What’s Popular On Streaming Now
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: TIE. Ant-Man And The Wasp (Marvel studios film streaming on Disney+)
One can fairly argue that the MCU has grown too, well, complicated. Not complex but complicated, like a Facebook status that describes a relationship that you can’t quit. That’s kind-of where Marvel Studios sits with Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania, and it’s worth following that up (or even prepping for it) while heading back to the days when silly old Ant-Man was a breezy breath of superhero air. Then he showed up to inform us of “America’s Ass” in the MCU, and man, he used to be such a good time.
10: TIE. The Consultant (Amazon Prime series)
The opposite of a good time: when Christoph Waltz is here to scare the hell out of you while evaluating your workplace and all who reside within. This darkly comedic thriller will likely appeal to fans wanting a Severance-type fix, although get ready to have nightmares about Waltz sizing you up by smelling you. HR is gonna have a hell of a time with that practice.
9. The Walking Dead (AMC series on AMC+ and Netflix)
This franchise’s flagship series ended last fall, but it’s anything but finished telling stories. Daryl Dixon, Negan and Maggie, and Rick and Michonne will all return for more dodging of Walkers (and the terrible humans who surround them). Before that happens, Fear The Walking Dead will return for its final round before putting a fork in that spinoff, and people clearly cannot get enough of going back to where it all began on streaming.
8. Harley Quinn: A Very Problematic Valentine’s Day Special (HBO Max special)
Sure, the love story here is incredible because this show has carefully paced any idea of romance out while not ignoring the very real issues that complicate the Harlivy dynamic. For that, one can appreciate that this show loves to be gratuitous with profanity and other R-rated matters, but it’s also true to the characters’ souls. As well, it’s also correct that Bane would make violent love to skyscrapers while frustrated, so here’s to keeping things ultra real.
7. The Whale (A24 film streaming on VOD and Amazon)
Brendan Fraser has been “back” for awhile and expressing exquisite frustration in one of his finest performances ever on Doom Patrol. However, he’s Oscar worthy (and nominated as such) in this Darren Aronofsky picture where he plays a morbidly obese father attempting to reconnect not only with his daughter but with the meaning of humanity. He deserves all of the awards for this one, along with a lengthy career “resurrection” affectionately known as the Brenaissance.
6. Infinity Pool (Elevation Pictures film streaming on Amazon Prime)
Mia Goth remains the best in the business at portraying unhinged nightmares within nightmarish scenarios, and here, she’s got the run of Alexander Skarsgard in a movie that makes garden-variety hedonism seem tame. This film also makes the otherwise unthinkable idea of sticking to an all-inclusive resort’s grounds seem like the wisest idea in the universe.
5. Bel-Air (Peacock series)
The rough streets of West Philly are no match for Will’s spirit, and this show remains so much darker than its 1990s counterpart, but Will is heading into a “Fresh Start” while realizing that he has many tough lessons to learn, and not everything is what it seems. This season, Jabari Banks returns as Will with Adrian Holmes as Uncle Phil and Cassandra Freeman as Aunt Viv. Also, rapper Saweetie will will surface for a cameo, and Olly Sholotan returns as Carlton, who will not be doing the dance popularized by Alfonso Ribeiro’s version.
4. Party Down (Starz revival streaming on Hulu)
More than a decade later, Adam Scott and most of the rest of the gang (other than Lizzy Caplan) make a catering-team comeback. He’s having a bit of a moment lately between this revival and Severance, but the truth of the matter is that Adam Scott has always been in demand, and we’re lucky to see so much of him on TV. Jane Lynch, Ken Marino, and Martin Starr also return with guests including James Marsden, Quinta Brunson, Nick Offerman, Bobby Moynihan, and Jennifer Garner.
3. Outer Banks (Netflix series)
The characters in this series simply cannot relax and enjoy Poguelandia for very long, so get ready for more mystery and searches for treasure and danger and intrigue. Ultimately, this is all covered with a fine soapy layer, and the show remains as bingeworthy as ever with the audience no doubt soon asking for more.
2. You (Netflix series)
The second half of this fourth season will arrive in a few short weeks, but for now, Stalker Joe is not only out of his element but completely not himself when someone starts to stalk him. You don’t have to wait too terribly long, in terms of actual time, to find out who’s doing this, but it kind-of feels like forever for those of us who miss the way that the show sent Joe careening down a path of his own destruction. Hang tight, though, because there’s always time for Penn Badgley’s horrible character to hit his groove again.
1. The Last Of Us (HBO series streaming on HBO Max)
The most recent episode of this series delivered a gut punch that left viewers reeling, so let’s hope for some levity soon. Or at least, maybe the Internet can conjure up a sex-icon claim about this show again, and we’re not talking (this time) about Pedro Pascal. Craig Mazin did it again, and by that, I mean that he pulled off another epic production after helming Chernobyl and helping to save the Game Of Thrones audience from watching “a complete piece of sh*t.”