Multiple times per 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 and ratings) 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) Bridgerton (Netflix series)
There’s a Queen Charlotte spinoff on the way already and a few more guaranteed seasons, but this season is all about Anthony Bridgerton setting aside his, uh, former habits and looking to get married. This season does keep things rolling in the correct direction even without The Duke saucing up the whole joint. Fortunately, Kate gives Anthony more than a run for his money, and Lady Whistledown’s still wreaking havoc upon society while the show, as a whole, loses frequency of sex scenes but still makes room for butt grabs.
10. Taboo (BBC One/FX series on Hulu)
Tom Hardy needs to be in more things, and this years’ old season (which is actually his brainchild, in a way) found new life with the news that Season 2 is forthcoming. Hardy steps into view as The Devil Delaney, who’s not exactly a prodigal son but is returning to claim his late father’s empire. He’s got a forbidden love of sorts, and as if things weren’t complicated or dangerous enough, Jessie Buckley arrives to claim her surprising stake. You’ve seen her work on Fargo, surely. Don’t mess with any character portrayed by Jessie Buckley.
9. Barry (HBO series on HBO Max)
Bill Hader’s contract killer is back after nearly three years out of commission, and he’s not thrilled about it. This season will see him turn inward while examining why he started this killing business at all. As it turns out, it’s not so easy to abandon one’s darker tendencies, even when the instruments disappear. Hopefully, there will be more dancing from NoHo Hank to help everyone unravel the really important answers here.
8. Outer Range (Amazon Prime series)
The Yellowstone craze could spread into the sci-fi realm if people are already done watching 1883 and looking for similar action. However, Josh Brolin (who portrays a Wyoming-residing rancher) steps intom the expansive terrain and finds himself in the midst of a story with a supernatural mystery (possibly involving a missing young woman), and there’s a black void and other nefarious forces at work. This ain’t No Country For Old Men.
7. Hard Cell (Netflix series)
Although critics can’t stand this show, audiences love the thing. That type of divide isn’t unheard of, but can the show continue its successful streaming run while telling a “comical” version of prison life? It doesn’t come anywhere near Orange Is The New Black in terms of quality, and there’s a ton of toilet humor in the Catherine Tate-starring show. At the very least, you can scratch your head while wondering how this all happened.
6. Russian Doll (Netflix series)
Natasha Lyonne’s got it going on lately, and her swagger dominates this season to an even greater degree than we’ve seen before now. This season’s trippier and landed on 4/20, if that tells you anything at all. Watch out for the falling air conditioner units, but there’s a lot more here than a Groundhog Day-esque time loop. Rather, Natasha’s Nadia and Charlie Barnett’s Alan find themselves inadvertently taking time-travel trains.
5. Atlanta (FX series on Hulu)
Finally, Donald Glover’s creation is back in action with plenty of shenanigans and biting social satire in the process. Glover’s Earn is in a very different place than we saw him during the first two seasons. Fortunately, there are constants int he form of LaKeith Stanfield as Darius, Zazie Beetz as Van, and Brian Tyree Henry as Paper Boi. The show’s biting cultural critique goes into confusing territory for many, but stick with it and enjoy the surreal happenings as they pour into one’s senses and go into overdrive.
4. Moon Knight (Disney+ series)
This is a rather low-key Disney+ series in terms of questions that need answering and easter eggs go, but there’s still plenty of mystery as Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke do their thing in the MCU with bad accents and otherwise good representation for Egyptian culture. Hawke plays a cult leader, and Oscar’s portraying multiple characters as a solitary man with dissociative disorder. The main Egyptian god in question, so far, has roasted the hell out of Isaac’s character, so this is definitely a comedy as well as a superhero adventure.
3. Flight Attendant (HBO Max series)
As of last season’s mayhem wasn’t enough, the Kaley Cuoco series is quadrupling down on the crackling chaos. It’s a righteous mess, even with Cassie on the wagon, because she’s now a CIA asset and the “making better choices” thing has flown out the door. The action moves around the globe again, this time in Iceland, where international intrigue is afoot with a sketchy murder case endangering Cassie herself. Zosia Mamet and Rosie Perez are back to do the supporting honors, and this adventure is much more interesting than flight attending could ever truly be in real life.
2. Batman (Warner Bros. film on HBO Max)
After a relatively short (yet very successful) box-office run, Robert Pattinson’s gritty, gothy Caped Crusader can be streaming in your living room. Paul Dano’s The Riddler, Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman, and Colin Ferrell’s Penguin are all on board while Bruce Wayne’s early days get the spotlight. Although this film stands separate from the DCEU (like Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker), expect some HBO Max TV spinoffs to materialize. Until then, one can marvel again at how Pattinson’s no longer best known as Edward Cullen from Twilight, although perhaps he’s been a master of reinvention all along.
1. Better Call Saul (AMC series on Netflix)
What will happen to Kim Wexler? Perhaps it’s time to stop worrying about it and just go with the Heisenberg flow. The show will soon collide with the Breaking Bad timeline, and we’re gonna see some Walt and Jesse action, all while we wonder what the hell is going on with Cinnabon Gene and whether this spinoff will end with the announcement of another franchise spinoff. No matter, man. The full fifth season’s on Netflix now, in case you missed it before hopping into Season 6 on a weekly basis.