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.
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10. (tie) Severance (Apple TV Plus)
“Am I livestock?” Who among us hasn’t asked ourselves that question while grazing amongst the cubicles at work? But the workplace in Severance (a new Adam Scott starring and Ben Stiller produced Apple TV+ series) is a little different, running workers through a process that effectively breaks people in two with zero crossovers between their work life and non-work life. Sound ideal in a world where work stresses bleed into home life and Sunday scarys seem to always kneecap your weekend? Perhaps in some respects. Susan from HR probably LOVES the idea, seeing it as the ultimate NDA, but as the show is set to explore, it’s a less tidy experience that raises all kinds of questions about what happens when people are severed from the awful things they might be asked to do at work. Watch it on Apple TV Plus.
10. (tie) Inventing Anna (Netflix)
As if Julia Garner didn’t already rule the small screen in Ozark, we’re getting another heaping helping of her. This time, though, the tight corkscrew curls are hidden while Garner portrays Anna Delvey, a real-life Instagram “legend” and fake German heiress. In reality, Delvey was a master con artist who captivated New York’s social elite and ended up dragging the hell out of the American dream in the process. This Shondaland limited series follows the investigation into Anna’s misdeeds, along with how she stares down trial and keeps those lies alive, all as inspired by Jessica Pressler’s New York Magazine article that will get you primed. Watch it on Netflix.
9. The Boys: Diabolical (Amazon)
While we all wait for the flagship series’ third season, this animated series will be kind-of canon and bring us backstories for some familiar faces and an array of new characters in outrageous, bloody, and violent scenarios with all of the gore and humor that we’re used to from this franchise. There’s plenty of Homelander and some of The Deep, and the voice cast is more than any comic book fan could hope for. Not only do we get to hear Antony Starr, Chase Crawford, Colby Minifie, and Elisabeth Shue but also Awkwafina, Don Cheadle, Kieran Culkin, Giancarlo Esposito, Justin Roiland, Seth Rogen, and Andy Samberg. Watch it on Amazon.
8. Our Flag Means Death (HBO Max)
A pirate comedy starring Taika Waititi, Rhys Darby, Leslie Jones, and Hodor from Game of Thrones? Don’t mind if I do. Our Flag Means Death is about an 18th-century aristocrat (Darby) who gives up whatever aristocrats do to become a swashbuckler alongside Blackbeard (Waititi). If it’s anything like What We Do in the Shadows but with pirates, prepare to be… Hook-ed. Watch it on HBO Max.
7. Killing Eve (AMC Plus)
Last season ended with winners and losers aplenty. And c’mon, you didn’t think that Villanelle and Eve would be able to get along in the long term, right? Imagine what domestic life would be like for these two. A former MI6 officer and an assassin who can’t give up the life (or the luxury trappings) are as ill-equipped for reality as Westley and Buttercup in The Princess Bride. Yet there’s no reason why they’ll be able to resist each other forever, but Eve is hellbent upon revenge this season while Villanelle desperately wants to prove that she’s not a “monster.” Good luck to both of them. Watch it on AMC Plus.
6. The Dropout (Hulu)
A podcast. A documentary. A book. And soon, a feature-length film. There’s a reason Hollywood can’t get enough of Elizabeth Holmes, the fraudster who scammed millions and left a black mark on Silicon Valley – one likely in the shape of a Steve Jobs-esque turtle neck. Con artists sell, especially when they’re young, white women promising inventions meant to save millions of lives, and Holmes’ story is bigger, ballsier, and more unbelievable than most. Hulu’s The Dropout does a good job of retracing the most important plot points: the creation of Theranos, the realization that Holmes’ at-home blood-testing concept wouldn’t work, the delusional sense of grandeur that pushed her to criminally defraud every from Bernie Madoff to Henry Kissinger and Walgreens, and the very public downfall that would follow. But what the show really excels at is digging under the skin of a megalomaniac in-training, tasking a top-of-her-game Amanda Seyfried with turning Holmes’ most incomprehensible actions into ones we can empathize with, balancing her hollow sense of ambition with the very real anxieties and societal pressures she faced as a 20-something woman trying to start her own company. The Dropout is a wild, bloody, drama-filled train that always feels like it’s teetering on the edge of the track … but that’s kind of what we want, right? Watch it on Hulu.
5. Minx (HBO Max)
We are going back in time, again, this time to the 1970s, again, to see the dawn of an erotic magazine made specifically for women. That sounds fun. It also co-stars Jake Johnson from New Girl as a seedy pornographer who wears shirts unbuttoned halfway to his navel, which sounds… really fun. Worth a shot, at the very least. Watch it on HBO Max.
4. DMZ (HBO Max)
A second civil war breaks out in America and Manhattan becomes a demilitarized zone. A nurse played by Rosario Dawson becomes a national symbol of hope as she searches for her missing zone. Pretty validating for those of us who have always assumed the country will eventually tear itself apart and Rosario Dawson will be the only one who can bring it back together. Watch it on HBO Max.
3. Human Resources (Netflix)
Do you enjoy Big Mouth, the Netflix animated series where a bunch or horny teens are mentored and/or terrorized by teams of very literal fur-covered hormone monsters, some of whom are voiced by Nick Kroll and Maya Rudolph and David Thewlis? You probably do, because Big Mouth is awesome. And now it has this spinoff, which focuses exclusively on the hormone monsters working in their office behind the scenes. It’s a fun idea, made by people who are good at this. That’s all you can really ask for sometimes. Watch it on Netflix.
2. WeCrashed (Apple TV)
Jared Leto is doing his doing his Jared Leto thing in this biopic about the meteoric rise (and shocking downfall) of WeWork founder Adam Neumann. And by that we mean he’s wearing a ton of prosthetics, sporting an indiscernible European accent, and spouting off instantly iconic one-liners. Anne Hathaway’s here too, fighting for dominance in a patriarchal start-up world, but if anything got us to buy into the hype of this latest scammer-saga it’s Leto’s declaration: “I am a Golden Goose laying golden eggs!” No really, that is an actual line he says in the show. Watch it on Apple TV.
1. Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (HBO)
If you think about it, Winning Time (HBO’s new Adam McKay-produced series about the 1980s LA Lakers) has all the elements of a classic heist movie. Assembled by a larger than life fast talker with equally big ambitions (in this case, former Lakers owner Jerry Buss), a rag-tag group comes together, leaning on their exceptional and unique talents to paper over any personality conflicts that might arise while taking the thing (a whole mess of gold trophies) no one thought they’d ever get their hands on. This while having some wild misadventures along the way. We’re simplifying, of course, but the point is this should appeal to basketball fans and non-basketball fans alike, earning the right to be the most buzzed-about piece of basketball culture crossover content since The Last Dance helped us all stave off boredom for a few months by telling the story of another mismatched group of big personalities and champions. Watch it on HBO.