Welcome to the latest issue of Stream On, the weekly newsletter from Consequence that answers the eternally confounding question: What films and TV shows should you be watching? (Subscribe here!) We’re looking at all the new and recent releases from Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Prime Video, Paramount+, Peacock, HBO Max, and more for ideas — not to mention a Blast From the Past and streaming recommendations from this week’s special guest!
This Week’s Picks
The Boroughs (TV)
The Boroughs (Netflix)
Created by: Jeffrey Addiss, Will Matthews
Cast: Alfred Molina, Alfre Woodard, Denis O’Hare, Clarke Peters, Carlos Miranda, Jena Malone, Seth Numrich, Alice Kremelberg, Geena Davis, Bill Pullman
Streaming on: Netflix
It is so easy to describe this show, executive produced by the Duffer Brothers, as AARP Stranger Things, because the vast majority of its cast is eligible for AARP membership, and some weird stuff is going down in the titular retirement community. Yet it’s got a strong visual style of its own, and there’s a really exciting collection of actors involved: Alfred Molina stars as the newest (unwilling) resident of The Boroughs, who can’t help but notice that things seem a little odd there — and not just because, as the opening sequence teases, there’s a supernatural menace lurking in the shadows. My biggest problem with this show is that I am not at this time willing to accept the idea of Bill Pullman living in a retirement community. (He’ll always be young and beautiful Lone Star to me.)
The Bride! (Film)
The Bride (Warner. Bros.)
Directed by: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Peter Sarsgaard, Annette Bening, Jake Gyllenhaal, Penélope Cruz
Streaming on: HBO Max
Maggie Gyllenhaal really went hog-wild with this strange meta adaptation of Frankenstein, a bold and fascinating remix that maybe has one too many things going on. But the things that are great in this movie are truly stunning, from Jessie Buckley ripping apart the screen with her savage grin to Christian Bale resurrecting his old dance moves from Newsies for some bananagrams fantasy sequences. Also, I would watch an entire separate movie about Penelope Cruz’s lady detective. “Deranged” is an easy word to overuse in this current age of ours, but it applies so nicely here — the kind of movie that flopped at the box office but feels poised to become a cult favorite.
You’re Killing Me (TV)
You’re Killing Me (Acorn TV)
Created by: Robin Bernheim
Cast: Brooke Shields, Tom Cavanagh, Amalia Williamson
Streaming on: Acorn TV
Cozy mystery series alert! About a mystery writer solving real murders, no less! Though Brooke Shields’ Allison Chandler is pretty distinct from Angela Lansbury’s Jessica Fletcher, as she has to face the changing times of her industry — and handles them by teaming up with a young true crime writer with complementary weaknesses and strengths to hers. What surprised me about this show is that yes, there’s a Will They Won’t They in the works between Allison and the local police chief, played by Tom Cavanagh (The Flash! Ed!), but the central relationship is much more Hacks-based — apt, considering how that show is very close to ending.
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair (Film)
Kill Bill (Miramax)
Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
Cast: Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivica A. Fox, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen, Sonny Chiba, Julie Dreyfus, Chiaki Kuriyama, Gordon Liu, Michael Parks, David Carradine
Streaming on: Peacock
Total coincidence that we’ve got two bloody brides in the mix this week, but a fun one. I enjoyed seeing The Whole Bloody Affair in theaters last year, but even with an intermission, four and a half hours is a long time to sit in an AMC. So now you can enjoy the entire expanded stretch of Kill Bill as Quentin Tarantino originally meant for it to be seen, in the comfort of your own home. You can take an intermission whenever you want! (It is handily broken up into chapters, making it all the easier to choose a stopping point.)
Blast From the Past
The home screens of streaming services are always packed with the latest new releases, but we don’t spend enough time appreciating how much good library content is streaming across all of these platforms. Each week, Stream On will spotlight one less-than-new favorite (must pre-date the founding of Consequence, so 15 years or older) that deserves attention from modern-day eyes.
Raising Arizona (Film)
Raising Arizona (Sony Pictures Classics)
Directed by: Joel Coen
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, Trey Wilson, John Goodman, William Forsythe, Sam McMurray, Frances McDormand, Randall “Tex” Cobb, M. Emmet Walsh
Streaming on: Disney+
Does it seem weird to anyone else that a Coen brothers movie is on Disney+? Even if it does have a bunch of cute babies in it. What matters, of course, is that we have easy access to a truly delightful caper of the film, which happens to feature one of Nicolas Cage’s best performances. This pick is inspired by this week’s binge of Cage’s first TV show, the upcoming Spider-Noir — a reminder that Cage really is one of our most singular performers, sometimes for worse but mostly for better. Raising Arizona draws on his ability to go full cartoon in equal measure with his ability to deliver deep empathy on screen.
A Special Guest Recommends!
Liz isn’t the only person in the world capable of suggesting stuff for people to watch… So each week, Stream On will now feature picks from a special guest! Said special guest could be literally anyone from the world of entertainment — actors, writers, directors, musicians, or anyone else Liz thinks might be watching something interesting.
This Week: Yona Speidel (formerly Our Lady J)!
Our Lady J, photo by Mylo Butler, and Blue Moon (Sony Pictures Classics)
Who Are They? Yona Speidel, previously known as Our Lady J, is a trailblazer for trans writers, with a career that’s included working on shows like Transparent, Pose, American Horror Story, and Doctor Odyssey. As evidence that she’s able to work for people who aren’t Ryan Murphy, she’s a co-executive producer on Netflix’s The Boroughs, helping to tell that horror-tinged story about aging. And she also started her career as a musical artist — check out her YouTube account for some exciting collaborations!
What Do They Recommend? Yona’s got a great movie recommendation, and a great reason for suggesting it:
Blue Moon (Netflix) is a jewel-box portrait of a sardonic genius lyricist faced with an ever-more-stultified audience; a man who spent a lifetime sharpening his wit, only to be met with a culture hellbent on sanding itself smooth. Watching Lorenz Hart, impeccably played by Ethan Hawke, drink himself into a stupor because the world around him had lost interest in logophilia made me wonder how he would’ve responded to today’s lobotomized appetite for AI slop. He is every Hollywood screenwriter right now, watching a world forget that words were once an art form, not just metadata for an algorithm trained on the very artists it was built to replace.
Thank you so much to Yona for this pick (and the beautiful writing about it)! The Boroughs, as mentioned above, is streaming now on Netflix.
One Last One Before Bed
Finally, let’s spotlight a movie or TV show that’s not only great, but won’t take up too much of your time: Think of this section as the answer to the question “What’s something I can watch before hitting the hay, that won’t keep me up too late?” The only rule is that it has to be less than 95 minutes if it’s a movie, or less than 30 minutes an episode if it’s a TV show. Otherwise, sky’s the limit!
Ziwe (TV)
Ziwe (Showtime)
Created by: Ziwe Fumudoh
Cast: Ziwe Fumudoh
Streaming on: Paramount+
Last night, we said goodbye to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, making this a good opportunity to remember another canceled talk show under the same corporate umbrella. Ziwe’s mix of wild sketch comedy and deliberately uncomfortable interviews still holds up great today, anchored by its irrepressible host. Ziwe only got to make 18 episodes of her show, but each one is beautiful to behold. Also, Nicholas Britell composed the theme music. The Succession guy!
We’ll be back next week with more picks — in the meantime, stay safe out there, or better yet stay inside, where it’s definitely safe, and there’s so much film and TV to watch. Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter!
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