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

Streaming

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

By Kevin Slane

May 10, 2024

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,Peaco*ck,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.

Movies

“The Idea of You”

The runaway success of “Anyone But You” is proof that audiences are starved for romantic comedies, no matter how terrible they are. Thankfully, “The Idea of You” is far better than the aforementioned Sydney Sweeney-Glen Powell hit, taking a Hallmark movie wish-fulfillment plot and elevating it thanks to its stars and a deft touch from director Michael Showalter. Anne Hathaway plays Solène, a single mom chaperoning her 16-year-old daughter’s Coachella trip. There, she meets Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine), a Harry Styles-like boy band singer 16 years her junior.

Hathaway and Galitzine have excellent chemistry, and their whirlwind fling feels honest, both in its physicality and in the unintended damage it causes. See the fangirl meltdown over the real-life romance between Styles and Olivia Wilde if you need a picture.

How to watch: “The Idea of You” is streaming on Prime Video.

“The Iron Claw”

Arguably one of the casualties of the SAG-AFTRA strike was the Oscar campaign for “The Iron Claw,” a 1980s wrestling biopic about the numerous real-life tragedies of the Von Erich brothers (Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, Harris Dickinson). Unable to release the film at any fall festivals, A24 seemed to shift focus, dumping the very good film right before Christmas with less fanfare than it deserved. Director Sean Durkin captures the visceral quality of early-era professional wrestling, and Efron gives what could have been an Oscar-nominated performance as Kevin Von Erich, the oldest brother (or oldest that’s still alive, anyway) who bears the brunt of their ex-wrestler father’s (Holt McCallany) dreams and wrath.

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

“Let it Be”

Director Peter Jackson (“The Lord of the Rings”) already presented his Beatles magnum opus during the pandemic with “Get Back,” which pieces together unearthed audiotapes and more than 60 hours of footage shot by filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg for the 1970 documentary “Let It Be.” The film was supposed to capture the Beatles at a career peak. Instead, it was released one month after they broke up.

Jackson had the benefit of hindsight when editing “Get Back,” picking up minor arguments off the scrap heap and centering them in his three-part series, knowing that the end of the band was near. Lindsay-Hogg’s film, restored by Jackson for Disney+, instead captures the Beatles as they were in the moment: Wildly creative musical geniuses who spun gold out of joke-y improvisations.

How to watch: “Let it Be” is streaming on Disney+.

TV

“Doctor Who”

Speaking of The Beatles, one of the U.K.’s other great cultural exports from the 1960s, “Doctor Who,” is back for another season on Disney+. In fact, the new doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) and companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson) visit the Beatles in an episode as they record their first album — but in this universe, they’re terrible. That’s the kind of fluffy, unfussy sci-fi fun to be found in the latest version of “Doctor Who,” which feels like a throwback to the very earliest episodes of the show. Indeed, showrunner Russell T. Davies has dubbed this edition the “new Season one,” and each episode feels like a standard “mystery of the week,” more concerned with fun diversions than complex narratives that involve converging temporal realities.

How to watch: “Doctor Who” is streaming on Disney+.

“John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A.”

Assuming that all of you already watched Netflix’s Tom Brady roast (and read the approximately 600 articles we wrote about it this week), the other live Netflix comedy special worth watching is “John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A.,” which wraps up its six-episode run of live shows on Friday at 10 p.m. Mulaney’s talk show is unlike any other on television. It has some trappings of the talk show format — including a fabricated set, an opening monologue, and a sidekick (Richard Kind). But celebrities don’t come on to promote their latest movie or engage in pre-approved banter.

Instead, Mulaney talks with guests at length about a topic of his choosing, whether it’s nepo babies or (because it’s Los Angeles) earthquakes. The show shares a bit of DNA with early episodes of Conan O’Brien and David Letterman, which is fitting since the latter shows up for an episode.

How to watch: “John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A.” is streaming on Netflix.