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 1, 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

“May December”

Director Todd Haynes walks an incredible tightrope act in his newest film, “May December,” mixing dark comedy, melodrama, and psychological thrills to tell a lurid, ripped-from-the-headlines story. The film is unofficially based on the story of Mary Kay Letourneau, a middle school teacher who, at age 34, began an affair with her 12-year-old student, eventually marrying him and having two kids together after serving time in jail. “May December” enters the story through actress Elizabeth Barry (Natalie Portman), who shows up at the home of long-married couple Gracie (Julianne Moore) and Joe (Charles Melton, “Riverdale”) in order to shadow Gracie for a movie based on the tabloid-worthy romance. Gracie and Joe put on a good show at first, but as Elizabeth keeps hanging around, the cracks in the foundation begin to show.

Moore and Portman have rarely been better, and Melton is a revelation, his child-like nature played both for laughs and for tears as the film barrels toward its conclusion. Not only does Haynes plumb the fragile psyche of the couple, he uses Portman’s Elizabeth to show how callous the Hollywood moviemaking factory can be in the pursuit of creating entertainment out of someone’s lived experiences. Portman, as it turns out, is better at playing a self-absorbed, talentless actress than most actors are at playing “real” people.

How to watch: “May December” is streaming on Netflix.

“Mad Max: Fury Road”

With Thursday’s release of the first trailer for “Furiosa,” George Miller’s latest chapter in the Mad Max saga, now seems like a good time to revisit the best action movie of the last 20 years, 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Miller’s film is one of the most technically stunning films this century, creating a fiery hellscape populated by nightmarish, grotesque humanoids who pilot massive war rigs in a never-ending fight over water — all without the use of almost any CGI effects.

The film is essentially one long chase scene, as Furiosa (Charlize Theron) flees the clutches of Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) with a tanker truck full of water, his precious harem of brides, and the aforementioned Mad Max (Tom Hardy) in search of a utopia that may not exist. Miller packs every scene with images and characters that could carry their own movie to a level not seen since the original 1977 “Star Wars.” The production was apparently hellish for Theron and Hardy, but even they have conceded after the fact that the results speak for themselves.

How to watch: “Mad Max: Fury Road” is streaming on Max.

TV

“A Murder At The End of the World”

The latest in a series of films and shows that owes a debt of gratitude to “Knives Out” (and, traveling farther back in time, Agatha Christie), “A Murder at the End of the World” is a murder mystery series largely set in the chilly confines of Iceland. That’s where Darby (Emma Corrin, “The Crown”), a twentysomething amateur sleuth joins eight other guests at the ritzy compound of reclusive tech billionaire Andy Ronson (Clive Owen). What is presumed to simply be a meeting of the minds is thrown into disarray when one person is found murdered.

If this sounds a lot like the 2022 “Knives Out” sequel “Glass Onion,” you’re right on track. But unlike that Rian Johnson film, “A Murder At the End of the World” isn’t played for laughs, as Darby attempts to unravel the mystery while flashbacks show the audience how her own life is filled with seemingly unsolvable conundrums as well.

How to watch: “A Murder At The End of the World” is streaming on Hulu, with new episodes airing Tuesdays on FX.

“Fargo”

Now in its fifth season, Noah Hawley’s anthologized spinoff of 1996’s Coen Brothers movie “Fargo” has returned to form after an uneven fourth season starring Chris Rock. As is the formula, the show is filled with courteous midwesterners who harbor darkness within them (like William H. Macy’s Jerry Lundegaard in the film), as well as genuinely kind-hearted souls who surprise you with their toughness and resilience (a la Frances McDormand’s Marge Gunderson).

Unlike other editions of the series, “Fargo” Season 5 takes place in the near-past (2019 to be exact), where a suburban mom secretly hiding from her past (Juno Temple, “Ted Lasso”) finds herself pursued by a crooked sheriff (Jon Hamm, “Mad Men”) who has been searching for her for years. Hamm has never played someone this malevolent, and he relishes the chance, treating everyone around him, even his son (Joe Keery, “Stranger Things”), as disposable. Temple is miles away from her role as Keeley in “Ted Lasso,” and the Brit is surprisingly adept as an ass-kicking, perpetually polite housewife.

How to watch: “Fargo” is streaming on Hulu, with new episodes airing Tuesdays on FX.

“Monarch: Legacy of Monsters”

Let’s get one thing out of the way: If you’re only going to watch one new piece of entertainment starring Godzilla, head to theaters for “Godzilla Minus One,” the Japanese import that hits theaters this weekend. But if you’re couch-bound, Apple TV+’s “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” is worth watching as well. A 10-episode series, “Legacy of Monsters” takes place shortly after the events of Gareth Edwards’ 2014 “Godzilla” film, with citizens of the world left picking through the rubble of Godzilla’s destruction and coming to grips with the existence of subterranean Kaiju. Schoolteacher Cate Randa (Anna Sawai) has traveled to Japan to settle her late father’s affairs only to discover she has a half-brother (Ren Watabe) and their father had a secret history with these monsters.

From there, the series jumps between three different timelines, traveling back to the 1950s and 1970s to give us more monster action. In an ingenious bit of stunt casting, action legend Kurt Russell plays a gruff ex-Colonel in the present day while his son Wyatt Russell plays his 1950s self, who is traipsing through the Manilla jungle in search of Kaiju with a pair of cryptozoologists. With all this plot to juggle, “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” sometimes goes too long without a Godzilla sighting. But Kurt Russell’s charisma alone is enough to make the show worth checking out.

How to watch: “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” is streaming on Apple TV+.