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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.
Want more streaming goodness? Sign up for The Queue, our streaming newsletter featuring the latest industry news, movie and TV recommendations, and more in your inbox every week.
For even more great streaming options, check out previous editions of our must-watch list here.
New Movies Streaming
“Gladiator II”
“Gladiator II” takes place 16 years after the events of “Gladiator,” with Paul Mescal’s Lucius, the spiritual successor to Russell Crowe’s Maximus, as the man who unites the people of Rome with his performances in the gladiator arena. Mescal doesn’t quite have the gravitas of Crowe, who was at the peak of his powers in 2000’s Best Picture winner. But director Ridley Scott is a master of spectacle, and Denzel Washington — playing a scheming bureaucrat — has charisma to spare.
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How to watch: “Gladiator II” is streaming on Paramount+.
“Saturday Night”
The entire runtime of “Saturday Night” takes place in the chaotic hours before the very first episode of “SNL” is set to air. John Belushi (Matt Wood) still hasn’t signed his contract. Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith) is eying greener pastures before a single episode has aired. And Lorne Michaels (Gabriel LaBelle) is a man in constant demand, putting out fires — both metaphorical and literal — all over Studio 8H.
For those who have read the first 60 pages of “Live From New York: An Uncensored History of Saturday Night Live,” none of this is new information. But seeing it play out on screen is just as exciting as reading Tom Shales and Andrew Miller’s definitive oral history for the first time.
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How to watch: “Saturday Night” is streaming on Netflix.
“The Wild Robot”
Based on Peter Brown’s children’s books of the same name, “The Wild Robot” follows Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o), a task-oriented helper robot accidentally dropped onto a remote island inhabited only by wild animals. After unwittingly killing a mama goose during her initial descent, Roz’s new mission is to learn how to be a goose mom to the orphaned Brightbill, with an assist from some of the other woodland critters. “The Wild Robot” pulled in three Oscar nominations this week, for good reason: It’s the best of this year’s animated features.
How to watch: “The Wild Robot” is streaming on Peacock.
New TV Shows Streaming
“The Night Agent”
Season 1 of “The Night Agent” was a pretty straightforward spy thriller, but with enough little touches throughout to elevate the material. The titular night agent, Peter (Gabriel Basso, “Hillbilly Elegy”), has risen from the bottom of the FBI org chart to the elite Night Agent team after foiling a massive conspiracy (and attempt on the President’s life) last season. Now he’s off the grid, thanks to another conspiracy that (stop me if you’ve heard this before) goes straight to the top. “The Night Agent” has already been renewed for a third season, which is reason enough to trust that creator Shawn Ryan (“The Shield”) won’t leave you hanging.
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How to watch: “The Night Agent” Season 2 is streaming on Netflix.
“Prime Target”
Staying on the topic of spy thrillers with plots lifted from pulpy airport novels, “Prime Target” is about a brilliant mathematician (Leo Woodall) who discovers a pattern in prime numbers (ones that can’t be divisible by anything but themselves) that gives him a backdoor into the world’s computers. That won’t stand, of course, and the NSA is quickly dispatched to quash this postgrad brainiac before he ruins the world. “Prime Target” features some of the most egregiously far-fetched technobabble you’ll ever hear. But if you turn off your brain quickly enough, none of that really matters.
How to watch: “Prime Target” is streaming on Apple TV+.
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