What to see this weekend.
Another weekend, another list of new streaming TV shows and movies to watch across all your favorite streaming apps. We’ve got some new seasons of older shows, movies finally making their way from theaters to streaming, and more.
It’s another rainy weekend here in the mountains, so I plan on sitting back on the couch and watching at least a few of these movies over the next few days.
Noticeably absent from this list is HBO’s House of the Dragon, which concluded its second season last Sunday with a controversial season finale that left many fans upset. Hopefully the next seasons are better.
You can find last week’s streaming guide here:
Alright, let’s get started right away!
The Umbrella Academy Season 4 (Netflix)
I have seen two or three episodes of the first season of Umbrella Academy and it just didn’t hold my interest. Or rather, it was certainly interesting, but I just couldn’t get into it for some reason. Maybe the characters or just something was wrong with the script. I saw the potential but couldn’t get the interest to continue. But it must have found a reasonably passionate audience, because it made it to its fourth (and final) season and escaped the discontinuation that hits so many Netflix series after their first foray.
Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Paramount+)
This very retro-animated The page contains the lyrics and the German translation of the song “TMNT” by The Movie. The show looks like fun. And both critics and audiences are giving it a full score on Rotten Tomatoes. You don’t see that very often! This series seems to be aimed at a younger audience, and rightly so. The synopsis reads: “As teenagers, the Turtles must navigate their new lives as heroes while also dealing with the pressures of attending high school in New York City.”
The Bikers (Peacock)
I’ve been waiting for this film to come out in streaming format for no extra cost and today is the day. The historical crime drama starring Austin Butler, Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy about the biker gang Vandals is on my list to watch tonight as I missed it in the cinema. It looks great and has scored quite well with critics and audiences (80%/75%), although obviously not as well as TMNT!
The Instigators (Apple TV+)
This trailer makes the new heist movie starring Matt Damon and Casey Affleck look really entertaining, and maybe it is, but the new Doug Liman-directed crime dramedy is getting a pretty poor rating from critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a shame. But it could still be good, mindless entertainment, especially if you like Boston accents. (We recently rewatched Hunting for good will and man, what a great movie).
Mr. Throwback (Peacock)
I don’t care about sports, but I have to give Steph Curry credit for making this look like a pretty funny “mockumentary” style comedy. Adam Pally plays a burned-out loser who used to be friends and teammates with Curry and who sought him out during his losing streak. Curry has his documentary crew shift the focus away from him and onto his old buddy, and hilarious scenes ensue. Hopefully. It actually looks pretty charming.
Industry Season 3 (HBO/Max)
Somehow I’ve never heard of it industry until the last week. The British HBO drama takes over for House of the Dragon on HBO and Max’s Sunday night time slot. Kit Harington (aka Jon Snow) is in the cast. The show revolves around graduates competing for a limited number of top jobs at London investment bank Pierpoint. Looks pretty interesting, and since it’s season 3, if you haven’t seen that one yet, you’ve got a couple of seasons of content to get through in the meantime.
Despicable Me 4 (VOD)
I miss the Despicable Me movies, but I’ll be honest: I’m not sure I’ve seen the third one. The popularity of the Minions has kind of taken over the franchise, and now that my kids are teenagers, we just don’t watch as many movies like this one (even though we loved all of them Inside Out 2). Watch on Prime Video
Borderlands (in cinemas)
I was excited when I learned that we had a Borderland Movie. The video game series it’s based on is perfect for this kind of movie and the cast – although overall a bit older than I’d choose for this kind of movie – seemed solid. But then the trailer came and it looked pretty bad, and now the reviews confirm that suspicion, although audiences seem to like it a lot more than critics. I’m considering seeing it in the cinema, even though I haven’t seen Twisters and overall it looks like a much better movie.
Current series
Some ongoing series are broadcast weekly, but at the moment I am not reporting on them in weekly summaries (this will change soon, with The Rings of Power return). Of all of them, the top series is the one I would most like to start. I have also watched old episodes of the Scottish mystery series Shetland recently, this is a kind of cozy-0
The Serpent Queen (Starz) with Samantha Morton as Catherine de Medici in this historical drama full of intrigue and politics set in 16th century France. One of the highest rated shows in this guide with a 100% critics’ score and a 92% audience score.
The Lady in the Lake (Prime Video) starring Natalie Portman is a crime thriller about two women and the disappearance of a young girl in Baltimore in the late 1960s. 76% critics’ rating and 75% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Sunny (Apple TV+) starring Rashida Jones, is about a woman whose husband and son disappear. She is left with her husband’s robot, Sunny, and tries to solve the mystery of her missing family in Kyoto, Japan.
Troppo (Prime Video) is an Australian crime drama series based on the book Crimson Lake by Candice Fox. It follows an eccentric private investigator and the disgraced ex-cop she recruits to solve the mysterious disappearance of a Korean technology pioneer.
Bonus: LA Confidential
LA Confidential
This week’s movie night was LA Confidential which I don’t think I’ve seen in at least a decade, if not longer. What a great police drama! What a great cast! Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito. This is one of my all-time favorite police conspiracy crime dramas and it’s still relevant after all these years. You can watch it on Prime Video.
What are you watching these days?
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