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. English Teacher (Hulu)
You might know Brian Jordan Alvarez from his videos on TikTok and Instagram as TJ Mack, the singer of earworm “Sitting.” He’s also the star and creator of English Teacher, about a teacher who “often finds himself at the intersection of the personal, professional, and political aspects of working at a high school. Evan wants to be a principled person but often runs into trouble because of it.” His first lesson to his students: sitting is the opposite of standing.
14. Dan Da Dan (Netflix)
The acclaimed anime Dan Da Dan is about Momo, a high school girl from a family of spirit mediums, and her classmate / occult fanatic Okarun, who begin talking after she saves him from getting bullied. However, an argument ensues between them: Momo believes in ghosts but denies aliens, and Okarun believes in aliens but denies ghosts. It’s a real Mulder and Scully dynamic, if they were both Mulder (and there was a Turbo Granny). Dan Da Dan, which is getting a weekly release, comes from animation studio Science Saru, who also made last year’s shockingly good Scott Pilgrim Takes Off.
13. Disclaimer (Apple TV Plus)
Alfonso Cuarón, the Oscar-winning director of Children Men, Y tu mamá también (big week for the YTMT freaks out there!), and the best Harry Potter movie, is back with his first new project in six years. Disclaimer stars Cate Blanchett as a journalist who receives a mysterious book in the mail that threatens to reveal her darkest secrets. The ensemble cast of the psychological thriller, which is told over seven chapters, also includes Kevin Kline, Kodi Smit-McPhee, HoYeon Jung, Louis Partridge, Lesley Manville, and Leila George. It’s just nice to have a new anything from Cuarón.
12. Hysteria! (Peacock)
I’m sorry, but the only thing we should be talking about is how there’s a new show starring Bruce Campbell (yes) set during the Satanic Panic 1980s (yes yes) about a struggling metal band that pretends to be devil worshippers to become more popular (yes yes YES). Also, the group’s name is Dethkrunch (g*d yes). Hysteria was created by Matthew Scott Kane and is executive produced by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the duo behind last year’s excellent Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.
11. Shrinking (Apple TV Plus)
Bill Lawrence might be rebooting Scrubs, and working on more Ted Lasso, and he has big plans for Bad Monkey season 2, but for now, he — and fellow creators Jason Segel and Brett Goldstein — is focused on Shrinking. The mental health comedy returns for another season with Segel as grieving therapist Jimmy and Harrison Ford as his cranky co-worker Paul. But the show’s real MVP is Jessica Williams.
10. Woman of the Hour (Netflix)
What’s Anna Kendrick been up to lately? Besides raking in “Cups” residuals, she also directed her first movie. Woman of the Hour looks back on the time that a real-life serial killer, Rodney Alcaca, appeared as a contestant on 1970s-era The Dating Game. Kendrick also stars as aspiring actress Cheryl Bradshaw, who was unlucky enough to pick Alcaca as her date. Woman of the Hour “explores the way women navigate a world of violent men,” and it’s terrifying because it’s so real.
9. Somebody Somewhere (Max)
It’s the final season for one of TV’s sweetest shows. Somebody Somewhere follows Kansas resident Sam Miller (played by Bridget Everett), who goes on a journey of self-acceptance and finds “a community of outsiders who don’t fit in but don’t give up, showing that finding your people, and finding your voice, is possible,” according to the Max logline. “In season 3, we see growth against all odds.”
8. Don’t Move (Netflix)
Sam Raimi hasn’t directed a horror movie since 2009’s delightfully nasty Drag Me to Hell, but he’s been a busy producer. The Evil Dead filmmaker is attached to a bunch of recent horror favorites, including Don’t Breathe and Crawl. His latest is Don’t Move, about a grieving woman (played by Kelsey Asbille) who is injected with a paralytic drug by a stranger on a hiking trail. She has 20 minutes to reach safety before her body shuts down, all while her pursuer is on her tail. Don’t Move is directed by Adam Schindler and Brian Netto.
7. Like a Dragon: Yakuza (Prime Video)
The whole based-on-a-video-game thing worked out for Prime Video with Fallout. The streamer hopes to go two for two with Like a Dragon: Yakuza. The action-drama about the dark underworld of the yakuza takes place in two timelines: 1995, where Kiryu (played by Ryoma Takeuchi) and his friends Nishiki, Yumi, and Miho plan a heist at a yakuza-controlled arcade in Kamurocho, and 2005, after Kiryu is released from prison and returns to Kamurocho to protect his former friends. Or so he thinks.
6. Despicable Me 4 (Peacock)
The fourth Despicable Me movie — and sixth overall in the highest-grossing animated film franchise of all-time — welcomes Gru and Lucy’s baby son, Gru Jr., to the family. But really, whether you’re a child or an adult, you’re here for one reason: the Minions. Their popularity will outlive us all.
5. Music by John Williams (Disney Plus)
John Williams, the composer behind Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Jaws, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, and Jurassic Park, gets the documentary treatment in Music by John Williams. The film, directed by Laurent Bouzereau, includes interviews with Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Chris Martin, Ron Howard, Chris Columbus, George Lucas, Ke Huy Quan, Seth MacFarlane, and others whose lives have been touched by Williams’ music. If you’ve seen a movie in the past 50 years, that likely includes you.
4. Trap (Max)
You know the movie about The Butcher? That freakin’ nutjob that goes around just chopping people up? Well, the feds or whatever heard that he’s gonna be here today, so they set up a trap for him. This whole concert? It’s a trap — and you can watch Trap on Max. It’s M. Night Shyamalan in Peak Dad Mode (with a fun, shirtless pie-eating performance from Josh Hartnett).
3. What We Do in the Shadows (Hulu)
Let’s keep it simple: Is What We Do in the Shadows — in its final season — still the funniest show on TV? Yes.
2. Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Words (Prime Video)
Megan Thee Stallion is one of the biggest rappers in the game right now, and one of the most fascinating. Megan Thee Stallion: In Her Words offers an intimate look at her life and career, “exploring themes of resilience, vulnerability, and self-empowerment within hip-hop,” according to the logline. “This film provides a compelling portrait of one of music’s most influential voices today.” If Prime Video wants to pick up her anime series, too, that would be cool.
1. The Diplomat (Netflix)
Not enough has been made about Keri Russell having a hit show in the 1990s (Felicity), 2010s (The Americans), and 2020s (The Diplomat). Season 2 of Netflix’s soapy thriller has Russell returning as Kate Wyler, who had a realization in the season 1 finale that “the attack on a British warship [that] brought her to the UK wasn’t the work of a hostile nation — it was the British prime minister,” creator Debora Cahn teased to Tudum. “Now she has to prove it.” Expect to be entertained — and jealous of Russell’s hair.