What’s Popular On Streaming

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. Daredevil: Born Again – Disney+ series

Marvel Studios is working to reignite its theatrical presence with massive Avengers: Doomsday drops. All the while, Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock is rebuilding the small-screen side of the MCU in this warmly-received revisiting of Hornhead with a side of Jon Bernthal’s The Punisher. The latter will actually receive his own standalone special (reminiscent of Werewolf by Night) that will be written by Bernthal, who is pumped to finally bring his preferred Frank Castle evolution to life. That suggests that he also wasn’t thrilled at how the Netflix series gave Frank an identity crisis, but ideally, it’s only “up” from here.

9. Long Bright River – Peacock series

Amanda Seyfried takes audiences outside of their comfort zones as a beat cop whose work hits too close to home. Sure, that is not an unusual concept with investigators of crime dramas, but this show moves outside of that box by showcasing life-affirming relationships in this story based within Philly’s Kensington neighborhood, where the novel’s author (Liz Moore) grew up. And if you have been wanting another season of Mare of Easttown, this is for you.

8. Kraven the Hunter – Sony movie streaming on Netflix

There’s no graceful way to mention how much better this movie is faring on Netflix than it did last year in theaters, but that realization apparently helped Sony realize that it was time (after Morbius and Madame Web) to put a fork in their Spidey spin off movies. Aaron Taylor-Johnson will soon be seen in 28 Years Later, so he will be just fine, too.

7. Anora – A24 movie streaming on Hulu

Indie distributor NEON raked in the Oscars this year, including Best Picture and Best Actress for Mikey Madison’s raw and exuberant portrayal of an exotic dancer who briefly marries a Russian oligarch’s son before the family thugs step in to ruin everything. This is much more than “a f*ckboi fairytale” and won the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. And to think, it was this batsh*t crazy scene in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time In Hollywood where the inspiration for casting Mikey Madison was born.

6. The Studio – Apple TV+ series

Dynamic streaming TV duo Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s executive producing success includes The Boys series and spin offs over on Prime Video/Amazon, but Rogen has been honing his own chops over on Apple TV+. There, he stars with Rose Byrne in the affable and raunchy Platonic, and his newest show packs in so many Hollywood cameos that it makes The Bear look like amateur hour. Also, Rogen is at his self-deprecating best while putting his own industry on (loving) blast. Highlights include Brian Cranston putting on his panic face while wardrobed like a certain exec. Stick around for the grossest zombie apocalypse, too.

5. Severance – Apple TV+ series

Dan Erickson and Ben Stiller’s brainchild finished up a second mindf*ck of a season last week, and the debate rages on about Mark’s parting decision of Helly over Gemma, but arguably, Gwendoline Christie’s almost feral performance was really where it’s at. Stiller has promised that there will not be as-long of a wait for the third season, but let’s get real: there’s so much content on Apple TV+ to keep addicts happy in the meantime. Between Silo, The Gorge, Servant, Presumed Innocent, Slow Horses, For All Mankind, and even Ted Lasso, every similar itch can be scratched, so godspeed.

4. The White Lotus – HBO series streaming on Max

Who will kick the bucket this season? Maybe about 70% of the characters could go there, and nobody would be mad. For sure, Greg and Saxon must go, and perhaps they will go out in the same explosion of unfortunate events. Then maybe Parker Posey’s Southern-fried nightmare could surface on a Real Housewives spin off while Walton Goggins and Sam Rockwell do a buddy comedy, and then Aimee Lou Wood’s Chelsea can teach the frenemy trio (portrayed by Leslie Bibb, Carrie Coon, and Michelle Monaghan) how to stop backstabbing could be nice. In all seriousness, Charlotte Le Bon’s Chloe is shaping up to be a fantastic villain in her own right although, man, this season’s slower-building drama didn’t do it any favors.

3. Adolescence – Netflix series

Officially, no second season has been announced, and the show’s co-creators agree that Jamie Miller’s onscreen story is complete. However, the enormous success of this series practically guarantees that discussions are happening behind closed doors, and Stephen Graham has suggested that an anthologized approach for more could come to fruition. If you haven’t caught this four-part “limited series” yet, it’s a conversation starter of a watch, and although bleak as can be, it has arguably captured the zeitgeist.

2. The Pitt – Max series

With the season finale on the horizon, the time is right to declare Noah Wyle as medical-scrubs royalty on TV. Here, he portrays an increasingly weary physician in Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital’s emergency room, and “The Pitt” has more meanings than one. This is no Grey’s Anatomy, and in fact, the “real-time” story hasn’t been done so well since FOX’s 24. The 15-episode season (which is unheard of in the streaming age) represents a full shift, and yep, a second season is already in the works.

1. Reacher – Prime Video/Amazon series

Well, another series finale has come and gone with a fourth season already greenlit. Reacher has defeated the Bigger Guy, the DEA mission is complete after hitting multiple perilous snags, and Reacher is off to a new city after Susan Duffy gave him the same line that he gave Roscoe while cutting that budding relationship short. He didn’t mind the turnaround, either, so massive respect goes out to how this series handles coupledom, including how we still receive scintillating situations without them (somehow) ever feeling cheap. Now, the wait for the Neagley spin off is about to get real.