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Three years ago Popeyes dropped its now infamous chicken sandwich and single-handedly changed the landscape of fast food. It sounds, frankly, ridiculous, but once Popeyes introduced the fast food-eating public to a truly delicious chicken sandwich, every single fast food restaurant that didn’t already have a great chicken sandwich tried to capture some of that magic. Now, three years later the chicken sandwich is as much a staple on fast food menus as the cheeseburger.

But strangely, Popeyes dropped a chicken sandwich, and then kind of dipped out. And while they were never the innovation factory that is Taco Bell, it still felt a little odd.

Fast food needs to innovate, constantly — sometimes that’s to a menu’s detriment. At times, that means your favorite chain restaurant dropping beloved items or re-formulating recipes that don’t need to be messed with. So it’s at least a little strange that Popeyes dropped what is easily the most famous chicken sandwich in all of fast food and then just didn’t do a whole lot with it afterward. Popeyes did link up with Megan Thee Stallion for a slightly sweet and spicy remix of the recipe, and it was delicious, but aside from that, the sandwich has remained unchanged since it was first released in 2019. Until today.

The new Blackened Chicken Sandwich is the most radical change-up of the sandwich to date. It’s not heavily breaded and fried but instead marinated in blackened seasoning, fried (rather than grilled), and served on the same toasted brioche bun with your choice of mayo or spicy mayo and crispy pickles. It’s not a complete reinvention, but it is decidedly different than the original. We’re a little salty that Popeyes still hasn’t made a version of this sandwich that is breaded in its spicy batter (spicy mayo doesn’t deliver the heat) but we always welcome change.

So is the Blackened Chicken Sandwich any good? Let’s find out!

Blackened Chicken Sandwich (Spicy)

The new Blackened Chicken Sandwich is available in both classic form (with mayo) and spicy (with spicy mayo) and for this review, I opted for the spicy version. Not because I think Popeyes’ spicily sauced sandwiches are superior, but because I thought the blackened seasoning would pair better with a bit more heat. In retrospect, I think I was right. Popeyes’ blackened seasoning features a blend of black pepper, garlic powder, smoked paprika, oregano, onion powder, and some kind of chili powder. It’s very flavorful and tastes incredibly similar to whatever seasoning is used on Popeyes’ battered Cajun fries.

It begins with an earthy cracked pepper flavor before shifting into the more complex and spicy flavors of garlic, onion, and chili powder, with a dark-smokey finish. The spicy mayo adds a savory and slightly sweet component to the dish bringing just a touch of heat to the aftertaste. Not enough heat to make you sweat, but enough that it tantalizes the tastebuds.

The texture of the chicken is pretty interesting. Blackened chicken is grilled but in this case after marinating this chicken filet for a sufficient amount of time, Popeyes batters it and throws it in the frier. It has a crispy exterior that adds a nice little crunch to every bite. Once you break through the slightly dry exterior, the chicken inside is tender and juicy. It’s a lot drier overall than the OG version, but it’s still very satisfying and not dry enough for it to be a noticeable issue — that could be because Popeyes double-sauced the bun, but I’m pretty sure the marinade had a hand in that too.

What surprised me the most about the sandwich was just how small the filet is. Popeyes OG chicken sandwich is big, In this sandwich, I was often left hoping for a more substantial bite. Maybe I got a less-than-ideal filet, but either way, I found the sandwich to be incredibly enjoyable and bursting with flavor. On certain days when I feel like a less food-coma-inducing meal, I might say it’s even better than the original.

The Bottom Line:

Popeyes finally took a chance with a major revamp of their chicken sandwich and it has paid off. This is delicious, bursting with flavor, and definitely worthy of a pick-up the next time you’re craving Popeyes.

Find your nearest Popeyes here.

A few years back during a discussion of Inside Llewyn Davis, a friend of mine raved “every movie should have a magical cat.” Those words, oddly, have stuck with me almost as much as the movie itself (which is one of my all-time favorites).

“Magical cat” is one of the most succinct encapsulations I’ve heard, of something that virtually all of my favorite movies (and really all types of art) do. Llewyn Davis’s cat (really the Gorfeins’ cat, if you want to get technical) sort of exists in the physical and the metaphysical realms simultaneously. Yes, it’s a literal cat, that does believably cat things, like wander down the fire escape and run off into the night, but it also allows for broader interpretation — like maybe this cat isn’t just a cat, but an agent of chaos, a message from the universe.

The magical cat is a kind of non-prescriptivist symbolism, an element of the script that becomes self-aware. As opposed to, say, the suitcase in Pulp Fiction, which shouts “I am the symbolic element!” the magical cat’s magic is merely there if you want to see it, like probably all signs from the universe. It’s not religious, necessarily, but an acknowledgement that universe has, or could have, a logic beyond that which the storyteller can adequately explain or control.

Put another way, Stephen King wrote in his memoir that he knew he was on the right track when his characters started speaking to him, acting almost of their own accord. The best fiction always has characters like that, who seem to exist beyond the boundaries of the texts. It’s why people (read: me) can discuss The Sopranos for hours on end; the characters seem to have personalities, likes and dislikes, inner lives beyond what their creator prescribes for them. I know David Chase had something he wanted to say, but in the process of creating such great characters, their interactions took on a kind of life of their own beyond the initial inspiration.

This is all a very long way of saying that Barry Keoghan, previously of The Green Knight and recently of The Banshees of Inisherin (and yes, also Druig from Eternals) has become something of a magical cat unto himself. He plays very similar characters in all three — all variations on “wild-eyed, urchin-esque Irish rascal” — so it’s not as if he’s some chameleon in the Daniel Day-Lewis mode. It’s more that he has a natural wildness to him, which seems transcend the boundaries of story. There’s an element of natural unpredictability to Keoghan (who was raised partly in foster homes) that makes him a wildcard whose unpredictability can’t be constrained even within a predictable script. Keoghan seems to define Irish rascalry the same way Ben Mendelsohn defines Australian rascalry, or Walton Goggins does for American rascalry. (We may need a second post for each country’s respective national rascal).

Keoghan’s chaotic energy stands out especially starkly in The Banshees Of Inisherin, maybe because it feels like such a prescriptivist movie. In many ways, Banshees is a showcase for what Martin McDonagh does best — which is to stage theatrical versions of pastoral New Yorker cartoons. Two characters have a droll interaction with a sight gag, some cyclical dialogue, and a perfect button.

Banshees, which is far better than McDonagh’s two previous efforts, Three Billboards and Seven Psychopaths, is very clever, but the only time it ever feels like the characters are speaking to the creator and not the creator speaking through the characters is when Keoghan is onscreen. Which is something of a shame considering Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, the two leads in Banshees, are generally quite rascally themselves.

Set on the fictional isle of Inisherin during the Irish Civil War, from which the island is peculiarly insulated, Colin Farrell plays Padraic (pronounced “PAR-ick,” sorta), who has recently discovered that his best and only friend, Colm (Gleeson) doesn’t want to be friends with him anymore. Not because of any specific falling out, but simply because Colm finds Padraic dull, and he doesn’t want to waste his last few years on Earth listening to Padraic’s dull blathering. He’d rather spend it practicing the Irish national pastime, of staring morosely at sea-lashed shorelines, and composing music to play on his fiddle.

Being nice and making small-talk are irrelevant, Colm explains, because when we’re dead and gone no one will remember who was nice. It’s only art that endures. So set in his position is Colm that he promises Padraic that every time Padraic attempts to speak to Colm, Colm will cut off one of his fiddling fingers and give it to Padraic. McDonagh, an inveterate self-plagiarizer (thankfully no little people get karate chopped this time around), seems to have borrowed this imagery from his 2010 severed hand play A Behanding In Spokane. Such that I couldn’t help giving Banshees the alternate title of An Unfriending In Land’s End.

Unlike that play, McDonagh has at least chosen his setting here for reasons greater than “it sounded cool in the title.” To his credit, McDonagh even pokes fun at himself here. “The Banshees Of Inisherin” is a piece of music Colm is composing, and when Padraic asks him why he’s called it that, Colm says it’s because he’s always liked those double S-haiche sounds.

Banshees is always clever, and watchable in the way that each scene is its own self-contained New Yorker cartoon. All of which are pretty good, with sight gags that include an adorable small donkey and a passed-out naked guy with his hat still on (McDonagh apparently having evolved from little people as sight gags to little donkeys — progress!).

Yet Padraic and Colm, as well as the rest of the characters, which include Dominic’s alcoholic cop father played by Gary Lydon and Padraic’s sister Siobhan played by Kerry Condon, never quite get to the point that they feel like they’re speaking for themselves. Right up until the end credits roll, Padraic and Colm feel like competing points of view — McDonagh’s instinct to value friendship and family as the meaning of life (Padraic) vs. his instinct to elevate art above all interpersonal relations (Colm).

McDonagh seems to retain something of the star pupil about him, stretching for endings that are provocative and intentional and reflecting competing the poles of human nature — the kinds of stories an arts school professor would have no choice but to grade an A — but doing so at the expense of not quite letting the characters breathe.

It’s why Barry Keoghan, playing the local delinquent widely acknowledged as the only Inisherin resident demonstrably duller than Padraic, stands out. He’s the only Banshees character that inspires you to speculate about his inner life, to think of as more than just a creator’s utensil, who seems to have been gifted free will. And I think that’s as much due to Keoghan’s energy as an actor/person as it is due to the way McDonagh has written the character (with all due credit to the way McDonagh the director has directed Keoghan).

Keoghan is simply too much of a rascal to be constrained by a script, even by a rigidly prescriptivist writer like McDonagh. He is a human magical cat, who, with his every twitchy mannerism and wild-eyed stare inspires us to dream, to consider the infinite unpredictability of the cosmos. Every movie needs a magical cat. Every country needs a national rascal. Every Banshees Of Inisherin needs a Barry Keoghan.

‘The Banshees Of Inisherin’ is currently in select theaters. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can read more of his reviews here.

Donald Trump is many things. A former president. A twice-impeached president. An instigator of an insurrection. A reality television star. As much as he tried, he will most likely never be president again, because if the midterms proved anything, he is not popular enough even within his own party to run for president again. And, according to Apple, he is not interesting enough to be the subject of a television series anymore.

A report from The Ankler this week says that Apple has canceled its plans to develop a television series about the life of the former president. Apple quietly optioned the rights to adapt journalist Maggie Haberman’s book Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America into a series a few months ago. Haberman’s book was released in October by Penguin Press. Here’s a description of the New York Times bestseller from the publisher:

“Interviews with hundreds of sources and numerous interviews over the years with Trump himself portray a complicated and often contradictory historical figure. Capable of kindness but relying on casual cruelty as it suits his purposes.  Pugnacious. Insecure. Lonely. Vindictive. Menacing. Smarter than his critics contend and colder and more calculating than his allies believe. A man who embedded himself in popular culture, galvanizing support for a run for high office that he began preliminary spadework for 30 years ago, to ultimately become a president who pushed American democracy to the brink.”

Apple was smart to abandon this project: a Trump series does not fit in really well with the likes of Foundation, Severance, Mythic Quest, Ted Lasso, or Selena Gomez: My Mind & Me. And also, absolutely no one wants to see this anyway. The Trump Era is a part of American history that is best never, ever fictionalized.

(Via The Ankler)

Vanna White has long been a mainstay on the Wheel Of Fortune stage, working on the show long enough to see several different big boards come and go in the process. The job has changed a bit, too: she’s no longer spinning physical letters around but activating them electronically. And, honestly, it seems like a pretty good gig! But not everyone seems on board with the occupation, and we now know that one of her contemporaries overseas apparently despised their role of “turning bloody letters around.”

According to The Daily Mail, Jenny Powell wasn’t a big fan of her Vanna White-esque job on the UK version of Wheel of Fortune in the 90s. Powell first appeared on the UK version of Wheel in 1995, and it helped launch her career. But it turns out she was never a big fan of the work itself, saying “you’re just turning letters round and not saying anything” when discussing the gig on a new podcast.

She shared: ‘I ended up doing The Wheel of Fortune, which I hated it. It was the biggest thing, but I hated it. Because I was just a girl turning bl***y letters around.’

…

She said: ‘If someone said to you, right Jenny you are going to wear a really short skirt and we are all going to discuss the length of it for like four meetings, wear high heel shoes and turn some letters around and just look pretty and don’t say anything.’

‘Would you, do it? I know what I would tell my daughter today. I wasn’t actually allowed to speak.’

Simplifying the job to just turning letters seems a bit unfair, but Powell’s real criticism here is that she wasn’t allowed to inject any personality into the role. Couple that with what sounds like demeaning meetings about wardrobe and it’s easy to understand why she wasn’t thrilled with the work. And a quick look at some episodes on YouTube showcases that dissonance between what Powell likely wanted from the role and what she was forced to do.

There’s significantly more back and forth between Powell and host John Leslie than you normally see between White and US host Pat Sajak, who save their brief banter for the end of the show. Either way, Powell made it clear that she wouldn’t recommend anyone else take on the “glamorous assistant” role anytime soon.

[via Daily Mail]

The Fast franchise is known for its exponential nature. The series that started about driving post-production modified cars with your pals at night and maybe doing light crimes has turned into a full-fledged heists and international espionage movie phenomenon. Good guys (and girls) become bad guys become good guys again, and then everyone sits down for a beer they grip precariously by the bottle neck.

This is a series that’s flown cars across skyscrapers and mountain landscapes and even sent people into space. The only thing that’s certain about what the next movie will contain is that it will be increasingly ridiculous and, probably, very watchable. And now we know it will also cost a huge amount of money to make it happen. Like, on an increasingly large scale of production costs compared to previous films.

According to The Wrap, a number of factors have caused the budget for the penultimate Fast movie in the franchise to skyrocket, to the tune of 70 percent more than Fast 9 cost to make.

The budget for “Fast X,” the 10th film in Universal’s lucrative “Fast & Furious” action franchise, has ballooned to $340 million, according to individuals with knowledge of the production. That’s 70% more than the reported $200 million budget for 2021’s “F9: The Fast Saga,” and easily the most expensive entry in an action series that has generated $6.6 billion worldwide in ticket sales.

The surging price tag, which factors in tax-incentive offsets, can be blamed on numerous budget-busting elements: increased salaries for series star Vin Diesel and the rest of the franchise’s ensemble cast, general increases in production costs caused by global inflation and charges for pandemic testing requirements mandated by COVID-19 safety protocols.

As the report indicates, the series has made billions in ticket sales through its nine-movie run thus far. So it’s likely that everyone involved will get their money’s worth regardless of the film’s quality. But it certainly sets a high bar for profitability in an era where getting people to the movies has become more difficult. Perhaps part of Diesel’s salary includes some trailers imploring people to experience the majesty of the silver screen because they’ll certainly need butts in seats to afford a final Fast movie to finish the saga.

[via The Wrap]

This year’s been a long one for Ukrainians (and Russians) after Vladimir Putin decided to wage an imperialistic war. This move quickly backfired with Ukrainians (including grandmas) refusing to accept defeat and Russian army numbers dwindling to such a point that Putin called up hundreds of thousands of replacements, who are abandoning tanks after being told that there’s no medical care, sorry, and please bring tampons to treat your own bullet wounds. It’s no wonder that, along the way, we’ve heard mutterings about how Putin’s underlings were secretly maneuvering to install a successor, should he be found incapable of continuing to lead. And it sure sounds like they got closer to doing so this week while the world awaited fallout from the stray (mystery) missile that killed two people in Poland.

Previously, independent Russia news outlet Meduza had revealed that Putin’s henchmen were (via The Daily Beast) tiptoeing around with “an understanding, or a desire, that in the fairly foreseeable future he will not run the country.” Amid missile gate, Putin’s inner circle reportedly prepped themselves for imminent action to oust and replace the president at a moment’s notice. Also from The Daily Beast, it sounds like a relevant Telegram channel (apparently run by an ex-Russia security services member) detailed how high-ranking Russian security dudes consulted each other and plotted:

“Knowing Putin’s penchant for raising the stakes through escalation, … this group of security officials quickly became convinced that in response to a Russian strike on a country included in NATO there could be both a retaliatory strike and an ultimatum.”

So, according to the channel, they decided that “if the U.S. leadership and the adjoining countries show readiness for a harsh response, then the best way out would be to remove the current Russian president, Vladimir Putin, from power and create a collegial council of security officials to ‘temporarily’ take control of the country into their own hands … blaming all the problems on either a seriously ill or law-breaking president.”

As it turns out, there’s been no immediate action from Poland, the U.S., or NATO at large, so this could all be moot, at least until the next stray missile rolls out. Or when Putin officially runs out of Botox, which seems like only a matter of time, given that he’s tanked the Russian economy and earned pariah status for his country. But yeah, we have to have Botox jokes to cope with the enormity of this entire conflict. What a disaster.

(Via The Daily Beast)

In a move that will surprise absolutely no one given her MAGA credentials, Arizona gubernatorial candidate (and Todd from Breaking Bad fanatic) Kari Lake has refused to concede in her race against Democratic challenger Katie Hobbs. In a message to her supporters on Thursday, Lake promised/threatened that her legal team is carefully scrutinizing the results.

“Rest assured, I have assembled the best and brightest legal team and we are exploring every avenue to correct the many wrongs that have been done this past week,” Lake said in the video. “I’m doing everything in my power to right these wrongs.”

Throughout her campaign, Lake has notably side-stepped questions about accepting election results. To make matters worse, she’s reportedly flown to Mar-a-Lago to meet with Donald Trump who knows a thing or two about making a giant stink after losing an election. Via The Washington Post:

Kari Lake, who was projected Monday to lose her race for governor of Arizona, traveled Thursday to former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida, according to two people familiar with the activity. One of the people said she received a standing ovation when she entered a luncheon hosted by the America First Policy Institute, a think tank founded last year by Trump allies and former members of his administration. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private events.

Considering almost every Trump-backed candidate lost during the midterm elections, which has turned a significant swath of the Republican Party against him, the former president has a vested interest in seeing Lake win her election. However, the last time he tried to overturn election results, a throng of MAGA rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, so we should probably keep an eye on these two. Just to be safe.

(Via The Hill, Washington Post)

For the last few days, much of the talk around the NFL has been about the weather expected in Buffalo as the Bills were set to host the Browns. A massive snowstorm is expected to sweep through the area off of Lake Erie starting on Thursday night, with some models projecting 2-4 feet of snow accumulation, along with strong winds in the area.

As such, there was concern from some about whether the game could be played in Orchard Park or if it would need to be moved (as has actually happened in the past in a Browns-Bills game), as playing a football game outside in a snowstorm can be difficult, to say the least. On Thursday, the league decided to proactively move the game to Detroit, with the Lions on the road at the Giants, where the Bills will play back-to-back games — as the home team against Cleveland and then again on Thanksgiving against the Lions.

The game will still be a 1 p.m. ET kickoff on CBS, but obviously is moving indoors at Ford Field in Detroit. While both teams play in the elements in their home stadiums, the Bills have a bit more experience with the specific unique weather of Buffalo, playing fairly regularly in snow and wind with a quarterback who feels those effects less than others in Josh Allen given his ability to run and also his preposterous arm strength. That won’t be a factor now in Detroit, where the Bills will spend a full week in a rare situation for NFL teams.

Each week our staff of film and TV experts surveys the entertainment landscape to select the ten best new/newish movies 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.

10. (tie) Thor: Love and Thunder (Disney Plus)

Thor is back once again and he brought some new friends with him. Natalie Portman, to be specific. Which is fun. This follow-up to the also-fun Ragnarok has made the move from theaters to streaming and into your living rooms. That’s another fun thing. It is almost unreasonable how good Chris Hemsworth is in these movies. You should not be allowed to look like that and be that funny. Someone should make a rule about it. Until then… watch it on Disney Plus.

10. (tie) Wendell and Wild (Netflix)

If you’re missing Key & Peele, we have some good news for you. Multiple seasons of the Comedy Central series will arrive on Netflix in November, so you can get your Hingle McCringleberry on, right from the comfort of your living room. In the meantime, you can enjoy Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele’s voices (along with that of Angela Bassett) as they play plotting demons who tangle with a teen who digs punk rock. Watch it on Netflix.

9. Falling for Christmas (Netflix)

Sorry to Mariah Carey but Lindsay Lohan is taking her place as the rightful queen of the holiday season this year. Her throne sits atop the bones of all the Hallmark movies she had to slaughter to get here and every Netflix Christmas flick that follows in her wake will shudder when those first few bars of “Jingle Bell Rock” begin to play. This is the future every millennial raised on The Parent Trap — and the Disney Channel Original movie Life-Size starring Tyra Banks — has manifested. In all seriousness though, this thing looks cute. Lohan plays a hotel heiress who, after a skiing accident, loses her memory and must live amongst the peasants of a snowy mountain town. While there she bonds with a sheriff/single-dad played by Glee’s Chord Overstreet and, presumably, realizes her former life wasn’t as picture perfect as she thought. Watch it on Netflix.

8. The Good Nurse (Netflix)

Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne star in a mostly fictionalized account of Charlie Cullen, a New Jersey nurse who was found responsible for dozens of murders of patients over a 16-year period. The star power is here and everyone seems to love semi-true stories about serial killers lately so there’s at least even money odds that this sucker takes off. Just don’t watch it before you have a doctor appointment. That would not be fun. Watch it on Netflix.

7. Causeway (Apple TV+)

Jennifer Lawrence ended her mini-acting hiatus with last year’s Don’t Look Up, but she was part of an ensemble cast with other A-listers. The Oscar winner is front and center (along with Atlanta great Brian Tyree Henry) in A24’s Causeway as a soldier who struggles to adjust to her life after returning home to New Orleans. It’s the kind of movie that she hasn’t made since her breakout performance in Winter’s Bone — and it looks just as good. Watch it on Apple TV+.

6. Don’t Worry Darling (HBO Max)

Cringe-inducing festival appearances and celebrity break-ups heralded by salad dressing recipe sharing aside, Olivia Wilde’s second directorial effort is a very pretty, very fun watch. Most of that is because of Florence Pugh, who plays a young housewife slowly descending into madness once the cracks of her perfect suburban existence begin to show. The rest is thanks to an intriguing plot that keeps you guessing until the very end, a capable supporting cast (and yes, we count Harry Styles amongst them), and Chris Pine, who seems to be having the time of his life playing a suave pseudo-cult leader who favors unbuttoned shirts and misogynistic family hierarchies. Watch it on HBO Max.

5. Enola Holmes 2 (Netflix)

Thank goodness Henry Cavill didn’t sign on to play Superman again before filming this sequel, or there’d be another The Witcher-esque switcheroo in the works. Cavill is back, but more importantly, Millie Bobbie Brown returns as the sassy younger sister of Sherlock Holmes. One of the bigger plot finds roots in the real-life Bryant & May match factory atrocities, but somehow, the overall mood stays light. Enola sets up her own detective shingle and goes undercover, so you can only imagine what hijinks will ensue. Watch it on Netflix.

4. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (The Roku Channel)

Weird: The Al Yankovic Story stars Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe as “Weird Al” Yankovic, obviously. The fake biopic depicts the world’s premier polka-loving pop song parodist as a hard-drinking sex maniac, obviously. It also stars Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, Quinta Brunson as Oprah Winfrey, and Rainn Wilson as Dr. Demento, obviously. Should you watch Weird: The Al Yankovic Story this weekend on the Roku Channel? Obviously.

3. Disenchanted (Disney Plus)

Amy Adams returns in her breakout role, but she’s a princess who actually isn’t having as much fun as she imagined would be the case. Giselle is still married to Robert (Patrick Dempsey), and they’re still searching for their fairy tale. Maya Rudolph climbs onboard for a semi-evil role as a villain of suburbia, and this is all very G-rated material again because c’mon, Disney. The story will be as charming as always, but the real attraction is James Marsden’s returning Idiot Prince. Basically, I just want the Idiot Prince to get plowed down at every opportunity again. Watch it on Disney Plus.

2. A Christmas Story Christmas (HBO Max)

Ralphie is back, over 30 years later, and he’s returning to the hometown where everything went down the first time around. Is this pretty much just nostalgia bait? Sure. Did anyone really need to know what Ralphie is up to in 2022? Probably not. Are you going to watch it anyway and end up charmed by the whole thing, up to and including the part where they actually got Peter Billingsly to reprise his role from the original? Hmm. We bet you are. Watch it on HBO Max.

1. Spirited (Apple TV Plus)

Apple TV+ is getting into the Christmas movie game with this musically inclined re-telling of that classic Dickens tales. Ryan Reynolds plays the modern-day Scrooge here, a guy named Clint Briggs who doesn’t take his holiday haunting lying down. Will Ferrell plays the Ghost of Christmas Present who’s determined to inject a bit of cheer into the proceedings no matter how many musical numbers and tap-dancing solos it takes. As far as Charles Dickens adaptations go, you could do a lot worse. Watch it on Apple TV Plus.

Each week our staff of film and TV 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.

Get more streaming recommendations with our weekly What To Watch newsletter.

10. (tie) 1899 (Netflix)

Imagine if Lost took place on a transatlantic steamboat and you’ve got the gist of this mystery-drama. Made by the same twisted geniuses that gave us Netflix’s Dark series, this show follows a group of passengers hailing from all over Europe who find themselves stuck on a cursed ship bound for America. After the recent disappearance of another company ship months earlier, everyone on board is a bit on-edge and the tension only escalates when passengers start dying, weird time loops start popping up, and a boy who should be dead arrives with an ominous-looking pyramid that makes everything go haywire. Watch it on Netflix.

10. (tie) Interview With the Vampire (AMC Plus)

You’ve surely seen the 1990s movie starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Kirsten Dunst, and now, Anne Rice’s most popular gothic novel gets the small-screen adaptation. Great news: this version is better than the film for several reasons. Jacob Anderson of Game of Thrones gives us a very different Louis while Sam Reid swaggers about as Lestat de Lioncourt, and Claudia’s story gets expanded with Bailey Bass giving us a brazen and tragic performance and a secondary narrative framing device. The leading duo takes their sexual tension out of the closet, too, which adds a lot of layers (and fun) to this update. Watch it on AMC Plus.

9. Tulsa King (Paramount Plus)

Sylvester Stallone portrays a mafia capo who’s not swimming with the fishes. However, he might as well be on Mars in this Taylor Sheridan-created series that takes him to Route 66 and the land of the Golden Driller. Tulsa’s experiencing a hotspot-like effect these days in the midst of Reservation Dogs and following Watchmen, but it’s going to be quite pleasurable to see him as the O.G. who’s dropping a “nice little place you got here” in a weed dispensary. This show looks to be full of 1980s-style one-liners that could put the Sly and Arnold movies of yesteryear to shame. Watch it on Paramount Plus.

8. The English (Amazon Prime)

Emily Blunt can kick some butt even while wearing a ridiculous array of aristocratic-type dresses. That’s not the main highlight of this series, believe it or not. Rather, we’ve got a worthy Western story that pairs two well-matched contenders as they battle the nefarious forces that be. Cartoonish villains rear up in this parable, which tells a tale of power and destiny and what America does when it digs inside of one’s soul. Also, the show is stunning to look at and incredibly well-lit, unlike plenty of other movies and shows that will give you a squint-induced headache. Watch it on Amazon Prime.

7. Dead To Me (Netflix)

How do you end a show the “right” way? Do you try to say something profound, pay off longtime viewers with fan service, or end with a shocking twist? For Dead To Me‘s just-released final season, the answer is an emphatic yes to all of the above as creator Liz Feldman delivers a triumphant close, leaning on the otherworldly onscreen chemistry of stars Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini as they lead us through the twisty chaos of the show’s central story while dealing with heavy matters of life, family. love, and death before ending on high with a tear and a tease. Watch it on Netflix.

6. Mythic Quest (Apple TV Plus)

It’s easy to think of Mythic Quest, now in its fourth season, as Rob McElhenney’s “other” show, but that would be a mistake. Yes, sure, he’s best known for the incredibly long-running Always Sunny, which is fair because that show rules. But this one is great, too. It’s sweet and mean and funny and everything a workplace comedy — this time in a video game studio — should be. No television show did a better job of grasping the pandemic while it was still new and really scary, too. Do not miss this because you relegate it to second-tier Mac status. This is the good stuff, too. Watch it on Apple TV Plus.

5. The Crown (Netflix)

Revenge dresses. Extramarital affairs. Royal yacht refurbishments. The Crown’s fifth season ramps up the melodrama to deliciously enjoyable levels as Elizabeth Debicki channels Princes Diana and Dominic West steps into Prince Charles’ (less desirable) shoes. Though the conflict between the couple spurs much of the action this season, there’s still room for Imelda Staunton (who plays Queen Elizabeth II this time around) and Lesley Manville (as Princess Margaret) to give some spectacular performances that ground the soap opera vibes a bit. If anything, this season draws a clear line between the supposed pros and very apparent cons of the British monarchy, showing how the fallout of their familial squabbles had very real consequences for their subjects. Watch it on Netflix.

4. Andor (Disney Plus)

George Lucas has frequently insisted that, like Wu-Tang Clan, Star Wars is for the children. But Andor sure looks like it’s geared more towards adults. The Rogue One prequel starring Diego Luna, reprising his role as Cassian Andor, is gritty, mature, and other words you use to describe movies and TV shows that aren’t messing around. And with this being the first Disney-era Star Wars show to be filmed in real-life locations, Andor isn’t messing around. Watch it on Disney Plus.

3. Fleishman Is In Trouble (Hulu)

I hear what you’re thinking here. The title of this show doesn’t sound particularly fascinating. Maybe it even sounds a little bit pretentious. Yet this show’s actually a satiric little jaunt that turns marriage-divorce drama on its head. Jesse Eisenberg plays the dude whose wife, played by Claire Danes, leaves him and then quite literally leaves the building. He’s suddenly in the midst of parenting and awful dating experiences, and all of this wouldn’t be as fascinating if Eisenberg wasn’t so good at being awkward. He’s flanked by Lizzy Caplan and Adam Brody (there are worse companions out there) while trying to find his way. Watch it on Hulu.

2. Abbott Elementary (Hulu)

The first season of Abbott Elementary was a feel-good network sitcom that caught a massive wave of popularity and won a bunch of Emmys in a time when feel-good network sitcoms are kind of not supposed to do that. Credit for this goes to creator and star Quinta Brunson, who realized that an underfunded inner-city public school was exactly the right place to show us people with good hearts working inside a system that can be cold. Kind of like Parks and Recreation but in Philadelphia. The second season is underway and does not appear to be missing a beat. This is basically a miracle, all around. Watch it on Hulu.

1. The White Lotus (HBO Max)

The first season of The White Lotus took the world and the internet by storm with its combination of misery and drama and beautiful Hawaiian scenery. Season two takes the action to a new resort in the White Lotus chain, this one in Italy, and replaces almost the entire cast. “Almost” being the key word here because Jennifer Coolidge is back as Tanya. Which is good. More shows should be about Jennifer Coolidge going to fancy hotels around the world. This is a nice start. Watch it on HBO Max.