplomat‘s Rory Kinnear) in this sobering series about a based-on-real-life poisoned British town (known collectively as the Corby poisonings that collectively evoked references to the “British Erin Brockovich“). In response, mothers rose up to battle those responsible for industrial pollution that shattered generations of lives.
4. Severance – Apple TV+ series
Last week changed everything. That’s evergreen when it comes to this series, but Dichen Lachman was fully realized as Gemma Scout, wife to Mark, rather than simply Ms. Casey, and nothing really ever will be the same again. Additionally, we’re coming into the home stretch of this second season, which will surely end with another cliffhanger, but the creatives on this series know that three years would be too long to find out what happens next. Innies and Outies and reintegrations and goats and foot shots be damned, anybody who’s into this series cannot look away, and this is how you do weekly rollouts of streaming television, people. Kudos to all involved.
3. The White Lotus – HBO series streaming on Max
Creator Mike White has been forthright about this season being death-themed (which is saying something, considering that at least one body bag appears every time that these people visit a resort), and he wasn’t messing around. This season feels downright Old Testament, complete with snakes and the sh*t talking between supposed friends and what not. At this point, I just want Patrick Schwarzenegger’s insufferable Saxon to receive lasting comeuppance, but he’s got stiff competition in the “must croak” department. Parker Posey, Jason Isaacs, and Jon Gries (freaking Greg) can join that club at any moment, and to be frank, nobody would want to spend time with the characters portrayed by Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, Walton Goggins, and Michelle Monaghan either. Horrible people. Good show.
2. Reacher – Prime Video/Amazon series
A common refrain among fans of this Alan Ritchson series is that it grew too outlandish by the time that helicopter finale aired, and the third season does take some steps back from that vibe with a more grounded approach. Still, this is Reacher, so the camp will reign supreme, and this season, the humor is mainly focused upon clashes between the Big Guy and the Bigger Guy. Oliver Ritchers’ Paulie and Alan Ritchson’s Reacher first clashed over the idea of bench-pressing records, and their chemistry as rivals carries this season, but do not count out the power of Maria Sten’s Neagley, who makes the most of her late-season screen time to convince any skeptics that her booty-saving character is capable of carrying her own spin off. That show’s currently filming, by the way, and it cannot come soon enough.
1. Running Point – Netflix series
Mindy Kaling seems to have the magic Netflix touch. Her latest series hails from Warner Bros. TV with Kaling executive producing with Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen, and Netflix pulled an immediate renewal move after subscribers couldn’t resist Kate Hudson as a reformed partier who is suddenly inserted as head honcho of her family-owned pro hoops team. Hudson portrays Isla Gordon, who is a parody version of Los Angeles Lakers current President Jeanie Buss, son of late owner Jerry. Brenda Song and Chet Hanks co-star, and as already stated, there will be more.