Streaming

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.

By Kevin Slane

December 8, 2023

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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.

Movies

“BlackBerry”

As I prepare to publish a list of my favorite movies of 2023 — and encourage you to weigh in with your best film picks as well — I keep coming back to “BlackBerry,” Matt Johnson’s low-budget origin story of the mobile device that was wiped off the face of the planet by the iPhone in the mid-2000s. It probably won’t crack the top 10, but for my money, “BlackBerry” outstrips “Air,” “Tetris,” and the numerous other nostalgia-tinged business success movies from this past year. After being fired from his job, slimy businessman Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”) gets his tenterhooks into shy engineer Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel, “This Is the End”) who has the technical know-how to put email, the internet, and a phone on a single device. Baruchel is great at playing wallflower types, but it’s Howerton who really shines, taking the angry freakout energy he deploys in small doses on “Always Sunny” and cranking it up to 11.

How to watch: “BlackBerry” is streaming on AMC+, and available to rent on various streaming platforms.

“Leave the World Behind”

Approximately four years after the world’s first COVID-19 case, there’s been a growing wave of films that were — in one way or another — inspired by the crippling, globe-stopping pandemic. Add another to the list with “Leave the World Behind,” Netflix’s glossy disaster movie that puts some of your favorite stars in the midst of a global technology blackout. “Leave the World Behind” begins with a couple played by Julia Roberts and Ethan Hawke, who are enjoying a vacation at a Long Island rental property with their two children. The family doesn’t even mind that their TV or phones have stopped working — though they are mildly concerned when a giant cargo ship crashes to shore. The real problem comes when a man (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter (Myha’la) show up at their door, claiming to own the home and seeking refuge in a world that has already begun to tear itself apart. Highlights of the film include director Sam Esmail’s inventive camerawork and watching Roberts — who enjoyed a decade-plus as America’s Sweetheart — play a shockingly cruel character.

How to watch: “Leave the World Behind” is streaming on Netflix.

“Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie”

Yes, the entertainment landscape is currently saturated with reboots, remakes, and reunions. But sometimes seeing an old friend isn’t so bad, as is the case in “Mr Monk’s Last Case,” a feature-length film that reunites Tony Shalhoub with the rest of the cast of the quirky USA procedural “Monk.” More than 14 years after the series finale, detective Adrian Monk — known for his OCD, anxiety, and germaphobia — has adjusted poorly to the pandemic, spending much of his time cooped up at home with Molly, the daughter of his late wife. Nevertheless, when Molly’s fiancé dies under mysterious circumstances, Monk comes out of his shell to reunite his case-solving team for one last mystery. Shalhoub remains perfectly cast as Monk, and it’s a real joy to see character actors like Ted Levine and Hector Elizondo chewing scenery once more.

How to watch: “Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie” is streaming on Peacock.

TV

“The Artful Dodger”

What do you get when you cross Charles Dickens with the dry, desert air of Australia? The joke answer would be something like “Copperfield Dundee.” The real answer is “The Artful Dodger,” a new series on Hulu and Disney Plus that, for reasons not entirely clear, takes a pair of characters from Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” and places them in 1850s Australia. The Artful Dodger (real name Jack Dawkins) has graduated from pickpocket, street urchin life, becoming a surgeon in the colony of Port Victory. But when his old pal Fagin shows up, Jack’s criminal past threatens to become his present and future. The most redeeming quality of “The Artful Dodger” is undoubtedly David Thewlis (“Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”) as the smooth-talking Fagin, who never met a mark he couldn’t con.

How to watch: “The Artful Dodger” is streaming on Hulu and Disney+.

“Murder In Boston: Roots, Rampage & Reckoning”

In collaboration with The Boston Globe (which published a series of articles this week), HBO has released a three-part documentary series that reexamines the 1989 murder of Carol Stuart, her husband Charles’ suicide, and the rush to judgment after Charles implicated a Black man in the killing. Directed by Jason Hehir (of ESPN’s Michael Jordan docuseries “The Last Dance”), “Murder in Boston” reexamines both the initial response to the case and the cultural legacy it created — as well as looking at the historical conditions that made Boston so racially segregated. For those who lived through the Stuart murder, “Murder in Boston” dispels a lot of the truisms that quickly set in following Stuart’s suicide. For those who weren’t alive when the murder happened, it’s a sobering history lesson.

How to watch: “Murder In Boston: Roots, Rampage & Reckoning” is streaming on Max.