Genre: Drama
Actor: Alice Braga, Benjamin L. Taylor II, Chloe Sevigny, Corey Knight, Faith Alabi, Francesca Scorsese, Jack Dylan Grazer, Jordan Kristine Seamón, Kid Cudi, Spence Moore II, Tom Mercier
Chasing the feel of watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind? Here are the movies we recommend you watch right after.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Alice Braga, Benjamin L. Taylor II, Chloe Sevigny, Corey Knight, Faith Alabi, Francesca Scorsese, Jack Dylan Grazer, Jordan Kristine Seamón, Kid Cudi, Spence Moore II, Tom Mercier
The brainchild of Lisa Hanawalt (one of the creative forces behind Netflix's BoJack Horseman), Tuca & Bertie departed from that other show's no-holds-barred look at addiction and depression to focus on the freewheeling adventures of two best friends in the wacky city of Birdtown. The series wears its silliness like a badge of honor and takes pride in portraying adult women as weird, insecure, sexual beings who are still fully capable of anything. And while it mostly plays as a manic romcom (with an incredible Steven Yeun playing Bertie's boyfriend, Speckle), there are enough moving moments sprinkled throughout that remind you this is all rooted in authentic emotion.
Genre: Animation, Comedy
Actor: Ali Wong, Steven Yeun, Tiffany Haddish
While live-action manga adaptations are known to have a bad rap, Netflix’s Trillion Game is quite entertaining. Striving to earn a million, maybe even a trillion dollars, is something that many people aspire to do, but the way Haru and the team do it is so unexpected. Ren Maguro keeps a great balance between Haru’s unpredictable yet charismatic nature, while Hayato Sano keeps the shyness of Gaku endearing. They go into the most random situations such as winning millions of yen in investments, going into a hacking tournament, and faking an AI. Is this really how aspiring trillionaires succeed? Maybe not, though they do teach some start-up strategies. But, it’s definitely still a fun ride as Haru bluffs his way into ballsy situations for Gaku to solve through computer engineering.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Hayato Sano, Jun Kunimura, Kanako Momota, Kenjiro Tsuda, Kimiko Yo, Koji Kikkawa, Mio Imada, Ren Meguro, Riko Fukumoto, Ryosuke Sota, Takashi Tsukamoto, Terunosuke Takezai, Tomoya Maeno
Director: Kenta Tanaka, Kentarō Takemura, Murao Yoshiaki
It’s hard not to roll your eyes at what looks like yet another white-centered story set in a foreign land. But Tokyo Vice, thankfully, is hardly that. Co-produced by crime drama auteur Michael Mann (Heat, Collateral, Miami Vice), the HBO series is a stylishly thrilling and comprehensive look at the yakuza crime ring running Tokyo from the underground.
Ansel Elgort’s Jake, an investigative journalist, may be our way in, but it’s the rest of the characters who grip our interest. They’re gangster tropes fleshed out with rich and complicated backstories. Ken Watanabe’s Katagiri is a hardboiled detective—so effectively cool and scary—who you’d like to believe is good, but also has his own secrets lurking in the shadows. Rachel Keller’s Samantha is a sultry hostess who, unlike in mob films past, actually has character, motivation, and specific problems she figures out on her own. Sato (Sho Kasamatsu) and Emi (Rinko Kikuchi), Jake’s yakuza friend and newspaper editor respectively, are also given stories that genuinely intrigue and compel on their own.
Lit by Tokyo’s neon glow and set to Mann’s signature fast pace, this is a series not to be missed by action-crime fans.
Genre: Crime, Drama
Actor: Ansel Elgort, Ella Rumpf, Hideaki Ito, Ken Watanabe, Rachel Keller, Rinko Kikuchi, Show Kasamatsu
Stills and synopses of The Summer I Turned Pretty make it seem like typical teenage fluff. It isn't. Sure, it starts off cheesy and predictable, but it quickly blossoms into something rich and earnest and far more significant than the sum of its parts. The love triangle is merely a jumping-off point to better understand these flawed characters and the people around them. Outside of Belly's coming-of-age journey, there is her brother who encounters a rude awakening on race and class, and their mother who, fresh from a divorce, attempts to establish an identity of her own. Everyone has their own thing going on in this series, so it's easy to feel invested in their fleshed-out failures and triumphs.
It also feels authentically young; the music sounds like it was curated by an actual teenager, while the performances are raw and believable, not stilted and forced as it often is with teen series. The Summer I Turned Pretty is familiar, but comfortingly so. Watch this if you're yearning to re-live the magical, heartbreaking feeling of being young and in love for the first time.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Alfredo Narciso, Gavin Casalegno, Jackie Chung, Minnie Mills, Rachel Blanchard, Sean Kaufman, Summer Madison
Genre: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Science Fiction, Thriller
Actor: Alexa Davalos, Brennan Brown, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Chelah Horsdal, DJ Qualls, Frances Turner, Jason O'Mara, Joel de la Fuente, Luke Kleintank, Rufus Sewell, Rupert Evans
Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Actor: Kappei Yamaguchi, Megumi Hayashibara
Written proudly in the Mississippi vernacular, P-Valley tells a story of sex, trauma, and ambition in a totally unembellished way. There's something decidedly un-Hollywood about it, both in the way it embraces its Black and Southern roots and in how it portrays stripping as the athletic feat it truly is. So even if the show deals with adult subject matter it's never lurid or exploitative, and it becomes a series just as much about the craft of exotic dancing and hip hop as it is about money and struggle. Even the more unwieldy parts of the series's storytelling help add up to an authentic portrait, bathed in gorgeous night club colors and crisp Southern images.
Genre: Crime, Drama
Actor: Brandee Evans, Elarica Johnson, Harriett D. Foy, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Parker Sawyers, Shannon Thornton
Genre: Comedy
Actor: Beth Ditto, Kirsten Dunst, Mel Rodriguez, Ted Levine, Théodore Pellerin
A dark and sophisticated slow-burning drama, Never Let Me Go is adapted from the highly acclaimed novel of the same name by Japanese-born British author Kazuo Ishiguro. It stars Carey Mulligan, Keira Knightley, and Andrew Garfield as boarding school raised teenagers eager to explore the outside world when they learn a secret that will threaten their very existence. Anything more is a spoiler, watch it.
Genre: Drama, Romance, Science Fiction
Actor: Amy Lennox, Andrea Riseborough, Andrew Garfield, Anna Maria Everett, Carey Mulligan, Charles Cork, Charlie Rowe, Charlotte Rampling, Chidi Chickwe, Damien Thomas, David Sterne, Domhnall Gleeson, Ella Purnell, Fidelis Morgan, Hannah Sharp, Huggy Leaver, Isobel Meikle-Small, Izzy Meikle-Small, John Gillespie, Kate Bowes Renna, Kate Sissons, Keira Knightley, Luke Bryant, Lydia Wilson, Monica Dolan, Nathalie Richard, Sally Hawkins
Director: Mark Romanek
Once you get past its kiddy dialogue and somewhat overenthusiastic voice performances, Maya and the Three delivers one of the most thrilling action spectacles for children's television. Taking its cue from Mesoamerican folklore, this nine-episode miniseries is draped from head to toe in lavish, intricate visuals and is directed with a surplus of stylistic choices, with characters frequently breaking out of the frame itself. And once the action starts, it almost never lets up. It never becomes too frightening for kids, and it's mounted on a seriously impressive scale that any adult should appreciate. The fights are dynamic, intense, and beautifully constructed almost like dances—giving kids and kids-at-heart lots to marvel at together.
Genre: Action & Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Family, Fantasy, Kids
Actor: Alfred Molina, Allen Maldonado, Cheech Marin, Chelsea Rendon, Danny Trejo, Dee Bradley Baker, Diego Luna, Eric Bauza, Gabriel Iglesias, Gael García Bernal, Isabela Merced, Joaquín Cosío, Jorge R. Gutierrez, Kate del Castillo, Queen Latifah, Rita Moreno, Rosie Perez, Stephanie Beatriz, Wyclef Jean, Zoe Saldana
Los Espookys is the name of a horror-loving group of friends, who, following their passion, provide gory services to those who seek them. Their clients range from fearmongering priests to greedy insurance claimants, all of whom demand the most bizarre out of the Los Espookys team. They’re a bit like the Scooby-Doo team in that sense, except instead of solving spooky crimes, they’re called in to initiate them.
It’s an absurd yet surprisingly sweet show that asks you to leave any self-serious viewing lens you might have at the door. Anything goes in this hazy, unnamed part of South America, and you would do well to let its boundless imagination carry you wherever it may lead, and its dry humor ground you on your feet.
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction
Actor: Ana Fabrega, Bernardo Velasco, Cassandra Ciangherotti, Julio Torres
Between HBO's The Rehearsal and Peacock's Paul T. Goldman, it would seem that genre-bending reality-based shows are having a moment. Among the more lighthearted and enjoyable ones out there is Jury Duty, which follows a trial involving improvisational actors, save for one: Ronald Gladden, a friendly everyman who has yet to realize that everything around him, from the inane case to his oddball co-jurors, is fake. Every now and then though, thanks to the sheer ridiculousness of it all, Ronald looks like he's at the cusp of figuring it out, but the guy (bless his soul) is just too damn nice to get there.
And that's what makes Jury Duty so watchable. It finds a heart in the ever-hopeful Ronald who, as the appointed foreman, goes out of his way to help his fellow jurors. Whether that means reading a script with James Marsden (who plays a hilariously narcissistic version of himself here), building up nerdy genius Todd's confidence, or even just encouraging ol' Barbara to stay awake, he's there every step of the way. More than just laugh at Ronald's ignorance, we're also asked to look at his capacity for caring for people, which makes Jury Duty not just funny and experimental, but unexpectedly endearing as well. If you're looking for a show that's both easy and eccentric, familiar and new, then you should put this on.
Genre: Comedy, Mockumentary, Reality
Actor: Ben Seaward, Cassandra Blair, James Marsden, Kirk Fox, Maria Russell, Mekki Leeper, Pramod Kumar, Ross Kimball, Susan James Berger, Trisha LaFache, Whitney Rice
Director: Jake Szymanski
Genre: Crime, Drama
Actor: Amirah J, Amirah Johnson, Daniel Sunjata, Deniz Akdeniz, Javicia Leslie, Judy Reyes, Kaitlin Olson, Matthew Lamb
Director: Alethea Jones
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Actor: Aidan Cheng, Alison Steadman, Freya Parks, Jim Howick, Jude Collie, Katherine Parkinson, Mica Ricketts, Tom Basden, Tori Allen-Martin
Director: Will Sinclair