Yes, it’s the weekend again, and time to mention new movies and TV shows on Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. Let’s get started!
Hulu
Okay, Hulu hasn’t added much new stuff, but they have just added the Season 1 of DCI Banks. It’s a British procedural crime series starring Stephen Tomkinson and Andrea Lowe and is based on Peter Robinson’s Inspector Banks mysteries. It also stars Caroline Catz(Doc Martin), Jack Deam and Lorraine Boroughs. It’s a little dark, but if you like you mysteries tense and well acted, DCI Banks may be just your ticket. And it gets a 7.6/10 on IMDb. That’s all the new additions, but Hulu still has some good movies added recently. One of those is Punch-Drunk Love, a 2002 movie starring Adam Sandler. It’s a romantic movie, also starring Emily Watson, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Luis Guzman and Mary Jane Rajskub and is directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. This got rave reviews, for the film and for Sandler. Anderson won Best Director at Cannes for this, it gets an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.3/10 on IMDb. And, finally, Hulu has Bowfinger, the 1999 comedy starring Steve Martin and Eddie Murphy. In it, Martin plays a low rate movie producer, planning to star Martin( an action star) in a movie, without his knowledge. It also stars Heather Graham, Christine Baranski and Terence Stamp and got 3.5/4 stars from Roger Ebert. It also gets an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes. So watch already.
Netflix
Okay, so I already told you about The Last Jedi, now available on Netflix, but have I told you about Secret City, an Australian series that’s also new? It’s concern scandal and international conspiracy in Canberra and a journalist’s search for the truth. It stars Anna Torv, Jackie Weaver and Dan Wylie and is timely and tense. It gets a 7.3/10 on IMDb. Netflix also offers To Each Her Own, a 2018 French film. This movie features the story of a gay woman, finally coming out to her conservative Jewish family and then she meets an attractive man. It’s basically a gay romantic comedy and stars Sarah Stern, Jean-Christophe Folly and Julia Piaton. It’s very new, only gets a 5/10 on IMDb, but it is witty and well acted and covers a subject rarely seen. I like it! Another new show on Netflix is The Forest, a 2018 series from France. It stars Suzanne Clement, Samuel LaBathe and Alexia Barlier and features a village near the Ardennes Forest, where a girl goes missing. It is tense and ominous, and there is little other information about it online, but the acting is wonderful, and the production impressive, I would recommend it if you like your mysteries dark. Also, new on Netflix is The Recovery Boys, an impressive 2018 documentary. It covers four young men in recovery from opioid addiction in West Virginia and is directed by Elaine McMillion Sheldon. It also shows the harsh reality of recovery, that it’s never really over. It gets a 7.3/10 on IMDb. Netflix also offers Kiss Me First, a 2016 series cyber-thriller. It features a girl addicted to a VR game, and a girl she meets on the VR Platform, who goes missing. It stars Tallulah Haddon, Simona Brown and Matthew Beard. This is tense and especially depressing, and there is a little too much Virtual Reality for me, but if you feel up to it, it gets a 75% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 5.8/10 on IMDb. Oh, and don’t forget, the Season 2 of Glow is available, a really fun and empowering look at the women’s professional wrestling circuit(The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) in the 1980’s. It stars Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin, Sydelle Noel , Britney Young and Marc Maron and is a wild and rollicking look at women’s wrestling, but it is rated TV-MA, is explicit and has a lot of swearing, so maybe don’t watch with the whole family. But do watch if you’re of age, it’s is wonderful.
Amazon
The biggest new show on Amazon is A Very English Scandal, starring Hugh Grant.Grant play Jeremy Thorpe, an English pol in the 1960’s, who finds his ex-lover threatening his career and decides to do away with him. This is based on a true and very public scandal, in the 60’s and 70’s and also stars Ben Whishaw, Monica Dolan and Alice Orr-Ewing. It looks really interesting, and gets a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8/10 on IMDb. Another new movie on Amazon is The King’s Choice, a 2017 movie. This, too, is historical, based on three days in the life of Norway’s King Haakon VII’s stand against the Nazi’s in the face of Quisling’s betrayal. It stars Jesper Christiansen, Anders Baasmo Christiansen and Tuva Novotny and was selected as Norway’s entry in the Best Foreign Film category at the Academy Awards. It gets an 84% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 7.2/10 on IMDb. Another new addition on Amazon is The Red Queen, a 2015 series from Russia. It’s about a movie queen, who apparently worked for the KGB as well, Regina Zbarskaya, and stars Ksenia Lukyanchikova, Artyom Tkachenko and Anatoly Rudenko. It is a nice historical drama, based on fact, and it gets an 8/10 on IMDb. And, finally, Amazon offers The Tenant of Wildfell Fall, a BBC mini-series from 1996. It’s based on Anne Bronte’s tale of the same name and stars Tara Fitzgerald, Rupert Graves and Toby Stephens. The tale of a young wife in an old mansion, it won numerous BAFTA and Peabody Awards and gets a 7.4/10 on IMDb. Enjoy.
So put your feet up, relax and binge for the weekend on good movies and series for a low monthly membership.
Grownups Guide to Streaming 