5 must-watch movies & TV shows streaming right now (2024)

Streaming

The best of what's new streaming on Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney Plus, and more.

5 must-watch movies & TV shows streaming right now (1)

By Kevin Slane

Welcome to Boston.com’sweekly streaming guide. Each week, we recommend five must-watch movies and TV shows available on streaming platforms likeNetflix,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[emailprotected]. Looking for even more greatstreaming options? Check out previous editions of ourmust-watch list here.

New Movies Streaming

“Dìdi”

A coming-of-age tale with a lot of 2000s nostalgia and plenty of heart, “Dìdi” is a funny and agonizing debut from director Sean Wang, whose early life growing up in the Bay Area as a Taiwanese immigrant serves as the film’s inspiration.

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Chris (Izaac Wang, “Good Boys”) faces pressure from his mother to be academically successful and to assimilate as a model minority while his father supports the family back in Taiwan. But the moody teen is inspired less by books and more by his digital camera, finding camaraderie when he serves as a videographer for a group of skaters.

The familiarity of watching Chris experience courtship via AOL Instant Messenger and Facebook will be a strong tonic of nostalgia for plenty of millennials, but Chris’s growth (or regression, if his mother is sharing her opinion) is a universally relatable story regardless of your generation.

How to watch: “Dìdi” is streaming on Peacock.

“Inside Out 2”

“Inside Out 2” takes us inside the mind of Riley, the young girl from the first film who is now on the precipice of entering high school. Initially, the same five emotions are in charge of Riley’s brain, with Joy, voiced by Burlington nativeAmy Poehler, acting as the de facto leader. The first “Inside Out” was about Joy learning the importance of letting Riley feel all of her other emotions: Fear, Anger, Disgust, and particularly Sadness. But when puberty rears its ugly head, a new batch of emotions show up — Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment, and Ennui.

There’s a lot to like about “Inside Out 2,” including its very realistic, very funny portrayal of middle school insecurity. Director Kelsey Mann also squeezes in plenty of broadly comic material, which should be a hit with any kids watching. Ultimately, “Inside Out 2” doesn’t quite capture the magic of the original, but it’s still an enjoyable 90ish-minute movie worth seeing.

How to watch: “Inside Out 2” is streaming on Disney+.

New TV Streaming

“The Franchise”

“The Franchise” seems like an absolutely perfect show on paper. A satire from master of the genre Armando Iannucci (“Veep,” “The Thick of It,” “The Death of Stalin”) about the bloated production of a (lightly fictionalized) Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, “The Franchise” seems well-positioned as an antidote for superhero fatigue.

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The audience surrogate is Daniel (Himesh Patel, “Station Eleven”), a first assistant director whose real job is to manage the titanic egos of his director (Daniel Bruhl, “Rush”), star (Billy Magnussen, “Game Night”), villain (Richard E. Grant, “Saltburn”), and countless others orbiting the production. The specificity of some of the jokes in “The Franchise” makes it clear that the creative team has done its work. And the leads inhabit their characters perfectly, each a fount of toxic narcissism whose talents are being wasted.

Given Iannucci’s involvement (albeit only as an executive producer), you’d expect the satire of “The Franchise” to be a little sharper and its characters to be a bit fuller. But the series still mines plenty of easy laughs from the MCU and the fans who line up at the trough for whatever CGI slop is coming down the pipe.

How to watch: “The Franchise” is streaming on Max.

“La Maquina”

While HBO has long held the crown as the home for prestige drama, Hulu (and its corporate sibling FX) has quietly taken up the mantle over the last decade as a place for creators to tell unconventional stories. One of these is “La Máquina,” a boxing drama starring Gael García Bernal (“Old”) and Diego Luna (“Andor”) that is darkly comic, occasionally surreal, and always compelling.

In a reunion of the stars of “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” Esteban (Bernal) is a boxer at a low point in his career and personal life whose manager and best friend Andy (Luna) tries to bring him out of a funk. The show has a strange sense of humor given the weighty subject material, with a shadowy cabal simply called “Other People” who are after the pair. Esteban is also dealing with a brain injury, leading to intense visual hallucinations that make him (and the audience) constantly question reality. Throw in another star-making turn from Eiza Gonzalez as Esteban’s ex-wife, a journalist probing the darkness of the boxing world, and “La Maquina” is a knockout.

How to watch: “La Maquina” is streaming on Hulu.

“Nobody Wants This”

A good romantic comedy needs tension and stakes as much as it needs likable leads and genuine chemistry. In “Nobody Wants This,” the question that animates the “will they or won’t they?” is a seemingly unsolvable one: Can a rabbi (Adam Brody) and a non-Jewish, entirely unreligious professional podcaster (Kristen Bell) end up together?

Differences of religion are a very real wedge that can drive promising relationships apart, and creator Erin Foster (“The New Normal”) based this Netflix series on her own love life. (Don’t Google her relationship history if you want to avoid being spoiled.) Bell and Brody are a winsome pair, and the supporting cast — including siblings played by Justine Lupe (“Succession”) and Timothy Simons (“Veep”) — are a real bonus. “Nobody Wants This” has already proven popular enough to snag a Season 2 renewal, so you can take the plunge knowing that this love story won’t end in a cliffhanger — at least not permanently, anyway.

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How to watch: “Nobody Wants This” is streaming on Netflix.

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5 must-watch movies & TV shows streaming right now (2)

Kevin Slane

Staff Writer

Kevin Slane is a staff writer for Boston.com covering entertainment and culture, with a specific focus on movie reviews, streaming guides, and things to do in Boston.

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