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Sam KieldsenFollow @samkieldsen
So you’ve just got yourself a shiny new home cinema setup. Congrats! Now it’s time to decide what’s on. After all, you didn’t blow a month’s salary on a big-screen TV just to count the pixels.
Stuck for something to stream? From binge-worthy series to immersive feature films, we’ve sifted through the content catalogues of every major streaming service. So whether you’re part of the Netflix faithful or addicted to Disney+, you’ll find your perfect 4K fodder in the list below.
Want more content for your telly box? We also have dedicated round-ups for each streaming platform, to help you find the very best TV shows and movies to watch on Now, Netflix, Amazon and Disney+. So sit back, tune in and pass the popcorn.
Best series on Now
Kate Winslet excels as a world-weary detective confronting a new murder case, an old mystery and her own past trauma, all while her close-knit community starts to unravel.
Impossible choices abound as Bryan Cranston plays a judge who abandons his professional principles when his son is involved in a hit-and-run. The fallout is, naturally, a dangerous web of deception and lies.
• ZeroZeroZero (pictured)
Mexican narco-terrorists, corrupt police officers, Italian mobsters and a white-collar American family all intertwine in this ambitious eight-part series from the creators of Gomorrah.
Best films on Now
• Promising Young Woman (pictured)
Carey Mulligan plays a coffee-shop worker who teaches creeps a lesson about consent in this…romcom? Revenge thriller? #MeToo polemic? All of the above.
• Tenet
Think too hard about this blockbuster and you’ll give yourself a headache, but from a technical perspective it’s astonishing – and we don’t just mean they’ve used a very powerful graphics card for the FX.
• The Last Black Man In San Francisco
Beautifully shot, unpredictable and elegiac, this masterful film tells the story of a young man striving to reclaim his gentrified childhood home.
Best series on Netflix
This engrossing doc tells the story of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s, offering a glimpse into some strangely singular minds – and no, you don’t need to like basketball to enjoy it.
• The Queen’s Gambit (pictured)
Anya Taylor-Joy plays a chess prodigy with a tendency for addictive behaviour. If you’re still missing
Mad Men, the sumptuous period details here will be right up your street.
A series that started life on YouTube Red as a giggle-worthy spin-off of the Karate Kid movies, Cobra Kai is now established as an action-comedy-drama arguably surpassing the films that inspired it.
Best films on Netflix
A jeweller and gambling addict (Adam Sandler) hustles his way around New York attempting to juggle
the demands of his celebrity clients, wife, lover and loan sharks. Delirious, manic stuff.
• My Octopus Teacher (pictured)
A conservationist forms an unlikely inter-species bond with an unnamed cephalopod and, with the help of an ace underwater DP, captures some of her species’ truly mind-blowing skills.
• The Dig
Unless it involves the resurrection of the dinosaurs or Harrison Ford with a whip, archaeology isn’t an obvious subject for a movie – but this gentle tale of the Sutton Hoo excavation is still a treasurable find.
Best series on Amazon Prime Video
Neil Gaiman’s American Gods weaves a fantasy tale out of myth, Americana and pop culture. Former
Hollyoaks beefcake Ricky Whittle is surprisingly decent in the leading role.
• The Boys
What if superheroes were not only real, but as messed up and prone to bad behaviour as the rest of us? That’s the premise behind this comicbook adaptation, which follows a group of troubled vigilantes.
• The Expanse (pictured)
This beloved space opera series, in which humanity has colonised the solar system amid a looming interplanetary conflict, will appeal to anyone who likes sprawling, morally complex dramas.
Best films on Amazon Prime Video
• Sound of Metal (pictured)
Ruben (the brilliant Riz Ahmed) is a noise-metal drummer, touring tiny venues with his partner Lou until it all comes to a sickening halt when he begins to experience hearing loss.
With a ‘planet killer’ comet on course to wipe out almost all life on Earth, our hero Gerard Butler must get his estranged wife and son to the relative safety of a bunker in (yes, you guessed it) Greenland.
Andy Samberg and Cristin Milioti, strangers who happen to be guests at the same wedding, find themselves stuck in a seemingly infinite timeloop in this Groundhoggy romantic comedy.
Best series on Disney+
• Wandavision (pictured)
The Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn’t really do ‘weird and interesting’, but this series feels truly inventive and experimental with its offbeat spin on the traditional suburban sitcom.
With episodes clocking in at around 15 minutes apiece, Inside Pixar offers lovely bite-sized insights into the inner workings of Disney’s computer animation studio, from writers, artists and more.
• Atlanta
Produced by and starring Donald Glover, Atlanta is a disarming, slick, quirky, observant comedy series that follows an aspiring rap star and his manager. There really is nothing else quite like it.
Best films on Disney+
Based on Jessica Bruder’s book about her own ‘houseless’ life, this is a quietly powerful drama that tells the story of a widow (Frances McDormand) who roams the West in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis.
• Soul (pictured)
Jamie Foxx voices a New York band teacher who dreams of performing as a jazz pianist but finds himself sucked into The Great Before – a place where new souls are given their personalities.
Come for Olivia Colman’s Oscar-winning turn as Queen Anne, stay for Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz’s almost-as-great performances as two courtiers competing for her affections.
Sam KieldsenContributor
About
Tech journalism's answer toThe Littlest Hobo, I'vewritten for a host of titles and lived in three different countries in my 15 years-plus as a freelancer. But I've always comeback home toStuffeventually, where I specialisein writing about cameras, streaming services and being tragically addicted toDestiny.
Areas of expertise
Cameras, drones, video games, film and TV
