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.
TIE: 10. The Tourist (BBC One/former HBO Max series streaming on Netflix)
Netflix is known to resurrect series (Lucifer, You) that initially aired elsewhere and then nurture them for greater success on a new streaming home base. Heck, even the supposedly concluded Suits took on enough renewed life for a followup series to be greenlit. Now, The Tourist has switched its U.S.-streaming home from Max to Netflix (and still maintain its status on BBC One in the U.K.). As such, people are familiarizing themselves with an addictive show about Jamie Dornan’s character waking up in the Australian Outback and not knowing what the hell is going on, who he is, or why bad dudes are chasing him. Enjoy!
TIE: 10. Society Of The Snow (Netflix film)
‘Tis the season for holidays to yield to bleak winter weather in real life, so you might also be in the mindset to watch characters whose teeth are chattering even more than your own. This drama follows plane crash survivors who fight their way home after finding unexpectedly themselves navigating the unforgiving terrain of the Andes Mountains. And yes, this story follows the real-life ordeal of 1972 survivors who descended into cannibalism, and not everyone makes it out alive. Get your Yellowjackets fix here.
9. The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (Lionsgate film streaming on VOD & Amazon Prime)
Coriolanus Snow wasn’t always the villain of Panem. In this prequel film, his younger incarnation (Tom Blyth) connects with District 12 tribute Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler), a District 12 tribute who came years before Katniss Everdeen became the Girl on Fire. Lucy is the proverbial songbird of the film’s subtitle, and it’s up to viewers to tune in and find out about those snakes. Naturally, feelings exist to complicate matters, and viewers will learn at least part of why President Snow turned into such a horror show in his later years. Additionally, Hunter Schafer portrays Tigris, the cousin of Coriolanus and who later surfaces in Mockingjay as originally written by best-selling author Suzanne Collins.
8. Killers Of The Flower Moon (Apple TV+ movie)
Martin Scorsese’s newest masterpiece is now available to stream in your living room (on VOD) and will be available on Apple TV+ (which also produced here) beginning on January 12. The clicks are already coming, however, for this adaptation of David Grann’s nonfiction narrative saga that shines light on a horrific chapter in history. Lily Gladstone will likely earn an Oscar nod (and more) for her portrayal of Molly Burkhart, who found herself amid the carnage of the Osage murders. Leo DiCaprio’s accent is wild, and the film is harrowing, heartbreaking, and wholly worth watching.
7. The Holdovers (Focus Features film streaming on Peacock)
Paul Giamatti goes a little Sideways while reuniting with director Alexander Payne in this story about a holiday season gone wrong. The story follows a winter break on campus where a misanthropic, boozy teacher (Giamatti) finds himself among the other stragglers who didn’t make it home to the fam for assorted reasons. Together, a trio’s friendships end up reigning supreme and difficult conversations lead the day.
6. Slow Horses (Apple TV+ series)
Please let Gary Oldman enjoy food onscreen more often. Beyond the ice cream and noodles, it is sheer fun to watch the wheels fall off the British intelligence realm as Oldman farts away and attempts to lead his fellow agents after they ended up in professional purgatory. It’s a fabulous time to be a devoted fan of beloved books series that end up materializing onscreen, and not only are Percy and Mick Herronthe’s Slough Horses receiving their due, but Reacher is at the top of the pack, as we will discuss momentarily.
5. Saltburn (Lucky Chap/MRC/Lie Still film streaming on Amazon Prime)
The controversy will not stop for this movie, and a candle that allegedly smells like bathwater (from a now-infamous scene) is now available to skeeve people out even more with this satire. Definitely do not watch this movie with your relatives, but do make time to be hypnotized by Barry Keoghan and recall how much of a treasure that Rosamund Pike turns out to be in every role. Emerald Fennell loves to get a rise out of audience, and hopefully, she will soon reveal what she’s doing next.
4. Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child Of Fire (Netflix movie)
If Zack Snyder wasn’t going to be able to make an actual Star Wars movie, goshdarnit, he was going to write and direct a version that he considers close enough. There will eventually be a director’s cut on Netflix, too, because Snyder cannot do anything halfway or within a reasonable run time. Still, this director’s audience will inhale everything that he creates, and sadly, there’s no Tig Notaro setting loins aflame in this film, but this cast, including Charlie Hunnam, does its best to carry on that legacy.
3. Percy Jackson And The Olympians (Disney+ series)
Author Rick Riordan’s bestselling novels did simply alright at the box office for two films of yesteryear, and some were skeptical about whether a TV series could make things more right and even turn into the adaptation that the book series deserves. Well, Disney+ pulled this feat off admirably despite swimming upstream to do so. Ex-Percy actor Logan Lerman had his socks knocked off by what he has seen, and Riordan is pleased as punch, too. Sometimes, remakes can actually be worth the effort and investment.
2. True Detective (HBO series streaming on Max)
The fourth season, Night Country, will soon arrive to tear your little world apart, or at least make you shiver and inwardly scream while this series gets back to its roots with Jodie Foster starring in the most watchable installment since the McConaughey-Harrelson pairing. Foster stars as a dogged investigator who has seen some sh*t, and that sh*t gets stirred back up when an unsolved bunch of homicides isn’t the freeze-and-dried case that it might have initially seemed to be. Before that happens, revisit the stellar first season because, you know, “time is a flat circle.”
1. Reacher (Amazon Prime series)
This was the role that Alan Ritchson was born to portray, even though he first spent some time making Paula Abdul horny during a slight American Idol diversion. Ritchson isn’t quite 6’5″ but still perfectly embodies the Big Guy and will do so for future seasons to come. This week, his time with Dixon finally brings years of tension to a simmer and a boil, which is a fine way for Reacher to follow up on beating the hell out of a biker gang that will rue the day that they messed with the Special Investigators.
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