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Discover the best movies and TV shows streaming now, with handpicked recommendations from Boston.com.
5 must-watch movies & TV shows streaming right now
The best of what's new streaming on Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney Plus, and more.
Welcome to Boston.com’s weekly streaming guide. Each week, we recommend five must-watch movies and TV shows available on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount+, and more.
Many recommendations are for new shows, while others are for under-the-radar releases you might have missed or classics that are about to depart a streaming service at the end of the month.
Have a new favorite movie or show you think we should know about? Let us know in the comments, or email [email protected]. Looking for even more great streaming options? Check out previous editions of our must-watch list here.
2024 HOLIDAY WATCH GUIDE
New Movies Streaming
“Airplane!”
Following the death of director Jim Abrahams at the age of 80, it’s a good time to revisit his magnum opus, 1980’s “Airplane!”. Co-directed with brothers David and Jerry Zucker, “Airplane!” is a send-up of 1957’s “Zero Hour!” in which a former combat pilot (Robert Hays) must overcome his PTSD and land a commercial airliner after the pilot (and many passengers) fall ill.
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In an interview with Vulture, the directing trio discussed how Leslie Nielsen delivering the line “I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley” sold Paramount executives on the concept of the film. Initially confused about how a movie starring dramatic actors performing as if they weren’t starring in a comedy could be funny, Nielsen’s career turn as no-nonsense Dr. Rumack won them over.
As for the film’s laugh-a-minute pacing, David Zucker said this: “We found that it was easier to keep an audience laughing than to start them up all over again.” More than 44 years after its initial release, surely no one can deny that “Airplane!” has done just that.
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How to watch: “Airplane!” is streaming on Prime Video.
“Blitz”
Apple’s most likely awards contender this year is this World War II drama from Steve McQueen (“12 Years A Slave”) about a young boy named George (Elliott Heffernan) who is sent away to the English countryside for his own safety during the Blitz. Not keen on being separated from his mother (Saoirse Ronan, “Little Women”), George hops off the train and begins a long journey back to London.
McQueen does a masterful job of re-creating the chaos of 1940 England, while Heffernan, in his big-screen debut, is a revelation, pushing forward in the face of racism, Dickensian hustlers, and the German aerial assault.
How to watch: “Blitz” is streaming on Apple TV+.
“Planes, Trains and Automobiles”
For some folks, November is an excuse to squeeze in a second month of holiday movies and TV specials. But I prefer to leave some space for Thanksgiving-specific entertainment, and John Hughes’ “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” is the annual post-turkey watch of choice for our family.
Starring Steve Martin as an uptight marketing executive and John Candy as a kindhearted but profoundly annoying traveling salesman, the duo must rely on every method of transportation in order to make it home for Thanksgiving dinner. While it’s hard to pick just one role as the apex of Candy’s too-short career, shower curtain ring salesman Del Griffith captures so much of what made the Canadian comedian an indelible screen presence — a guileless schlub you always root for no matter how outré his persona.
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How to watch: “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” is streaming on Paramount+, and for free with ads on Pluto TV.
New TV Streaming
“Frosty the Snowman”
Though some of the classic Rankin and Bass holiday TV specials like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” are impossible to watch on subscription streaming services, others, like the 1969 classic “Frosty the Snowman,” are available on multiple streaming platforms.
Featuring legendary comedian Jimmy Durante in his final performance, “Frosty the Snowman” follows the walking, talking snowman (Jackie Vernon) from a small town all the way to the North Pole as he tries to avoid both melting into a puddle and a scheming magician who wants his magic hat back. I personally prefer to wait until December for the Christmas-specific specials, but with snow in the forecast for parts of New England, ’tis the season, I suppose.
How to watch: “Frosty the Snowman” is streaming on Hulu and Prime Video.
“Say Nothing”
Dorchester native Patrick Radden Keefe had a bestseller on his hands with 2018’s “Say Nothing,” a nonfiction book about The Troubles in Northern Ireland, with a particular focus on the 1972 kidnapping of Jean McConville, a single mother of 10 abducted from her Belfast home by the Irish Republican Army.
Years after her death, bureaucratic wrangling over McConville’s case continued, especially after an oral history project about The Troubles run by Boston College interviewed two loyalists who admitted to assisting in the kidnapping. FX’s “Say Nothing” which spans four decades, is novelistic in its scope, capturing years of curdling resentment between the Catholic republicans and British soldiers over nine gripping episodes.
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How to watch: “Say Nothing” is streaming on Hulu.
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