Buckle up, bargain-hunters – Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 have turned the streaming wars into a full-blown cage match. Luckily, we've separated the best streaming deals from the worst, so you can binge-watch to the best of your budget.

Disney Plus, Max, Hulu, Peacock, Paramount Plus… everyone’s swinging for your wallet right now. While some of these streaming deals are knockouts, others deserve to be booed off the stage.

So, whether you want to save on prestige TV, live sports, or your next binge-’til-2-am obsession, here’s the definitive rundown of the best and worst streaming deals as Cyber Monday kicks off.

Best streaming deals

Worst streaming deals

Should I buy now or wait for better streaming deals in 2026?

No. For starters, streaming service discounts tend to cluster around holiday seasons, especially Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With 2025 seeing big price hikes at several platforms (including HBO and Disney Plus), it's likely services will continue to jack up prices, if only due to rising inflation.

Not convinced? The current 2025 deals are unusually steep – e.g. Disney+ + Hulu bundled for $4.99/month — a 60-70% discount off typical rates. Starz is offering 12 months for just $1 per month. Waiting will almost certainly come with higher base costs.

Finally, there's no guarantee 2026 streaming deals will match or beat 2025’s due to rising licensing/content costs. Take Apple TV, for instance, which just spent an estimated $750 million for the exclusive U.S. streaming rights to Formula 1 for five years, starting with the 2026 season.

Our advice is to act now and lock in the Cyber Monday price cuts while you can.

• How to watch I'm a Celebrity 2025 online

The Acronia from Only Murders in the Building has been central to the hit show starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez.

Only Murders in the Building season 5, which has just landed, sees the team investigate the murder of doorman Lester in the courtyard fountain.

"Lester was the beating heart of the building, and in a way, we took him for granted. Without him, it's falling apart," Michael Cyril Creighton, who plays Howard, told us.

Lester was found lying in a bloody fountain following Oliver's (Short) wedding to actor Loretta (Meryl Streep) in the finale of season 4.

So, what’s the real story behind The Arconia?

Is The Arconia from OMITB a real New York apartment?

While The Arconia isn't called that, it is a real building. Lester's death and other key scenes are filmed at Manhattan’s swanky real-life building The Belnord, which stands in as the show's fictitious Arconia.

Built in 1908, the block’s famous residents have included Hollywood star Walter Matthau, and you can pick up a luxury apartment in The Belnord for a few million dollars.

"For our story and our fictional Arconia, I knew we needed a home that carried enough history and elegance to hold a world of mystery and intrigue — and one that could also serve as a fitting backdrop worthy of our legendary cast," said John Hoffman, who co-created the series with Steve Martin, to House Beautiful.

To reflect its exclusivity, The Belnord has its own website! It says: "The grandest of the Upper West Side apartment houses, palatial, beautifully proportioned, the Belnord is as ageless as its limestone sisters elsewhere in Manhattan.

"It retains its special distinction as a cosseting, private haven in the midst of its vibrant, lively Upper West Side neighborhood."

It continues that the 13-storey building has six residential lobbies, each one with three entrances and a private lift for residents.

In short, the real building is flashier than The Arconia. The real apartments also appear to be bigger, and there seem to be fewer apartments per floor than there are in Only Murders. The real building generally only has two apartments per floor.

Is the inside of The Belnord used for filming?

Alas, no, the inside shots are filmed in a studio. This is very common practice. It's quite unusual for a building to be used for both the external and interior shots.

But if you're in New York, you can at least pop along to 225 West 86th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan to give yourself the Only Murders vibe. Just be careful, though, a lot of mysterious deaths seem to happen around there!

Only Murders season 5 is available on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK.

Here's our TV tonight picks for Tuesday, September 9 (for more information about what's on TV, see our TV Guide)...

Only Murders in the Building, Disney Plus

Our favourite sleuthing podcasters are back for a fifth run of the witty whodunnit, and this time around, Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) are convinced the Arconia’s doorman Lester has not met a natural end – well, he was found covered in blood and slumped in the building’s fountain! But as they investigate, some intriguing clues come to light and they end up brushing shoulders with mob figures, while there also seem to be links to New York’s mega-rich elite... Look out for guest turns from Renée Zellweger and Christoph Waltz along with Dianne Wiest, Téa Leoni and Bobby Cannavale. Three episodes land today, and then they will air weekly.

The Great British Bake Off, Channel 4, 8 pm

Dame Prue and Paul are looking for the perfect snap as they set ambitious Biscuit Week challenges. For the Signature, the bakers must cook up patterned ‘slice and bake’ biscuits, then for the Technical they tackle a fancy twist on a chocolate Hobnob. The Showstopper sees them create memento-filled time capsules made from biscuit, and while they fret over how to ensure their constructions are stable, Prue reveals that she is keen for their intricately designed bakes to surprise her, taste wonderful and also be witty. ‘Not much to ask!’ she chuckles. But as crunch time approaches, who will be leaving the tent?

Stacey & Joe, BBC1, 8 pm

It's back to Pickle Cottage with Stacey Solomon, Joe Swash and their children and assorted animals. Change is in the air as their youngest, Bella, is about to start nursery, while Stacey’s oldest, Zach, is (impatiently) taking driving lessons. Will Stacey and Joe be able to have some time to themselves? As if to test the water, they spend a night away together for Joe’s birthday, and Stacey surprises him by booking a fishing lodge. He’s delighted by how thoughtful she is – but is her ulterior motive to make him get a move on with work on his own fishing lake, which he started in the first series?

The Great British Sewing Bee, BBC1, 9 pm

It’s the semi-final and, as it’s 1920s Week, this episode opens with host Sara Pascoe and judges Patrick Grant and Esme Young in their very own silent movie. Then, it’s down to business, with the pattern challenge – a pair of plus fours (so-called because they extend four inches below the knee). The transformation challenge involves the polo shirt, which started life in the 1920s as a tennis shirt, while in the made-to-measure, sewers must create an outfit for a special event suitable to that decade. Judging proves difficult – ‘They’re all exceptional,’ says Patrick of the remaining four – so who will be going through to next week’s final?

One of the big blockbusters still to hit the big screen in 2025 is Tron: Ares, a continuation of the classic 80s sci-fi franchise which hits theaters on Friday, October 10.

Starring Jared Leto as well as Jeff Bridges who returns to his role in the franchise, Tron: Ares sees a digital program sent into the real world on a deadly mission. For now, that's the only plot synopsis we have. Mysterious!

Tron: Ares is the third film in the franchise, coming over 40 years after the first one.

If you're excited for the new movie, then you might be wondering how to watch the old ones. And so we'll help you decide what to watch, and work out how to see it. We'll run through the two previous movies, and the TV show, to give you more information.

To save you some time, though, watching them online is pretty easy. In most countries around the world including the US, UK and Australia, everything Tron is available on the streaming service Disney Plus. One subscription lets you see everything we're about to describe below.

Tron (1982)

It all starts with Tron from 1982, an original movie inspired by video games at the time.

In Tron, Jeff Bridges plays a video game developer who gets sucked into his computer and he has to escape, doing so by surviving a series of deadly games and tests.

Tron is often credited as one of the first movies to use lots of CGI, perhaps popularizing its use in blockbusters to come, and its use through the movie has aged... endearingly, let's say.

The movie was a modest hit upon release and was even nominated for two Oscars, but over time it's become a cult classic. That's perhaps why it took so long for a sequel to come out...

Tron: Legacy (2010)

Nearly 30 years on from the original, Tron: Legacy came out, directed by Top Gun: Maverick and F1's Joseph Kosinski and bringing Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheet and Garrett Hedlund into the fold, alongside a returning Jeff Bridges.

Legacy is about the son of Bridges' character from the original, who's hunting for his missing father when he too gets sucked into a virtual reality program. There he can reunite with his parent but also has to stop a program which wants to destroy the real world.

Again, Tron: Legacy was nominated for a technical Oscar, and it made lots of money, even if the reviews were mixed (it stands at 51% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing, an almost-evenly-divided score).

While a sequel was always planned for Tron: Legacy, it was trapped in development hell, hence why it's taken another 15 years for a third installment. But in that time, we did get another piece of Tron media...

Tron: Uprising (2012-13)

Two years after Tron: Legacy came out, Disney released a 19-part animated series called Tron: Uprising. It came out on Disney XD, only in the US, but now it's easy to stream online.

The series bridges the gap between the first two movies, to explain the rise of the threat in the second one. Set entirely in the digital world, it depicts the Tron character from the original movie finding a successor who can fight the evil Clu program in his stead.

Elijah Wood voiced the main character with Bruce Boxleitner reprising his role from the original Tron.

As you can imagine for an animated TV show, especially one aimed at younger audiences, Tron: Uprising wasn't as widely-watched as the movies. However the few reviews of it that do exist are largely positive and it was nominated for some Annie and Primetime Emmy Awards, including a win at the latter for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Animation - Art Design.

Only Murders in the Building season 5 sees our favourite podcasters-turned-amateur sleuths tackle their trickiest case to date.

The return of the award-winning comedy drama — airing on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK from Tuesday September 9 — finds tetchy actor Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), level-headed artist Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez), and neurotic director Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) looking into the demise of Lester (Teddy Coluca), the doorman at their Manhattan apartment complex The Arconia, who was found lying dead in a fountain in the last series’ finale.

While the police believe it was an accident, the gang suspects murder, and connections emerge to a group of enigmatic billionaires and also to the underworld. And trying to help Charles, Mabel and Oliver unravel the mystery along the way is their quirky, animal-loving neighbour Howard Morris, played by Michael Cyril Creighton.

Here, in an exclusive chat with What to Watch, Michael Cyril Creighton reveals all about Only Murders in the Building season 5…

Only Murders in the Building is back! What can you reveal about the aftermath of Lester's death?

“There's a lot going on! Lester was the beating heart of the building, in a way that we took for granted. Without him, it’s falling apart. And the mystery of his murder brings us down disparate roads…

"We're touching on organised crime and billionaires. Who runs New York? Is it the old school mob, or the new school mob, which is [the world of] money. It's satisfying exploring that, as I'm from New York and there's a whole storyline this season about bids for casinos. That’s really happening in our city right now, so it's timely.”

The first three episodes of Only Murders in the Building season 5 air from Tuesday September 9 on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK. The season then airs weekly.

While movie-goers haven't been as keen on the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Avengers: Endgame wrapped up the first match of Marvel movies back in 2019, a few of its theatrical releases still give fans what they're looking for, and one of the best-received post-Endgame entries is finally about to hit streaming.

If the header image didn't give it away, I'm of course talking about Thunderbolts* (which Disney gave a second name in a marketing stunt but apparently this title provides spoilers so I'm not going to refer to it as that). After releasing theatrically all the way back in May, Thunderbolts* is set to hit Disney Plus on Wednesday, August 27 (just a few days out, at the time of writing).

Thunderbolts* unites some of the MCU's previously-established heroes who haven't enjoyed their own story; there's Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova and David Harbour's Red Guardian from Black Widow, Wyatt Russell's John Walker from The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Sebastian Stan's Bucky Barnes who's been in a fair few of the movies ands shows and a few new characters, including Lewis Pullman as Bob Reynolds.

They all need to team for a deadly mission, filling in for the Avengers who aren't available. The cast is rounded out by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Wendell Pierce.

Early viewers of Thunderbolts* reported that it had much more of an emotional throughline than many Marvel movies, something that Disney leant heavily on with trailers positioning it as a weepy drama as much as an action movie.

This strategy seemed to work as the movie enjoyed largely positive reviews and, at the time of writing, it sits at 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. Only three post-Endgame Marvel movies have scores better than that: Spider-Man: No Way Home at 93%, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings at 92% and Spider-Man: Far From Home with 91%. The latest entry, The Fantastic Four: First Steps falls just short at 86%.

In terms of audience score, Thunderbolts* has 93% which actually puts it ahead of Endgame's 90%, though those aforementioned three movies still beat it by that metric.

Thunderbolts* rounded out Marvel's Phase Five which marked a low point of Marvel releases, at least according to critics and audiences. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania got just 46% and Captain America: Brave New World barely did better at 47%, with other movies including The Marvels at 62% and Deadpool & Wolverine at 78%. On the TV front things were largely better although one of the biggest releases, Secret Invasion, also came in at 53%. So it was a polarizing time for audiences and Thunderbolts* was the best-received movie of the bunch (on the TV front, an animated series called Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man beat it with 97%).

So it's hard to deny that Thunderbolts* is considered one of the best Marvel movies since Endgame came out, and now you can watch it at home with Disney Plus. And Marvel fans might want to continue their subscription after watching the movie with animated miniseries Marvel Zombies coming out at the end of September and live-action Wonder Man out in December.

It has been announced today that Hayley Atwell (Mission Impossible, Agent Carter) and Rupert Everett (Napoleon, My Policeman) have joined the stellar cast of Rivals season 2.

The much-anticipated second season of Rivals, which aired on Disney Plus in the UK and Hulu in the US last year, will see Hayley Atwell playing Helen Gordon, Rupert Campbell-Black’s ex-wife and mother of his two children, Marcus and Tabitha.

Meanwhile, Everett is set to take on the role of her husband, Malise Gordon, Campbell Black’s former show-jumping coach and mentor.

Set in the fictional British county of Rutshire, the racy series, which stars David Tennant, Aidan Turner, Alex Hassell, Katherine Parkinson and Danny Dyer, centers around a long-term rivalry between ex-Olympic rider turned politician Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) and TV station controller Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant), who, along with their friends, family and neighbors, drip with ambition, lust and power.

In addition to Hayley and Rupert, further cast additions for Rivals season 2, which is based on Jilly Cooper's bestselling book of the same name, have also been announced, including: Maxim Ays (Boarders, Sanditon), Holly Cattle (Young Sherlock, Mr Loverman), Oliver Dench (Hotel Portofino, Domina), Amanda Lawrence (Malory Towers, Star Wars: The Last Jedi), Bobby Lockwood (Wolfblood, Here We Go), Eliot Salt (Slow Horses, Normal People), and Jonny Weldon (One Day, Brassic).

The official synopsis for the second series of Rivals reads: "The official synopsis reads: "As power struggles escalate and rivalries deepen, ambition drives every move, pushing loyalties to the edge.

"Careers, marriages, and reputations hang in the balance as personal and professional lives collide in a world where secrets can’t stay hidden for long. Bold, emotionally charged, and filled with unforgettable moments, Rivals is a thrilling ride through a landscape of breathtaking beauty, fierce competition, and life-changing decisions, where the cost of success could be everything."

Rivals will return to Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK and internationally, and in the meantime, all episodes of Rivals season 1 are available to stream now on Disney Plus.

Lindsay Lohan is currently back on the big screen reprising one of her most-loved characters, Anna Coleman in Freakier Friday, which premiered in theaters on Friday, August 8. But before you check out that body-swap sequel, you can revisit what is arguably the actress's role—well, roles, technically—in a special airing of her beloved '90s comedy The Parent Trap tonight on ABC.

Airing Sunday, August 10 at 8pm Eastern Time, the 1998 update of the 1961 film of the same name follows a similar premise as the original: Lohan plays both "Hallie Parker, a hip Californian, and Annie James, a proper London miss," identical twins who don't even know each other exists—they were separated at birth following the divorce of their parents Nick Parker and Elizabeth James (played by Dennis Quaid and Natasha Richardson). When they accidentally meet at summer camp, however, the girls devise a plan to switch places, forcing their parents to reunite and fall in love again to bring the family back together at last.

Along with Lohan, Quaid and Richardson, The Parent Trap ensemble includes Abbott Elementary star Lisa Ann Walter as Hallie's loveable nanny Chessy, Simon Kunz as Annie's trusty butler Martin, and Elaine Hendrix—who reunites with Lohan in Freakier Friday—as Nick's much younger fiancée Meredith Blake, who threatens Annie and Hallie's plans to get their parents back together.

The sweet family flick was the feature directorial debut of Nancy Meyers, who would go on to direct such crowd-pleasers as Something's Gotta Give, The Holiday and It's Complicated.

Tonight's airing of The Parent Trap is part of ABC's ongoing partnership with The Wonderful World of Disney, with the alphabet network regularly airing Disney movies on Sundays for the past twenty years. Anyone with a traditional pay-TV setup, TV antenna or live TV streaming service that carries ABC (such as Fubo, Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV) can watch the network's broadcast of The Parent Trap at 8pm ET on Sunday, August 10. If you're not able to tune in tonight on ABC, The Parent Trap is also available to stream right now on Disney Plus.

Check out the original trailer for The Parent Trap before tuning into the fun throwback comedy tonight on ABC.

It's a sentence I didn't expect to ever write but Disney Plus — the House of Mouse's Star Wars and Marvel streaming service — is arguably now the best streaming service for sports fans, at least in the UK, thanks in part to recent footie announcements.

Disney Plus has announced that starting on Saturday, August 16, it's set to air LALIGA matches each Saturday. This'll let you watch games from some of the world's best clubs including Real Madrid and FC Barcelona (LALIGA, for those who don't know, is the Spanish football league).

A team of hosts and commentators has been assembled from ESPN (a US sports broadcaster which Disney owns) as well as some English stars and presenters.

• Find out about Disney Plus deals here

Disney Plus won't let you watch every LALIGA game — they're spread across Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays each week — and it hasn't actually confirmed whether it'll show every Saturday-night match or not. But unlike many international sports, Spain is only an hour out from the UK so the matches aren't at an unreasonable hour.

This new Disney Plus perk is available to anyone who subscribers to the streamer. The Disney Plus price starts at £4.99 making it the cheapest streaming service for live sports, undercutting Prime Video, Apple TV Plus MLS, Sky Sports, DAZN and Discovery Plus (which hosts TNT Sports) by a dramatic margin. The only rival is Netflix which costs the same but that only shows WWE which many would argue isn't a sport (and admittedly the odd boxing and golf but these are few and far between).

Sports streaming tends to be an expensive affair, with live sports typically shown by expensive premium streamers (at least the ones that aren't on the 'free' broadcasters) so Disney Plus' push into football is welcome news.

LALIGA alone wouldn't necessarily make Disney Plus your one-stop shop for football streaming but this follows recent news that Disney Plus will air the UEFA Women's Champions League from Tuesday, October 7.

Since Disney Plus has picked up the rights not just for one year but for several for both of these championships (LALIGA for three years, WCL until 2029/30) it shows a committment to football that may well grow. While it's unlikely that Premier League games will move to the inexpensive streamer we could see more international leagues and championships in the future.

And if you subscribe to Disney Plus for its various library and original TV shows and movies, it's a lovely extra perk that'll let you watch some of the best football clubs around right now.

Live in the US? This Disney Plus perk isn't available to you, but a massive ESPN Plus shuffle has changed the game for sports streaming.

How people watch Hulu is going to change come 2026. As part of a series of announcements during a quarterly earnings call, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that the company would be “fully integrating Hulu into Disney Plus.” But what exactly does that mean?

Hulu has been one of the major US streaming services for years, with its own slate of original programming, a library of classic TV shows and movies, as well as a live TV component (Hulu with Live TV). Are all those going to be Disney Plus shows now?

Many of the details involving this news will be revealed in the coming weeks and months ahead of the proposed 2026 launch, but in the meantime let us help you answer some of the biggest questions you may have.

What is happening with the Hulu standalone app?

The biggest takeaway from this announcement is that the Hulu standalone app will no longer exist.

According to the announcement, Disney will instead offer a “unified” Disney Plus and Hulu. We already have what is likely a preview of this, as Hulu is currently available as part of the main Disney Plus platform in the US as a specific tab that people can access. There may be some tweaks, but the basic concept is expected to be similar, with users able to go to the section to access Hulu’s specific offerings.

However, per Variety, a Disney rep says that consumers will still be able to buy Hulu as a standalone app (same with Disney Plus). So though you’ll be accessing Hulu through the Disney Plus app, technically you shouldn’t need to sign up for Disney Plus if you don’t want to. Obviously, in that case, you wouldn’t be able to access any Disney Plus content, and vice versa. Of course you can also sign up for both, and Disney already offers Disney Plus and Hulu bundled packages.

So, long story short, instead of having a Hulu app and a Disney Plus app, there’s only going to be the Disney Plus app moving forward that will house both Disney Plus and Hulu content.

When is Hulu standalone app going away?

We don’t have an exact date for when the Hulu standalone app will no longer be available. All that has been reported thus far is that the new combined streaming platform will launch in 2026.

How is this going to affect the Disney Plus, Hulu price?

At least right now, there is no information on whether or not this unification of Disney Plus and Hulu will impact the price of either streaming service or the Disney Plus/Hulu bundle.

Currently, consumers can sign up for a standalone Hulu subscription with ads for $9.99 per month and $18.99 per month for an ad-free subscription. The Disney Plus/Hulu bundle currently costs $10.99 per month with ads and $19.99 per month without ads.

We can’t rule out that these prices may change as we get closer to the official launch of the new combined streaming service, but as of right now there is no info regarding that.

What is happening with Hulu with Live TV?

The announcement also reaffirmed that Hulu with Live TV is not going to be offered any more either, instead the live TV streaming service and all of its subscribers will be migrated over to Fubo. This was previously announced January 2025.

There’s no timetable for when the migration is going to take place, as the initial report said the deal could take 12-18 months to close. If 18 months that would place it about late June/July 2026.

Are Hulu shows going to become Disney Plus shows?

From all indications from these reports, while all the content will now be housed under one streaming platform, Disney Plus content and Hulu content will keep their respective branding.

So, The Bear, Only Murders in the Building, King of the Hill, The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives and other popular shows should still be referred to as Hulu original series. This makes sense as many of the Hulu shows serve a different, generally older audience than many of the Disney Plus series that revolve around Star Wars, Marvel and more.

Is Hulu going to become available in the UK and abroad?

One other piece of news from the announcement that was interesting is that Hulu appears to be going international.

Since its founding, Hulu has been an exclusively North American streaming service. Any of its shows that premiered outside of the US did so on Disney Plus, mostly under a specific banner called Star. That’s about to change.

Starting in fall 2025 (again, an exact date is TBD), all Disney Plus subscribers around the world that have Star will see the brand officially replaced by Hulu. Again, this shouldn’t change too much of what is being offered, just officially making Hulu a global brand.

Without a doubt, Ryan Coolger has become one of my favorite storytellers of the last 20 years. From Fruitvale Station to Black Panther to Creed to the recent cinematic triumph Sinners, Coogler has a knack for developing stories that always keep me entertained and glued to a screen.

That’s why I shouldn’t be surprised that his follow-up to Sinners has truly captured my attention, and it’s just as haunting, but for a completely different reason. I’m talking about Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time, the new National Geographic docuseries now streaming on Hulu and Disney Plus, for which Coogler is an executive producer.

As suggested by the title, Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time takes a look back at 2005’s Hurricane Katrina, one of the most catastrophic natural disasters to hit the US, leading to 1,833 fatalities and approximately $108 billion in damage, according to the National Weather Service. Here is a synopsis of the documentary:

“Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster, but the unprecedented tragedy that unfolded in her aftermath was man-made – laying bare America’s deep, structural, racial divisions. What initially seemed an ‘equal opportunities’ catastrophe that cared not for color or creed was, in reality, anything but. In the two weeks that followed Katrina’s landfall, as millions of predominantly Black lives in the Gulf Coast were ruined and ended, Katrina confirmed what every person of color already knew: America doesn’t care about Black People.”

I can recall going into my senior year in high school during the summer when Hurricane Katrina hit, and watching the destruction of the storm on news outlets. I felt nothing short of compassion and empathy for the victims then, and that sentiment returns watching the documentary; especially, with every interviewee who pops on the screen to describe their harrowing tale of survival.

Speaking of the interviewees, I was completely enthralled hearing their perspectives outside of news soundbites. Without giving away too much, it was interesting to hear from experts about how unprepared the city of New Orleans was before the storm hit, intriguing to listen to residents talk about the struggle of getting out of the city and compelling to be reminded about the true inequity of Hurricane Katrina.

On a final note, while Coogler is an executive producer on Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time, Traci Curry directed the documentary. The Academy Award nominee received her nod for Attica, and she did an exceptional job with the new docuseries.

Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time is now available on Hulu and Disney Plus in the US and Disney Plus in the UK.

The next Marvel show on everyone's radar is Eyes of Wakanda, a Black Panther spin-off which was due to release on Wednesday, August 27. However that's all been changed.

In a surprise announcement earlier this week Disney Plus, which was set to release the series, confirmed that it would be letting it loose on the world a little early. How early? Well, you can watch it right now.

That's right, this new four-part animated series is streaming right now on the House of Mouse's streamer, so you can pick up a Disney Plus deal and see it whenever you want. Fans of Marvel won't need to wait.

Eyes of Wakanda is centered around the fictional kingdom at the heart of the Black Panther movies (featured heavily in various Marvel shows and movies). It's set at various points in time, and follows warriors who have to travel around the world retrieving artifacts made of the rare metal Vibranium which Wakanda has a monopoly on.

It's the latest in Marvel's ever-growing list of animated properties which also includes What If...?, X-Men '97 and Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

The bump in schedules makes sense when you consider that Disney Plus has another animated Marvel series on the way. Marvel Zombies releases on Friday, October 3 and it's understandable that the streamer would want to stagger out the release of these series. And Marvel Zombies couldn't well be delayed because there's yet another MCU show releasing at the end of the year in Wonder Man, which isn't animated but stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in the lead role (Ben Kingsley and Ed Harris are also in the cast).

Eyes of Wakanda marks the first TV series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase Six, which formally began just a week ago with The Fantastic Four: First Steps. In our TFF:FS review we called it "one of the greatest Marvel movies of all time" though separately What to Watch's editor said he "can't understand what the fuss is about".

There are plenty more MCU TV shows planned for Phase 6 but the next movie is Spider-Man: Brand New Day which is still a year away and then Avengers: Doomsday which will be out at the end of 2026.

Get ready to return to the ring with Stephen Graham, because A Thousand Blows season 2 will soon be with us!

The first series, set in the boxing dens and criminal underworld of the East End during the 1880s, was a hit with critics and viewers alike, so we can't wait to continue the story.

The six-parter told the story of boxers Sugar Goodson (Graham) and Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby), and the show's creator, Steven Knight, says we can "expect the unexpected" in the second season.

Yet it also followed the leader of the infamous all-female gang, The Forty Elephants, Mary Carr (Erin Doherty), as she hatched a plot to pull off one of history's greatest heists.

Here's everything we know about A Thousand Blows season 2...

A Thousand Blows season 2 release date

The first series only came out a few months ago, but with filming already complete on the second season we can expect it to hit our screens very soon, with studio bosses hinting at an autumn 2025 release date.

It will be available on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK.

"We do have the second series in the can," Steven Knight told The Daily Express earlier this year. "We all want to keep this story going and I think we will and just take it towards the 21st century.”

A Thousand Blows season 2 plot

Knight is keeping plot details under wraps for the time being, but his comments about "taking the story towards the 21st century" make us wonder if a time-jump could be on the cards.

"I can't give a lot away," he told reporters back in February. "But it's more of the same, expect the unexpected but the stakes are higher."

Given the climactic ending to the first season of A Thousand Blows, we're certainly expecting sparks to fly when the second one kicks off, especially with Hezekiah and Mary Carr parting ways following the events surrounding the death of his best friend Alec.

Mary was planning to go to America with Hezekiah, but it looks like that plan has evaporated, although she faces a battle to hold on to the leadership of The Forty Elephants following the Chinese debacle.

Meanwhile, Henry "Sugar" Goodson has much to consider, but will he go through with his plan to sign his pub, The Blue Coat Boy, over to his brother, Treacle?

A Thousand Blows cast

The three leads are all set to return, with Stephen Graham (Adolescence) reprising his role as Henry "Sugar" Goodson, Erin Doherty (The Crown) playing Mary Carr and Malachi Kirby (Small Axe) back once again as Hezekiah Moscow.

James Nelson-Joyce (This City Is Ours) is set to return as Sugar's younger brother, Edward "Treacle" Goodson, while Hannah Walters (Boiling Point) and Darci Shaw will once again play members of The Forty Elephants, Eliza Moody and Alice Diamond.

We're also hoping Susan Lynch (Save Me) will be back as Mary's mother, Jane Carr.

However, two of our old favorites who won't be back are Francis Lovehall, after his character Alec was murdered, and Jason Tobin, after Lao Lam fled to Liverpool.

A Thousand Blows season 2 trailer

There's no official trailer for this one yet, but we'll be sure to post it here as soon as it drops.

The globe-trotting adventures of a gifted young boy born on a Barbados sugar plantation are the subject of Hulu/Disney Plus’ lavish, time-jumping period drama Washington Black.

Based on Esi Edugyan’s novel of the same, the vibrant 19th century-set piece follows titular character George Washington ‘Wash’ Black, played by Ernest Kingsley Junior (Grace, The Sandman), as he battles persecution and pursues liberty against the odds.

When we first meet Wash in the eight-episode series it’s 1837 and the 19-year-old is living incognito in Halifax, Nova Scotia, as Jack Crawford where he’s developing a revolutionary flying machine, which he plans to exhibit at the Royal Science League in London. However, the arrival of bounty hunters brandishing a wanted poster with an image of his younger self brings him face-to-face with his brutal childhood.

Here, the stars of Washington Black, which in addition to Kingsley Junior includes Emmy-winning actor Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us, Paradise) as a mentor to the main character, joined WTW for an interview to learn more.

One of Wash’s protectors in Halifax is community leader Medwin Harris (Brown), who does everything in his power to protect the teen prodigy when his cover is blown by an unexpected betrayal.

During the opening episode, events flash back to eight years earlier, and it emerges Wash was born into slavery on a sugar plantation owned by absentee patriarch James Wilde (Charles Dance) and run by his ruthless eldest son Erasmus (Julian Rhind-Tutt).

Aged 11 Wash (played by The Sandman’s Eddie Karanja) attracts the attention of Erasmus’s eccentric brother, Titch (Tom Ellis). Recognizing his artistic talent and scientific mind the inventor enlists Wash as his apprentice, until a harrowing twist of fate forces them to flee and propels Wash on a worldwide voyage of discovery.

Brown: “I would say the energy of being on location also is that you become each other's family very quickly because you don't have a chance to go home to your own place, so you are each other's family in this new place together. I think that that's an energizing and pretty cool thing, just getting to know these new people, not just as actors, but as human beings as well.”

Kingsley: “Just to add, our story isn’t solely about the painful aspects of our history. It shows that, but also it shows the triumph over that, and the possibility and the potential to actualize a dream and a vision you have beyond those, those those painful circumstances.”

Washington Black is now available to watch on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK.

As someone who has seen his fair share of projects surrounding the dark history of the African slave trade, I was admittedly on the fence heading into Washington Black.

On one hand, it has the backing of Emmy-winning Sterling K. Brown, who both stars in and produces the new drama. I’ve been a fan of his since Lifetime’s Army Wives, and from that point on, he’s seldom disappointed in the projects he attaches himself to. His drama Paradise was released earlier this year and was a smash hit.

I was also intrigued by Washington Black because of the whimsical elements of science and imagination at the heart of George Washington Black’s world. It seemed rather nuanced in this present landscape of TV.

However, I wasn't sure I was prepared to revisit the dreadful cruelty of humanity's past. The journey there is often not comfortable to examine and carries with it a certain amount of heaviness.

But, having finally watched Washington Black, I'm ready to say the series is a must-watch.

For those who also may be a bit apprehensive about watching a series with the backdrop of the 19th-century slave trade, allow me to reassure you that the fantastical life story of George Washington Black (aka Wash) outweighs the darkness of the slavery component represented.

Although Wash’s journey starts off on a sugar plantation in Barbados, once he meets his mentor (which is fairly early on), it’s off to the races as he lets his imagination and intelligence serve as a passport into the world of scientific exploration. During some moments in the series, it's as if I were watching a live-action, yet antiquated, version of The Magic School Bus.

Then there's the acting. Brown may be the big name to draw viewers into the series, and he certainly delivered another phenomenal performance, but it’s Eddie Karanja and Ernest Kingsley Junior as Wash at different stages in life that really serve as the standouts of the series.

The duo does a remarkable job of capturing the complexities of someone growing up with a gifted mind, but constantly being told there are unfair limitations to how far he can go. There’s a certain “origin story” quality to Wash’s maturity into adulthood that is remarkably captivating, like watching a superhero coming into their own.

Zeroing in on Wash as a teen/young adult, it was rather enchanting to watch his burgeoning romance with Tanna (Iola Evans). It can always prove interesting to watch “forbidden” love develop, and the dynamic between these two provided some more softer sides for the series. Although the duo lacked some of the instantaneous chemistry early on that many may desire in a drama, the two found their groove eventually and made me believe.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t also applaud the work of the set and costume designers behind Washington Black. Sometimes it’s easy to overlook their contributions if the writing and acting in a project is as alluring as that of Washington Black; but, it would be a disservice to viewers if they don’t take the time to appreciate the visuals of each scene as one moves from one beat to the next.

Again, Washington Black is a new series I highly recommend. Although many will understandably be prone to venture outside to enjoy the limited time of summer, it’s worth dedicating some moments to powering through the eight-episode series.

Washington Black streams on Hulu in the US and on Disney Plus in the UK.

TV’s longest-running medical drama is back for another surgical rotation in the Fall 2025-2026 TV season, with Grey's Anatomy season 22 hitting the airwaves.

After a traumatic Grey's Anatomy season 21 finale (which is almost par for the course at this point), there appear to a few changes on the horizon. We're talking romance shifts, life-or-death medical emergencies for the staff and your usual Grey's heartbreaking moments.

Here's everything we know about Grey's Anatomy season 22.

Grey’s Anatomy season 22 release date

Grey's Anatomy season 22 premieres on Thursday, October 16, at 10 pm ET/PT on ABC.

Grey’s Anatomy is an ABC original series and as such, new episodes air live directly on the broadcast network. For those that have cut ties with traditional cable/satellite television, ABC is available to stream on live TV streaming services such as Fubo, Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV. New episodes of the season become available to stream the next day on Hulu.

In the UK, season 22 episodes are expected to stream on Disney Plus.

Grey’s Anatomy season 22 cast

If you're a longtime fan of the show, it should sound like music to your ears to hear Ellen Pompeo is expected to again pop in and out of episodes, keeping her presence on the series that bears her character's name. Now, as far as the anticipated cast of series regulars, they are the following:

• Chandra Wilson as Dr. Miranda Bailey
• James Pickens Jr. as Dr. Richard Webber
• Kevin McKidd (Brave) as Dr. Owen Hunt
• Kim Raver (24) as Dr. Teddy Altman
• Camilla Luddington (True Blood) as Dr. Jo Wilson
• Caterina Scorsone (Private Practice) as Dr. Amelia Shepherd
• Chris Carmack (Nashville) as Dr. Atticus Lincoln
• Anthony Hill (This Is Us) as Dr. Winston Ndugu
• Adelaide Kane (Once Upon a Time) as Dr. Jules Millin
• Harry Shum Jr. (Glee) as Dr. Benson Kwan
• Alexis Floyd (Inventing Anna) as Dr. Simone Griffith
• Niko Terho (The Thing About Harry) as Dr. Lucas Adams
• Jason George (Station 19) as Dr. Ben Warren
• Trevor Jackson (Grown-ish) as Daniel

Grey’s Anatomy plot

Here is a synopsis of the original series:

"Recipient of the 2007 Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Television Series and nominated for multiple Emmys, including Outstanding Drama Series, Grey’s Anatomy is considered one of the great television shows of our time. The high-intensity medical drama... follows a team of doctors at Grey Sloan Memorial who are faced with life-or death decisions on a daily basis. They seek comfort from one another, and, at times, more than just friendship. Together they discover that neither medicine nor relationships can be defined in black and white."

As far as what you can expect in season 22, season 21 left some cliffhangers. Having sold her shares of the hospital but maintaining surgical privleges, how will Meredith (Ellen Pompeo) fit in now that she has a little less authority? Also, will Lucas (Niko Terho) and Simone (Alexis Floyd) be able to get past their "secret" infidelity issue? Heck, are Teddy (Kim Raver) and Owen (Kevin McKidd) really done? Oh, and we can't possibly forget the explosion. Who survived?

Grey’s Anatomy season 22 trailer

It's a bit too early for a season 22 trailer. Once one becomes available, we'll place it here.

Look, let me get this out right away, The Bear on Hulu (or Disney Plus in the UK) is a phenomenal show and it’s certainly a series worth gold hardware. However, with the 2025 Emmy nominations being announced on July 15, and the FX series receiving 13 Emmy nominations in total in comedy categories, I find myself once again beating the same drum I’ve been beating for a while — The Bear is not a comedy.

I’ve been watching The Bear from the very beginning, and I’ve loved every minute of it. The show has a unique premise, Jeremy Allen White and company deliver phenomenal scenes, the dramatic tension created by dynamic dialogue is top-notch and it has everything you want in a binge-worthy series. But it isn’t funny to me. Yes, I’ve chuckled sparingly here and there over the seasons, but not enough to the point where I could conceivably justify The Bear continuing to receive multiple comedy nominations at the Emmys.

And I’m a person who is a fan of dry and dark comedy. I enjoyed Weeds, Dead to Me, Beef, Atlanta and Shameless; but unlike The Bear, these shows had considerably more funny moments.

With all that being said, I do believe The Bear is deserving of Emmy recognition, just not of the comedic variety. I think that next year, when it’s time for nominations, the series should do something that Shameless did back in 2014.

When the US version of Shameless was originally rolled out in 2011, it was marketed to awarding bodies as a drama. It made sense on paper as the series focused on the hard knocks of one family and the unscrupulous lengths the father went to in order to preserve his own status quo of alcoholism and drug abuse.

However, even though the series was serious in premise and had multiple scenes that made me tear up, the dramatic moments were almost evenly balanced with scenes chock-full of laughter. Which is why it was completely understandable that the powers that be officially began classifying Shameless as a comedy instead of a drama in 2014.

If in new seasons, The Bear continues striking the same tone it has in previous ones, those behind the show should consider officially making a change and submitting it in the drama category to future award bodies. Essentially, doing the opposite of what Shameless did.

Now I’m not sure if that means longer episodes of The Bear would have to be created at that point to fit the typical length of a US drama, but I’d be up for more The Bear.

I tend to think Hollywood as a whole could benefit from the switch. Think about the potential nominations some comedies could get if The Bear weren’t scooping up many of them. I could even make an argument that Hacks or Abbott Elementary would possibly have more wins at the Emmys if not for The Bear, but I digress.

On a final note, it’s worth reiterating that The Bear is a great show, it’s deserving of its award wins. I just would like these wins to take place in the drama categories.

You can catch up with all episodes of The Bear on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK.

It’s a big year for Emmy-winning actor Sterling K. Brown, as he not only starred in the popular new series Paradise, but he’s now also starring and executive producing Washington Black.

Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, Washington Black is a whimsical story about a boy who was born on a Barbados sugar plantation in the 19th century, but beat the odds of the time to become a brilliant scientific mind and globe-trotter. In his travels, he not only gains a unique worldly perspective but also discovers a new understanding of family, love and freedom.

Want to know more about what you can expect from the Washington Black series? Here’s everything we know.

Washington Black release date

All eight episodes of Washington Black premiere on Hulu in the US on July 23. In the UK, the series becomes available to stream the same day on Disney Plus.

Washington Black cast

Starring as the titular character, Washington Black, is Ernest Kingsley Jr. The actor is a familiar face from projects such as The Sparticle Mystery, The Sandman and War of the Worlds.

Joining Kingsley Jr. is Sterling K. Brown as Medwin. Brown is an Oscar nominee for American Fiction and an Emmy winner for This Is Us, American Crime Story and Lincoln: Divided We Stand. He’s also been featured in Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul, Atlas, Black Panther and more.

Rounding out the rest of the cast are the following stars:

• Rupert Graves (Surface) as Mr. Goff
• Iola Evans (Phea) as Tanna Goff
• Edward Bluemel (My Lady Jane) as William McGee
• Sharon Duncan Brewster (Ballerina) as Miss Angie
• Eddie Karanja (The Sandman) as Young Washington Black
• Tom Ellis (Tell Me Lies) as Titch

Washington Black plot

Here’s the official synopsis of the Washington Black series, again, based on the novel by Esi Edugyan:

"Based on the bestselling novel of the same name, Washington Black follows the 19th-century odyssey of George Washington ‘Wash’ Black, an 11-year-old boy born on a Barbados sugar plantation, whose prodigious scientific mind sets him on a path of unexpected destiny. When a harrowing incident forces Wash to flee, he is thrust into a globe-spanning adventure that challenges and reshapes his understanding of family, freedom and love. As he navigates uncharted lands and impossible odds, Wash finds the courage to imagine a future beyond the confines of society.

"The series stars Ernest Kingsley Jr. as Washington Black, Rupert Graves as Mr. Goff, Iola Evans as Tanna Goff, Edward Bluemel as William McGee, Sharon Duncan Brewster as Miss Angie, Eddie Karanja as Young Washington Black, Tom Ellis as Titch and Sterling K. Brown as Medwin."

Washington Black trailer

Take a look at the trailer for Washington Black below:

Blind Date, the legendary dating show famously presented by Cilla Black, is being revived by Disney Plus.

The classic series was fronted on ITV by Cilla from 1985 to 2003, becoming a ratings smash, with Paul O’Grady presenting the brief reboot between 2017 and 2019.

Now the streaming service has officially confirmed rumors that it's bringing the show back to our screens with some twists, although keeping to the spirit of the original.

Disney Plus announced: "The ultimate dating series Blind Date is back — bigger, better, and bolder than ever. The new series will begin in a secret 'Blind Date' location, where contestants must choose between three potential suitors, hidden from view behind the legendary 'Blind Date' wall, the only thing standing between them and their potential true love just metres away.

"With a host of unique, innovative and head-turning format twists, our daters will see if forever love can truly grow as they spend the summer living together but potential new partners are always lurking behind the wall…”.

Disney Plus hopes that it can capture some of the magic that saw the original series attract 18 million viewers in its heyday.

No host has been announced yet, and it's not clear if there will be someone giving witty little summaries of each potential date like "Our Graham" did in the original.

The new series of Blind Date will consist of 10 parts, with each one 45 minutes long. Production will start later this year. Original presenter Cilla Black died aged 72 in 2015.

Disney Plus also announced two further new series. The Rooneys, an observational doc-series about Coleen and Wayne Rooney as they "step into a new chapter of their lives".

And Jamie and Sophie: Raising Chelsea about Jamie Laing and Sophie Habboo, as they "embrace their latest challenge and greatest joy to date… parenthood".

Disney Plus has not revealed yet when the three shows will land.

If you didn't get to cheer and weep to it when it originally came out in the early 1990s, pet lovers can catch up on a longtime Disney classic Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey airing this evening on ABC.

Premiering tonight, June 29 at 8pm Eastern Time, Homeward Bound follows three beloved pets—"Chance, a fun-loving American bulldog pup; Sassy, a hilarious Himalayan cat who lives up to her name; and Shadow, a wise old golden retriever...all of whom express themselves with very familiar human voices" (that would be Michael J. Fox, Sally Field and Don Ameche, respectively)—who set off on an adventure to find their owners after being left behind when their family moves from the country to San Francisco:

"The adventure begins when the loving owners of these irresistible pets are forced to leave them in the temporary care of a friend who lives hundreds of miles away," reads the film's synopsis, per Disney: "But after several days, the worried animals begin to think their family must be in trouble, so they decide to head for home. On their incredible journey across the ruggedly beautiful Sierra Nevada mountains, they encounter unexpected surprises from man, beast and nature alike."

Tonight's airing of Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey is part of ABC's ongoing partnership with The Wonderful World of Disney, with the alphabet network regularly airing Disney movies on Sundays for the past twenty years. Upcoming Disney titles that will soon find their way onto ABC include Avatar: The Way of Water, Elemental, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 3 and Wakanda Forever.

Anyone with a traditional pay-TV setup, TV antenna or live TV streaming service that carries ABC (such as Fubo, Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV) can watch ABC's broadcast of Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey from 8pm to 11pm ET on Sunday, June 29 on the alphabet network. If you're not able to tune into tonight's broadcast of Homeward Bound, it is also available to stream right now on Disney Plus.

Check out the original Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey before tuning into the special airing tonight on ABC at 8pm.

I love Doctor Odyssey, so I feel a huge sense of loss that it has been sunk after just one season.

Doctor Odyssey was no ordinary show! Over 18 glorious episodes, we followed the medical team of Dr Max Bankman (Joshua Jackson), Avery Morgan (Phillipa Soo), and Tristan Silva (Sean Teale) as they sailed on the high-class cruise ship captained by Don Johnson’s Robert Massey.

If you missed the Ryan Murphy-created medical drama, I highly recommend it, not least for having arguably the TV moment of last year when someone's nose fell off in a swimming pool during Plastic Surgery week ("In case of an emergency, you can use your implants as a flotation device").

Yep, you read that correctly, and that was just one of the crazy plots! Indeed, I'd often start internet searches while watching to see if any of the medical incidents were remotely plausible — can you get iodine poisoning from eating too much shrimp?

The cast and the show's loyal audience had the time of their lives thanks to never knowing what gloriously ridiculous thing was going to happen next.

Then there were all the great guest stars, like in Singles Week when Shania Twain turned up as a glam grandmother. And OMG, Doctor Odyssey dedicated two parts to a ludicrous storyline where orcas attacked the ship, leading to Captain Massey looking very serious and talking like they were under attack from U-boats in World War Two.

If you could level one criticism of Doctor Odyssey (on ABC in the US and Disney Plus in the UK) is that it did rather rush its plotlines, especially the whole love triangle between Max, Avery, and Tristan. It started normally enough with knowing glances between them, and then suddenly they were having a threesome! Most TV series, well, in fact, possibly all of them, would have taken a lot longer to get to this point! Or more likely, not have that scene at all.

But in a way, that was the fun of the show. You never knew quite where the plot would take you next, but you knew it was going to be fun. TV could do with more shows that simply aim to entertain you and nothing deeper.

Why was Doctor Odyssey axed?

So, unfortunately, even though I enjoyed it a lot and so did many others, we must assume the ratings simply weren't there for ABC to make more. There has been no official statement from ABC about its reasons for ending the show.

Fans, though, can still hope that another network or streaming service picks up the show. Doctor Odyssey made a big splash and has been hugely talked about. Let’s hope one day it will set sail for a second series….

Order up! The enticing dish that is The Bear season 4 is ready for your enjoyment, as all episodes of the latest season of the acclaimed TV show are now streaming on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK (subscription to the streaming services required).

That is fantastic news for fans of the comedy/drama/PTSD-inducing-experience for anyone that has worked in a high-stress kitchen, as we’ve been waiting a long time for some answers after the cliffhangers left open from The Bear season 3 ending. In short, those include what the review of The Bear says and what will happen to the work/personal relationships between Carmy (Jeremy Allen White), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Sydney (Ayo Edebiri).

Here’s a quick read of the synopsis for The Bear season 4 to get an idea of what’s in store for this season:

“FX’s award-winning series The Bear is about food, family and the insanity of the grind. Season four finds the team pushing forward, determined not only to survive, but also to take The Bear to the next level. With new challenges around every corner, the team must adapt, adjust and overcome. The pursuit of excellence isn’t just about getting better – it’s about deciding what’s worth holding on to.”

I’ll be consuming these new episodes of The Bear as fast as I can, but prior to starting that, here’s a look at three things that I’m looking forward to seeing in The Bear season 4.

A healthier work atmosphere at the restaurant

Part of The Bear’s DNA has always been the chaos that comes from working in a kitchen, especially one filled with as many big personalities as The Beef/The Bear, and season 3 dove head first into that as Carmy pushed himself and his team to the brink trying to bring a revolutionary experience to the Chicago restaurant scene.

While we were left hanging on exactly what the review for The Bear said at the end of season 3, The Bear season 4 trailer offers some nuggets. We see different members of the team read things that basically sum up that The Bear has yet to put out a consistent offering.

That will definitely stir some emotions in Carmy, but after he got some closure with his tormentor Chef David (Joel McHale) and a pick-me-up from Chef Terry (Olivia Colman), it seems like he is going to try and turn over a new leaf. Could a calmer, less stressed Carmy be the secret to making things work?

I don’t ever expect a fully calm Carmy, but after three seasons of him putting everything on the line (personally and professionally) wearing him thin, a change of pace is much needed for the guy.

The Bear will hopefully keep its trademark energy, but here’s hoping it’s a much need dose of positive energy.

Who gets the standalone episode in The Bear season 4?

Another thing that has come to define The Bear is that typically once a season it takes some time out for a standalone episode on one of The Bear crew to give us some more backstory on them. In previous seasons we got ones on Marcus (Lionel Boyce) and Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas). Who’s turn is it in season 4?

I don’t know, but if I had to make an early guess it could be Gary, aka “Sweeps” (Corey Hendrix). Gary has been part of the show since the beginning and we’ve gotten some bits of info about him, like how he previously pursued professional baseball before that dream didn’t come to pass.

What makes me think we’ll get a little more with Gary is honestly just a quick shot of who I presume is him in a batting cage in the trailer. Whether that's a scene from such an episode or just a random cut away, I think he’d be a worthy focus for The Bear season 4’s standalone episode.

More Faks please

White, Edebiri, Moss-Bachrach and Colón-Zayas have gotten most of the awards attention, but one of my favorite performances on The Bear throughout its run has been that of Matty Matheson as Neil Fak.

The real-life chef is absolutely hilarious as the sweet, but bumbling Fak. In fact he and the other Fak relatives that pop up seemingly out of the walls are consistently delivering the biggest laughs for this show that has an Outstanding Comedy Series win at the Emmys.

Once again, Matheson looks to be providing some solid laughs with his awkward transition from maintenance worker to up-scale restaurant maître d’. I also hope we meet a new Fak this season, even if it’s not quite the surprise of the appearance of John Cena as a Fak in The Bear season 3.

The Bear season 4 is now streaming on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK. You must be subscribed to the appropriate streaming service in order to watch The Bear.

You love Frozen the movie—now experience the stage production in Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical, streaming on Disney Plus as of Friday, June 20. "Captured live, this spectacular stage production brings the beloved tale of sisterhood, bravery, and self-discovery to life in a new breathtaking way," per the streaming service.

Filmed live onstage at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London’s legendary West End, the full-length Broadway musical features all of the "magic, music, and spectacle" of the hit Disney movie—which centers on two royal sisters, Princess Elsa (played onstage by Samantha Barks) and Princess Anna (Laura Dawkes), two estranged sisters whose relationship is torn apart by Elsa's mysterious magical powers—but with exciting stage-only additions to the sisters' story. (Keeping things extra faithful where the story's concerned, Oscar-winning Frozen director Jennifer Lee penned the book for Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical.

Along with astonishing special effects to portray Elsa's icy powers, the theatrical show features 12 new songs written just for the stage by Academy Award winners Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, joining fan-favorite tunes like "For the First Time in Forever,” “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" and, of course, "Let It Go."

Leads Samantha Barks and Laura Dawkes are joined by a talented London cast portraying the colorful characters of Arendelle, including Craig Gallivan as Olaf, Jammy Kasongo as Kristoff, Oliver Ormson as Hans, Richard Frame as Weselton and Ashley Birchall as Sven. The principal cast also includes Martha Bailey Vine, Elizabeth Lyons, Ben Irish, Lizzy-Rose Esin-Kelly, Jak Skelly, Jacqui Sanchez and Ashley J Daniels.

To stream Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical this weekend and beyond, you're going to need access to Disney Plus. Current subscription prices for Disney's streaming platform are $9.99 per month for the ad-supported Disney+ Basic option, $12.99 per month or $129.99 per year for the commercial-free Disney+ Standard tier, or $15.99 per month or $159.99 per year for the Disney+ Premium plan, with ad-free streaming, up to 4K UHD and HDR video.

Check out the official trailer for Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical before tuning into the dazzling stage production on Disney Plus.

The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox is a new eight-part drama series that follows the shocking 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher, who was killed whilst on an exchange programme in Perugia, Italy, and how her roommate Amanda Knox was wrongly jailed for the crime. Grace Van Patten stars as Amanda, who spent almost four years in jail before she was exonerated in 2015, and the series follows her fight to clear her name.

Here’s everything you need to need to know about The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox…

The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox release date

The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox is an eight-episode series that will begin onHulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK from Wednesday August 20 2025. It starts with two episodes on the launch date followed by one new episode weekly.

Is there a trailer? 

Yes there's now an official trailer to add to the teaser trailer for The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox in which we hear Amanda Knox say "many people think they know my story. But now it’s my turn to tell it." So, prepare for a fresh take on the sad saga. Take a look at the teaser below...

The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox plot

The eight episodes of The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox will follow what happened to US student Amanda in 2007 when she was arrested for the murder of British student Meredith Kercher causing a huge media storm at the time. We will add more about what is shown in the drama when details are released but see more on the Meredith Kercher case below...

The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox cast — Grace Van Patten as Amanda Knox

Grace Van Patten plays Amanda Knox, a US student studying in Italy who is accused of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher. She starred in the series Nine Perfect Strangers and Tell Me Lies. Grace has also been in Without You, Mayday, The Sopranos, Maniac and The Violent Heart.

Who else is starring? 

The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox also stars Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters) as Edda Mellas, Anna Van Patten as Deanna Cox, Crosby Fitzgerlad as Madison, Joe Lanza as Chris Mellams and Jared Canfirld as Chris Robinson. John Hoogenakker, Francesco Acquaroli, Giuseppe De Domenico and Roberta Mattei also star.

The real story – all about the murder of Meredith Kercher

Meredith Kercher was a 21-year-old British university student who was on an exchange programme in Italy when she was killed in her student home in 2007.

Her American roommate Amanda Knox and Amanda’s then boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito and a third person, Rudy Guede, were convicted of murder and sexual violence in 2009. Amanda and Raffaele were then freed on appeal. Amanda returned to the US. Their guilty verdicts were reinstated in 2014, but they were overturned in 2015 and they were both exonerated.

One of the best things about Disney Plus is that it frequently enjoys discounts on its subscription price, and a new one has arrived for prospective UK subscribers that'll let you stream some of the year's biggest TV shows and movies for cheap.

This Disney Plus deal reduces the price of an ad-enabled Disney Plus subscription from £4.99 down to £1.99 for four months, saving you £3 per month or £12 in all. It's eligible for new subscribers as well as returning ones who've not had a subscription for more than a month, but to make the most if it you need to sign up before the end of June.

Once you sign up under the deal, your subscription will run until October; the exact date depends on when you signed up in June. You'll be enrolled straight onto a standard subscription (that's the £4.99 per month one, presuming it doesn't see a price hike before then).

This isn't a one-off deal as Disney runs ones like it about once a year, and it's always a great way to check out its latest offerings at a discount.

Disney Plus has a big summer of additions you may be tempted to watch. Some of these are already streaming, like two big blockbusters: Captain America: Brave New World and Snow White were both in cinemas earlier in the year and are on the platform now.

Perhaps the biggest new addition to Disney Plus, the one mentioned in the headline of this story, comes out on Tuesday, August 12 (with new episodes weekly, but ending in September so you'll definitely be able to watch them all on the deal).

I'm referring to Alien: Earth, which fans have been waiting for ever since it was first mentioned in an Investor presentation all the way back in 2020.

This series, which serves as a prequel to the Alien movies and is set on Earth, comes from Fargo creator Noah Hawley and is exec produced by the original movie's director, Ridley Scott.

It's about the deadly alien xenomorphs terrorizing Earth and has a big cast including Sydney Chandler, Timothy Olyphant and Alex Lawther.

If monster horror isn't your thing, then Disney Plus has a few more big additions coming over the summer. One of these is a new Marvel TV show called Ironheart which releases on Wednesday, June 25, and a single day later we see The Bear season 4 which will bring back the award-winning chef drama.

We're also expecting to see the streaming release of other blockbusters Thunderbolts and Lilo & Stitch at some point this year, but it's far from a guarantee that this will happen before the October end date of the deal price, so it's probably not worth signing up just for these.

Of course Disney Plus also has a massive existing library so if you haven't signed up before, or used to subscribe a while ago but haven't caught up on recent releases, there's a lot to watch. Fans are still raving about Andor season 2 which ended a few weeks ago, which I thought was fantastic despite not being a Star Wars fan.

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story is a documentary celebrating the 50 years since the world's greatest shark movie was released in the US on June 20 1975.

Featuring the director Steven Spielberg and cast such as Lorraine Gary (Ellen Brody in the film) it gives fans of the film an inside look at all the chaos and creativity behind the making of the movie which was based on the bestselling novel Jaws by the late Peter Benchley.

Full of brand-new interviews with the director, cast, crew, filmmakers and shark advocates, this special birthday documentary captures the full creative and cultural shockwaves behind Jaws, which was the first-ever summer blockbuster.

Here's everything you need to know about Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story...

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story release date

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story is a 90-minute documentary that will be shown in the US on National Geographic and Hulu on Thursday, July 10 2025.

It will be shown a day later in the UK on Friday, July 11 2025 at 8pm as part of National Geographic's annual Shark Week, and will also be streamed on Disney Plus from that date.

How to watch Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story online or on TV from around the world

Is there a trailer?

Yes, Nat Geo has released a trailer for Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story which you can watch below to get you into the mood...

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story — what's shown in the documentary

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story has plenty never-before-seen footage from Steven Spielberg and Peter Benchley’s personal archives, including home videos and lots of rare outtakes.

The movie's award-winning director Steven Spielberg, will be telling the story that launched his career into the stratosphere and earned him final cut on the film, which means creative control for the last 50 years.

Steven recounts how the production became high-stakes as it was beset with difficulties, from a malfunctioning mechanical shark that was nicknamed "Bruce" and many weather delays to his own post-production PTSD and fears the film would end his career.

The documentary also reexamines the infamous "Jaws effect", unleashing a wave of shark fear, but also an enduring respect for the ocean’s top predator.

With home footage and photos from his personal archives Spielberg reflects on how shooting mid-ocean, never-ending issues with the mechanical shark and tensions between lead actors Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw meant the film went wildly over schedule and over budget – and even threatened to end his career.

"My instincts told me the film needed authenticity, so it needed to be out to sea on location," says Spielberg, now 78. "But we were way out of our element. We were on the ocean for almost five months, and we all began going off the deep end, literally. It was very hard being out on the real ocean, being knocked around by the waves, by the currents. ‘Then on top of all tha,t 80 per cent of the time the shark didn’t work. It was really demoralising and I was terrified I was going to be fired. All I thought about was going home.’

Yet the tale of a great white shark terrorising the small island of Amity became an instant box office smash and it still remains a cult classic 50 years later.

But despite the film’s box office triumph Spielberg admits he suffered from panic attacks for years afterwards. "I had a really tough time when I finished the movie. The success of Jaws was fantastic but it didn’t stop me waking up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat,’ he says. ‘We didn’t have the words PTSD in those days but I had consistent nightmares about directing Jaws for years afterwards. It was a life-altering experience. On the one hand it was traumatising, but I also owe everything to Jaws. It’s the film I thought would end my career, but it actually began it."

Who appears in Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story

In addition to Steven Spielberg, the documentary includes exclusive interviews from original cast and crew – including Joe Alves (production designer), Jonathan Filley (Cassidy), Lorraine Gary, who played Ellen Brody), Carl Gottlieb (Meadows, screenwriter), Jeffrey Kramer, who played Hendricks, Ian Shaw (son of Robert Shaw, who played Quint), Jeffrey Voorhees (Alex Kintner), and composer John Williams, who's theme and background music was integral the movie's success.

There are also plenty of famous superfans contributing, including J.J. Abrams, Emily Blunt, James Cameron, Cameron Crowe, George Lucas, Greg Nicotero, Jordan Peele, Steven Soderbergh, Guillermo del Toro, Robert Zemeckis, and more – reflect on how Jaws shaped their work and the cinematic landscape.

Alongside cast and crew, the film also features Peter Benchley’s widow Wendy Benchley, who has become a renowned voice for sharks and ocean policy advocate, plus their children, Tracy Benchley Turner and Clayton Benchley, and Peter's brother, Nat Benchley. All can give a rare glimpse into the real-life inspiration behind Peter Benchley's bestselling novel that started it all.

EXCLUSIVE: Wendy Benchley, whose late husband Peter wrote the novel Jaws, shares secrets behind of the filming of movie…

Cult classic Jaws was based on the novel of the same name by Peter Benchley, which became the beach read of the summer of 1974 and featured the iconic hand-painted cover of a great white shark. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the film, Peter’s wife Wendy features in this new Nat Geo Wild and Disney Plus documentary about the making of Jaws, where she shares tales of her late husband’s inspiration for the book and how Jaws propelled them both into a lifetime of shark conservation.

Here, in an exclusive interview, Wendy, 84, shares some behind the scenes filming secrets and reflects on the legacy of Jaws…

What initially inspired your husband Peter to write a novel about a great white shark terrorising a coastal community?
"Peter had always had a fascination with sharks. As a teenager he’d go fishing with his dad on Nantucket Island and there would always be lots of sharks in the water. So for a long time he had this idea in his back pocket to write a story about a great white that hovers around a New England town and causes a little chaos. But when he finally got round to writing it he had no idea it would become a bestseller!"

Did director Steven Spielberg consult with Peter when it came to making the film?
"Oh yes, absolutely. Peter initially co-wrote the screenplay, although he was very happy when [American screenwriter] Carl Gottlieb came along and took over the day-to-day writing! But before filming started he and Steven had many back and forth conversations about the shark. In reality great whites are only around 15ft long and Peter fought hard to keep the mechanical shark used in the film as realistic as possible. But, as the magic movie-maker, Steven understood that the shark had to be 25ft to make it into enough of a monster to give the film its drama. But I want people to be assured that there aren’t actually any 25ft sharks in the ocean!"

Peter also landed a cameo role as a TV reporter, so did you get to spend time on set?
"Yes, we spent a few weeks at Martha’s Vineyard, where the movie was shot. We had a wonderful time there with [Richard] Dreyfuss, [Robert] Shaw and [Roy] Scheider, and having Peter do this little cameo part was great fun for all our family. You know, it was all new to us, but it was so fascinating. Dreyfuss was so funny, and as we know Shaw was a brilliant actor, but a little bit prickly, so you kind of had to be careful around him. And Roy Scheider was just a lovely human being who couldn’t believe he was in this movie starring alongside a great white shark!"

What did you make of the film when you first saw it?
"The first time we watched it we were with Richard [Dreyfuss] at a big theatre on Broadway in New York City. At the end, everybody stood up in the audience and cheered and screamed. Afterwards, we were on the sidewalk and I remember Richard just jumping up and down, saying, ‘we did it, we did it!’ He used some swear words too, which I won't repeat, but I think everybody was just elated because it was such a difficult film to make. That made the success even sweeter!"

How did the film change your life?
"It led us on a path of conservation and education work. At first Peter and I were horrified that some people took Jaws as a license to kill sharks. It was very disappointing. We really worked hard to change people’s perception and Peter got hundreds, maybe thousands of letters from people all over the world saying how the movie scared them but also made them want to know more about sharks. I’m so grateful for that. In so many ways Jaws has had a positive effect – it’s helped us understand sharks and want to save them."

Why do you think Jaws has remained such a cult classic 50 years on?
"The film is fantastic! The power of the movie is in the three main characters – Quint, Hooper and Sheriff Brody – and the nightmare situation they’re in. But I’d also go right back to the bones of the story and I think Peter created a really fascinating book. Not only did he have a real understanding of sharks, but because he was from Nantucket his characterisation of all the locals was very important. You know, nobody ever touched a word of that first chapter, which gives you the feel of what it would be like in the water with one of these magnificent great white sharks. But Steven was the one who brilliantly brought it all together. He gave the movie great depth!"

Behind the scenes and more on Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story is a 90-minute documentary that comes from Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Documentaries and Nedland Films, in partnership with Wendy Benchley and Laura Bowling. Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey are producers. For Nedland Films, Laurent Bouzereau and Markus Keith are producers, with Bouzereau also directing. And, for National Geographic, Tracy Rudolph Jackson and Ted Duvall executive produces.

Looking for some new movies to stream in June? Well great news, there are plenty of options across the likes of Netflix, Max, Disney Plus and all of the major streaming services this month. With that said, it can be a lot to scroll through, so allow me to offer my humble services in helping you find the new movies on streaming that you are not going to want to miss.

The below list of movies are taken from the major streaming services: Apple TV Plus, Disney Plus, Hulu, Max, Netflix, Paramount Plus, Peacock and Prime Video. I'm also specifically picking movies that are new to streaming this month — in this case, these are 15 movies that are landing on one of the major streamers for the first time, or coming back to streaming services after only being available via on-demand.

So without further ado, here are my picks for the 15 movies to stream in June.

The Actor (Hulu)

While The Actor made very little noise at the box office, it did seem to resonate with those who saw it, as the movie earned a 90% positive score from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. So what is this indie movie about? Based on the novel Memory by Donald E. Westlake, The Actor is a psychological drama about a man who is left for dead in a small town in 1950s Ohio, with his memory completely gone. He must figure out how to reclaim what he has lost. Andre Holland stars alongside Gemma Chan, Toby Jones and more.

Stream The Actor on Hulu in the US starting June 30; there's no UK streaming info available at this time.

Beasts of the Southern Wild (Hulu)

Beasts of the Southern Wild is a magical movie. The southern folk tale focuses on a young girl named Hushpuppy, played by Quvenzhané Wallis, who must go on an adventure to save her ill father and their bayou home as it is threatened by melting ice-caps and mythical beasts. Director Behn Zeitline has unfortunately not made a movie to rival this one (his only other feature credit to date is 2020’s Wendy, which came and went with little fanfare), but if his sole movie of note is Beasts of the Southern Wild, then he’s put his stamp on cinema with a gem that deserves to be rediscovered.

Stream Beasts of the Southern Wild on Hulu in the US starting June 1; streaming on StudioCanal Presents and ITVX Premium in UK

Before Midnight (Hulu)

To help mark the 30th anniversary of Before Sunrise, I declared the movie’s central couple Jesse and Celine, played by Ethan Hawke and Julie Deply, as the greatest movie couple of all time. That’s not just because of their magical night in Vienna, but the entire run of their relationship that we see in Before Sunset and Before Midnight. You can experience the latter on streaming again in June. Before Midnight picks up with Jesse and Celine after another nine years. They are married and vacationing in Greece with their family, but is the spark that they had in Vienna and Paris something that is built to last?

Stream Before Midnight on Hulu in the US starting June 1; streaming on Prime Video in the UK

The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie (Max)

Looney Tunes were a big part of growing up for me, as I loved watching the old cartoons. Well, kids today have gotten their very own Looney Tunes original, and it’s a feature-length movie. In The Day the Earth Blew Up, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig must save the world from an alien invasion; expect wacky antics to ensue. The Day the Earth Blew Up is “Certified Fresh” on Rotten Tomatoes. With kids at home for the summer from school, the timing is perfect to give them something fun to watch.

Stream The Day the Earth Blew Up on Max in the US starting June 27; there's no UK streaming info available at this time.

Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical (Disney Plus)

Fans of Frozen can watch the well known story of Anna, Elsa and Olaf in an entirely new way, as a Broadway production. Telling the same story and featuring iconic songs like “For the First Time in Forever,” “Do You Want to Build a Snowman?” and of course “Let It Go,” the recording of the stage production also features 12 new original songs. Disney previously had a massive streaming hit with a recording of Hamilton on Broadway, this could be something just as big.

Stream Frozen: The Hit Broadway Musical on Disney Plus worldwide starting June 20.

The Intern (Netflix)

It’s crazy to think that Nancy Meyers hasn’t made a movie since 2015’s The Intern (she was working on a project with Netflix but it was ultimately scrapped because of budget concerns). While I wouldn’t say that The Intern is her best movie (The Holiday, Something’s Gotta Give top the list for me), The Intern is a charming movie about a retiree (Robert De Niro) deciding to rejuvenate his life by becoming an intern for a startup, where he becomes a key ally and confident to the novice CEO (Anne Hathaway). It’s the easy kind of watch that you just need some times.

Stream The Intern on Netflix in the US and UK starting June 22

Jaws (Peacock)

Summer is beach season, which makes the terror of Jaws all the more palpable; don’t worry, shark attacks are not nearly as prevalent as Steven Spielberg’s breakout movie (though notably not Spielberg’s first big-screen movie) would make it seem. The all-time classic celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2025, so there’s no better time to watch.

Stream Jaws on Peacock in the US starting June 15; Jaws is not streaming in the UK at this time.

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Hulu)

Another underrated gem from 2015 to stream this month is Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. A coming-of-age comedy with some darker tones focuses on a high schooler that befriends a classmate that has been diagnosed with cancer. A breakout movie for Olivia Cooke (who plays the titular dying girl), Thomas Mann and RJ Cyler — supported by the likes of Nick Offerman, Molly Shannon, Connie Britton and Jon Bernthal — the movie doesn’t pander to its primary teen audience, offering a mature take on growing up, connection and death.

Stream Me and Earl and the Dying Girl on Hulu in the US starting June 1; Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is not streaming in the UK at this time.

A Minecraft Movie (Max)

While we don’t have an exact date, we do know that the biggest movie of 2025 to date is coming to streaming in June, as A Minecraft Movie is set to premiere on Max. After raking in early a billion dollars worldwide and causing quite the stir in theaters (thanks in large part to the chicken jockey), the video game adaptation hits home, allowing fans to dive into the world of Minecraft once again.

An exact streaming premiere date for A Minecraft Movie is not available as of publication.

Parthenope (Max)

Parthenope the movie is much like Pathenope the character, mysterious (perhaps a bit confusing) yet quite alluring. The movie was not a big hit with most critics, but I enjoyed Paolo Sorrentino’s exploration of Naples through the years via the perspective of the titular young woman, played by newcomer Celeste Dalla Porta (read my Parthenope review for more details on why). The movie also features a brief supporting turn from Gary Oldman as famous author John Cheever. While I don’t know if it’s one of the best, Parthenope is definitely one of the most intriguing movies of the year.

Stream Parthenope on Max in the US starting June 6; there's no UK streaming info available at this time.

Presence (Hulu)

Steven Soderbergh’s other 2025 new movie, aside from Black Bag, is a haunted house movie that has also received great critical acclaim (“Certified Fresh” at 88%). Despite the solid reviews, Presence got little fanfare at the early year box office, so this is going to be the chance for the movie — starring Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan and Julia Fox — to finally find its audience.

Stream Presence on Hulu in the US starting June 3; there's no UK streaming info available at this time.

Rear Window (Netflix)

Netflix is giving legendary director Alfred Hitchcock the spotlight in June, as the streaming service is adding six of his movies, including classics like Vertigo and The Birds. But my pick of the Hitchcock movie you need to watch on Netflix this month is Rear Window. The movie stars Jimmy Stewart as a professional photographer bored out of his mind while recovering from a broken leg, who begins to watch the neighbors in his apartment complex. Things get dicey when he begins to suspect that one neighbor has murdered his wife. This is one of my favorite Hitchcock movies, and is a perfect sampling to see why he is considered one of the greatest directors of all time.

Stream Rear Window on Netflix starting June 1.

Sally (Disney Plus/Hulu)

An American icon, Sally Ride was the first American woman in space, but back on Earth things were complicated in her personal life. This new documentary, from National Geographic and Emmy-winning documentarian Cristina Costantini, reveals the sacrifices that Sally Ride made in her life, with testimony from her life-partner of 27 years, Tam O’Shaughnessy.

Stream Sally on Disney Plus and Hulu in the US starting June 17; streaming on Disney Plus in the UK as of June 17.

Titan: The OceanGate Disaster (Netflix)

Another documentary to watch on streaming in June is Titan: The OceanGate Disaster. Most will remember the tragic story of the implosion of an OceanGate submersible, the Titan, that killed all five passengers in 2023. This documentary will look at what went wrong to lead to such an outcome. This is one of two documentaries about the Titan incident, with the other being Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster.

Stream Titan: The OceanGate Disaster on Netflix starting June 11.

Straw (Netflix)

The prolific Tyler Perry has a brand new project as the director and writer of Straw, a thriller starring Taraji P. Henson as a single mother who is pushed to the brink, leading her to a shocking act of desperation. Henson is joined in the cast by Teyana Taylor, Sherri Shepherd, Rockmund Dunbar, Glynn Turman and, in one of his most profile roles in years, Sinbad.

Stream Straw on Netflix starting June 6.

In some countries around the world, Disney Plus offers live sports streams, for example showing certain F1 2025 Grand Prix races in the US. In the UK, however, it's not known as a sports streaming service... but that could change very soon.

Disney Plus has just announced that from October, it'll be broadcasting live football games, and you won't need to buy a more expensive tier to enjoy them. The standard £4.99-per-month ad-enabled tier is all you need to stream the sports, though I always recommend the £7.99 ad-free tier to new subscribers (more about the Disney Plus price here).

This is a big surprise for Disney Plus subscribers who thought they were just getting Star Wars, superheroes and Nat Geo, and helps the streamer better position itself against rivals like Netflix and Prime Video who also offer live sports.

The matches that Disney Plus will broadcast are from the UEFA Women's Champions League, which begins its 2025/26 season on Tuesday, October 7 (qualifying matches begin in July but it doesn't seem like Disney Plus will broadcast them).

Disney will get broadcast rights all the way up until the 2029/30 Women's Champions League too, so you're getting at least five years of footie through your subscription.

A new league system brings a shake-up to the Women's Champions League this year, which is currently dominated by two teams. Since the 2015/16 season only two teams have won every title: Lyon or Barcelona, with the latter having won the last two years.

The news comes just prior to the 2024/25 season's final on Saturday, May 24 between Arsenal and Barcelona. This is only available to watch through a £30.99-per-month TNT Sports (via Discovery Plus) subscription or a £25-per-month DAZN subscription (down to £15 if you commit to a whole year) so Disney Plus is going to be a much more affordable way to stream the league.

At the end of 2024, Disney Plus announced that it had also secured rights to the UEFA Conference League, albeit only in Sweden and Denmark. So this recent news shows that the streamer is making a big push into live football.

It's unlikely that Disney will secure rights to the biggest leagues like the Premier League or EFL, which are hotly contested by broadcasters whom pay hundreds of millions of pounds for the rights. But it's hard to watch some of the other leagues in the UK and so Disney Plus could do well to position itself as a one-stop-shop for these up-and-coming leagues.

• Find out about Disney Plus deals

The summer season is upon us. While the summer blockbuster movie season gets much of the hype, TV doesn't take the summer off, as there are plenty of enticing and exciting TV shows (new and returning) for people to watch as they try to beat the heat. We here at What to Watch certainly has a number of shows that we can't wait to dive into.

Along with my What to Watch colleagues Sarabeth Pollock and Terrell Smith, we have put together a list of 17 summer TV shows that we're most excited to tune in for and/or binge this summer ranging across streaming services and cable channels. All shows are premiering from Memorial Day weekend through August (even though those later shows will likely bleed a little bit into the fall TV season).

No need to keep you waiting, let's dive into the summer TV shows that we are most excited to watch this year.

Rick and Morty season 8 (May 25, Adult Swim)

The first summer TV show to premiere is none other than the latest adventures of Rick and Morty. The mad scientist, his grandson and the rest of the Smith family will once again traverse the galaxy and multiverse for our entertainment.

Rick and Morty season 7 proved that the show was capable of still being both hilarious and thought provoking despite the exit of Justin Roiland, so the expectations for Rick and Morty season 8 are sky high for the fan-favorite animated series. — Michael Balderston

And Just Like That season 3 (May 29, Max)

I never watched Sex and the City while it was airing, but I was definitely familiar with the story of four friends living fabulous lives in New York City. It was a cultural touchstone for a generation of viewers who dreamed of shoes and Cosmos and living in a luxurious apartment on a writer’s salary.

All it took for me was a week-long binge and I was hooked on the original series, so it’s not surprising that I wanted to see what happened with Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker), Charlotte (Kristen Davis) and Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) at a different point in their lives in And Just Like That.

In And Just Like That season 3, fans will finally learn whether Carrie and Aidan (John Corbett) are going to stick to their long distance relationship, while Charlotte continues to navigate life with her teens and Miranda figures out what makes her happy. I’m ready to escape to New York this summer! — Sarabeth Pollock

Dept. Q (May 29, Netflix)

At least as of publication, I’m not sure whether or not we’re getting Slow Horses season 5 this summer (Apple TV Plus is expected to release it before the end of the year, but an exact premiere date has not been set). Thankfully, Netflix will have an enticing new series to sate my wisecracking law enforcement officer quota, as Matthew Goode stars as a Scottish detective put in charge of a new division tasked with solving Edinburgh’s toughest cold cases in Dept. Q.

Adding to the intrigue, the series is directed by the creator/director of The Queen’s Gambit, Scott Frank. Say hello to one of my Netflix binges of the summer. — Michael Balderston

Love Island USA season 7 (June 3, Peacock)

After Love Island USA season 6 left quite the impression on viewers (me included) as arguably the best in the history of the franchise, how could I not be excited for Love Island USA season 7. This summer guilty pleasure is fun to watch as unsuspecting men and women in their 20s flock to Fiji in search of love (and the monetary prize). Now ordinarily, I question all reality TV dating shows in terms of whether real romance can be found. However, Love Island USA seemingly has a pretty solid track record. Heck, the PPG couples from Love Island USA season 6 are still together if social media is to be believed.

With all that being said, season 7 has some big shoes to fill. While Ariana Madix is returning to hosting duties, a whole new crop of Islanders will be front and center, and they have the hard task of entertaining fans like their season 6 predecessors. —Terrell Smith

Stick (June 4, Apple TV Plus)

Does Apple TV Plus have another Ted Lasso on its hands? Too soon to tell, but Stick has a few things going for it that the comparison could prove apt.

Owen Wilson stars in the sports comedy as a washed up golf pro who discovers a young phenom and attempts to help develop his game to become a star. While the supporting cast of actors is strong (Judy Greer, Marc Maron, Mariana Treviño), the show also features cameos from some of the top golfers in the game today, as well as legendary broadcaster Jim Nantz.

I’m a golf fan, so I’m definitely interested, but Stick could have some appeal to non-golfers as well. — Michael Balderston

Ginny & Georgia season 3 (June 5, Netflix)

Ginny & Georgia season 2 ended on quite the interesting note, with Georgia (Brianne Howey) being hauled away from her marriage reception in handcuffs. In Ginny & Georgia season 3, she’s set to face off in court for the murder of Cynthia’s (Sabrina Grdevich) husband. While Georgia is in fact guilty of a mercy killing, I have a sneak suspicion she’ll once again be saved from prison. However, I just don’t know how that comes about, so I’ll be watching.

It should also prove interesting to see how Ginny (Antonia Gentry) deals with a murderous scarlett letter on her mother’s chest. The teen already had some coming-of-age issues, so trying to stand beside her mother during a criminal case of this magnitude could push her to a whole new level of stress. — Terrell Smith

The Real Housewives of Miami season 7 (June 11, Peacock)

Since The Real Housewives of Miami was resuscitated on Peacock before returning to Bravo, I’ve argued with friends that the reality TV show is arguably the second-best Housewives series on the air, behind The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City. The ladies in South Beach really know how to bring the drama in a way that feels less contrived and slightly less toxic. Don’t get me wrong, the arguments among the group can be completely ridiculous at times, but that’s part of what makes the show so entertaining.

The Real Housewives of Miami season 7 could prove to be the best yet, as it appears some alliances are shifting, some romances are ending and the former girlfriend of Nicole’s fiancé Anthony has joined the cast. — Terrell Smith

The Gilded Age season 3 (June 22, HBO)

A friend’s mother recommended The Gilded Age, so I watched it and was immediately captivated. I love history, and the HBO show is like an American history book come to life — with a side of Real Housewives thanks to its high fashion and even higher drama.

The Gilded Age season 3 continues the story of the socialites living the high life in the New York City of yore. After the fallout from the Opera War, the influential families continue vying for power and influence in an ever-changing world.

Though it’s historical fiction, The Gilded Age reminds us that people in that era weren’t so different from us. They’re all trying to figure out where they fit in an ever-changing world. — Sarabeth Pollock

Ironheart (June 24, Disney Plus)

The Ironheart trailer may not be getting a lot of love over on YouTube (for reasons I won't comment on), but it’s a series on my radar this summer. Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams was thrilling to watchin her Marvel debut, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She’s the legacy of Tony Stark’s Iron Man, broaching hero status from a completely different perspective for a variety of reasons, which can add a fresh take in the MCU.

Also adding to my excitement is Anthony Ramos starring in the series as The Hood. Ramos has grown to be a bonafide star in Hollywood, having appeared in In the Heights, Hamilton and She’s Gotta Have It. So my interest is piqued in how Ramos will portray the MCU villain. — Terrell Smith

The Bear season 4 (June 25, FX on Hulu)

By the time that The Bear season 4 premieres on Hulu it will have been a year since The Bear season 3, but somehow it’s felt longer as fans of the series have patiently been waiting to find out what the review for the restaurant says and how the personal and work relationships between our favorite group of chefs turn out.

The Bear dances on the line between comedy (I definitely feel there are some genuinely funny moments, most notably from the Fak family) and drama, but one thing remains true that this is one of the best shows on TV and is a must-watch whenever new episodes are available. — Michael Balderston

Smoke (June 27, Apple TV Plus)

As we’ve highlighted a few times on this list already, crime drama fans are going to have some good options to watch this summer. Another example is the new Apple TV Plus series Smoke, which stars Taron Egerton and Jurnee Smollett as two investigators following in the footsteps of a pair of serial arsonists.

Best-selling author of Shutter Island, Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone, Dennis Lehane created Smoke, so at the minimum I have high hopes for the show’s writing. But Egerton has also quietly churned out consistently enjoyable projects, like Carry-On, Tetris and Black Bird. Can Smoke keep things going? — Michael Balderston

Squid Game season 3 (June 27, Netflix)

Squid Game season 3 will serve as the series’ last, so I’ll be glued to my screen, watching every episode, dubbed and all (don’t judge me for not soldiering through subtitles). I just have to know if Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) has what it takes to dismantle the deadly game.

In Squid Game season 2, the series ended with Seong pinned down and his team of rebels seemingly on their way to meet a deadly end. However, with a whole new rollout of episodes on the way, I have to believe they may find a way to survive. Plus, Seong still has his team on the outside working to find him, so perhaps a last-minute save will be in the works. — Terrell Smith

Nautilus (June 29, AMC)

I’ve never read Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, but I’m very familiar with Disney’s version featuring Kirk Douglas. The Nautilus series was meant to premiere on Disney Plus, but the deal fell through and the series eventually landed at AMC.

Nautilus is the story of Captain Nemo (Shazad Latif) and his futuristic vessel, the Nautilus. He wants revenge against the tyrannical East India Mercantile Company who stole everything from him. As their former prisoner, the East India Mercantile Company wants the Indian Prince back in custody after he not only escapes prison but steals the Nautilus as well.

To be honest, I can’t even begin to imagine how this story will come to life as a series, but I’m very excited to see it. As a science fiction fan, Verne’s story is the cream of the crop and this could be the biggest surprise of the summer. — Sarabeth Pollock

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 (July 17, Paramount Plus)

After a musical episode that tore the house down in season 2, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 is set to up the ante with bigger and bolder adventures. There’s some unfinished business to be addressed in the new season after the crew of the USS Enterprise encountered one of the most feared alien species in the universe: the Gorn.

During a special sneak peek at San Diego Comic Con in 2024, fans were treated to a clip featuring several members of the crew transforming into Vulcans for an important mission. Pike (Anson Mount) is quick to point out that there will be 4.5 Vulcans on the mission, as Ethan Peck’s Spock is half human.

What I love about Strange New Worlds is how it’s a return to the story-of-the-week format as seen in other series in the franchise. As a lifelong Star Trek fan, I love how the show honors canon while charting its own course. — Sarabeth Pollock

Wednesday season 2 (August 6, Netflix)

Wednesday had me eating out its hand (no, not Thing’s) the moment I saw Jenna Ortega doing the now infamous dance. The inaugural season of the series was creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky, but best of all, it was entertaining. I completely understand why Ortega earned an Emmy and Golden Globe nomination for the role.

I’m expecting good things from Wednesday season 2, as rumor has it (from Netflix), more of the Addams family will be showcased, including Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) who becomes a student along with Wednesday at Nevermore Academy. I suspect it will be must-watch TV (well, streaming) to see the sibling dynamic play out in school, along with how Pugsly adjusts to his new classmates and “power.” Oh, and make way for Grandmama (Joanna Lumley) as she storms the show in season 2. — Terrell Smith

Alien: Earth (August 12, FX)

In space, no one can hear you scream. But on Earth, it’s a whole different matter. With Alien: Earth, for the first time we are getting a TV series based on the legendary sci-fi franchise Alien, and to cap it all out we are switching from the usual space location to our own planet.

Noah Hawley, the Emmy-winning creator of Fargo, is certainly going to bring his own spin to the franchise, but at its heart it seems that we’re also going a number of staples — an unsuspecting crew forced to reckon with one of the most perfect killing machines and, in the mold of Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley, a tough female lead (Sydney Chandler). — Michael Balderston

Dexter: Resurrection (TBD, Paramount Plus with Showtime)

At first there was Dexter, the story of the serial killer with a strict moral code. Then came various spinoffs and a prequel, but in Dexter: Resurrection the story continues with Michael C. Hall set to return to the titular role. Following the events of 2021’s Dexter: New Blood, Dexter is back, we think. It’s hard to say because all evidence pointed to his death at the end of New Blood, yet he’s supposedly coming back for more.

Not knowing is part of the allure. These days there is so much information about new shows and there’s not much known about Resurrection at all, aside from the fact that Hall is returning and so are original series stars David Zayas and James Remar. New Blood’s Jack Alcott will once again play Dexter’s son, Harrison.

For now I'm going to do a re-watch of the original series to get ready for the new show. It’s gory, humorous, sentimental and dramatic all rolled into one. I'm eager to see what happens as the franchise continues. — Sarabeth Pollock

After the phenomenal success of Rivals season 1 on Disney Plus, fans of the Jilly Cooper adaptation are already looking forward to Rivals season 2 - and it has now been announced that filming for the new series is officially underway.

However, that isn't the only good news for fans - becasue it has also been revealed that the new season will have more episodes than the first, with the second season being 12 episodes long rather than 8 like the debut series.

This news will be very welcome for fans who binged the first series when it landed on Disney Plus and Hulu in October 2024, leaving us with a huge cliffhanger in the Rivals finale when one of the main characters was left for dead.

The racy series, which stars David Tennant, Aidan Turner, Alex Hassell, Katherine Parkinson and Danny Dyer, became one of the most talked about TV shows of 2024, and soon we will be returning to the stunning Cotswolds countryside and delving back into the glamorous world of 1980s British television.

The official statement from today's announcement says: "The second instalment will see the return of the all-star cast that won the hearts of fans and critics alike, as well as introducing brand new faces.

"Careers, marriages, and reputations hang in the balance as personal and professional lives collide in a world where secrets can’t stay hidden for long. Bold, emotionally charged, and filled with unforgettable moments, Rivals is a thrilling ride through a landscape of breathtaking beauty, fierce competition, and life-changing decisions, where the cost of success could be everything."

This season promises to have even more wit, desire, and dramatic twists than ever and as power struggles escalate and rivalries deepen, loyalties are pushed to the edge.

Executive Producer and Rivals author, Dame Jilly Cooper commented: “I’m utterly sex-static filming for the second season is upon us. It was magical working with Happy Prince and Disney Plus on the first season and seeing everyone fall head over heels for my beloved characters.

"I’m delighted to be able to work with them again and for everyone to see what further mischief they all get up to!”

Rivals season 2 will air on Hulu in the U.S. and Disney Plus in the UK and internationally.

All episodes of Rivals season 1 are available to stream now, on Disney Plus.

Rematch is a drama set in 1997 and inspired by true events, plus this psychological thriller is set to rival the success of previous chess drama (albeit fictional) The Queen's Gambit.

The six-part series follows the Russian world chess champion Garry Kasparov (Christian Cooke) as he takes on a match against the IBM supercomputer called Deep Blue in a human vs machine battle. It was the first time a world champ lost a chess match to a computer, changing the perception of AI forever.

Here's everything you need to know about Rematch on Disney Plus...

Rematch release date

Rematch is a six-part drama series starting on Disney Plus from Wednesday May 21 2025. The series first aired in 2024 on RTS 1 channel in Switzerland then on French-German Arte channel

Is there a Rematch trailer?

Yes there's a trailer now for Rematch. which you can watch below...

Rematch plot

Set in the late 1990s Rematch focuses on the true story of the man vs machine battle between the then world chess champion and an IBM supercomputer dubbed Deep Blue, which was programmed to calculate more than 200 million moves per second. At the time IBM were losing sales and they set their sights on Deep Blue beating Kasparov to boost publicity and company stock. But as millions tuned in to watch, the showdown became seen as a defence of the human race against the power of AI.

The six-part drama follows the six tense chess games in the rematch and all the psychological warfare behind the scenes, as the Deep Blue team seek help from other chess grandmasters to improve the computer’s speed and play strategy. They also study hundreds of Kasparov’s televised games in the run-up to the showdown, yet refuse to give Kasparov any of Deep Blue’s match data. But despite allegations of unfairness the final result ends up marking the dawn of a new AI era.

Rematch cast — Christian Cooke as Garry Kasparov

Playing the Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in Rematch is British actor Christian Cooke. He's previously starred in the movie Cemetery Junction and Channel 4 series The Promise. He playedMickey Argyll in BBC1'a Agatha Christie mystery Ordeal By Innocence and has starred in Echo Beach, Magic City and Witches of East End.

Read our exclusive interview with Christian Cooke below...

Exclusive interview with Christian Cooke on playing Garry Kasparov in Rematch

Set in the late 1990s Rematch focuses on the true story of the man vs machine battle between the then world chess champion and an IBM supercomputer dubbed Deep Blue, which was programmed to calculate more than 200 million moves per second.  At the time IBM were losing sales and they set their sights on Deep Blue beating Kasparov to boost publicity and company stock. But as millions tuned in to watch, the showdown became seen as a defence of the human race against the power of AI.

"Kasparov first played Deep Blue in 1996 and won, but the following year IBM offered him a lot of money for a rematch," Christian Cooke, 37, told us in an exclusive interview. "Money wasn’t what Kasparov courted necessarily. He was a real of advocate of technology and genuinely wanted to test the limits of Deep Blue’s computing power.

"The series really makes you reflect on technology and the value of human connection. It makes you think about whether where we’re heading in terms of AI is actually where we want to be."

Meanwhile, Cooke not only had to master a Russian accent for the role, but he also had to learn hundreds of chess moves! "I don’t really play chess, so it was a real challenge mentally,’ he says. ‘I had to recreate all Kasparov’s moves for each match and that meant memorising 30 or 35 moves per game. And the Russian accent was tricky to master, too – it can be very easy to verge into Bond villain territory!"

Who else is starring in Rematch

The Rematch cast also includes Sarah Bolger (into the Badlands), Luke Pasqualino (Our Girl) and Aidan Quinn (Elementary) as Kasparov’s agent Roger Laver. 

Other cast for Rematch Molly Harris, Tom Austen and Trieve Blackwood-Cambridge. Aidan Quinn (Elementary) plays Kasparov’s agent Roger Laver

A brief history of Garry Kasparov

Garry Kasparov is the Russian chess grandmaster who was world champion from 1985 to 2000, winning his first world title aged just 22. He's also a political activist and since retiring from the chess scene, Garry has dedicated himself to writing and politics. His book series My Great Predecessors, first published in 2003, details the history and games of the world champion chess players who preceded him.

He left Russia in 2013 for fear of persecution and now resides in the US. He was chairman of the Human Rights Foundation from 2011 to 2024. In 2017, he founded the Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI), a US political organisation promoting and defending liberal values the US and abroad and is now chairman of this group.

Every May in the US, millions of people celebrate the remarkable accomplishments and contributions of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders during what is now officially called Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Although the momentous occasion was originally championed as a week as far back as 1977 and officially signed into law by President Jimmy Carter, it did not become a month-long celebration until President George H.W. Bush made the proclamation in 1992.

In our efforts to recognize the accomplishments of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, we look to Hollywood. From a BAFTA nominee to some of the most-talked-about projects of the year, we compiled a list of seven performances from Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander leads that we think are worth watching, including some upcoming projects. Keep in mind, this list is compiled of new content that premiered between June 2024 and May 2025.

So without further ado, check out what we came up with.

Mo season 2 (Netflix)

Mo season 2 serves as the final season of a comedy we have nothing but good things to say about. Mo Amer is brilliant in the Netflix show as he tells the story of a Palestinian refugee in the US seeking American citizenship. While the topic at hand is poignant, he manages to add a heightened sense of levity that makes the series a must-watch.

Squid Game season 2 (Netflix)

Squid Game season 2 picks up where the phenomenon of season 1 left off. While the show's inaugural season is still our favorite, season 2 does enough at least to distinguish itself, while leaving us entertained. Setting itself apart wasn't exactly hard to do, as most of the show's original cast didn't survive the games the first go-around, but there are also new games at play that offer a nice twist.

All We Imagine as Light (rent on-demand)

Although a Grand Prize winner at the Cannes Film Festival, "Certified Fresh" on Rotten Tomatoes with a perfect score and a BAFTA nominee, All We Imagine as Light likely flew under your radar. It's an Indian indie film about friendship and sisterhood, showing how one friend deals with a faraway spouse while courted by a doctor at the hospital where she works, one deals with a secret romance her parents won't approve of due to differing religions and another processes her recent eviction. The storylines intersecting provide for quite the relatable viewing experience.

Moana 2 (Disney Plus)

Moana 2 serves as the blockbuster sequel to the 2016 hit and achieved quite the cinematic feat when it ranked as the third highest-grossing film of 2024, according to IMDb's Box Office Mojo. It follows up on the adventures of Moana (voiced by Auliʻi Cravalho), as she has a new journey to embark on, which reunites her with demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson), who is on a journey of his own. All in all, their joint adventure makes for great family viewing on Disney Plus.

Laid (Peacock)

Stephanie Hsu has been taking Hollywood by storm with projects such as Everything Everywhere All at Once, Joy Ride and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Well, she's front and center in the hit new series Laid, which has a 93% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Based on the Australian version of the series, Peacock's Laid follows a single woman who has to retrace the steps of her sex life to warn her former partners that they may be in danger because of her. It's a nuanced plot in a comedy that's worth checking out.

Lilo & Stitch (in theaters May 23)

The animated movie Lilo & Stitch was a hit for Disney back in 2002, and 23 years later, the story of the young Hawaiian girl and the alien from outer space she adopts is back in a live-action adaptation. Premiering Memorial Day weekend, this updated version of Lilo & Stitch offers families a nice alternative to the adventure and thriller blockbusters hitting theaters that same weekend.

Karate Kid: Legends (in theaters May 30)

Over 41 years ago, The Karate Kid franchise fought its way into the fabric of cinema when Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) became a karate champion thanks to instruction from Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita). The original has spawned several sequels and even a series, and now Karate Kid: Legends gives another fresh spin on the classic story. While LaRusso is back in the new movie, front and center are Ben Wang as Li Fong and the incomparable Jackie Chan as Mr. Han. This should be a treat considering Chan is arguably the best martial artist/stuntman/filmmaker multi-hyphenate in recent memory.

British film fans are used to having to wait for months to see awards movies in cinemas compared to people in the US, and that's equally true for streaming... but a film which received many Oscar and BAFTA nods is finally available to stream in the UK.

On Wednesday, April 30, Disney Plus UK added to its library A Complete Unknown, which was a hot name in the Oscar race a few months ago. The film showed in cinemas in January (a month after it hit US theaters) but now you can watch it for £4.99 via a Disney Plus subscription.

(Live in the US? A Complete Unknown is available to watch on Hulu, where it's been streaming for over a month now).

A Complete Unknown is a biopic about legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, from the roots of his career until his divisive jump from acoustic instruments to electric ones.

The internet's boyfriend Timothée Chalamet plays the lead role in the movie with Edward Norton, Elle Fanning, Boyd Holbrook and Monica Barbaro also performing. It was directed by James Mangold who's already won an Oscar for a musical biopic in the form of Walk the Line and also helmed Ford v Ferrari, Logal, 3:10 to Yuma, Girl, Interrupted and the latest Indiana Jones movie.

A Complete Unknown was nominated for eight Oscars in all: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Sound and Costume Design. It was also nominated for loads of other awards from the BAFTAs, SAG, Golden Globes and plenty more.

Before now, if you wanted to watch A Complete Unknown out of cinemas, you had to buy it digitally — it wasn't made available to rent on platforms like Sky Cinema and Apple TV, just buy outright at £20. For most people, that cost would be hard to swallow, so I imagine most people opted to wait for it to jump to streaming... which it now is.

Disney Plus starts at just £4.99, though that's for the ad-supported tier (and as someone who uses this plan, trust me, there are a lot of ad breaks!). An ad-free subscription costs £7.99 per month or £79.99 per year and we've got a guide talking you through Disney Plus deals here.

If you're planning to settle in for a movie night now that A Complete Unknown is streaming, be warned: it's a really long movie at 2 hours and 20 minutes. You can comfortably break it up into two or three chunks if you don't think you can sit still for that long.

A tragic event from 20 years ago has seen a TV adaptation in the new series Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, which debuts on Wednesday, April 30.

Suspect dramatizes the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes who, in London in 2005, was mistaken for a terror suspect and shot dead on the London Underground.

Over the four episodes we'll see the events from various perspectives to understand Jean's story, why the police mistook him for a terrorist and what happened within law enforcement after the events that caused the truth to emerge.

If that sounds right up your street, you might be wondering how to watch Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. It's not easy, as the show's only releasing in limited regions to begin with, but we'll hopefully find you a way.

How to watch Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in the UK

If you live in the UK (or Ireland), you'll be able to watch Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes by using the streaming service Disney Plus. The show was created as an original for the platform and so won't air elsewhere.

All four episodes of Suspect will land at once on Wednesday, April 30.

If you're not already a subscriber to Disney Plus, then you can get on board for as little as £4.99 per month. That's for the ad-supported tier, and £7.99 per month will get you ad-free streaming.

Sometimes Disney Plus deals let you sign up for even cheaper.

How to watch Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in the US

If you live in the US, you'll have to wait a little while to watch Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes because no release information has been provided for it in the US.

We could see the show come to either Disney Plus or Hulu, and we'll update you when and if release information for Suspect is provided.

How to watch Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes in Australia

As in the US, there's no word on when Suspect will air in Australia. We'll update you when that changes.

It's likely that the show will come to Disney Plus when it releases due to that being its release avenue in the UK.

How to watch Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes everywhere else

If you're going to be away from your normal TV setup but still want to watch Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes, you might run into some problems. Thankfully, you can solve this exact issue with a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

A VPN lets you change your IP address to that of the area of what you want to watch, meaning you can tune in to your favorite show, movie or other content even if you're not there. Our favorite is NordVPN, which is the No. 1-rated VPN in the world right now according to our sister site, TechRadar.

How to use a VPN to watch any stream

• Download the app at NordVPN
• Choose the location of the streaming service you want to watch (UK, US, etc)
• Navigate to the streaming service and start watching!

Bedknobs and Broomsticks has a special place in my heart ever since my late dad took me to see Angela Lansbury's Disney classic at my local Odeon cinema in south London in 1972. I was just four years old and totally enthralled, insisting Father Christmas deliver me the album of the film I'd seen on the shleves in Woolworths. I played that on endless repeat throughout the 1970s.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks was the first musical I'd ever seen and to watch such a magical spectacle unfold on a big screen has obviously clouded my judgment somewhat in concluding that Bedknobs and Broomsticks is the best live/animated action musical produced by the Disney film studios, including Mary Poppins!

The movie of Bedknobs and Broomsticks followed three siblings, Charlie, Carrie, and Paul Rawlins, who during World War Two were evacuated from London to England's south coast where they were billeted (by Tessie O'Shea no less) to go and live with the very eccentric, motorbike-driving spinster Eglantine Price, played by Angela Lansbury, who they soon discovered was an apprentice witch! Cue them all going on a magical adventure thanks to an enchanted bed knob which whisked a double bed to any location the youngest child Paul cared to mention and hooking them up with Professor Emeritus Brown (David Tomlinson) a delightful if dubious magic show man who'd been 'selling' spells to Miss Price as part of a made-up university's correspondence course. He was shocked that his 'mumbo jumbo' spells actually worked, as he found out when Miss Price turned him into a cartoon rabbit!

For many reasons, Bedknobs and Broomsticks has been compared to Mary Poppins, a Disney musical made seven years previously, as both involve magical women who sing and dance and have their quirks and oddities.

They both end up looking after initially sceptical children, but those comparisons have often been unfavourable to Bedknobs and Broomstricks. Mary Poppins was released in 1964 so came first and for this reason has the better reputation of the two among many Disney fans who simply believe Bedknobs was a downgraded version of a very similar story. But as we shall explore below, I believe this is totally unfounded. Out of the two, I think Bedknobs and Broomsticks is the better movie and here's why...

My assessment of The Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Mary Poppins cast

British stars Angela Lansbury and Julie Andrews had ruled the stages of London's West End. Mary Poppins was Julie Andrews first ever movie role, and although she was fantastic I felt Angela Lansbury had more of a movie pedigree by 1971, with The Picture of Dorian Gray and Blue Hawaii to name but two, and I just felt she gave Eglantine Price in Bedknobs just the right amount of eccentricity needed for her lovable witch. Julie just played Mary Poppins as a strait-laced nanny who did some magic as the job required, but within the bigger plan of bringing Michael and Jane Banks closer to their parents, particularly their dad.

To give credit to both Julie Andrews and Angela Lansbury, both actors actually sang the songs themselves without dubbing as had been the case with many musicals in the 1950s, 60s and 70s — go check out My Fair Lady, West Side Story, Gigi and Oliver! So in my opinion, this puts both as a star rating above many leading ladies in musicals of that era.

Around 1969, Julie Andews had actually been offered the role of Eglantine Price in Bedknobs and Broomsticks first but sensibly turned it down as she didn't want another 'magical lady' role which could typecast her. Angela stepped in and the rest is history...

The child actors in Bedknobs and Broomsticks were Iain Weighill as Charlie, Cindy O'Callaghan as Carrie, and Roy Snart as Paul and as a South Londoner I think I identified with these three Rawlins kids and their cockney-ness much more than the Poppins pair (and the less said about Dick Van Dyke's cockney accent in Mary Poppins the better of course).

Michael and Jane Banks were cute in their own way, but were essentially little rich kids lacking parental love. Charlie, Carrie and Paul were scampish and weren't above a bit of bribery to get their way, even using blackmail to get some better food on the table by threatening to tell all about Miss Price being a witch! The three young Bedknobs actors were just less 'stage school' and more of the real world than the Poppins duo and I stick by this with every viewing. I'm not sure of the actors' history before Bedknobs but I see Cindy O'Callaghan went on to play Andrea Price in EastEnders — wondering now if the Walford surname of Price was an inside joke re Angela Lansbury's Miss Price.

David Tomlinson had the luck to appear in both movies as Mr Banks and Professor Emeritus Brown. He absolutely shone in both, there's no doubt, and held Mary Poppins together for the main thrust of the story, in that he was a father who loved his children dearly but was unable to show it, until Mary Poppins intervenes.

In Bedknobs, Emeritus Brown was the interloper and a con man who put together a bogus correspondence course to which Miss Price had signed up and paid for. He truly shone through in Bedknobs during the cartoon scenes, taking Eglantine's arm under the sea for a Strictly-style underwater ballroom spectacular and then refereeing a football match between wild animals on the island of Naboombu! Apart from the Let's Go Fly A Kite finale in Mary Poppins, Mr Banks had less of an opportunity to shine.

Comparing the songs

Firstly, it has to be said that both Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks have wonderful songs by the legendary Sherman brothers but for a young teenager, Bedknobs hit the mark. We were all at the Age of Not Believing once, and me more than anybody 'rushing around doubting everything I ever knew' mainly that . So it was a song that hit home more than say Spoonful of Sugar.

I so wanted to be like the kids accompanying Miss Price with the spell Treguna Mekoides Trecorum Satis Dee on the sidelines, clicking my fingers and bouncing up and down and making clothes and suits of armour come to life.

Cutting two songs from Bedknobs and Broomsticks — With A Flair recorded by David Tomlinson and Step In The Right Direction by Angela Lansbury — was an absolutely monstrous decision. Who cares if their inclusion pushed the running time to 2 hours and 20 minutes? My four-year-old self wouldn't have minded one bit, and back then, my attention span was pretty low. These two songs are Sherman brothers' classics and the only way to hear With a Flair and Step In The Right Direction is to go on Ebay or Amazon and try to get your hands on the 1970s Bedknobs and Broomsticks vinyl album, which I'm so grateful to still own, despite the many scratches! Luckily, I think you can still get them through Alexa and Spotify, too!

I do admit there's nothing quite as emotional as Feed The Birds from Mary Poppins, but I don't think that song really fed into the movie's narrative that well. After all it was essentially a song about a stranger who had no lines in the film. All songs in Bedknobs and Broomsticks stuck to the story wonderfully.

The human actors mixed in with animation sections worked equally well in both movies with the song Beautiful Briny hitting all the right notes in Bedknobs as Eglantine and Mr Brown danced an underwater routine with an octopus, flounder and cod among other aquatic delights in a lagoon ballroom. This was a much better format than the fox hunt and dancing penguins in Mary Poppins on their English country outing cartoon sequences. A little-known fact is that Beautiful Briny was originally intended for Mary Poppins but was rejected and thankfully ended up in Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

The plots and scenes

Both movies are based on classic children's novels Bedknobs and Broomsticks by author Mary Norton which is actually the combination of two books The Magic Bedknob and Bonfires and Broomsticks.

Nanny Mary and Eglantine Price both practice magic, but only Bedknobs has the honesty to call Miss Price a witch, albeit an apprentice one. Mary should be considered a witch too, but the 1964 never addresses this, so it is much less honest. Bedknobs and Broomsticks revels in the witchcraft and celebrates it in a light-hearted manner. There's much more of the children in this film, revealing who and what Miss Price is, which is exactly what children at that age do!

There was never any suggestion of love between Dick Van Dyke's Burt and Mary Poppins... it was strictly a magical arrangement to impress the kids Jane and Michael Banks. Romance was strictly off limits, as Mary was far too much of a prim and proper nanny for that type of nonsense, although they did undoubtedly dance well together with cartoon penguins and chimney sweeps! As Craig Revel Horwood might say if they were Strictly contestants: 'Where was the chemistry?'

Clearly Eglantine Price and Mr Brown develop a love for one another as they would. Wartime often brought romance and the movie never shied away from it.

Above all what gives Bedknobs and Broomsticks its heart and gravitas is World War Two going on in the background. It's why the evacuated kids were sent to Miss Price in the first place, why they were so worldly wise as they knew the dangers, and it was why Miss Price was trying out witchcraft — to be of some help in the war effort. Remember in 1940 when Britain was in the grip of fear that Germany was about to invade. We found out nothing about how Mary Poppins acquired her magic and if she was prepared to use it in defence of the realm. It was primarily for smaller things, like tidying up rooms and magical outings. There was just a slight hint of wider politics in Mary Poppins, as Mrs Banks was a suffragette. Otherwise, it was a deferential world of servants, privilege and doffing one's cap to your betters, plus cleaning their chimneys without health and safety!

In Bedknobs, even invading Nazis got their comeuppance from Miss Price and her army of knights, all to music, so definite echoes of The Sound of Music there!

What I liked above all in Bedknobs and Broomsticks is the kids' role in helping to initiate the magic, particularly young Paul who was owner of the magical bed knob and successfully worked out the secrets of Astoroth long before the adults. All three children helped in the magical investigations and making the all-important spell of Substitutiary Locomotion work properly by singing along with Miss Price. The kids were part of the spell-making process in Bedknobs not just the beneficiaries of the magic as in Mary Poppins.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks has the best unintended funny moment

Of course there are classic moments in both movies but my absolute favourite appealed to my childish schoolboy humour when young Paul Rawlins declared in Bedknobs and Broomsticks: "What's that got to do with my knob?" in one unintended piece of innuendo. Whether the producers intended it or not, it's a snigger-out-loud moment for most of us watchers even today. See the wonderful clip below...

There's no such moment in Mary Poppins I can think of, but my favourite is when Michael Banks was taken out for the day to the bank where his father worked and demanded his penny back. The day at the bank must have been so dull compared to the days out with Mary and Burt riding cartoon carousel horses and flying through the air whenever he laughed.

The faults

I have to admit there just aren't too many faults in either Bedknobs and Broomsticks or Mary Poppins aside from the laughable Dick Van Dyke cockney (I wont' even say 'mockney' as I think Dick himself thought he was doing a good job). But in its way the accent had charms of its own and became part of the immense Mary Poppins history.

As per above, I still don't think the songs With a Flair and Step In The Right Direction should ever have been cut from Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I loved all the songs on my album and these two were just as good as those that remained in the final cut.

It's also a shame we never got to see more of Roddy McDowall's vicar character Mr Jelk in Bedknobs. A hero of mine since the early Planet of The Apes movies, Roddy only gets two short scenes, one that involves flying clothes and his hat levitating. Apparently Roddy had more scenes than this, but they were cut as the film was thought to be overly long! I personally would love to see a 'Directors Cut' longer version, a bit like they did with Apocalypse Now, so director Robert Stevenson could put back in Roddy's scenes and also include the deleted songs (there I go again!).

Where you can watch both Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Mary Poppins so you can compare.

Make a lazy Sunday of it and watch both Bedknobs and Broomsticks and Mary Poppins back to back so you can judge for yourself.

Both are currently available on the Disney Plus streaming service, plus regularly repeated during holiday seasons like Easter and Christmas on the BBC.

Flintoff is a new tell-all documentary following Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff's unprecedented sporting career before becoming a TV icon following his cricket retirement.

The 90-minute film also reveals what really happened in December 2022 when Freddie was involved in a horrific car crash while filming Top Gear, resulting in him suffering from life-changing injuries.

In the documentary, Freddie admits he remembers ‘in vivid detail’ what happened the day of the accident, as he also takes a look back at his cricketing career and explores the future of his career.

Here is everything we know about Flintoff...

Flintoff release date

Flintoff will premiere exclusively on Disney Plus in the UK and Ireland on Friday, April 25.

What is Flintoff about?

The official synopsis from Disney reads: "Flintoff is an exclusive documentary that takes an intimate and unprecedented look at the life of one of Britain’s most beloved sportsmen and TV personalities, Andrew “Freddie” Flintoff.

"Award-winning director John Dower has been granted exclusive access to Freddie over the last year to film his recovery and document his cricketing career, and the 90-minute documentary will also include insights from Freddie's wife, Rachael, and his close friends, including Michael Vaughan, James Corden, and Jack Whitehall. The film follows his compelling life story from winning two Ashes series for England, to becoming a British TV icon, and finally, returning to the game following his life-altering car crash in 2022.

"This is a story of resilience through career highs, personal challenges, and the pressures of living under the public gaze."

Is there a trailer for Flintoff?

Yes, the trailer shows Freddie's struggles after his life-altering crash in 2022, and sees his friends and family talking about the Freddie they know and love.

You can watch the full trailer below...

Behind the scenes and more on Flintoff

The original documentary film Flintoff is executive produced by Andrew Mackenzie and Naomi Templeton for South Shore, Freddie Flintoff and executive produced for Disney+ by Sean Doyle, Executive Director, Unscripted, Disney+.

The first three episodes of Andor season 2 are now streaming on Disney Plus, but even those without a Disney Plus subscription can get a sampling of the new season of the acclaimed Star Wars show as the Andor season 2 episode 1 is airing on ABC on Wednesday, April 23, at 10 pm ET/PT.

Andor premiered on Disney Plus back in the fall of 2022, centered on Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), as it reveals how he became the Rebel hero that we see in the Star Wars movie Rogue One. The first season remains one of the most acclaimed projects in the Star Wars universe, as it earned eight Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series. That, coupled with the fact that Andor season 2 is the final season of the series, makes it one of the most anticipated TV shows of the year.

As for what fans can expect in Andor season 2 episode 1, it is titled “One Year Later” and, as suggested, picks up with Andor and other main characters a year after the events of the first season. Here is the official synopsis: “An undercover mission. A sanctuary threatened. A Chandrilan wedding. A chilling Imperial plan.”

In order to watch Andor season 2 episode 1 on ABC you must have one of the following TV setups: a traditional pay-TV provider, a TV antenna or a live TV streaming service that carries ABC (i.e. Fubo, Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV).

The airing of the Andor season 2 premiere caps a big night on ABC. Things start off at 8 pm ET/PT with back-to-back episodes of The Conners season 7, which serve as the sitcom’s series finale. After that, at 9:01 pm ET/PT, the final of Celebrity Jeopardy! season 3 is going to air.

This is not the first time that ABC has aired episodes of Andor. The network previously showed the first two episodes of the series around Thanksgiving 2022. ABC has also had special showings of other streaming original series from Hulu, including Only Murders in the Building and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives.

However, unlike the latter two, there is no expectation at this time that more episodes of Andor season 2 are going to be shown on ABC. So if you want to keep up with the latest episodes, a Disney Plus subscription is going to be necessary.

Genevieve Reilly is returning as wily senator Mon Mothma as Andor season 2 gets underway on Disney Plus, from April 22, 2025 in the US and April 23 in the rest of the world, including the UK.

As fans will know, the events in this prequel series lead directly into the 2016 movie Star Wars: Rogue One where the Rebel Alliance, of whom Mon Mothma was a big part, try to steal the Empire's Death Star secrets and space rebel Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) sacrifices his life to do just that.

As Andor season 2 gets underway, Mon Mothma is still subtly plotting rebellion from within the Empire’s ruling elite, along with the mysterious Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) and their friend Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay), but danger rears up for them during and after an eventful family wedding at Mon Mothma’s lavish Chandrila estate.

What to Watch caught up with Irish actor Genevieve Reilly recently for a Zoom call in which she told us much more about Mon Mothma's vital role in Andor season 2...

How do you feel about Mon Mothma nowas Andor season 2 begins? And how does it feel to make big history in the Star Wars saga? 

Genevieve Reilly says: "I feel very grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to play her because there is space in Andor for her to have a voice. In Andor season one Mon Mothma operated in the shadows. We learned how dextrous and secretive she had to be and how political she had to be. In Andor season two, that is really wrestled out of her. She must take risks and step forward. She must use her voice in a way we haven’t seen before.

"There are a few moments in this season that really define her for me. I was so looking forward to doing them and I think they are important not just for the woman, the character and for me playing her but they are really important for the overall story in Andor and also in the greater Star Wars story itself. People will really appreciate her voice after this final season."

How does Mon Mothma balance her political activities and her secret rebellions and other activities? 

Genevieve Reilly: "She has to really balance those two very different sides of herself. It’s vital that she can because, of course, the rebellion must be secretive. The more powerful you become, the more you have to hold. The more you have to sit on this building explosion. She must sit on it until the time comes for her to be able to risk genuine sacrifice. At the same time, we know that she has a daughter and a husband and so she has many lives she is holding within herself. But I think we all do that.

"I’m not fighting a rebellion, I understand that but I think there’s something about all of us, we have our home selves, we have so many versions of ourselves, we are a lover, a mother, a father, a sister, a brother, a colleague, a worker, a doctor, your career and so each of us, I think, does that in our lives. Mon Mothma particularly within Andor is like someone on steroids, a woman trying to contain so much risk and danger, with grace. She’s trying to maintain an effective political persona. It’s very dextrous. I feel like it’s like a sword fight. She’s perpetually sword-fighting."

What layers have you added to Mon Mothma? 

Genevieve Reilly: "There’s not much I can say without giving too much of the storyline away but what our producer Tony Gilroy did was maintain very close relationships with each of us. He would ring us, usually on a Sunday evening, I’d get a call and he would tell me his plans and what he was writing and we would talk and really discuss it.

"There’s a couple of things I don’t want to give away but I remember saying to him, ‘I really think she’s this type of woman, I really think she would do that’ and he was so receptive to it. There’s one moment I remember quite vividly. He just said to me, ‘you’re absolutely right’ and then he would write that scene. He’s an extraordinary creator and he comes with so many ideas but he also takes the time, and this is really unusual and very generous of him, not only to connect but to sit and to chat and to listen.

"Sometimes he would come with pages or scenes and ask me ‘what do you think?’ and he’s creating all the time. So that meant by the time we got to set, no one is throwing anything away. There’s no waste, there’s no extra fat. It’s very focused so by the time we got to film it’s a bit like a laser, we were all so focused. It’s quite precise and it made Andor an important workplace for me because everybody came on their game because of the discussions we had had, because of how much Tony had been involved with all of us."

How is it as an actor to play someone like Mon Mothma who is always acting herself to keep her rebel side hidden? 

Genevieve Reilly: "Often when you play characters you’ll be holding secrets. I often find that when I first read a character, I’ll wonder what their secrets are. What’s different about Andor is you know her secret as an audience so there’s a real relationship therefore between the character and the audience because you see not only the performance for the character but you also see behind the screen. There are moments when you can see her performing and there are moments when you see behind the stage. That’s a really lovely device to have and a really lovely relationship with the audience.

"Obviously, then there’s me who is the actor but I think what is beautiful about Tony Gilroy’s writing and creating and all the writers who are part of it, is the layers they create and as you watch more and more you appreciate the layers, the foundations, the nuance that is laid over one another. It feels very textured and therefore I’m hopeful that what you will see is when the woman steps out from behind the shadows of herself. You, the audience, will feel fulfilled by that because the audience have also taken that journey with Mon Mothma. You have witnessed the risk, the sacrificed so therefore when it is required for her to risk everything I think it’s dramatically very interesting."

What does it feel like to act out four different years in Andor season 2? 

Genevieve Reilly: "It’s quite an extraordinary experience actually. We often shot them in blocks. We started with episode 4, 5 and 6, because I think that’s what they do in Star Wars and then we did 7 to 12 and went back and did 1, 2 and 3.

"What’s really specific about the idea that each three episodes is a film is that like a film you get dropped into a moment, a specific moment, like a slice of a life, and you get to invest in that moment for that character. It feels very rich as an actor to do that because the work is being done by the film, you know the location you are in, you know where you are. Particularly for this piece you know that each time, you’ve jumped a year.

"So, to come off season one and then we jump a year. At the end of season one for Mon Mothma it’s a betrothal and we start season two exactly a year later and we are at a wedding. So you get to use everything from before and then you’re dropped in this moment that is so vital to the piece. You get to wrestle with it and you get to tell that whole film and that lasts maybe a weekend and then you leave it behind, jump a year and then you get dropped into another specific moment. It was quite freeing as actors for a lot of us because we didn’t need to drag the character with us, the character was dropped in a moment so the specifics of it can be very real.

"The idea that within a season you have the evolution of character that I have for Mon Mothma, I’ve never experienced before. Because we jump a year each time, the expanse of the story can be so much wider. I think the depth of understanding of character is really unparalleled for me and the layers that they set up. Sometimes I was watching it and then you jump four episodes and something I discovered in episode one is like a flower raising its petals. You realise it’s been working on you because it’s part of another film that you saw. It just adds to it. It’s something I’ve never done before, the specificality of four films and how it allows for the evolution of character."

What are the best and most challenging scenes you had to film in Andor Season 2? 

Genevieve Reilly says: "The wedding is quite extraordinary in the third episode. There are a number of things that happen at the wedding. The wedding happens over episodes one, two and three so that’s our first film for me. Obviously there are lots of other things going on for lots of other characters. There is so much held within that wedding itself. There are moments that happen that will reverberate through Mon Mothma for the rest of the season. There’s so much in it, it’s so rich. You must understand the orthodoxy, the complexity of ritual and of that family of that history and of that woman, her relationships but also when it collides politically and how it drives her forward for the rest of the season.

"The wedding was amazing. Also, there’s a scene you saw in the trailer of Mon Mothma dancing, now I can’t tell you the context of what that is or what she’s holding but just to be able to move Mon Mothma differently, because she’s usually quite statuesque, just to be able to release her from that and see this woman in what is genuinely an emotional moment felt so liberating for her as well as for me.

"Then there’s one other episode later in the series, I think it’s episode nine, where politically, you see the woman I always hoped she would be. I always hoped she would have that moment. Those are probably my two favourite moments for this character in this season. The personal and the political."

Diego Luna is back for Andor season 2, the final series, which begins on Tuesday, April 22 2025, in the US and a day later on Wednesday, April 23 in the rest of the world including the UK. Diego’s rebel space outlaw character, Cassian Andor, is again caught up in the major struggles of the Rebel Alliance against the evil Empire.

One of the most iconic structures in movie history is the foreboding Death Star from Star Wars back in 1977, and the story of how this deadly planetary weapon was constructed by the Galactic Empire continues in this second season, which of course leads into the events of the hit 2016 movie Star Wars: Rogue One.

The first season of Andor showed us how space outlaw/smuggler Cassian Andor was imprisoned on Narkina 5, where the Death Star was being secretly built by slave labour. After a dramatic mass escape, it’s now a year later in season 2 and Cassian is an integral part of the fledgling rebel alliance, with the Empire growing ever stronger and Death Star plans coming together.

Andor season 2 is broken into four groups of three episodes (shown weekly), each covering a concurrent year leading into Cassian’s heroic but ultimately tragic ending in the 2016 movie. It kicks off with Cassian at the Empire’s test facility on the planet of Sienar.

Meanwhile, villainous Orson Krennic, played by Ben Mendelsohn, reprising his movie role as the Empire’s Military director, holds a top-secret meeting with various cronies to reveal evil plans for one particular planet. There, ruthless security agent Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) and Major Lio Partagaz (Anton Lesser) share ideas on how to impress Krennic.

On the rebels’ side, wily senator Mon Mothma (Genevieve Reilly) is still subtly plotting rebellion from within the Empire’s ruling elite, along with the mysterious Luthen Rael (Stellan Skarsgård) and their friend Vel Sartha (Faye Marsay), but danger rears up for them during and after an eventful family wedding at Mon Mothma’s lavish Chandrila estate.

Adria Arjona again plays rebel mechanic Bix Caleen, and look out too for Onderonian resistance fighter Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), troubled rebel-hunter Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), plus the first appearance of the movie’s much-loved droid, K-2SO (voiced again by Alan Tudyk). Rumours are rife that even legendary Jedi villain Darth Vader steps into the fray later in the series.

Diego Luna, the 45-year-old Mexican actor who plays Cassian, spoke to What to Watch on a recent Zoom call to tease on what to expect from Andor season 2…

What challenges did you face in showing Cassian’s story this time in Andor season 2? 

Diego Luna: "The amount of time our story travels through made it challenging but as an actor it’s beautiful as you have time to bring every possible colour to your character. You can find all the nuances and small details that a film doesn’t allow you to find so you can see Cassian experiencing life in every possible way and of course, we must end up how Cassian is for the movie that finishes his story. It’s a fascinating approach, and I don’t think that’s ever going to happen to me as an actor again."

How do you see Cassian and his motives this time? 

Diego Luna says: "He’s very wounded but he must find a way to understand and become part of something bigger like the rebel alliance. He’s very afraid of how life has taken everything away from him and he doesn’t know where to place his anger, resentment and pain. He lives in a very selfish way. In his struggle to survive he forgot he could be part of something bigger. In the first season he kind of understands something about that and realises he has that potential but in this final season he has to deal with all his fears and get on with the huge fight ahead."

Was it difficult to act out the yearly time jumps in every three episodes of Andor season 2? 

Diego Luna explains: "Yes because Cassian has to go through many phases. There are major changes and big jumps in time this season. Every three episodes, you move on a year. There are four blocks of three episodes and each block is a moment in time and then a year jumps on and viewers go on to another moment in time. Keeping that in mind and planning the story arc wasn’t easy. On a personal level, every step in the journey was a step closer to the heroic end of Cassian. I went through saying goodbye to Cassian in the movie Rogue One and I was ok with that. But then the prequel Andor happened and I got to play him all over again but at en earlier time and when I was older!"

Were there any challenging moments for you when it came to filming scenes for Andor season 2? 

Diego Luna says, while chuckling: "Well I wasn’t any younger so the physical side of all the action scenes had become ever more challenging. You do feel it every morning on set when your body reminds you how old you actually are! We also shot a big chunk of it in England in January which is pretty cold for a Mexican like me! They always found a way to shoot on a very warm planet when it was bitterly cold weather so you could see your own breath.

"You think, this isn’t going to work on screen, but they could fix that digitally! What they couldn’t fix for actors is that you’re absolutely freezing and shivering and have to pretend you are nice and warm. That is challenging for anyone, but cold weather is definitely worse to cope with for a Mexican! Also very challenging was trying to keep all the information in my head, such as where we were in the story and how this affected things. Following events over four different years was hardcore."

Andor reveals the history of how the rebellion started… so what significance does this show have for the whole of the Star Wars franchise?

Diego Luna explains: "Cassian’s journey matters in the Star Wars universe because it shows regular people having to get their hands dirty. They have to get involved in the rebellion for survival and that’s why Andor is unique. It’s about how the community understands their strength. The cherry on top is definitely the movie Rogue One. There you see the rebels risk everything to the point where they are sacrifices to a greater cause…"

The Stolen Girl is a psychological thriller that follows the harrowing story of a couple, Fred and Elisa, whose 9-year-old daughter, Lucia, is kidnapped during a sleepover with her new best friend.

The five-part series, which is based on the bestselling novel Playdate by Alex Dahl, then sees horror unfold for Fred and Elisa as secrets and lies are revealed in the days that follow Lucia's disappearance.

Soon, the twists and turns keep coming as the police try and work out how Lucia was taken, and why...

Here is everything that happens in The Stolen Girl episode 5...

The final episode opens with a flashback to five years before Lucia was taken. We see Elisa at work as cabin crew on a private jet, and she is serving champagne to Marcus, who is looking very smart in his business suit, and nothing like the man we have seen in prison over the course of the series.

It cuts to them in bed together at a hotel and Elisa is saying that her pregnancy is going to start showing soon. Marcus says he can't wait to be a father to their baby, but also to Lucia, too, and Elisa says they will soon be a family, but they have to think about Fred, too, as his relationship with Lucia is important. Speaking of fathers, Marcus questions if Elisa wants to go and visit her father as she has just learned that he only has 6 months left to live.

Elisa is cagy about her dad, and Marcus says she can talk to him about anything. She admits that she had a really weird childhood and that her parents always made her feel like she was the one who was doing something wrong, not the other way around. Marcus says he thinks that she might regret it if she doesn't go back and says he will go with her. Elisa points out it might be weird to visit her parents with her lover and her daughter, but he says she needs someone on her side, and he wants to be that person. In the end, she agrees.

The flashback continues to them visiting the commune and meeting Elisa's parents. Marcus is polite as they have lunch, and Elisa's parents grill him on whether he is a religious man or not. Elisa is cold with her father, and when he says it is good to have them all together as a family, Elisa says there is a reason that she hasn't been back and her father leaves the table. Elisa follows him upstairs and she tells him to get away from a sleeping Lucia, and says that she only came back to make sure that he really was dying, and that after today he will never see her or Lucia again. As he tries to stop her from leaving, she shoves past him, and he falls down the stairs.

The episode then jumps to seven weeks after Lucia was taken and Elisa and Selma are on a private jet heading to France. Selma asks for more information about what happened with the crash and Marcus, and Elisa says if she helps her track down Nina, then she will give her the story - all of it.

Nina goes back to get the passport from Joao, but he's not at home, so she waits in the car. While there, she has a flashback to the day of the crash and she is in the car with Nicolas and their daughters, Rose and Josie. Josie feels sick, so they pull over and Nina gets Josie out of the car and takes her to a grass verge to be sick, and while her back is turned, she hears a car speeding down the road and it smashes into their car. Before she has even turned around, she knows it is bad, and when she looks, the other car is speeding away from the crash, and the car with Rose and Nicolas inside is upside down in a tangled mess. We return to the present day, and Nina is in her car, sobbing quietly as she remembers the horror of what happened.

Fred gets home and finds that Elisa has gone and her passport is missing. He calls Sinclair and she is fuming that Selma and Elisa have gone to France and tells her colleague that they need to get to Selma's colleagues at Dash to find out more about her and also work out if they were picked up at the airport or hired a car.

Caleb calls Selma and he isn't happy at all - especially when the police turn up at the office. Once he knows she is in France, he calls her again and this time, she answers. He says this isn't about her job anymore and that she is putting Lucia in danger and also the reputation of Dash Voice on the line. She is also risking being an accessory, and the police already know she and Elisa are in France trying to find Nina. He hangs up after telling her to call Sinclair and tell her everything she knows.

Elisa asks what has happened and Selma says she is pretty sure she just been sacked becasue she hasn't called the police. Meanwhile, Nina gets a notification on her phone that says there is a new suspect in the Lucia kidnapping case, and when she clicks on it, her own photo comes up, leaving her horrified.

Elisa and Selma scour the local schools to see if anyone knows Nina or Josie, but no one will give out information. One teacher says that if Nina doesn't want to be found, maybe she is home-schooling the girls and that they should check with the mayor's office. But while they are talking, they realise Nina's face is all over the news now and Elisa is terrified she is going to panic and run.

Back at Joao's flat, Nina is desperately trying to get the passport for Lucia but ends up having to pay one of his neighbours 500 euros to find him. They track him down, and she gets the passport, but soon she hears police sirens, and Joao tells her she needs to run. She makes it back to her car and it looks like the police might be closing in on her when they suddenly stop and race into the building that she has just left.

At the mayor's office, Selma gets an address for Nina through the homeschooling register and Elisa wants to head there. Selma says they don't know what they are going to be walking into and says they need to call the police, and Elisa reluctantly agrees at last. But, when Selma turns her back to call the police, Elisa drives off, leaving her stranded in the car park.

At the farmhouse, Lucia finds the key for the lockbox after watching Nina opening it the day before. Inside, she finds wads of cash and the photo that Nina was photoshopping with the birthmark printed out, but there is also the same image without the birthmark and this makes Lucia realise that she isn't Nina's daughter. She quickly replaces the box and walks outside, freaking out when she sees the bloodstain on the floor. She follows the trail where Nina dragged Milan's body and looks into the well where she can see him dead at the bottom. Terrified, she runs away, but bumps into the neighbour who brought the wine round the other evening. He asks if she is okay and tells him she needs help.

He takes her back home as Nina arrives back in her car. He tells her that there is a dead man in her well and she tries to act surprised. He says that he tried to call the police, but he doesn't have a signal, and she tells him they also don't have a phone. He tells Nina that Lucia also said she isn't her mother, and Nina tries to whisk Lucia into the house, telling the neighbor he is being ridiculous. He wants to take Lucia becasue she seems scared of Nina, but Nina tells him no. However, when Nina tells the girls to get their bags becasue they are leaving, Lucia runs out of the front door when Nina's back is turned.

Meanwhile, Elisa is driving to the house and arrives to see Nina's car door open and no one in the house. She gets to the girls' bedroom and sees evidence that Lucia has been there, but then in the hallway she sees the blood stain on the floor and fears the worst.

Outside, she follows a path through the garden and sees Josie and Nina running, not realising they are trying to find Lucia, who has run away. Elisa yells at Nina, asking what she has done with her daughter, and she says she is too late and that she has gone.

Nina says that Elisa has taken everything from her, but Elisa says it was an accident, but that her kidnapping Lucia was premeditated. Nina sees red and lashes out, yelling that she left the scene of the accident and lied about what happened - she shoves her against a tree but Elisa overpowers her and tells her to stop.

She admits that she was the one driving the car, meaning she was the one who killed Nicolas and Rose and drove off when Marcus told her to. Nina tells her she went back to her perfect life when she had just ruined everything for her, but Elisa says her life was far from perfect, and that her father sexually abused her from when she was Lucia's age, and her mother just let him. She says she panicked when she saw her father with Lucia that day, and she had to get her daughter out of there, so she grabbed her and ran. She says it was an accident, but she was driving too fast and their car was in the road. She tells her that she should never have driven off and she's sorry.

Elisa assumes that Lucia is dead after seeing the blood stain and asks her to show her where her daughter's body is so she can at least take her home. But Nina finally admits Lucia isn't dead and that she is hiding in the garden somewhere. Elisa runs off to find her daughter and she eventually tracks her down to her hiding spot. Lucia is thrilled to see her mum and they have an emotional reunion where Elisa tells Lucia she is safe now.

Nina drives off with Josie in the car, and Josie asks where Lucia is. Nina tells her she has gone to live with her other family and that it is just the two of them now.

The episode then flashes to 12 weeks after Lucia was found, and Caleb is at court covering a case for the website when he bumps into Selma. He asks her how it is being freelance now and she says it is good, and that she is there to support Elisa, not as a journalist. Caleb asks after Nina and Selma reveals that she has vanished and no one can find her.

Fred is acting as Elisa's defence lawyer and he tells her that whatever happens, they will appeal, but she says she doesn't want to. She tells him she is sorry for what happened and that she loves him, and he says that although George isn't his biological son, he will always love him like he is, and they hold hands across the table.

Elisa knows that she needs to pay for what happened to Nicolas and Rose, and when the judge tells her she has got six years in prison for death by dangerous driving and perverting the course of justice, she accepts her fate.

Fred takes George and Lucia to the crazy golf place we saw them visit in the flashback and Lucia asks if they can come back when her mummy is back and that next time her and George are going to win, and Fred says of course they can.

The shot then pans to Elisa, who is alone in her cell as the door slams shut.

The five-part thriller The Stolen Girl is available in the UK on Disney Plus as a box set now. In the US, Freeform will roll out episodes weekly at 10pm ET beginning 16 April 2025, and episodes will be available to stream the next day April 17 2025 on Hulu.

For more on Stolen Girl and other shows out this week, listen to our Bingewatch Podcast.

The Stolen Girl is a psychological thriller that follows the harrowing story of a couple, Fred and Elisa, whose 9-year-old daughter, Lucia, is kidnapped during a sleepover with her new best friend.

The five-part series, which is based on the bestselling novel Playdate by Alex Dahl, then sees horror unfold for Fred and Elisa as secrets and lies are revealed in the days that follow Lucia's disappearance.

Soon, the twists and turns keep coming as the police try and work out how Lucia was taken, and why...

Here is everything that happens in The Stolen Girl episode 4...

The penultimate episode opens with a flashback of Fred and Elisa playing crazy golf on a day out with George and Lucia and they are all having a great time, but while they enjoy themselves, someone is watching them from afar.

We then return to the present day, which is now seven weeks since Lucia was taken. Elisa is a guest on a local radio show and during the interview she asks listeners who might have information about Lucia's kidnapping to come forward, hoping someone might know Rebecca as she is English.

The host of the radio show says there have been stories in the press about Elisa's background and criticism about the fact she has been posting so much on social media, and Elisa seems shocked by the questions, but the host says she is giving her the chance to respond to what people are saying. When the radio host puts pressure on Elisa, she says she can't do this and walks out of the interview.

Selma returns to the commune in Eyton and finds Elisa's old friend. She finds out that last time Elisa came home to the commune wasn't for her father, Daniel's, funeral like she presumed but it was on the day her dad died. Selma says she looked up Elisa's father's death certificate and it says he fell down the stairs and the friend confirms that is what happened but that Elisa left the commune before the ambulance even got there.

Selma goes to the local police station to find out more about Daniel's death and finds the officer who was first on the scene after he died. He says they don't have a lot to do with the commune and but there was a thorough investigation into Daniel's death and it was ruled to be an accident. She asks how long he had been dead when the police arrived, and the officer says it was a few hours because there was a bad road traffic accident nearby that took up his time.

In France, the police have found the abandoned car that Milan dumped in the countryside and when Rebecca/Nina's phone pings into action when she gets a signal, it turns out to be a burner phone and it is Milan telling her the car has been found. She calls him and leaves a voicemail asking for an emergency passport and he messages back with an address.

Back in the UK, Sinclair tells Fred that the car used to transport Lucia has been found and that they will have a report on it in the next few days. Meanwhile, Elisa takes George to a school fair where everyone stares at her and another mum tells her that she thinks her social media posts are vulgar and is mean when she says she should be protecting her children and not using them.

Elisa is upset, and when they get home, she finds a social worker is there to do a welfare check on George. It turns out that social services have received multiple calls with concerns about his welfare and while Fred is trying to be polite and understanding to make the meeting go smoothly, Elisa is exhausted and gets upset when the social worker asks to speak to George in private.

At work Selma tries to tell Caleb that there is something odd about the fact Elisa was there when her dad died but left before the ambulance arrived. He is furious that she went back to the commune, even though it was her day off, and tells her she already has a complaint against her from the Blix family, and if she gets another one, her career will be over.

In France, Nina goes to the address that Milan sent her and asks the man for a passport. When he realises it is for Lucia, who he recognises from the news, he says no - but she negociates with him and he says it will cost her 15,000 euros. She pays him half now and says she will pay the rest when she collects it tomorrow.

At the office, Selma works out that the crash near where Elisa grew up was caused by someone called Marcus Turner, who went to prison for manslaughter after death by dangerous driving. He is the owner of a chain of hotels and Elisa has images of her on her social media visiting them, so Selma goes to see Elisa to find out more.

Once there, Elisa can't work out why Selma is writing horrible things about her when her daughter is missing, but she says she is trying to get to the bottom of why Lucia was kidnapped. It turns out Marcus Turner is the man we have seen in the prison tearing stories out of the newspaper about Lucia.

Selma asks why Elisa was with Marcus when she went back to see her parents that day - questioning if she was pregnant with George then and also if she had an affair with Marcus. Elisa denies having an affair, and Selma says that if she has nothing to hide then she won't mind her going to visit Marcus in jail.

Meanwhile, in France, Josie wakes in the night to find that there is someone in the house. She wakes Nina, who gets the girls to hide in the closet while she confronts the intruder. It is Milan, he is in all kinds of trouble with the police because of kidnapping and he has nowhere to go, so he wants more money. He says that Nina lied to him and said Lucia was her daughter, and she says that Lucia is her daughter, but he calls her crazy. She tries to stop him from searching for money, but he says he will just kill her first and then find the money. Soon, Milan has his hands around Nina's throat and it looks like she is about to die when Josie calls out 'mummy' and distracts Milan, giving Nina time to grab a knitting needle and stab him to death. Nina is shaken by what just happened, and Josie has seen it all.

The next morning, Elisa goes to the prison to see Marcus at the same time Selma is trying to get a visit booked with him, with not much luck.

Selma does more digging into Marcus and sees he got 11 years for dangerous driving and pled guilty. She calls one of the websites that covered the story at the time and asks if they have any other images from the court case that weren't used at the time. The other journalist sends them over and she looks through and finds one that has Nina in it, who is named on the image as Nina Thibault, the wife of Nicolas Thibault - Selma compares the image of Nina to the photo of Rebecca provided by the police and realizes it is the same woman.

In prison, Marcus is surprised to see Elisa and she tells him she is sorry that she hasn't been to see him or answered his letters. He has a swollen and bloody face and she asks what happened, but he says that is what happens in prison. He tells her that he can't believe she is here and she asks if he has told anyone what happened, and he says no, and that he is in prison for them and their son, meaning George is Marcus's son and not Fred's.

Marcus says he is sorry for encouraging her to go back to the commune and she says he can't beat himself up about it and he wasn't to know becasue she hadn't told anyone - meaning there is still a huge secret that she is hiding. Elisa tells him that she will never be able to repay him for what he has done for her and George and that she is sorry. Once again, she asks if anyone else knows about what happened and he reveals that Nicolas's wife came to the prison to see him and that her name is Nina. She asked why he was traveling on the road that day and he confesses he told her he had been traveling alone and hadn't told Nina about her. When she gets out of the prison, Elisa looks at her phone and finds a message from Selma with a photo, asking if this is the woman who took Lucia... It is the image of Nina outside the court, and Elisa instantly recognises her as being Rebecca.

When she gets to the police station to meet Fred, she shows him the image and asks if this is Sarah Banks, who he had phone sex with, and it is the same woman. So, Nina has been posing as Sarah and Rebecca, and now both of Fred and Elisa's affairs have been woven into one big nightmare. As she asks if Nina talked to him about France, he struggles to remember, asking why the journalist suddenly has a picture of Nina - but Elisa leaves out the information about Marcus before dashing off.

Back in France, Nina is trying to get rid of Milan's body and throws him into a well. As she is scrubbing blood from the floor, Lucia sees her and runs off. Later, Nina is washing her hands and looks in the mirror to find her face is covered in Milan's blood. She is horrified as the enormity of what has happened hits her, and she silently screams so the girls can't hear her.

In the UK, Elisa is trying to get a flight to Toulon in France through work when she finds Selma at her door. Selma says that Nicolas's family were from Toulon and that she needs to go to the police with what she has found, but Elisa begs her not to tell the police because if she does, they will arrest her.

Selma is confused about why, and then Elisa says she will do anything if she just lets her go to Toulon to bring her daughter back without the police. So Selma says in return she wants to know everything about Elisa's past, she wants her to drop the complaint againt her - and she announces she is coming to Toulon with her, to which Elisa has no choice but to agree.

The five-part thriller The Stolen Girl is available in the UK on Disney Plus as a box set now. In the US, Freeform will roll out episodes weekly at 10pm ET beginning 16 April 2025, and episodes will be available to stream the next day April 17 2025 on Hulu.

For more on Stolen Girl and other shows out this week, listen to our Bingewatch Podcast.

The Stolen Girl is a psychological thriller that follows the harrowing story of a couple, Fred and Elisa, whose 9-year-old daughter, Lucia, is kidnapped during a sleepover with her new best friend.

The five-part series, which is based on the bestselling novel Playdate by Alex Dahl, then sees horror unfold for Fred and Elisa as secrets and lies are revealed in the days that follow Lucia's disappearance.

Soon, the twists and turns keep coming as the police try and work out how Lucia was taken, and why...

Here is everything that happens in The Stolen Girl episode 3...

The third episode opens with a flashback to nine months before Lucia was kidnapped. Rebecca is shopping in a French town when someone called Delphine recognises her, but calls her Nina. She asks after Rebecca's husband Nicholas, but she says that he died in an accident four years ago, and Delphine seems genuinely upset by the news. She asks after the 'girls,' and Rebecca says they are doing fine and are nine years old now and go to boarding school. Delphine asks if she is back in France for long, and Rebecca says she bought Nicholas's parents' farmhouse and lives there now. Delphine says she is a teacher at the local school and that Rebecca should send the girls to her, but Rebecca makes excuses and a hasty exit.

Time jumps to seven months before Lucia was kidnapped and we see Rebecca arriving at the old farmhouse, opening all the shutters, and it looks like it has been closed up for years.

Time then jumps to four months before Lucia was kidnapped, and Rebecca is in town asking a woman working in a cafe if her name is Laure Claes. Laure confirms that it is and Rebecca says she has been told that Laure can introduce her to a man called Milan Matkovic. Laure instantly says no, but it is clear she knows who Rebecca is talking about. Rebecca claims that her daughter was taken from her and she has done everything that the authorities told her to do, but they still won't give her back. She tells Laure that her husband is dead and she needs their help, but Laure says that no amount of money would be enough to go back to their old life. Rebecca begs, telling Laure that her daughter is growing up without her and she has tried everything to get her back, and now this is the only way. She shows Laure a photo of her daughter, and it is Lucia.

Time flashes to three weeks before Lucia was kidnapped and we see Rebecca arriving at the rental house and getting the keys from a key safe. It then flashes to the moment she met Elisa at the school when she was late to pick up Lucia.

In the present day we see Lucia at the farmhouse in France, but she has had a bad dream and Rebecca finds her sleeping on the floor next to her bed. She tells Lucia that she is her mummy and that the other family were only meant to look after her for a bit while she was sick, but then they wouldn't give her back. She says she has missed her so much and gives her a toy bunny that she used to carry around when she was little. Lucia asks to call her mummy, and Rebecca tells her they can't because they don't have a phone or mobile signal, and anyway, she is her mummy and she is home now.

Back in the UK Fred walks into a police station and tells her woman on the desk that they are probably looking for him. He is battered and bruised and soon has his photo taken and his fingerprints and swabs are done. He asks after Lucia, and the officer tells him that they have arrested the hoaxer for the ransom letter, and this is news to Fred, but they won't tell him any more.

Sinclair calls Elisa to say Fred has handed himself in for assault and Elisa is fuming that he has made such a mess when they are meant to be looking for their daughter.

At work, Selma gets praise from Cale,b who says the editors were thrilled with her hoax ransom letter and that traffic on the site is up. He says the story is hers now and that he glossed over how she got the doorbell footage. At her desk, she looks up Elisa on the electoral register and searches for her birth certificate and it turns out she was born in a religious commune in Eyton, so Selma heads there to see if she can find her family.

Once she gets there, everyone in the community is wearing red and one woman knows Elisa and says they grew up together. She knows that she is there about Lucia as the police have already been to speak to Elisa's mother. Selma finds Deborah Stanton, who is weaving wool by hand, and tells her that she hasn't seen Lucia for five years. She tells Selma that she and Elisa don't see eye to eye, mainly becasue of the commune that Deborah lives in. She says her daughter wanted to see the world and have a normal life and so she left and now Deborah finds it easier to tell herself that she no longer has a daughter.

Back at the police station, Elisa is there to get Fred and Sinclair finds them and tells them she has news. She reveals they have named the man with Lucia in the CCTV as Milan Matkovic and that he is known by French police for people trafficking. Neither Fred or Elisa recognise images of Milan or Laure Claes and Sinclair also asks Fred if Laure Claes could be Sarah that he had the fling with, but he says no. They ask about the money from the loan that he got from the bank without Elisa knowing and ask what the money was used for. He is adamant it has nothing to do with Lucia going missing and the money went on school fees, new windows for the kitchen, flight upgrades and holidays. The list goes on and on, and Fred says they spent it all and Elisa is stunned.

Back at the commune, Selma walks around and finds Elisa's old friend in a clothing shop where everything is red. The friend says they trade things there and that she likes Selma's shoes, so Selma agrees to swap them in exchange for some information about Elisa. She asks when she left the commune and the friend says she was 16 becasue she never fitted in and that Deborah punished her quite badly for it. She says that she last came back when her dad died, and before she goes, the friend makes Selma swap shoes.

In France, Rebecca/Nina is making breakfast for the girls when Josie tells Lucia that she has photos of them when they were little. We can see that it is definitely Lucia in the pictures when she was a baby, as the girl in the picture has the same distinctive birthmark on her shoulder. Lucia asks who the man is in the photo and Rebecca says it is her father, but that he died in an accident five years ago.

Later Rebecca/Nina is in a cafe where she swaps the sim card on her phone, when she gets the new one in, she looks at Elisa's social meida and is shocked that Elisa has posted images of Milan Matkovic asking if anyone knows him, and also the CCTV footgae of him chasing Lucia through the service station. She calls Milan and is furious, but he tells her he took every precaution and that he has dumped the car in the place they agreed, and that she isn't to call him again. She goes to the place he dumped the car, picks up some smashed mirror, and drives off.

At the office Selma is telling Caleb about the commune and says she has an idea for a piece on Elisa's background, saying that becasaue they all look after one another's kids in the commune, that is probably why she thought it was okay to leave her daughter with someone she had only known for a few hours. She says Elisa has reinvented herself, but this proves you can run from the past but you can never truly escape it - Caleb loves it and tells her to get it to him in an hour.

Elisa reads Selma's story online and is shocked, telling Fred that Selma is implying that it is her fault that Lucia has been kidnapped.

In the prison, the inmate who wrote the letter to Elisa posts it, and gets threatened by another prisoner when he finds the stashed images of Lucia he has torn from the papers, but it still isn't revealed how he knows the family.

In France, Rebecca/Nina is shocked when a man arrives unannounced at the farmhouse, he says he is a neighbour and has come to introduce himself. He gives her some wine and says that if she ever needs anything then to just call him, but she is a bit rude and says she doesn't think she will need his help. He seems a bit put out and leaves, but the whole time she is worrying that the girls might come out and blow their cover.

At dinner, Josie asks who the man was and Rebecca/Nina explains, telling her that he was just a neighbour but they shouldn't tell people too much about their family becasue Lucia was taken from the once and they can't let it happen again. That night, Lucia has another nightmare about and Rebecca/Nina comforts her, telling her she started having nightmares after her daddy's accident and that is probably what they are about.

Felix from the French branch of Selma's news website calls to say they police in France have been searching a house where they think Lucia was being held and that they have found her blood - she says there isn't enough blood to be conclusive and so it could have been a 'clean up'. Caleb says he is going to write it up - but Selma wants to do it. However, Caleb says IPSO is still investigating the Blix's complaint about her piece on Elisa and so it isn't a good idea.

Sinclair goes to tell Fred and Elisa about the blood found at the apartment where Milan was holding Lucia and Elisa is devastated, convinced this means the worst for her daughter.

Meanwhile, we flick to Lucia on the beach in France with Josie and Rebecca/Nina, and she is laughing and seems happy. As the girls are playing, Rebecca/Nina sees a man nearby on the beach reading a newspaper and on the front is a picture of Lucia with a news report about her kidnapping. She is about to gather the girls and leave when Delphine arrives with her daughter, Sophie and talks to the girls, but Rebecca/Nina freezes, not knowing if Lucia speaks French - but to her relief, she replies in French that she is called Lulu Rose when Delphine asks her name.

Later, at home, Rebecca/Nina finds a key hidden in a wardrobe and uses it to open a trunk with a hidden laptop in there. She is looking for more photos of when the girls were little becasue Lucia has asked to see them. She gets the laptop and opens an image of two babies together, but we then see her photoshopping a birthmark onto one of the girl's shoulders, and it seems Lucia isn't her daughter, after all.

The five-part thriller The Stolen Girl is available in the UK on Disney Plus as a box set now. In the US, Freeform will roll out episodes weekly at 10pm ET beginning 16 April 2025, and episodes will be available to stream the next day April 17 2025 on Hulu.

For more on Stolen Girl and other shows out this week, listen to our Bingewatch Podcast.

The Stolen Girl is a psychological thriller that follows the harrowing story of a couple, Fred and Elisa, whose 9-year-old daughter, Lucia, is kidnapped during a sleepover with her new best friend.

The five-part series, which is based on the bestselling novel Playdate by Alex Dahl, then sees horror unfold for Fred and Elisa as secrets and lies are revealed in the days that follow Lucia's disappearance.

Soon, the twists and turns keep coming as the police try and work out how Lucia was taken, and why...

Here is everything that happened in The Stolen Girl episode 2

The second episode opens with a flashback to when Lucia is at her playdate with Josie. They are playing hide and seek and trying on Rebecca's clothes. But when Lucia suggests trying on Josie's father's clothes, Josie replies that her dad is dead, but she wasn't supposed to tell her that. Rebecca comes in and says she has made hot chocolate, and after the girls have finished their drinks, she asks Josie to go and put her pajamas on while Lucia stays with her in the kitchen. She asks Lucia if she can call her Lulu like her mummy does, and Lucia says she can.

Lucia then gets sleepy, and Rebecca tells her to lie down on the sofa and it becomes clear that Rebecca has drugged Lucia's hot chocolate. The doorbell rings and Rebecca lets in a man wearing gloves, who picks up a sleeping Luica and carries her out of the house, all while Josie is downstairs. The man carries Lucia to the car, puts her in a suitcase and zips it up.

The episode then flashes forward to five days after Lucia's kidnapping and Geroge is having breakfast alone at home when a letter addressed to the Blix family comes through the door. He takes it to a sleeping Elisa but drops it on the floor and forgets about it, leaving Elisa clueless to its existence.

Elisa goes for a drive and she has flashbacks to all the moments with Rebecca that she should have realized something didn't add up - the fact she knew what Fred's job was and the fact she didn't want Elisa taking photos of Josie. Realising this is the last photo she has of her daughter, Elisa posts it on her social media, asking if anyone knows the other child in the image, even though it is taken from behind both girls as they ran away, playing.

Selma is doing a story on a local out-of-control pig and hating every minute of it when her phone pings and she sees the image that Elisa has just uploaded to her social media. She calls her boss, Caleb, and says she wants to try and get an interview with Elisa, and he tells her it is impossible because the police won't let her. Selma says Elsia has been all over her social media for the last 7 or 8 years, but before that, there is nothing, no previous jobs or drunken uni photos, which she thinks is odd and means she might have changed her identity.

DI Shona Sinclair goes to see Fred and Elisa and tells them that although it has been five days, they are no closer to finding Lucia and that whoever took her planned it meticuliously. She also has a go at Elisa about the fact that she released the photo of Josie and Lucia, telling her that it is essential that the police have control over what is released into the public domain.

Later, as she is playing with George, Elisa finally finds the letter and it says the kidnappers want money in return for Lucia's safety.

The episode then cuts to a prison where someone called Marcus Turner is collecting his newspaper for the day.. back in his cell, he tears out all the bits about Lucia and hides them in his pillowcase.

Fred and Elisa take the letter to the police, who swab it for prints. They say it was delivered at 7.47 am, according to their doorbell footage. The person posting the letter has a hat and hoodie on, which means the police can't use facial recognition. DI Shona Sinclair says they shouldn't pay the ransom money so quickly, as there is nothing in the letter that only the kidnapper would know. DI Shona Sinclair also points out there is no proof that Lucia is still alive, which upsets Fred and Elisa, who are desperate to pay and get their daughter back.

Selma gets home and tells her girlfriend that she has just found out from a leaky police officer that there is a ransom letter, but she says it makes no sense that it has taken this long to send a letter and says why someone would risk hand-delivering it to the door.

At home, Elisa hears more post coming through the door and thinks it could be another letter, but it is just takeaway flyers. She sees Fred dressed in a suit and realizes he is going to work, despite the fact that someone else is meant to be covering his cases. She begs him not to leave, but he insists and questions if he knows something that he isn't telling her, but he promises he knows as much as she does.

Elisa leaves George with her mother in law and heads out, but as she is leaving Selma catches up with her and says she knows about the ransom letter, and although the police will advise her not to pay, she has known other people this has happened to and there is an independent negotiator that she can recommend. Elisa doesn't want to listen and drives off after begging Selma not to write about the letter. Elisa heads to the bank and asks to take out a loan for £100,000 but refuses to say what it is for. She says she wants to secure it against the house and is annoyed when the woman at the bank says she would need to talk to Fred as the house is in both their names. She says there is also already a loan against the house for £200,000 that Elisa is meant to have taken out with Fred, although she knows nothing about it.

Back at home, Elisa calls Fred and he doesn't answer so she leaves a voicemail about the missing £200,000 and the fact he forged her signature. She begs her husband to call her back and tries to get him at work, but he is in a meeting with the police and a client.

Selma is in a games arcade where she meets DC Daniel Coolidge and it turns out he is the police officer who told her about the ransom note. She pays him £500 for the insider info, and he gives her the photo from the doorbell footage of the person hand-delivering the random note.

Fred is at work in a meeting with his client and the police. His client thanks him for coming, but Fred is off with him, and when he leaves, he follows him in his car. Elisa is worried about where he is and so calls DI Sinclair to help her find him. The police start to search for Fred, but he is in his car following his client.

Selma does a reverse image search on the doorbell footage picture and realises she recognises the hat that the person delivering the letter is wearing. She searches the people who message into the newsdesk, spamming them with theories, and it is a woman, Rachel, who has been messaging them about the Lucia case for days.

Selma calls Caleb and tells him that she thinks the letter is a hoax, but that if they go to the police, they will want to know where she got the image from. Caleb tells her to go to Elisa with the information first. Selma tells Elisa about Rachel, and Elisa seems upset, saying that she thought that if this was about money, then Lucia would likely still be alive. She finally seems to be opening up to Selma, telling her that she feels like she is losing her mind. Selma says she wants to help, but when she says she has been running background checks on Elisa and can't see where she grew up or any information on her before she became Mrs Blix, Elisa slams the door in her face.

The police arrest Rachel for the hoax ransom letter while Fred continues to trail his client, but he has realised he is being followed and confronts Fred and asks why. Fred says they have been over the details of their case a million times, but then the week his daughter goes missing, the client suddenly can't remember the details the police need. He lashes out, punching his client to the ground, and the men fight in the street. But his client is adamant he has nothing to do with Lucia's kidnapping, and Fred realises he has made a mistake.

Early the next morning, DI Shona Sinclair gets a call from someone working on the case to say they have got footage from a petrol station in Northern France of a girl escaping a car and then being chased and dragged back into the vehicle. Shona watches it on her phone, and it is Lucia... but the footage was from 5 days ago. She tells her colleague to get an ID of the man from the French police and more CCTV footage.

Shona says she is with Fred's car, which is still parked outside his client's house, miles from his own home and the keys are still inside. Meanwhile, we see Fred wandering the streets while Marcus, in the prison from the beginning of the epsiode, is folding up a letter and putting it in an envelope while sitting in his cell, and the envelope is addressed to Elisa.

In France, we see the car with Lucia in it driving up to an old house. A man gets her out the car and takes her hand, leading her to the back garden. Rebecca and Josie come running out, and Rebecca asks why there is blood on Lucia's face. The man says that she got a nosebleed and so they had to change her clothes, and Lucia asks for her mummy. Rebecca tells her she is so sorry, the journey must have been horrible, but it was 'the only way'. She tells Lucia that she is here now and everything is going to be perfect, before telling her, 'Welcome home, Lulu-Rose'.

The five-part thriller The Stolen Girl is available in the UK on Disney Plus as a box set now. In the US, Freeform will roll out episodes weekly at 10pm ET beginning 16 April 2025, and episodes will be available to stream the next day April 17 2025 on Hulu.

For more on Stolen Girl and other shows out this week, listen to our Bingewatch Podcast.

The Stolen Girl is a psychological thriller that follows the harrowing story of a couple, Fred and Elisa, whose 9-year-old daughter, Lucia, is kidnapped during a sleepover with her new best friend.

The five-part series, which is based on the bestselling novel Playdate by Alex Dahl, then sees horror unfold for Fred and Elisa as secrets and lies are revealed in the days that follow Lucia's disappearance.

The twists and turns keep coming as the police try and work out how Lucia was taken, and why...

Here is everything that happens in The Stolen Girl episode 1...

The first episode opens with a car driving along a country road and it cuts to the boot, where a young girl, Lucia, is locked inside. When the boot opens she asks 'Who are you?'.

The episode then cuts to a woman, Elisa Blix, at work as cabin crew on a private jet. She races off as soon as the plane lands, as she is late for the school run. When she arrives at the school, she is late, and the teacher isn't impressed that she has had to wait with Lucia, Elisa's daughter.

The teacher is short with Elisa, but another mum, Rebecca, backs her up, and they become instant friends. She says they are new and her daughter, Josie, has befriended Lucia since she arrived. They invite Lucia for a playdate, and Elisa isn't sure as she has only just met this woman; however, the girls beg and Rebecca assures her it is no trouble, so Elisa agrees to two hours and then she will come and collect her.

At home, Elisa is trying to get her son, George, to eat some dinner when her husband, Fred, arrives home from work where he is a criminal lawyer. Elisa's phone rings and it is Lucia calling from Rebecca's phone, asking if she can sleep over. Elisa isn't sure as she has never had a sleepover before, but soon, Rebecca is on the phone reassuring her that Lucia will be fine and invites Elisa over to bring Lucia's overnight stuff and see what she thinks when she's here.

Once she arrives, Elisa is taken aback by Rebecca's amazing house and finds out that she used to be a make up artist before becoming a mum, and her husband, Jack, works for a bank. The women are making small talk as the girls come in dressed in matching fairy costumes. Elisa goes to take a photo of them, but Rebecca freaks out, telling her she doesn't like people taking pictures of her daughter without her permission, and Elisa is apologetic. She says that Lucia clearly wants to stay, so she leaves her overnight bag and heads off, saying bye to her daughter, who is having too much fun to reply.

The following morning, Elisa is at work on the private jet when she calls Fred and asks if he has spoken to Rebecca. He says she called earlier to say she was taking the girls swimming and that she would drop Lucia home by 12.

After her flight, Elisa calls Fred and asks if she can speak to Lucia, but he says she isn't back yet and they must have stopped for lunch or something. She points out it is already 2.30 pm and he panics, not realising how late it has got. He asks whether Lucia called the night before from Rebecca's phone, and Elisa says she did - but he thinks that is odd because when Rebecca called that morning, it was from a withheld number. When Elisa tries to call Rebecca, the number isn't working, and once she lands she is shocked to see Fred at the airport. He is worried because he's been calling the number on the fridge, and no one is picking up.

The pair head straight to Rebecca's house, but a cleaner answers and when they say they are looking for Rebecca, she tells them no one lives there and it is a holiday let. Elisa and Fred are stunned as the reality sets in that Lucia has been kidnapped and they need to call the police.

Elisa is living every parents' worst nightmare as the police arrive at the house and are taken to the station to make their statements. The whole thing is too much for Elisa, who struggles with the enormity of what is happening, and Fred holds her as she breaks down, sobbing.

The police hold a press conference and journalist Selma Desai arrives just as it is starting. DI Shona Sinclair leads the press conference and explains to the press that Rebecca isn't the suspect's real name and that she provided an alias to the school. DI Sinclair tells the press they won't be taking questions and Elisa makes a statement pleading with Rebecca to let her daughter come home. At the end of the press conference, Fred and Elisa file out with the police, but Selma catches her and asks, 'Why you, why Lucia?' as the police usher Elisa away.

Sinclair tells Fred and Elisa to go home and get some rest, reassuring them that DC Daniel Coolidge will look after them should they have questions. Once home, Fred calls his mum and asks if she can hold on to George a little longer, and they worry that Coolidge is watching them and seeing if they could be responsible for Lucia's disappearance. As they are hugging, Fred sees the reporter from the press conference, Selma, in their garden, and Coolidge goes out and tells her to leave.

At the rental house, the police find out the credit card used to rent the property was stolen and they discuss how Fred is a criminal lawyer so this could be organised crime, or as Lucia is a pretty white girl, she could have been stolen to order. The police have little evidence to go on as the rental has been thoroughly cleaned, but they have found Lucia's soft toy mouse that Elisa dropped over the night before with her daughter's overnight things.

Selma goes to see Miss Thompson, Lucia and Josie's teacher, and she is reluctant to talk, but reveals that Josie had only been at the school a short time after Rebecca requested an emergency transfer from her previous school.

The police go to see Elisa and Fred at home and show them the soft toy mouse they found at the rental house and they both sob at the sight of it. DI Sinclair says they are considering the possibility that Rebecca was hired for the job and wasn't actually Josie's real mother and that everything she told her might have been false. But Elisa says that Rebecca and Josie's relationship seemed very real.

DI Sinclair says they have to think if there is anyone who might have a grudge against them or want to hurt them - Fred says that he is defending a client who was coerced into laundering money for a criminal gang and now he is giving evidence against them. Sinclair tells them she will look into that and is also going to need their passwords to emails, social media and phones as they are going to be looking into that as well.

Fred isn't happy about his phone being checked and says he needs to speak to Elisa alone. He tells her that he has been talking to another woman, but nothing happened; however, Elisa is devastated and when they are talking to the police later she can barely look at him.

The police talk through his messages with someone called Sarah Banks and they started chatting months back after meeting at a mini golf place. DI Sinclair goes through all his conversations with Sarah, from flirty messages to facetime calls, asking what happened during those calls, however, he is evasive as Elisa is sitting right next to him. It turns out that Sarah was trying to meet up with Fred, but he ignored her request, which made Sarah angry. She then told him that he should enjoy his 'perfect life' while he can, and that was the last he heard from her, which was over a year ago.

They show him CCTV footage from the school of Rebecca, but she knew how to avoid the cameras and he can't tell if Sarah is Rebecca or not. DI Sinclair tells him to look harder as this is their best lead in the case so far. They tell the couple that Sarah's phone was an unregistered mobile and her Instagram was deleted months ago, but they are looking at other ways of tracing her.

Selma is at work and is annoyed that her boss changed her copy because she has focused on Elisa. He tells her that you can't focus on the mother in the first 24 hours of a child going missing but she is convinced that there is something not right about Elisa.

Fred's mother brings George back and tells them she is going to stay for a few nights to help out with him as they must be exhausted. They say it isn't necessary and that they want to be alone, and she reluctantly leaves.

After putting George to bed, Fred wants to talk about Sarah - but Elisa doesn't want to listen and as they argue she says she wishes that he didn't take cases that mean they have to have three locks on their front door, and she wishes that he hadn't had phone sex with a random woman he met - but Fred hits back that he would never have let Lucia stay with a random woman he barely knew, and Elisa is devastated that he is insinuating this is her fault.

At the end of the episode, we see the car driving along a sunny, coastal road and it returns to the scene from the beginning of the episode where Lucia is in the boot and when someone finally opens it, she asks 'who are you?'. Meanwhile, we see Rebecca watching Fred and Elisa's police appeal on a laptop as she keeps rewinding the part where Elisa begs her not to hurt her daughter.

The five-part thriller The Stolen Girl is available in the UK on Disney Plus as a box set now. In the US, Freeform will roll out episodes weekly at 10pm ET beginning 16 April 2025, and episodes will be available to stream the next day April 17 2025 on Hulu.

For more on Stolen Girl and other shows out this week, listen to our Bingewatch Podcast.

Rivals star Bella Maclean has revealed she's "feeling the pressure" as the cast prepare to reunite to shoot season 2 of the Jilly Cooper adaptation, which turned into a monster hit.

Bella, who will again play a key role as heroine Taggie O’Hara, says the cast were wonderfully ignorant for series one, but now the pressure is on to match its gigantic success.

Talking to The Times, she says: "I just want to do it justice". The first series, which was arguably the most talked about show of 2024, ended on a big cliffhanger when Taggie and the much older Rupert Campbell-Black (played by Alex Hassell) shared a kiss.

Asked by the paper if she was worried about the age gap between the characters and how audiences would react, she replied: "Alex and I spoke about this a lot. I was worried about how my generation and the one below it would react, but it’s been really positive. The show doesn’t normalise it or sway away from the questionable nature of the Eighties … it tackles it. I think that’s why people loved that storyline, because it’s not something dirty, it’s something true."

Rather disappointingly for fans, you won't be getting Rivals season 2 for some time, with Bella indicating it will most likely be released next year. She commented that viewers will "have to wait a year".

As to where the plot will go that depends on how closely the makers stick to Cooper’s book. We may find out who Perdita is. Viewers of the first season saw Declan (Aidan Turner) burn the notes that he had on Rupert from his TV appearance, and the name Perdita was visible in the fire. Fans of the book will know that Perdita is Rupert's daughter, so there is a chance she could be introduced in the second season.

Plus many will be wondering if Tony Baddingham (David Tennant) will be in the show? After the Rivals season 1 ending saw him beaten over the head with a TV award as Cameron Cook lashed out in self-defense, could he be dead? While we don't know what direction the screenwriters will take Tony's character in, fans of the novel will know that Tony is very much a part of the second half of the book, so there is hope that he will survive. In fact (spoiler alert!), in the book Tony has a fling with Declan's wife, Maud, so that could well be in the second season, too.

Rivals season 2 begins filming in May 2024. It’s expected to be released in 2026. The first series of Rivals is available on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK.

If you've been wondering what to watch this weekend, then Disney Plus has answered that question, as its UK library now includes one of the best comedy movies of last year (which was nominated for Oscars, it's that good). If you live in the US, the movie streams on Hulu, but it was added there in January so you've been able to stream it for a while.

The film in question is A Real Pain, which hit theaters at the end of last year. It's about two estranged cousins who go on a Jewish heritage tour of Poland after the death of their grandmother, and they butt heads over local customs, their own childhoods and their views on their shared history. At times it's funny, at times it's somber, and at times it's heartwarming as the cousins learn to help each other.

The movie was directed and written by Jesse Eisenberg, and he also stars in it alongside Kieran Culkin. Brit viewers may also recognize Casualty, Giri/Haji and The White Lotus season 2 actor Will Sharpe in an important starring role.

It's clear that A Real Pain is personal for Eisenberg, who has Polish heritage and (as of a month ago) has citizenship for the country too. However, A Real Pain isn't just a movie for people who can relate to the topic because it's thick with humor and drama throughout, helping you understand the gravity and levity of the various scenes.

Unlike certain other Oscar-nominated movies of 2024, A Real Pain was universally beloved: it has a 96% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes and 81% audience score, and it performed well at various award ceremonies, netting Culkin multiple acting awards and Eisenberg a writing one. At the Oscars, it was nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay and it won the former.

If you're a Disney Plus subscriber, then you'll have noticed that most of its movie releases recently have been aimed at younger audiences (Moana 2, Mufasa: The Lion King and Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Road Trip were its notable releases through March) and so A Real Pain is a great antithesis to those. It gives adults who maintain a subscription something to watch. And if you're not already a subscriber, but have been considering picking up a Disney Plus deal to see what's on the streamer, then A Real Pain should be at the top of your list.

Two years after her 2023 Oscar nomination for Best Actress in The Fabelmans, Michelle Williams makes a welcome return to our screens in Disney Plus series Dying for Sex, a comedy drama inspired by the liberating final years of New Yorker Molly Kochan and the unconditional support of her closest friend Nikki Boyer.

In the opening episode of the eight-parter, based on a podcast of the same name, Molly walks out of her sexless marriage to Steve (Industry’s Jay Duplass) when she discovers she has Stage VI metastatic breast cancer.

Her first port of call is to Nikki (Parks and Recreation’s Jenny Slate), who gives her a bed while she sets in motion her time-sensitive quest for sexual fulfilment before she dies.

“It’s a story about a woman who’s going through a sexual awakening just as she’s faced with terminal cancer, but it’s more than that,” shares Jenny Slate when she joins What To Watch for an interview from LA.

“It’s also about the friendship of these two women; when the other one is in the room, everything is better, more sturdy, fun and filled with promise.”

Final fantasy

Molly wastes no time downloading dating apps, receiving saucy photos and embarking on sexcapades. Meanwhile, chaotic aspiring actor Nikki takes on the often-overwhelming task of organising her friend’s palliative care.

“In the time she has left, Molly wants to live a life that, in many ways, she has denied herself and was ripped from her because of an experience in her childhood,” explains Jenny, as the show candidly explores Molly’s experimentation with S&M and role-play alongside the life-long shadow of repressed trauma and sexual assault. “The strength of the humour and the beautiful way sexuality is explored is gorgeous.”

Written by Liz Meriwether (The Dropout) and Kim Rosenstock (Only Murders in the Building) the programme also shines a light on Nikki’s struggles to juggle Molly’s medical and emotional needs with her career commitments and new relationship with musician Noah (Kelvin Yu), all while grappling with grief.

“In the show, Nikki expresses her anger in really punchy explosions while trying not to overtake Molly’s experience,” says Jenny, who starred in Girls and It Ends with Us. “Nothing about the material made me feel frightened to perform it, but I did often feel deeply affected by it, and I think that's a really good thing.”

Casting light

The cast includes Succession’s David Rasche as Molly’s conservative oncologist Dr Pankowitz, who is visibly uncomfortable with his unconventional patient and her pal. State of the Union's Esco Jouley stars as Sonya, Molly's compassionate palliative care social worker. While Catastrophe’s Rob Delaney is introduced as Molly’s repulsive yet intriguing new neighbour when she moves into her own apartment.

A scene-stealing Sissy Spacek appears later in the series as Molly’s guilt-stricken mum Gail, as she makes the journey to New York to spend time with her dying daughter. Meanwhile, the real Nikki Boyer who, alongside Williams, is an executive producer on the show, makes a cameo as Molly’s cousin Sheila.

“The complexity of the themes were a huge and exciting draw for me. At this point in my work it’s what I'm looking for,” says Jenny.

“I felt a large sense of gratitude that Molly [who died in 2019] and Nikki shared their story and let us step inside that inner sanctum. I made sure that the real Nikki knew that I cared deeply that this was her life.”

A perfect match

Although Michelle and Jenny both appeared in 2018’s Venom, they didn’t share any scenes in the superhero movie, so this marks their first time working together.

“Michelle is one of the many reasons why this project was so attractive. She is so open, sensitive and vulnerable. For me it was a delight to have such an incredible scene partner,” shares Jenny. “Dying for Sex is funny, provocative, warm and honest. It’s an innovative and beautiful take on what it means not just to face death, but to really live a life.”

Dying for Sex release date

With a strong female-led perspective and a darkly comic tone all of its own, Dying for Sex is both a compelling and dextrously told story about life, liberation, friendship and letting go. The series is available to watch on Disney Plus from Friday, April 4, 2025.

If the title Dying for Sex alone wasn’t enough to pique your interest in watching this new FX comedy series, then perhaps knowing Oscar nominee Michelle Williams is making her return to TV with the show will.

In this new comedy, inspired by the real story of Molly Kochan, Williams portrays Kochan as she tries to explore her sexual desires now knowing she has Stage IV metastatic breast cancer. That requires her to step outside of her comfort zone, which isn’t always the easiest thing to do. Thankfully she has her best friend Nikki (Jenny Slate) to aid her.

Here’s everything we know about Dying for Sex.

Dying for Sex release date

All episodes of Dying for Sex premiere on Hulu on Friday, April 4, in the US. In the UK, the episodes become available to stream on Disney Plus on the same day.

Those hoping to watch episodes of the show need a subscription to either Hulu with Live TV, the Disney Plus Bundle or the standalone Hulu service. In the UK, you’ll need a subscription to Disney Plus.

Dying for Sex plot

Here’s the official synopsis for Dying for Sex:

"FX’s Dying for Sex is inspired by the true story of Molly Kochan, originally shared on a Wondery podcast created with her best friend, Nikki Boyer.

"After Molly (Michelle Williams) receives a diagnosis of Stage IV metastatic breast cancer, she decides to leave her husband, Steve (Jay Duplass), and begins to explore the full breadth and complexity of her sexual desires for the first time in her life. She gets the courage and support to go on this adventure from her best friend Nikki (Jenny Slate), who stays by her side until the very end. Also joining the cast are Rob Delaney, Kelvin Yu, David Rasche, Esco Jouléy and Sissy Spacek."

Dying for Sex cast

Again, leading the series is Michelle Williams. The acclaimed actress is quite the force in Hollywood, having earned Oscar nominations for projects like The Fabelmans, Manchester by the Sea and Blue Valentine. On the TV side, she earned an Emmy for her performance in Fosse/Verdon and of course she was a staple in the coming-of-age drama Dawson’s Creek.

Williams is joined by Jenny Slate (The Electric State), Rob Delaney (Bad Monkey), Jay Duplass (Pain Hustlers), Kelvin Yu (The Great North) and the incomparable Sissy Spacek (Bloodline).

Dying for Sex trailer

Check out the trailer for Dying for Sex below. It’s clear from the clip that this is one bucket list journey that will come with several laughs.

Walking into Good American Family, I was a mixed bag of emotions. On one hand, I was excited to see Ellen Pompeo in her first major role outside of Grey’s Anatomy. As someone who is very familiar with the legendary character Meredith Grey, I wanted to see Pompeo spread her wings a bit in a project after she left the Shonda Rhimes hit as a series regular.

But even with Pompeo’s star power, I found myself hesitant to dive into Good American Family because of the subject matter. The show is inspired by the true story of Natalia Grace and the Barnett family, a narrative I’m very familiar with thanks to ID’s popular documentary, The Curious Case of Natalia Grace. The docuseries is three seasons and thoroughly covers how Natalia came to be adopted by Michael and Kristine Barnett, how their relationship soured and what happened in the aftermath. So my concern was that I’d be constantly comparing the scripted show with the documentary. Plainly put, I feared it would be like reading a book before you watch the movie, and as many people know, that has the potential to be a recipe for disaster.

With all that being said, after watching Good American, I’m still left with a mixed bag of emotions.

Let’s start with Pompeo trying to get out of the big shadow cast by her own brilliant performance as Meredith and selling to viewers that she’s Kristine Barnett. Sometimes when an actor plays such a legendary character for so long, it’s hard to see them as anyone else. In the first two episodes of Good American, I kept watching as if this was the second act for Meredith in Indiana with a new husband and new life. This was aided by the fact that Kristine does voiceovers, just like Meredith does in Grey’s Anatomy. Additionally, because Pompeo at times delivers dialogue in a similar tonality to her prior role, it’s hard to see the differentiation.

But once the series shifted more or less into a big showdown between Kristine and Natalia Grace (Imogen Faith Reid), Pompeo shed her layers as the good doc. I stopped looking at Pompeo as a surgeon pretending to be this stay-at-home mom turned entrepreneur, and more like the actual Kristine Barnett.

Speaking of Reid, I have to applaud her work. She effectively had me convinced that the scripted version of Natalia Grace was methodically layered and complex, and I wasn’t necessarily reminded of Isabelle Fuhrman’s Esther character from the movie Orphan. Both projects strike similar chords, but Reid effectively does enough with her character to stand apart.

As for Mark Duplass’ Michael Barnett, I largely found his performance solid. Similar to the perception I got from the real Michael in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, this fictionalized character tends to be a bit melodramatic and quirky. There was never a point where I considered Duplass wasn’t the Barnett patriarch.

Pivoting back to the story, my fears from having watched the ID documentary did materialize. Even with the scripted drama only being inspired by the Natalia Grace story, I couldn’t help but overanalyze each scene. In some cases, I questioned why certain creative liberties were taken when the “real” sequence of events or characterization would have provided an equally as riveting viewing experience, if not more. In hindsight, it likely had to do with trying to create more distance between real life and fiction as the series again is only supposed to be inspired by true events.

Now to be clear, the story isn’t terrible. In fact, what benefits Good American Family is that it largely lets Kristine’s perspective be the driving force of the show. In the three seasons of the documentary, Kristine never shares her side of things or gives an interview. So for me, Good American Family satisfies a curiosity in some ways about what the real Kristine could have believed happened in this whole ordeal.

I’d say for those who have limited knowledge of the Natalia Grace story there’s a good chance you’ll find Good American Family a fairly good watch, as you won’t have anything to compare it to. It’s even more exciting if you’ve managed never to see Ellen Pompeo as Dr. Meredith Grey on Grey’s Anatomy. Plus, the pacing of the episodes leave little room for many dull moments. But if you’re like me and have seen both, you may settle on the new show as being just adequate.

Good American Family is now streaming on Hulu in the US and arrives in the UK on Disney Plus in May.

He’s been buried alive, shackled to a rotating gyroscope and suspended from a crane in a glass box for 44 days with no food.

Now American magician and endurance performer David Blaine is on a mission to showcase and learn from performers around the world who have mastered their own dazzling variety of mind-blowing feats.

Here's everything we know about his six-part series David Blaine Do Not Attempt...

David Blaine Do Not Attempt release date

Episodes one and two of Do Not Attempt air on the National Geographic channel in the US on Sunday, March 23 from 9 pm ET/PT, with two more taking those same time slots the week after and the final two on Sunday, April 6. In the UK, the episodes air from Thursday, March 27 on the channel.

Here's how to watch the National Geographic channel in the US or UK.

If you'd rather stream online, episodes will air on both Disney Plus and Hulu the day after they air on cable in the US: two episodes on Monday, March 24, and two more each Monday.

That's also true in the UK, for subscribers to Disney Plus.

David Blaine Do Not Attempt premise

David Blaine Do Not Attempt is a six-part documentary series following magician David Blaine as he explores the world seeking out incredible people who perform real feats that look like magic.

David takes us on a wondrous journey through some of the world’s most extraordinary cultures, searching for these masters to find inspiration and learn new skills along the way.

What happens in David Blaine Do Not Attempt?

Episode 1
In Brazil, David Blaine seeks inspiration by immersing himself in his hosts’ vibrant energy, passion, and spontaneity. The exceptional daredevils, artists, explorers and athletes he counters unite to help him bring an audacious feat to life that’s lingered in his dreams for years.

Episode 2
In Southeast Asia, David Blaine explores how pain endurance can transform fear into magic. He meets practitioners who appear impenetrable by sharp objects and performers who can endure the stings of venomous creatures. David unpacks how people exploit fear in order to create wonder.

Episode 3
In the stunning frozen landscape of the Arctic Circle, David Blaine explores humanity's curiously extreme ability to endure freezing temperatures. He meets and learns from people who reach beyond their limits to transform barriers into new frontiers and to embody a sense of resilience, perseverance and grit that is unique to the region.

Episode 4
Growing up, David Blaine was fascinated by images from India of extraordinary physical feats. This evolved into a life-long obsession with real acts that are so extreme they look like magic. Using secrets passed down over hundreds of years, people still perform these acts today. In India, David unearths these modern practitioners to explore how belief and performance intersect to make magic.

Episode 5
In a country once shaped by Apartheid, David explores how magic can break down barriers and transform our preconceptions while engaging with a diverse tapestry of people and wildlife in the ever-evolving nation of South Africa.

Episode 6
From perfectly punctual bullet trains to meticulously assembled pieces of sushi, Japan is renowned for its craftsmanship, artistry, and commitment to excellence in all endeavors. In Japan, David explores the concept of mastery by meeting with people who spend a lifetime refining a single skill.

David Blaine Do Not Attempt interview

Despite the show’s title including the warning ‘Do Not Attempt’, Blaine simply can’t resist having a go at the stunts himself – which means a pretty steep learning curve as opposed to his usual painstaking preparations.

"I woke up in the middle of the night thinking: 'Oh my God, what if somebody tries to copy something?'" he explains. "And that was when I decided the actual title needs to be the disclaimer. But for me, the only time you grow is by breaking your comfort zone."

He’s certainly doing that across the six-parter, which starts with a trip to Brazil, where Blaine sees street magic being performed in the favelas and meets high-diving sisters Jackie and Patti Valente, before attempting a dangerous ‘fire jump’, which involves leaping from a bridge while set alight.

And in episode two, set in South East Asia, Blaine introduces a highly unpredictable element to his work as he learns tricks featuring dangerous animals including a swarm of bees, scorpions and a king cobra snake.

After allowing his body to be covered in bees and then scorpions, Blaine, who grew up with a phobia of creepy crawlies, attempts to kiss the head of a deadly king cobra snake.

"You don’t know what the cobra is going to do from one second to the next, and it has enough venom to kill an elephant!" he reveals. "So I had no control, which is unusual for me."

But with help from a local snake performer, Blaine manages to conquer his fears and kiss the cobra. However, he says, once was enough. "It changed the way I feel about everything that I do," he says. "But I will probably never kiss a king cobra again."

The remaining episodes take Blaine to the Arctic Circle, India, South Africa and Japan. And despite his have-a-go attitude, there’s one point during the series when the 51-year-old decides against attempting a stunt that could result in serious injury, after speaking to his daughter on the phone.

"Since becoming a father, everything has changed," he admits. "So I talk to her about anything that is dangerous, and I didn’t want to do anything that was traumatic for her."

He adds that his love of magic grew out of his own relationship with a parent... "My mother worked in a diner as a waitress," he recalls. "And one day, when I was in the library waiting for her to pick me up, the librarian showed me a card trick. And when I did it for my mother, she freaked out! So that began my love of magic, because even if she’d had a tough day, I could change it by doing a trick."

David Blaine Do Not Attempt trailer