The live-action remake of animated classics has been a trend for a while now, but it’s hitting another level this blockbuster movie season, as moviegoers have the choice between two live-action remakes playing in movie theaters at the same time — How to Train Your Dragon, which releases everywhere on June 13, and Lilo & Stitch, which is playing in movie theaters right now.

Lilo & Stitch is the latest in Disney’s slate of live-action remakes, this one for the 2002 animated movie about a mischievous alien who is befriended by a young girl in Hawaii. Meanwhile, the live-action of 2010’s How to Train Your Dragon about a young Viking who becomes the first in his village to befriend a dragon instead of hunt one, is one of the first live-action remakes of a DreamWorks Animation movie.

Because of their proximity in release and the fact that they’re targeting the same primary audiences (both young kids and even a number of adults who are nostalgic for the animated movies), How to Train Your Dragon and Lilo & Stitch are going to be compared to each other a lot, including with what so many movies are based on these days, their Rotten Tomatoes scores.

With reviews for How to Train Your Dragon now available, we’re making it easy for you to compare the two with a breakdown of how both movies are scoring on Rotten Tomatoes as of publication (we’ll update this post as How to Train Your Dragon gets more reviews in).

How to Train Your Dragon Rotten Tomatoes score

As of June 12, How to Train Your Dragon is "Certified Fresh" at an 78% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

The takeaway from critics is that the movie is a faithful adaptation of the original animated movie, maybe too much so.

Helen O’Hara of Empire Magazine wrote, “It’s clearly made with real love and care, but shows far too much deference to its progenitor. Even in a remake, we need more originality and less playing the hits.”

Slant Magazine’s Justin Clark adds, “As heartwarming as this story remains at its core, it’s hard to shake that you already know how it will play out.”

However, a number of critics praised what the live-action remake brought to the table.

Brian Truitt of USA Today called How to Train Your Dragon “a heartwarming, meaty adventure perfect for a new generation of young film fan (sic) but doesn’t forget to entertain the older movie kids, either.”

The Associated Press’ Lindsey Bahr wrote, “It’s the kind of immersive sensation and giddy wish fulfillment that might just have you forgetting momentarily to breathe and, maybe more importantly, that you’re still in a movie theater.”

At this time, there are no fan reactions or scores for the movie.

For comparison, the original How to Train Your Dragon has a 99% “Certified Fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Lilo & Stitch Rotten Tomatoes score

The bar that How to Train Your Dragon will have to clear with critics on Rotten Tomatoes is Lilo & Stitch's 72% “Fresh” score. However, it’s worth noting that the Disney live-action remake has a “Verified Hot” score of 93% from general moviegoers. The original Lilo & Stitch animated movie earned an 86% “Certified Fresh” score.

The critic consensus on Rotten Tomatoes is reminiscent of How to Train Your Dragon — the remake recaptures a lot of what movie fans loved about the original, though critiques revolve it either not quite living up to the original. Still, at 72% “Fresh,” Lilo & Stitch has one of the better scores for a Disney live-action remake (ahead of 2017’s Beauty and the Beast and 2023’s The Little Mermaid).

While the critical consensus can sum up the general feelings about a movie, the biggest factor for whether a movie is a hit or not is how it performs at the box office. And in that regard, Lilo & Stitch is a bonafide hit. The movie has made $335.7 million as of publication in the US, and $772.5 million worldwide. Those numbers make it the second highest-grossing movie of 2025 in the US to date, and the third highest-grossing in the world.

You can watch Lilo & Stitch in movie theaters right now, while How to Train Your Dragon premieres worldwide on June 13.

If you want to rewatch the animated movies as well, Lilo & Stitch is streaming exclusively on Disney Plus, while How to Train Your Dragon is streaming on Peacock and Max.

There aren't many shows on Apple TV Plus that are critically 100% rated on Rotten Tomatoes, not even the brilliant Slow Horses, but Drops of God is one of them.

I must confess the stylish French-Japanese eight-part drama, set in the world of wine, of all places, had utterly passed me by when it was originally released in 2023.

But looking at the widespread acclaim it received, I thought it was something I had to add to my watchlist. And well, it's a masterpiece!

Drops of God follows Camille, a French woman whose estranged father, Alexandre Léger, dies in Tokyo, leaving behind the most prized collection of wine in the world.

But when the will is read out, Camille learns that before she can claim her vast inheritance, she must beat Alexandre's protégé, Issei Tomine, in three fiendish wine-tasting tests. The first of these is to taste a mysterious red wine and identify which wine it is.

• Drops of God season 2

The action switches between Japan and France, with Camille (Fleur Geffrier) having to go on a crash course in wine tasting. Her passionate, bordering on obsessive, father, to the horror of her mother, taught Camille to explore wines as a little girl in his vast cellar, which eventually saw her being rushed to the hospital.

The odds are stacked against Camille, who’s so traumatized by her childhood experiences with wine that she can't even drink a drop without suffering shocking nosebleeds. How can she possibly win a wine tasting competition when she can't even drink alcohol?

Like any great drama, the characters draw you in. Issei (Tomohisa Yamashita) seems like an unsympathetic wine connoisseur robot who's about to steal Camille's rightful inheritance. But then you learn of Issei's brutal treatment at the hands of his own family, and he becomes a much more complex character than you first imagined.

His mother, Honoka, initially feels like a one-dimensional bully, but when we go back to meet her younger self, we learn why she's become the way she is and why she is so vicious to her son.

TV at its finest

How can a series about wine be enthralling, you might wonder? Well, trust me when I say it will grab you from episode one and have you rapidly binge-watch it as you follow Camille's incredible journey.

The series is beautifully shot and acted, especially the two leads who put in epic performances. It also feels so different from anything else you might watch. The one drama it reminded me of was Netflix's The Queen's Gambit, which also follows a young woman battling the odds to show she's a world expert in her field. But Drops of God is bolder and has more depth than The Queen's Gambit.

There's also a string of great twists, and every character is carefully used in the plot, which all comes together perfectly in the final episode. You might be wondering what the expression Drops of God refers to, and that is a question also answered in a surprising way.

If nothing else, you will pick up a lot of wine knowledge! It's like the ultimate wine tasting course, and I honestly had no idea you could find so many flavours in wine.

If you enjoy Drops of God, then there’s great news because a second season is on the way. Hopefully, we won’t have to wait too long to find out what's next for Camille.

Drops of God is on Apple TV Plus now. Here's our list of the best Apple TV Plus shows, which will guide you towards some of What to Watch's favorites.

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.

One of the most anticipated 2025 new movies coming in April is Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s A24 war movie Warfare, set to release on April 11. Ahead of that, on March 28, the first reviews for the movie hit the internet and got the ball rolling on Warfare’s Rotten Tomatoes score.

Warfare is written and directed by Mendoza, an Iraq War veteran, and Garland, based on the real-life experience of SEAL Elliott Miller and his fellow soldiers during an evacuation from an apartment building in Ramadi, Iraq, after it comes under fire. Starring a cast of some of the best young actors (Will Poulter, Kit Connor, Joseph Quinn D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai and Charles Melton among them) with the stated goal of showing the events in “real time, using extended takes, meticulously constructed sets, and unmatched realism to capture the fog and chaos of war, and the indelible brotherhood that develops in its wake.”

That premise, and the chance to see it play out on an IMAX screen, had me very intrigued to see the movie by itself. Throw in Garland pairing his filmmaking skills with the experience of a real-life veteran and Warfare was already one of the top movies I can’t wait to see in April. Warfare then debuting with a 92% “Fresh” Rotten Tomatoes score only has me more excited to see the movie.

That score comes from a total of 26 reviews submitted to Rotten Tomatoes as of publication on March 28. More reviews will influence that score as we get closer to the Warfare release date, but with this strong start (and the fact that A24 is letting reviews hit this early) is a good sign that the buzz is going to keep growing for this movie.

Empire Magazine critic Alex Godfrey wrote “Free of the operatics of most supposed anti-war films, it’s all the more effective for its simplicity. It is respectfully gruelling.”

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter said “Garland is working in peak form and with dazzling technical command in what’s arguably his best film since his debut, Ex Machina.”

AV Club’s Brianna Zigler, meanwhile, describes the movie as “a tense and damningly disturbing portrait of combat.”

Those who are a little less favorable of the movie mostly seem to indicate that the movie’s lack of characterization and brutal depictions was not as successful for them.

If these early reactions are getting you excited for Warfare, it premieres exclusively in movie theaters on April 11 in the US and April 18 in the UK.

These days it's usually Disney Plus that's the streaming home of superhero content, but Netflix subscribers in the UK can now watch one of the biggest recent superhero movies as it's just been added to the library.

The movie in question is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which was added to Netflix UK on Saturday, March 8. This animated feature from 2023 follows on from 2018's Into the Spider-Verse, and is the second of three parts of a trilogy of movies (Beyond the Spider-Verse has no release date just yet).

Some of Sony's Spider-Man movies make their way onto Netflix pretty quickly, but for the Spider-Verse ones, fans have had to wait longer. So they'll be pretty glad that the movie is now on Netflix.

Across the Spider-Verse continues the story of Miles Morales, or Spider-Man, and in this installment he has to travel across the multiverse to team up with other Spider-People including Spider-Woman (or Gwen Stacey) in order to stop a dangerous villain.

With 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, Across the Spider-Verse was a hit with audiences, and its nomination for the Best Animated Feature Oscar is a testament to its popularity.

Anyone who's seen Into the Spider-Verse will be able to tell you why: these two movies have proven hugely influential with animated features. They're credited with kick-starting a new age of creative and artistically-animated movies with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, TMNT: Mutant Mayhem, Entergalactic, The Bad Guys and The Mitchells vs. the Machines creators all citing the first movie as inspiration.

The movies blend animation styles to create a distinct look, and Across the Spider-Verse blends this idea well with its multiverse-hopping plot.

As you can probably guess, the movie was a hit in the box office too. Its run was only disrupted by Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which coincidentally was also added to Netflix on the exact same day.

Fans have been clamoring for the final entry in the Spider-Verse trilogy, which by all accounts could be several years out. A spin-off movie called Spider-Women is also in the works, which again has no confirmed release date, but the producers said it could be along earlier than expected.

With superhero movies currently suffering from "superhero fatigue" in audiences (at least, judging by box office returns and Rotten Tomatoes scores), Across the Spider-Verse remains a great example of how to continue making well-received superhero stories.

If you live in the US, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is also on Netflix, but it's been there for a while now. Into the Spider-Verse is also on Netflix in the UK, but not in the US.

If you've already seen the movie, or think you might love it, I should probably also point out that it's a popular DVD and Blu-Ray release. This isn't just because it means you can watch it whenever you want, ready for when Netflix loses it, but because the discs have more visual fidelity than the streaming version (which is really important for this movie) and because it has a movie's worth of extras to help you enjoy the animated craft more.

• Find Across The Spider-Verse UHD edition on Amazon US here and on Amazon UK here.

The first batch of reviews for Black Bag, the Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett spy thriller from Steven Soderbergh, have been shared and the movie has its initial Rotten Tomatoes score. As of March 14, Black Bag is “Certified Fresh” with an impressive 97% score.

My own Black Bag review agreed with that sentiment, but is it the same for general moviegoers?

I’m curious because the Oscar-winning Soderbergh finds himself in a strangely fascinating streak right now, one where critics and audiences are on opposite ends of whether or not they like his movies, per their Rotten Tomatoes score.

Since 2020, Steven Soderbergh has directed five movies (not including Black Bag) — Presence, Magic Mike’s Last Dance, Kimi, No Sudden Move and Let Them All Talk. In every instance, the Rotten Tomatoes score from critics and audiences did not line up.

Either the critics liked it to the point where it received a “Certified Fresh” rating, but less than 60% of general audiences gave the movie a positive score (the dividing line for the Popcornmeter fan score on Rotten Tomatoes). Or critics didn’t like the movie and the audiences did. Take a look for yourself:

• Presence: 88% “Certified Fresh” from critics, 52% from audiences
• Magic Mike’s Last Dance: 48% “Rotten” from critics, 74% from audiences
• Kimi: 92% “Certified Fresh” from critics, 59% from audiences
• No Sudden Move: 92% “Certified Fresh” from critics, 59% from audiences
• Let Them All Talk: 87% “Certified Fresh” from critics, 50% from audiences

The last time critics and audiences were of the same opinion on a Steven Soderbergh movie was The Laundromat, but in that case, neither group liked the movie (41% from critics, 40% from audiences). The last time that both critics' and audiences’ scores on Rotten Tomatoes aligned in liking a Steven Soderbergh movie was 2017’s Logan Lucky.

Now to be fair, critics have always tended to be more drawn to Soderbergh than audiences. But if you look at his resume prior to his short-lived retirement that began in 2013, he would often garner both critics' and audiences’ approval. Here are the movies that critics and audiences agreed on up to 2013:

• Sex, Lies & Videotape: 96% critics, 79% audiences
• King of the Hill: 91% critics, 84% audiences
• Schizpolis: 65% critics, 80% audiences
• Out of Sight: 94% critics, 74% audiences
• The Limey: 92% critics, 78% audiences
• Erin Brockovich: 85% critics, 81% audiences
• Traffic: 93% critics, 85% audiences
• Ocean’s Eleven: 83% critics, 80% audiences
• Ocean’s Thirteen: 70% critics, 75% audiences
• Che: Part One: 65% critics, 75% audiences
• Che: Part Two: 79% critics, 66% audiences
• Contagion: 85% critics, 63% audiences
• Magic Mike: 78% critics, 60% audiences
• Side Effects: 83% critics, 70% audiences
• Behind the Candelabra: 94% critics, 71% audiences

There were exceptions leading up to his retirement where the two groups were divided— Kafka, The Underneath, Gray’s Anatomy, Ocean’s Twelve, The Girlfriend Experience, The Informant, Haywire — but they were consecutive like Soderbergh's recent string of movies..

So how to account for this strange streak? There’s no easy answer. Audiences tastes have changed over the years; Soderbergh has gotten to a point where he doesn’t have to cater to a broad audience to make another movie. It could be one of those, it could be both, or it could be something else entirely.

But early indications show that this could streak could be coming to an end with Black Bag. As of the morning of March 14, Black Bag has a 79% positive score from audiences that have seen it. I'll keep an eye on it, but I would be surprised if it saw such a dramatic drop below 60% to continue this divide between critics and audiences.

Black Bag is now playing exclusively in movie theaters worldwide.

Borderlands is rivaled perhaps only by Megalopolis in being one of the biggest movie flops of 2024.... but the new year brings new fates, and in 2025 Prime Video has given Borderlands a second wind with audiences. Trust the biggest streaming services to bring movies back from the dead!

The video game adaptation quickly amassed terrible reviews after being released in August 2024, with 10% on Rotten Tomatoes and a box office of only $33m against a budget of at least $110m.

However Borderlands was added to Prime Video's library in the UK recently, and its success on the streamer defies this poor reception.

The movie has been flitting around on Prime Video's most-watched list; currently it's #6 (but only the second highest movie), but by some accounts it's spent time at the top of the list. That's despite the recent addition of Reacher season 3, one of Prime Video's biggest shows.

At #6 it's above Christopher Nolan's Batman movies, which were recently added to the streamer, as well as Invincible which is currently getting new episodes. So it's proving a pretty huge hit!

Borderlands is set on an alien planet, about a group of bounty hunters searching for a mysterious treasure vault, while an evil corporation tries to obtain the contents for their own ends. It stars Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt, Jamie Lee Curtis and the voice of Jack Black, and was criticized for basically everything a movie can be slated for, hence the poor reviews.

So why's it doing so well on streaming? Well, that's pretty easy to explain, because it's pretty commonplace to see flop movies perform inexplicably well on streaming services. We often see it on Netflix, but it can happen on other streamers too.

If early reviews of a new movie are bad, people tend to avoid it, not wanting to pay their own money to go to the cinema to see it. But if the movie is then added to a streaming service which people have (bearing in mind that Prime Video has the second highest subscriber count of any streamer), many will tune in out of curiosity to see what was so bad about it.

I can only presume that's what's happening for Borderlands, because if its poor reviews weren't enough to put you off, the Guardians of the Galaxy-ripoff trailers and promotional materials would have sealed the deal.

I saw Borderlands at the cinema and it was hard to enjoy even as a "fun bad" movie after a few pints, but I think if I hadn't seen it there I might be curious to stream it on Prime Video. Curiosity killed the cat, and it might also convince you to stream the 100-minute film for your next movie night.

If you live in the US, Borderlands is on Starz instead of Prime Video.

A new day makes for another opportunity for Netflix to add to its already behemoth of a library. Today, February 25, Netflix adds the charming indie romance movie Really Love, and it’s one that I think subscribers should cue up immediately.

For starters, there’s the enticing plot. The official Really Love synopsis reads as follows: "Set in contemporary Washington D.C., a rising black painter strives to break into the competitive art world, while balancing a bittersweet romance he never expected."

It’s always interesting to see a love story involving a creative personality, because when that happens, some truly romantic gestures tend to take place. Whether that’s a musician creating an amazing ballad, a chef cooking the most-thought-out meal or an artist letting romance inspire them to paint the piece of a lifetime, there’s something swoon-worthy about creative personalities falling in love.

Then there’s the casting of Really Love. The movie is led by Queen Sugar star Kofi Siriboe and Santos star Yootha Wong-Loi-Sing, and it also features appearances from three-time Emmy winner Uzo Aduba, Power star Naturi Naughton and Hollywood vets Blair Underwood (Longlegs) and Michael Ealy (Reasonable Doubt). So it’s fair to say that this indie film has some heavy hitters. And the sprinkle on top of the cake here, is that if you look hard enough, you’ll see me in the background early on in the movie. (Being on set of my first and only Hollywood production was quite the experience.)

Beyond the plot and the noteworthy casting, let’s talk about the reviews. As previously teased, Really Love has a 100% on the Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes. Lisa Kennedy of Variety, called the movie a “gem of a drama.” Yasmin Garaad of the Business Insider notes, “Really Love is a romance film that proves itself as a valuable expression of Black relationships and self-growth.”

Now if you still need some convincing to stream Really Love, then check out the trailer below. If you’re a big fan of the classic film Love Jones (1997), I think this should be right up your alley.

Again, Really Love is now streaming on Netflix. In order to watch it on the platform, you’ll need a subscription to the streaming service. Currently, Netflix offers several options for would-be subscribers.

Netflix in the US and UK added Really Love on Tuesday, February 25.

Netflix has finally got season 2 of Pantheon, which until now has been almost impossible to watch in the US and UK.

Bizarrely, season 2 of the animated sci-fi series aimed at adults had only been available to watch on Prime Video in Australia and New Zealand. The first season finally arrived on Netflix in November 2024, but frustratingly for fans the streamer only added the opening series.

But now Netflix has added season 2 of Pantheon, giving a much wider audience the chance to enjoy the second series which was originally made in 2023.

Pantheon has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critics score and TIME described it as being "a gripping, cerebral, [and] remarkably high-concept animated sci-fi series". The season 2 trailer, above, declares: "How far would you go to save humanity?"

Pantheon is based on a series of short stories by Ken Liu about human intelligence being uploaded to the "cloud". We follow Maddie, a bullied teenager receiving help from a mysterious stranger online. She discovers that the mystery person is in fact her dead father, David, whose consciousness has been uploaded to the Cloud following an experimental destructive brain scan.

David it's revealed is the first of a new kind of being: "an Uploaded Intelligence" or "UI". He might be the first but he's not going to be the last. And Maddie finds herself mixed up in a global conspiracy that threatens to trigger a new kind of war. The impressive voice cast includes Paul Dano (Caspian), Aaron Eckhart (Cary), Katie Chang (Maddie) and Daniel Dae Kim (David).

Pantheon's bizarre history

AMC originally ordered two seasons of Pantheon, but it was then scrapped after just one series. However, in the new TV landscape, a series being axed doesn't necessarily mean it can't come back somewhere else and so it proved as Prime Video then took on the show for season 2. There have been no reports of a season 3 being in the works so it looks like the show may have ended.

Each series has eight parts and both seasons of Pantheon are now available to watch on Netflix. Season 2 of Pantheon was added to Netflix on Friday, 21 February.

The latest Bridget Jones movie, Mad About the Boy, has been breaking box office records, drawing positive reviews, and getting a great audience response. However, there's bizarrely one movie in the four-movie franchise that critics hate — Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (the one where Bridget dances in the ocean after accidentally taking some illegal substances!).

The second movie, released in 2004, has a Rotten Tomatoes critics score of just 27%! It looks like a complete anomaly when you see the RT critic scores for the other three films: Bridget Jones's Diary 79%, Bridget Jones’s Baby 78% and Mad About The Boy 86%.

Yes, the current movie has the best critics score of the whole franchise and is the only one to top 80%. If you combine its critic and audience score you get an overall score of 160, tying it with the original film as the most well-loved film in the series.

Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason has a perfectly respectable 60% audience score, lower than the other films but not bad, however, the 27% critics score is just a shocker! So why the critical loathing? Well, sequels are never easy and the original movie was in many ways the ultimate rom-com. Renée Zellweger nailed Bridget, despite the fears of some British fans that the American star wouldn’t be able to capture either Bridget's accent or her unique attitude to life. However, The Edge of Reason was a letdown for many. Will Self in London’s Evening Standard panned the movie, declaring: "There is something so plangently patronizing about the tone of Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, and it wasn't there in the first film. Maybe it's because this is essentially a retread, with the only difference being that Bridget has Darcy at the beginning, then loses him, then gets him back."

The New York Times review, hidden behind a paywall, is especially scathing, while in a slightly more positive review, The Guardian said: "Entertaining stuff, mostly, but Hugh Grant is absent for ages and ages, and without him it's just not the same.”

All the Bridget Jones movies are hugely enjoyable and if you like one you’re bound to like all of them. Mad About the Boy has actually broken the UK box-office rom-com record, making £11.8 million in its first four days of release. Ironically what was the movie that held the record previously? Yep, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.! Whatever the critics might think, fans still love Bridget.

Mad About the Boy is available on Peacock to stream now in the US, while it’s out in cinemas now in the UK.

If you ask Apple TV Plus fans what their favorite show on the streaming service is, you'll probably get one of a handful of predictable picks.

Slow Horses, Severance, Ted Lasso; there are some cult hit shows on Apple's streaming service. However you might be surprised to find out that none of those are actually the streamers' most popular shows; the top five will actually surprise you.

By top five, I mean the highest-rated Apple TV Plus shows according to their Rotten Tomatoes rating. To make this list I haven't just looked through the countless series that have got perfect critic scores from a small handful of reviews. There are loads of those!

Instead, to better represent popularity, I've picked the shows which have the highest combined critics and audience rankings. The below five shows are the only ones which have a combined score of about 190 (out of 200) to show that they're loved by everyone equally.

The following is in ascending order, so the final show is Apple's highest-rated overall. And after that I'll let you know where some of your favorites may rank.

5. Pachinko

We start with Pachinko, which over its two seasons has earnt a 98% critics' rating and 93% audience rating.

Set in Korea and Japan throughout most of the 20th century, Pachinko follows a Korean family across multiple generations. We see them escape Japanese-ruled Korea to Japan and try to survive against discrimination in this new country.

Viewers rate Pachinko for being a touching across its characters while also handling the scope of its story well.

4. Black Bird

An under watched but well-loved thriller series, Black Bird like Pachinko has a 98% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes but a higher audience score at 95%.

The series is based on a true story (and in particular, based on a memoir written by its protagonist). It's about an imprisoned drug and gun dealer who's offered to have his sentence reduced if he can befriend a serial killer and convince him to confess to more killings. Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser play the lead roles.

Black Bird is popular thanks to its performances and also the murky moral waters it swims in, while also simply being a gripping prison drama.

=2. Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker

Our only docuseries on the list is Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker. It has a perfect audience score at 100% and a high critic score at 94%.

The two-part series follows the rise of German tennis player Boris Becker, as well as his later controversies, Djokovic coaching, convictions and imprisonment.

Viewers love Boom! Boom! for how it makes a lot of sense to viewers whether or not they know anything about tennis, showing a classic rise-and-fall story. It's quite long, despite only having two episodes.

=2. Drops of God

Drawing with Boris Becker as the second highest-rated Apple TV Plus show is Drops of God; unlike the tennis doc it's the critics' score that's perfect here, while the audience rates this series at 95%.

Drops of God is about a woman who is poised to inherit a wine empire from her deceased and estranged father, however he's set her a challenge to earn it in which she has to beat the man's protégé. Over three rounds tests she must prove herself as the expert in wine over this literal expert, which is hard given that she's never drunk it before.

Critics loved Drops of God thanks it acting as a love letter to oenology (that's the study of wines) while also simply being a well-made drama. A second season is on the way, which will give some incentive to check it out.

1. Midnight Family

Apple TV Plus' highest-rated TV show, with a perfect critics' score and 96% audience score, is the Mexican series Midnight Family.

Inspired by a documentary, the series is about a family in Mexico City which owns its own ambulance. Medical student Marigaby works with her father and two brothers to solve problems during the night, even when it becomes hard to live these two lives.

Praise of Midnight Family calls it a refreshing spin on the dime-a-dozen medical shows you see on TV, while maintaining an exciting tone throughout.

What about...?

So if you're wondering "what about X show?" here are a few of Apple's other popular shows; I'll share the full score before the critics' and audience score, and I'll limit this list to series with multiple seasons or it could go on for ages!

• Slow Horses: 188 (98% and 90%)
• Prehistoric Planet: 187 (91% and 96%)
• Trying: 186 (95% and 91%)
• Dickinson: 184 (92% and 92%)
• Mythic Quest: 183 (97% and 86%
• Shrinking: 182 (94% and 88%)
• Severance: 181 (97% and 84%)
• Schmigadoon!: 177 (92% and 85%)
• Ted Lasso: 175 (90% and 85%)
• For All Mankind: 174 (92% and 82%)
• Servant: 168 (90% and 78%)
• Silo: 157 (92% and 65%)
• Foundation: 156 (86% and 70%)
• Loot: 132 (72% and 60%)
• Invasion: 107 (57% and 50%)
• The Morning Show: 99 (66% and 33%)

With Valentine's Day around the corner, you're probably trawling the best streaming services for something romantic to watch. Stop wasting your time and boot up Prime Video, because the best modern rom-com (which even non-romance viewers will like) is on there.

I'm talking about a 2022 movie made by Amazon called I Want You Back (which, in the US at least, is free to watch on Prime Video under the Freevee brand). Far too few people have even heard about this movie, despite its glowing 87% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Our romantic leads in the movie are the wonderful comedy actors Jenny Slate and Charlie Day. They play two strangers who are dumped by their respective partners, and then have a fortuitous meeting when they're both heartbroken.

This isn't your average romance where they learn to give love a second chance after hurt, though. No; in I Want You Back they hatch a scheme to break up the others' exes' new relationships, to force them back into their arms.

What ensues is just-under-two-hours of scheming and commiserating, as they try to stop their exes' happiness, but also slowly character growth as they learn to be happy in their own skin and address the issues they were dumped in the first place.

I'm not a fan of the generic rom-coms that get dumped onto streaming services by the bucketload, but I loved I Want You Back. It's that most heartfelt and earnest of romance movie in which the eventual coupling isn't an all-but-guaranteed end of a character arc, but a reward for the characters learning and growing in themselves. In short it's a character drama about two people who just so happen to find love as a reward for their personal growth.

It can be wickedly dark at times, like when Slate's Emma tries to break up Day's Peter's exes new relationship by initiating an ill-advised threesome with her and her new man, or when Peter takes drugs with Emma's ex in a night that swiftly goes downhill. That's why I say it's great for non-romance fans, as there's enough comedy for it to stand on its own. The eventual revelation of the scheming, during a romantic wedding, goes about as poorly as you'd imagine. And instead of the film copping out by throwing out a generic happy ending, there are real consequences for the characters.

But in the end it's a lot more honest about relationships than other rom-coms; people make mistakes and can do silly things when they're upset. Peter and Emma are no exceptions.

The best part of I Want You Back is how well it combines the aforementioned romantic drama with real comedy, and as some of the best comedy actors in the biz, Day and Slate are really great. They're joined by a solid cast including Gina Rodriguez, Scott Eastwood, Manny Jacinto and Clark Backo.

Rom-coms that appeal to non-rom-com fans have been enjoying a golden age recently; first there was I Want You Back in 2022 and then a year later we saw No Hard Feelings in 2023 and Anyone But You in 2023/4 (depending on where you live). Notably these latter two were studio movies, and I Want You Back is a rare example of a streaming rom-com that's any good. I'm hoping 2025 brings a belter too!

So if you're looking for a great Valentine's Day watch this year, particularly if you're in a couple with one person who wants romance and one who doesn't, I Want You Back is a great pick.

They're the most unlikely of film stars. Yet zombies, the rotting, lurching undead with an insatiable craving for flesh and blood are tailor-made for movies. Be they solo or en masse in spectacular ravaging hoards, they've earned their place on the big screen with their own distinctive style of horror, one that's proved to be extraordinarily malleable and adaptable. Musicals, comedies, romances, you name it, they've all got their own zombie versions. Now they’re invading Netflix in style, courtesy of one of the best and most popular movies from the genre, Train To Busan (2016), which has been added on Tuesday, 11 February (UK fans can watch via ITVX or rent on Prime Video).

Regarded as the father of the "Hollywood zombie", George Romero put them firmly on our radar with the legendary Night Of The Living Dead (1968), giving audiences their first taste of the infected, flesh-craving monsters we're familiar with now. Less than twenty years later, the first South Korean zombie movie emerged, A Monstrous Corpse (1981) and, although it was an investigative drama rather than a blood-soaked horror, it was the foundation for movies that are perhaps now more immediately associated with filmmakers from the East than the West.

One of a handful of horrors to be shown at Cannes over the years, Yeong Sang-Ho's Train To Busan made its debut at a midnight screening in 2016, marking the start of its stampede to critical acclaim and international box office success. Made for just $8 million, it raked in over $92.7 million, picking up 36 awards around the world on the way. The premise was simple. A cynical workaholic father is taking his daughter to visit her mother but, unbeknown to them, a sick woman has boarded their train, changed into a zombie, attacked a guard and the virus is spreading ferociously. The father urgently tries to protect his little girl from the swarm of monsters overrunning the train, while other characters realize they were personally responsible for the outbreak.

More of an action film than an out-and-out horror, Train To Busan went a long way to cementing South Korea's popularity with filmgoers around the world. With unique characters, intense performances and relentless action, it also had a thought-provoking side, a satirical commentary on the class system that resonated with international audiences. The combination made the film an instant and huge hit, setting the standard for subsequent zombie movies, Korean and otherwise.

With a 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes, it has since gone on to feature in just about any top twenty zombie movie list you care to name, usually in the first ten. Whittle that down to lists of the best ones from South Korea and it’s more often than not in pole position. And, while its filmmaking wasn’t wholly groundbreaking, it set the bar extremely high with its techniques and use of one of cinema’s biggest conventions — the speeding train.

The confined setting, with ravenous zombies smothering the corridors, gangways and carriages, ramped up the already nerve-tingling tension that went with the father trying to shield his daughter. It ticks every box for a thrilling high-speed horror adventure, one with lots of blood, gore, wonderfully revolting zombies and action all the way. It's a train that also runs on time, coming in at just below two hours, a running time that races by as people die left, right and centre.

Fans of the undead, as well as what has now become a franchise in its own right, are also in for a double whammy on 11 February, with Peninsula, Train To Busan's stand-alone 2020 follow-up arriving on Netflix in the US. This time, South Korea is already overrun by the zombie plague and a former soldier goes on a deadly mission to recover a truck full of money in the heart of the undead’s territory. The franchise's legions of followers can sink themselves into their two favorite zombie films, while first-timers can discover what makes the original in particular such a stand-out. It’s a win-win situation.

Train To Busan landed on Netflix in the US on Tuesday, 11 February 2025. It is available on ITVX and Prime Video in the UK.

Peninsula also arrived on Netflix in the US on Tuesday, February 11 2025. It is available on ITVX and Prime Video in the UK.

When I watched the trailer for new Netflix comedy, Kinda Pregnant, I couldn't wait to watch it. With Amy Schumer in the lead role, I thought this was going to be a fun comedy that couldn't go wrong. But, while that most definitely wasn't the case, I think its 17% score on Rotten Tomatoes is unfair.

If you are unfamiliar with the story, the movie follows teacher Lainy Newton, who finds herself single again in her 40s. And while Lainy's dreams of getting married and having a family are in tatters, her married childhood best friend, Kate, announces that she is pregnant and she can't help but feel jealous.

But instead of going through the usual break-up emotions, Lainy accidentally finds herself pretending to be pregnant when she tries on a fake baby bump in a store and the shop assistant wrongly assumes she's in the family way.

Soon Lainy's lies are spiraling out of control, not only when she meets a new friend, Meghan at prenatal yoga, but also the love of her life, Josh - both who think she is going to be having a baby in a matter of weeks.

Queue plenty of fake baby bump-based jokes and pranks, and of course misunderstandings and double innuendoes galore. But - even though this isn't the funniest comedy that you will watch this year - I think the 17% rating is unfair and perhaps missing the point of the movie.

Kinda Pregnant is more than just a comedy, at the heart of it is a brilliant depiction of the ups and downs of motherhood and the joy and complexities of female friendships - Lainy and Kate's friendship is most definitely something that everyone should have in their lives.

So all in all, not the best movie by any stretch, but if you are looking for something easy to watch one evening, you could do a lot worse.

Kinda Pregnant is available to steam on Netflix now.

Hulu is about to lose one of its best films in a few days, and you might not have even realized because the movie isn't nearly as well known as it should be. But you can change that by streaming it this weekend.

The movie is called The Beta Test, and it leaves Hulu on Monday, February 3, which means your last day to see it is on Sunday, February 2. Honestly, I'd say the movie is good enough to justify signing up to the streaming service if you're not already subscribed.

The Beta Test is about a sleazy Hollywood agent who receives a mysterious letter inviting him to a commitment-free sexual liaison. Despite having a fiancée he accepts, but after the encounter he begins to obsess over the mysterious woman. This causes him to hunt down the person who sent him the letter, while also trying to maintain his relationship with his fiancée and keep on top of his job.

Straddling thriller and dark comedy elements, the movie is at heart a satire of Hollywood and the movie business, but it's also a gripping character study of its lead. It's quite reminiscent of Under the Silver Lake, one of my favorite movies, but far less divisive.

This role is played by the man who also co-directed and co-wrote the film: Jim Cummings. Cummings is best known for taking these three roles in the phenomenal 2018 drama Thunder Road and the 2020 horror The Wolf of Snow Hollow (which is being added to The Roku Channel on Sunday, February 2, if you haven't see that one).

It's an impressive trio of movies and each of them has a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 90% or above. The Beta Test is the middle of the three with a 92% score, with critics praising its tone and story most of all.

Joining Cummings are co-writer and co-director PJ McCabe, who plays the main character's best friend and Virginia Newcombe who plays his fiancée.

The movie was released in 2021, where it played at a few film festivals before getting a small theatrical run in November. Despite its high quality, most people haven't heard of it, which is why you need to catch it before it leaves Hulu.

If you like twisting thriller movies, I'd recommend acting fast to see The Beta Test as soon as you can, as its digital home after Monday hasn't been confirmed. In fact I'd recommend all of Cummings' films, especially with TWoSH being free for Roku users soon too, but if you want to watch Thunder Road you'll have to buy or rent it digitally.

Other departures from Hulu soon include Spencer on Friday, February 7 and Titane on Friday, February 15, but there's a lot that's new on Hulu and worth watching.

I knew there was a reason to stay signed up for Netflix! The streaming supergiant has taken a break from releasing its own originals to upload a modern classic show that you'll need to binge watch (at least Netflix UK has).

This show is Yellowstone which was added to Netflix UK's library on Thursday, January 30. Yes, that show Yellowstone, the one which has remained one of the biggest US shows ever since it debuted in 2018.

Yellowstone, if you've somehow never heard of it, is set in Montana on the Yellowstone ranch of the powerful Dutton family. It follows their attempts to maintain a hold on this family-run institution against political maneuvering, business deals to take it over and keep its borders protected against various threats.

Kevin Costner leads the charge as the patriarch John with Wes Bentley, Kelly Reilly and Luke Grimes all playing members of his family.

The show was a pretty huge deal for a few years as a gripping Western drama and has spawned numerous spin-offs including 1883, which looks at the founding of the ranch, and 1923 which shows the Dutton family weathering some tough years. More are in the works.

Yellowstone technically wrapped up its fifth and final season at the beginning of 2025 though fans are convinced that more series will come; it's not clear whether that's the case although signs point to the show following The Walking Dead's model in spinning off continuation shows of various characters.

If you're excited to watch the show on Netflix, just be warned: while the series' overall rating on Rotten Tomatoes is a glowing 83%, its first season sits at a rather less complimentary 58%. By all accounts (from both fans of the show, and detractors), the first season has a plodding pace which can put some watchers off. I can attest, I couldn't get through season 1.

If you can get through the first batch of episodes, though, it sounds like the show becomes a bona-fide sensation. Who knows, maybe its addition to Netflix will make me try again.

The various spin-offs aren't coming to Netflix; you'll need to sign up for Paramount Plus to watch them. That streaming service is also where Yellowstone was before coming to Netflix, and it remains on there too.

In the US the spin-offs are also on Paramount Plus but the main series isn't coming to Netflix. Instead, you can watch it on Peacock.

Not so long ago, Michael Fassbender's legions of fans wondered if their favorite actor would ever return to our screens. The combination of becoming a father and his love of sports car racing had kept him away for four years, but he's been making up for lost time. The film that marked his return is on Netflix and his star-studded hit series on Paramount Plus with Showtime (simply via Paramount Plus in the UK), which has just reached its climax, has been greenlit for a second season.

The show is The Agency and when we say "star-studded", we're not kidding. As well as double Oscar nominee Fassbender, the cast includes Jeffrey Wright, Richard Gere, John Magaro, Jodie Turner-Smith and Katherine Waterston, a mighty ensemble entangled in an espionage thriller based on the critically acclaimed French drama Le Bureau. Fassbender is a covert CIA agent, Martian, who is ordered to leave his undercover life and return to London, but when his abandoned love follows him, their relationship resumes, so his feelings clash with his career, his real identity and his latest mission. The tension escalates when he's made the proverbial offer he can't refuse — to become a double agent, so he can protect his girlfriend.

More details have yet to be released about what we can expect from season two, but it's highly likely that at least some of the action will surround Martian’s deal with the devil and whether he can keep quiet about it. And it’s inevitable that something else could complicate matters. This is the world of spooks, after all. The show's ability to keep its viewers guessing has been one of the reasons for its success with audiences and Paramount commissioned a second outing well in advance of the finale for its first season.

The Fassbender film on Netflix is The Killer (2023), the latest from Se7en director, David Fincher. This The Day Of The Jackal style thriller marked the actor's return to the screen, this time as a solitary, yoga-loving hitman who plans everything to within an inch of its life, including intricate disguises — and yet things still go wrong. Fincher directs this tightrope act of a film with customary skill and style, combining suspense with a dark sense of humor. Known only as The Killer, Fassbender's character comes laden with mantras designed to keep him on track — "stick to the plan", "weakness is vulnerability" — while the film rejoices in its own sly running gag. We won’t spoil the fun by telling you what it is, but watch out for his many assumed identities.

Scoring 85% on Rotten Tomatoes, it was warmly welcomed on the festival circuit before arriving on Netflix. Fassbender and co-star Tilda Swinton as his nemesis, an equally enigmatic assassin, are on top form in a film packed with Fincher's customary details and echoes of the likes of Zodiac and Fight Club. This is a film that hits the spot every time.

The Killer is available on Netflix in the US and UK. Season one of The Agency is on Paramount Plus via Showtime in the US and Paramount Plus in the UK.

If you're a Netflix subscriber, you've only got a few more days to watch one of the best horror movies of all time, because The Wailing is leaving the streamer's library in both the US and UK on Thursday, January 30.

A South Korean movie from 2016, The Wailing is set in a small mountainous village. A strange illness is causing villagers to kill their families, and some people think a new Japanese arrival is to blame, while others think it's evil spirits.

We follow a policeman called Jong-goo, whose daughter begins to succumb to the illness, prompting him to go to desperate lengths to stop the illness and save his daughter and wife.

It's a really creepy movie, with the film going out of its way to make it ambiguous as to what's really wrong, up until the end when everything makes sense. It's a "slow-burn" movie, but not to the degree that it's ever boring, it just has a twisty story as we learn more about the situation.

I really like atmospheric horror stories that focus on character and narrative over blood, gore and jump scares, and with that in mind, The Wailing ranks as one of the best horror movies I've seen as it ticks all my boxes.

If you don't believe me, just check out Rotten Tomatoes, where the movie has a near-perfect 99% critic score. The only criticism critics have, even in the negative review, is the two-and-a-half hour runtime (which is a fair point for any long movie).

Despite this high score, The Wailing remains lesser-known in the west, with most viewers having discovered it by word of mouth. That's why I have to pass it on with an article like this!

The movie's director, Na Hong-jin, is currently working on his next movie called Hope which is due to premiere this year. A sci-fi thriller, its cast includes a few Korean stars as well as Michael Fessbender, Alicia Vikander and Taylor Russell.

If you live in the US, you can still watch The Wailing on Peacock and Prime Video, while in the UK it's also on Prime Video. So there are still ways to watch the movie, and based on precedent it could be back on Netflix in about 18 months.

A few big movies are coming to Sky TV subscribers through January including Will Smith's Bad Boys: Ride or Die and Anya Taylor-Joy's Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, but another that you shouldn't overlook is The Last Stop in Yuma County which is now available to watch for Sky Cinema customers.

This indie movie was released in cinemas in the US in 2024, after a 2023 film festival premiere, but it didn't get a theatrical run in the UK. In fact, it's not been in cinemas or on a streaming service in the UK before, and the only way to see it was by buying or renting it digitally. That is, until now, with the movie being added to Sky Cinema today (on Sunday, January 26).

The Last Stop in Yuma Country is a crime thriller set in a remote petrol filling station in Yuma County in Arizona in the 1970s. It's about the disparate people waiting at the roadside stop for a refueling truck to arrive, which include some bank robbers on the run who try to avoid detection as well as a travelling knife salesman.

People loved the movie when it came out, with it currently sitting at a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It didn't make a huge box office splash in the US, likely down to it being an indie film with few big names behind it, but based on that score alone it's worth a watch. Apparently famous horror director Sam Raimi liked it so much that he hired its director for the upcoming Evil Dead movie.

Yuma County was directed by first-time director Francis Galluppi and its biggest cast member is arguably Jim Cummings, a popular indie director and actor himself known for Thunder Road and The Beta Test. He's joined by The House of the Devil's Jocelin Donahue and Supernatural's Sierra McCormick, amongst others.

People have compared The Last Stop in Yuma County to a Coen movie, so if you like those, it will definitely be worth getting onto Sky TV to watch it. You'll need one of Sky TV's two plans that include Sky Cinema.

These are Essential TV, Sky Cinema, a £25-per-month package which gets you Sky Cinema as well as Sky Atlantic, Netflix, Discovery Plus and a Sky Stream streaming dongle, or Ultimate TV, Sky Cinema, which is the same but also includes access to all of Sky TV's live TV channels. You can find more information in our Sky TV packages guide, and we've also got a post about Sky TV deals here.

That may be a lot of money just for one indie movie, but bear in mind that Sky Cinema has lots of other big American, Hollywood and international movies too. Other recent releases which were added in December 2024 include A Quiet Place: Day One, Wonka and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

The list of movies on Netflix is constantly changing, but it's going to see a big bump on Friday, January 31 when a whole twelve are set to be removed.

That's a big blow to movie fans of all stripes; quite a few of the movies leaving have low Rotten Tomatoes scores (one as low as 7%!) but some of them are classics.

For example Zero Dark Thirty (91% on Rotten Tomatoes) is set to depart; this Oscar-winning 2012 war movie depicts the hunt for Osama bin Laden, and it's remembered as a must-watch thriller.

Netflix is also losing the crime comedy duology 21 Jump Street (85%) and 22 Jump Street (84%) which star Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as cops who pose as high school students to dismantle a drug ring.

Another well-received movie that's leaving is Whitney (88%) from 2018, which is a documentary about singer Whitney Houston and her lifestyle and music.

A few other movies leaving may not be critically beloved, but are well worth a watch. These include Brad Pitt & Angelina Jole action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith which was since adapted into a Prime Video show, Channing Tatum & Jamie Foxx thriller White House Down which spawned a few sequels and Jason Sudeikis & Jennifer Aniston comedy We're The Millers which is best remembered for spawning this meme.

So what's left? The remaining movies all have 33% or less on Rotten Tomatoes so they're not popular, but some still have fans.

There's the comedy parody movie Not Another Teen Movie (32%), other teen comedy Project X (28%), police comedy White Chicks (15%), YA fantasy movie The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (13%) and martial arts sequel The Next Karate Kid (7%).

These removals are all per Netflix's official list which applies to the US, so if you live elsewhere, you might see different movies leaving.

If any of those movies appeal to you, then you've got until the end of January to stream them before they leave. Some may go to other services, some may be gone for good, and more may be on a temporary hiatus before they rejoin later down the line.

Over the past weekend, Apple TV Plus made itself totally free to watch for anyone who owned a device with a screen — you didn't need to put in payment details, commit to a future subscription, or even buy one of its devices. The free Preview Weekend made its entire library readily available to watch.

As I wrote during the weekend, my focus for the Apple TV Plus free weekend was to watch all of its movies I hadn't seen yet, and with a workout injury ensuring that a sofa-based weekend was on the books, I quickly caught up on five of the streamer's movies I hadn't seen yet. But after one particularly lackluster offering put me off watching movies, I decided to try out a few Apple shows that I hadn't seen yet — and ended up binging one show for hours afterwards.

This show, as fans will be able to recognize from the image at the top of the article, is Slow Horses, a spy thriller series with 98% overall on Rotten Tomatoes. It's about a branch of MI5 that all the has-beens, mistake-makers or generally incompetent agents go to, helmed by Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb. Each season is a new story with the same characters, and they're based on novels by Mick Herron.

Slow Horses celebrated its fourth season in 2024, with a season five on the way and a sixth being worked on. I only got through half of season one before the free trial weekend ended (boo!) and I regret waiting for a free preview weekend to watch the series.

I'm not always a fan of espionage thriller TV shows, preferring film for the same reason as I prefer movies overall: almost always, shows feel unnecessarily drawn out in length, and that's a real issue when tension and pacing is vital like in a thriller. In fact, it's why I didn't get around to watching Slow Horses before. But the show felt a lot quicker-paced, something which I appreciated.

I also thought it was really smart how the show's makers kept subtly hinting at details — we're misled on the identity of a kidnapping victim, as well as a double agent, without ever being explicitly lied to. Plus, as a London resident, I always like seeing the city on-screen when you can tell it was actually filmed here — some scenes in episode 2 were shot about 100 meters from the What to Watch office!

After I finished episode 3 of Slow Horses, the auto-play pop-up didn't work, and that's because Apple's free preview weekend had ended. I'm genuinely considering signing up just to watch the rest of the series, because I enjoyed spending time with the characters and want to see how the story wraps up. Then maybe I'll dive into the remaining three seasons (or more, depending on how long I take). I just regret waiting this long to try it out!

People who haven't watched Apple TV Plus yet might take this opportunity to break the emergency glass of the Apple TV Plus free trial, which lets you stream for a while without paying. Don't let me know if you do though, because I'll be too jealous.

Apple is sometimes very quick to renew a hit show, confirming two new seasons of Silo after season two was only a few weeks old, so I was worried that my favorite Apple TV Plus show of the year hadn't received a renewal. I can sleep easily now, knowing that it has.

This show is Bad Monkey, which debuted on Apple TV Plus in August of this year. It's proven really popular, with 93% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing, but there was no official word on it after its October finale until now.

Now, Apple has confirmed that Bad Monkey season 2 is in the works, with a statement from showrunner Bill Lawrence also confirming that lead Vince Vaughn will return. Beyond that, though, we don't know what season 2 will bring.

Bad Monkey's first season was based on a book of the same name from 2013, about a down-on-his-luck detective in Florida called Andrew Yancy who investigates his way into a murder mystery plot about fraud and real estate greed.

Book author Carl Hiaasen is prolific with crime-comedy novels set in Florida; "Bad Monkey" wasn't the first but it marked the introduction of Yancy. This character also appeared in Hiaasen's next book, "Razor Girl", and prior to Bad Monkey's renewal Bill Lawrence stated a desire to adapt "Razor Girl" too.

An adaptation of this book would also see the return of other Bad Monkey characters including Natalie Martinez as Rosa Campesino, a Miami coroner whom Yancy teams up with (and has a romance with), John Ortiz as Rogelio Burton, Yancy's former partner and current friend, and Todd Allen Durkin as Sonny Summers, Yancy's current Sheriff in the Miami Keys.

Apple hasn't confirmed much about Bad Monkey season 2 so we don't have a release date, returning cast or in fact if it'll definitely be based on Razor Girl. We'll have to wait to find out, and I don't imagine we'll hear much until middle to late 2025.

In the meantime, if you haven't seen Bad Monkey, I'd recommend you grab an Apple TV Plus free trial to catch it. And once you have there's a lot more on there that's similar in tone including High Desert, Palm Royale and The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin.

• Find Razor Girl on Amazon here

Christmas comes early, movie fans. If you have been wanting to watch Anora but didn't have the chance while it was playing exclusively in movie theaters, starting Tuesday, December 17, Anora is available via digital on-demand, meaning you can watch the Oscar Best Picture contender at home whenever you want.

You can buy or rent Anora digitally via various on-demand platforms in the US, including Prime Video, Google Play, Fandango at Home, Apple TV and YouTube. We don’t have any details on when or where Anora is going to make its streaming debut, but it will likely be a little bit longer for that.

Written and directed by Sean Baker, Anora is billed as a modern-day Cinderella story, where Ani, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, meets the impulsive son of a Russian billionaire and quickly gets married. However, when the young man’s parents find out what he has done they send their henchmen to try and annul the marriage, leading to a chase through New York. Mikey Madison stars as Ani, with Yura Borisov, Mark Eydelshteyn, Karren Karagulian and Vache Tovmasyan in supporting roles.

Anora is one of the best reviewed movies of the year, as evidenced by its 96% “Certified Fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and its “Verified Hot” score of 90% from general audiences on the site.

In addition to the movie’s critical acclaim, it is raking in the awards. Among its notable trophies so far is the 2024 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or (best of the fest). It's also earned five Golden Globe nominations and was named Best Picture of the Year by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. It has amassed various wins and nominations from other critics and award-voting groups as well.

Anora is the latest Oscar hopeful to become available at home before the end of the year. Others include Conclave, Maria and Saturday Night. If you want to catch up with more of this year’s award hopefuls, check out our how to watch Golden Globe-nominated movies post.

If you still want to see Anora on the big screen, the movie is still playing in movie theaters across the US; it is still playing exclusively in cinemas in the UK.

Watch the trailer for Anora right here:

If someone asked you to name Nicolas Cage's best movie, what would you respond? Adaptation? Face/Off? Raising Arizona? Well, Netflix just added his second-highest-rated movie to its UK library, and you can stream it now.

This movie is actually Pig, from 2021, which might surprise some streamers. But with 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, it has his joint second-highest score, just behind Red Rock West and shared on 97% with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Pig was a surprising shock when it came out. The trailer made it seem like a dark comedy John Wick knockoff but viewers were startled to watch a slow and meditative thriller, and it was hailed by many as one of the best movies of 2021. In our Pig review we gave it four stars out of five.

The movie is about a hermit who lives in Oregon and ekes out a living by using his pig to hunt for truffles. When said pig is kidnapped, he has to travel to Portland to retrieve her, where he has to confront his past.

You can see where the John Wick comparisons come into play — instead of Keanu Reeves avenging a pet, it's Nicolas Cage retrieving one — but it's actually more of a drama with thrilling and comedy elements.

Netflix subscribers don't need to take my word for it, though, as you can easily watch it now. If you live on the US you can watch it on Paramount Plus (with its Showtime tier) or for free on Kanopy if you have access to that.

Nicolas Cage's filmography is defined by extremes, and looking at his Rotten Tomatoes rankings shows that he has just as many hits as stinkers. And fans of the stars have learned that sometimes his most fun roles are those which aren't as well-received by the critics

But of those nearly 120 movies (which, I should point out, includes one he's just a producer on), Pig is literally the second best (while it's joint with Spider-Man, he's not the star of that, while he is of Pig). That goes to show that it's definitely worth a watch, and if you are a cynic about Rotten Tomato ratings, then know that the audience score is also pretty high at 84%.

We've gotten to the point where there are so many classic TV shows and movies, that it can be hard to know what to watch — or how to afford it! Luckily I'm here to help you solve both problems thanks to the Black Friday sales.

The Amazon Black Friday sales are currently underway, until Tuesday, December 2, and of the many deals across the site there are many on DVDs and Blu-rays.

Remember discs? The things you used to watch movies and shows from before streaming services? They're a great way to make sure the movie you love or the show you're binging is easily accessible to watch, for if (or when) it gets pulled from streaming.

So to find you something to watch, I've compiled a list of all the Black Friday DVD and Blu-ray sales I've found on films or series that have over 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. This is an aggregate of every movie or season in the box set, which rules a surprising amount of stuff out!

If you don't like what you see here, you can find Amazon's Black Friday DVD listings here, for all those picks which only hit 89% (or under).

More Black Friday options:

• Netflix Black Friday deals
• Apple TV Plus Black Friday deals
• Disney Plus Black Friday deals
• Paramount Plus Black Friday deals
• Prime Video & Channels Black Friday deals
• Max Black Friday deals
• Peacock Black Friday deals
• Hulu Black Friday deals
• ESPN Plus Black Friday deals
• Sling TV Black Friday deals
• Fubo Black Friday deals
• DAZN Black Friday deals

It's probably a bit early to refer to a movie that came out in 2023 as "my favorite Christmas movie" but I'm doing it; The Holdovers jumped straight to the top of my list when I saw it and now you can watch it at home for half price thanks to the Black Friday sales.

The Holdovers is about a teacher (played by Paul Giamatti) who's forced to stay at a boarding school over Christmas to babysit a poorly-behaved student (Dominic Sessna). They butt heads initially but start to connect, with help from the remaining school chef (Da'Vine Joy Randolph).

• Will there be a Black Friday deal on Prime Video channels?

It's a heartwarming story that's pretty funny too, perfect for people who don't connect with the tawdry Christmas movies that get pumped out every year. The 97% Rotten Tomatoes critics score and several Oscar nominations speak for themselves!

While The Holdovers is streaming, on Prime Video in the US and UK, movies come and go from these services, and so I don't know if it'll stay there forever. That's one of the reasons DVDs and Blu-rays are so great: you can pay once and watch it as many times as you like. Plus The Holdovers has an alternate ending and deleted scenes on the disc that I'm curious about!

While Blu-rays (and even DVDs) can often cost quite a lot of money, especially considering it's a 2-hour video, a Black Friday discount is really great to make them somewhat more affordable. Here's what they cost in the US:

Not in the US? There's a UK deal too, if you scroll down.

Black Friday The Holdovers deal

Black Friday The Holdovers UK deal

In the UK, there's also a Black Friday deal on The Holdovers in its 4K Ultra + HD format, but not on its DVD or standard Blu-ray format.

When do the Black Friday deals end?

Most of Amazon's Black Friday deals are expected to end on Tuesday, December 2, which is the day after Cyber Monday.

What's on the physical copy of The Holdovers?

If you stream The Holdovers, you just get the movie, but the physical disc has a lot more.

There are some deleted scenes and an alternative ending included, and I'm curious to buy the movie just to see these.

Plus, there are behind-the-scenes documentaries introducing you to the cast of the movie, as well as a video on what it was like working with the director Alexander Payne.

The DVD version of the movie has everything on one disc but if you get the Blu-ray or 4K versions, it's spread over two discs.

More Black Friday options:

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• Prime Video & Channels Black Friday deals
• Max Black Friday deals
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• Fubo Black Friday deals
• DAZN Black Friday deals

Netflix has added Pantheon, an animated sci-fi series aimed at adults that boasts an incredible voice cast and has a 100% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Pantheon is based on a series of short stories by Ken Liu about human intelligence being uploaded to the "cloud". We follow Maddie, a bullied teenager receiving help from a mysterious stranger online. She discovers that the mystery person is in fact her dead father, David, whose consciousness has been uploaded to the Cloud following an experimental destructive brain scan.

David it's revealed is the first of a new kind of being: "an Uploaded Intelligence" or "UI". He might be the first but he's not going to be the last. And Maddie finds herself mixed up in a global conspiracy that threatens to trigger a new kind of war...

• Will there be a Netflix Black Friday deal in 2024?

The voice cast includes Paul Dano (Caspian), Aaron Eckhart (Cary), Katie Chang (Maddie) and Daniel Dae Kim (David). Daniel Dae Kim told Newsweek he was interested in the way the series explores eternal life.

"I am interested in technology and its ramifications. I am fascinated by the future of our existence, and I like the family dynamic between Maddie and her father, David, who I play. As a father I can relate to a lot of the issues that the show deals with, in terms of the best way to keep an open, honest relationship with your children.

"It's a fascinating idea. There's so many among us who are obsessed with the idea of everlasting life, so the exploration of it is interesting. Like any technology, it will have its pluses and minuses, and I was curious to see what the writers wanted to show us in terms of their position on whether it's a good or bad thing."

Pantheon has a strange history. AMC originally ordered two seasons, but Deadline reported last year that it had been scrapped after just one season in a cost-cutting drive. Infuriatingly for fans, the second season had been made but wasn't going to air. In a fresh twist, the second season was made available on Prime Video in Australia and New Zealand.

Netflix has now added the first season of Pantheon in the US and UK, but unfortunately, it doesn’t currently have the second season. You can watch Pantheon season one on Netflix now. Each episode is 40 minutes long. Check out our best shows on Netflix guide for more series to enjoy.

The final episodes of Outlander season 7 are heading to Starz beginning November 22. The time travel romance features an epic love story that spans centuries will soon be fading off into the mist, but not before cementing the unshakeable bond between Claire (Caitríona Balfe) and Jaime (Sam Heughan) one last time.

Outlander season 7 premieres Nov. 22 at midnight Eastern time on the Starz app and all Starz streaming platforms. The episode will be available for Starz cable subscribers at 8 pm ET/PT. New episodes will be available to stream weekly at midnight on Friday.

Outlander, which boasts a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, follows Claire's journey from the 20th century to 18th century Scotland, where she falls in love with Jaime Fraser. The couple is torn apart by the sands of time, with Claire always finding Jaime as her life continues in two distinct time periods. The series is based on the bestselling novels from Diana Gabaldon.

The synopsis below paints a picture of where Claire and Jaime are heading into the final episodes of the series and where they're going: "Coming off the first half of Outlander season 7, we find Claire, Jamie and Young Ian leaving the colonies and arriving in their beloved homeland: Scotland. The perils of the Revolutionary War force them to choose between standing by those they love and fighting for the land they have made their new home. Meanwhile, Roger and Brianna face new enemies across time, and must battle the forces that threaten to pull their family apart. As loyalties change and painful secrets come to light, Jamie and Claire’s marriage is tested like never before. With their love binding them over oceans and centuries, can the MacKenzies and Frasers find their way back to each other?"

Though the journey is coming to an end for Claire and Jaime, a new story set in the same universe is about to begin with Outlander: Blood of My Blood. The prequel spinoff will explore the love stories between Claire and Jaime's parents. There's no release date for the spinoff yet but we suspect the new series will arrive in 2025.

New episodes of Outlander season 7 part 2 air Fridays on Starz.

When you've been covering movies and TV shows as long as I have, you can easily tell when streaming services are making the rare foray into award-contender videos, and Netflix has picked today to add not one, not two but three such movies.

By "today" I mean Friday, November 22, if you're reading this afterward! These three movies are all ones that we'll probably see get nods at the Oscars, Golden Globes, BAFTAs, or other similar awards, and now is the time of year in which we often see these kind of movies, as eligibility cut-off for them is usually towards the end of the year.

The first of these movies is Spellbound, an animated movie featuring the voices of Rachel Zegler, Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman, and directed by one of the two directors of Shrek. It's about a young princess who has to go on a quest to save her kingdom and her parents.

Netflix has a long legacy in the animated movie awards categories, having won an Oscar in the category for Pinocchio in 2022 and also netting nominations recently for The Sea Beast, The Mitchells vs The Machines and Over the Moon in 2022, 2021 and 2020 respectively. It was also quick to buy the rights to the 2023 winner The Boy and the Heron.

Spellbound could be up against some tough competitors in the 2024 animated movie sector, including The Wild Robot and Inside Out 2. However, having the director of Shrek (the winner of the first-ever animated Oscar is a big blessing that could help it provide some tough competition.

The next is Joy, a British drama movie based on a true story starring Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton. It tells the story of a nurse, a scientist and a surgeon who teamed up to develop the first IVF test tube baby in the 1970s.

A heartwarming story that's based on a true story; already Oscar bells are ringing here. It's a film that gives its three leads plenty of opportunity to show off their acting chops, and the script was written by the writer of The Swimmers and Wonder so it could be up for some awards too.

It's not Britain's submission for Best International Feature Film for the Oscars, an honor which goes to the Indian movie Santosh, but it could still do well in the creative and craft categories. At the time of writing it has 87% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Finally, we've got The Piano Lesson, another drama, however this one is based on an August Wilson play (an important thing to note for later). It was directed by Malcolm Washington starring Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington, Ray Fisher and Erykah Badu.

The Piano Lesson is set during the Great Depression, and it's about a young man who wants to sell the family piano to help build a family fortune, against the wishes of his sister who insists they keep the family piano. Their disagreements touch on the family's past and future.

There's a lot going for The Piano Lesson. Its actors have all been adorned with awards before, its screenwriter Virgil Williams has already been nominated for an Oscar for Mudbound, and two other August Wilson adaptations Fences and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom both earned multiple Oscar nominations too. Its 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes positions this as the favorite over Joy, but it's a very close call.

So Netflix's three new movies all have major pluses, although The Piano Lesson and Joy will compete closely, especially with some tipping recently other original Emilia Perez as another potential Oscar movie. And that's before other streaming services put their movies out, so it's hard to say right now.

• Will there be a Netflix Black Friday deal? What we know so far

While you probably sign up to Amazon Prime for the free next-day shipping or music streaming, Prime Video continues to be one of the best perks of the subscription, and that's been proven with its recent movie release slate.

In the last two weeks, Prime Video has added two of the highest-rated indie movies of 2024, both of which saw limited theatrical releases making them unseen gems for many people.

First was My Old Ass, released on Thursday, November 7. Starring Aubrey Plaza and Maisy Stella, this coming-of-age movie is about a teenager who takes drugs on her 18th birthday and hallucinates a meeting with a 39-year-old version of herself. This older woman gives her advice and guidance over a transformative summer.

My Old Ass first premiered at Sundance Film Festival at the beginning of the year, and Amazon (through its MGM Studios) quickly swooped in to buy the distribution rights. It was released in theaters in the US, but in most other countries its release was very limited, so Prime Video streaming the film gives many more people a change to watch it.

At the time of writing, My Old Ass sits at 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics praising the comedy premise and the surprising depth. In our My Old Ass review we called it a "a funny and touching movie".

The second movie is Kneecap, which was released on Prime Video more recently: Saturday, November 16. This too is a comedy, but quite a different one.

Kneecap is a biographical comedy movie about the real-life Irish-language rap trio Kneecap, starring the artists themselves as well as Josie Walker and Michael Fassbender.

Like My Old Ass, Kneecap premiered at Sundance Film Festival, and since then it's seen a theatrical release in the UK and Ireland as well as in the United States. The movie currently enjoys a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and critics love its energetic tone yet its commentary on the Irish language.

Kneecap isn't on Prime Video in the US, and it isn't actually streaming anywhere there, but elsewhere Amazon has it.

With Amazon's acquisition of MGM, the number of big theatrical or film festival movies coming to Prime Video has seen an impressive increase. Somber drama movie Nickel Boys and Chris Evans, Dwayne Johnson, Lucy Liu and J.K. Simmons Christmas action movie Red One are expected to hit Prime Video eventually, after their theatrical runs have concluded.

• Will there be a Black Friday 2024 deal on Prime Video or Prime Video Channels?

Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, June Squibb. What do these three all have in common? Well, they are all bonafide action stars. Cruise and Cavill are no surprise, but Squibb, who recently turned 95, made her action debut in the 2024 new movie Thelma, which was a critical sensation and is now available to stream on Hulu.

Thelma stars Oscar-nominee Squibb (Nebraska) as the titular grandmother, who after being the victim of a phone scammer decides to attempt to get her money back, traversing the city with her friend (the late Richard Roundtree) on a motorized scooter. Fred Hechinger, Parker Posey and Clark Gregg also star in the movie that was written and directed by Josh Margolin, making his feature-directing debut.

After world premiering at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, Thelma premiered in movie theaters on June 21. It was beloved by critics, as Thelma scored a 98% “Certified Fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes, easily making it one of the best-reviewed movies of the summer. General audiences enjoyed it too, with 83% scoring the movie positively on RT. Now a wider audience can watch it as Thelma is streaming on Hulu.

What makes Thelma so fun is that it’s a unique iteration of an action movie. Centered on a nonagenarian, sure we’re not getting the high-flying Tom Cruise stunts, but Margolin depicts Thelma’s pursuits (ie her driving the scooter, making her way through a cluttered store to chase after a culprit) with the intensity of a typical action movie. Icing on the cake, Squibb performed many of the stunts herself (eat your heart out Cruise).

Of course, there’s also some great comedy in this indie movie. That comes from Squibb’s banter with Roundtree and the storylines of Hechinger, Posey and Gregg, as they fret over Thelma running about on her own. The movie also has plenty of heart, as it shows that just because you’re older doesn’t mean you have to stop living your life to the fullest.

If you have a subscription to Hulu (standalone, as part of Hulu with Live TV or with the Disney Bundle), then you can watch Thelma at no additional cost right now. For those that aren’t subscribed to Hulu, the movie is available through digital on-demand platforms; UK viewers can also find the movie on-demand.

Watch the trailer for Thelma right here:

One of the biggest TV shows that Apple TV Plus is set to air this fall has now debuted on the streamer — and judging by the 90% it's sitting at on Rotten Tomatoes, it was worth the wait! That makes it one of the best Apple TV Plus shows this year.

The show in question is Silo season 2, which follows on from the May 2023 debut season of the series. Silo season 2 episode 1, called "The Engineer", is on Apple TV Plus now, while new episodes will roll out weekly every Friday.

Silo is about the last 10,000 people on a ravaged Earth, who live in an underground silo (hence the name). Throughout the series, mysterious events reveal new secrets about the state of the world, and as of season 2 the characters are going to have to contend with a new reality.

If you want to watch Silo season 2 (or the first run of episodes) then an Apple TV Plus free trial would be a great way to do so. Alternatively, there are Apple TV Plus Black Friday deals that could also help you save when you sign up.

Judging by early audience and critic reviews (critics have seen all of season 2, whereas fans have only seen one episode), Silo's new batch of episodes continues as the first one did, with a similar tone and pacing, and so its Rotten Tomatoes score is only a slight stretch higher than the first season's rating of 88%.

Leading the cast of Silo is Rebecca Ferguson, who we last saw on another barren planet due to her performance in the Dune duology as Jessica Atreides. Ferguson is not in the new TV show Dune: Prophecy, though arguably her character is the one most affected by its story.

Ferguson is also a regular star in the Mission: Impossible movies, most recently Dead Reckoning Part 1. Fans of Silo think that some of the stunts she pulls off in season 2 could have been inspired by her spy franchise co-star Tom Cruise, who famously does his own action.

Silo could prove a great reason for sci-fi fans to stay subscribed to Apple TV Plus, with the streamer facing a slowdown of new shows after a busy middle of the year. In the new year Severance season 2 will arrive to supercharge the streamer's offerings.

• Apple TV Plus finally confirms fate of beloved show with 97 on Rotten Tomatoes, after a two-year wait

One of the early success stories for Apple TV Plus was the workplace comedy series Mythic Quest, created by some of the team behind It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and boasting an impressive 97% Rotten Tomatoes rating, however as the streamer ventured into new fare it seemingly left its Rob McElhenney-helmed comedy behind. However it's finally updated fans on the fate of the show.

Almost two years to the day since Mythic Quest season 3 debuted, a hiatus made more tolerable by Apple's prior renewal of the show for a fourth season, the company has confirmed that Mythic Quest season 4 is on the way... and Apple has more in store for fans of one of the best Apple TV Plus shows, as we'll get into.

• Apple TV Plus free trials: here's how to sign up and save

Firstly, the return of the show: Mythic Quest season 4 will grace Apple TV Plus from Wednesday, January 29. Two episodes will arrive then, and one more will join weekly, and that timing has us eyeing up all those Apple TV Plus Black Friday deals!

Most of the core cast of the show return including McElhenney and Charlotte Nicdao as well as Danny Pudi, Ashly Burch, David Hornsby, Jessie Ennis, Imani Hakim and Naomi Ekperigin.

Details for the fourth season are scarce but it will reunite the characters, who were going their separate ways as of the season 3 finale, in some kind of way.

By the end of March we'll know the full details because that's when Mythic Quest season 4 will wrap, but there will be more from the show, which fans will be glad of.

Apple TV Plus has also announced Side Quest, a spin-off series of Mythic Quest. This is a four-part anthology show which will land in full on Wednesday, March 26, the same day that Mythic Quest season 4's finale arrives.

Side Quest looks at different people whose lives are affected by Mythic Quest (the fictional game that the Mythic Quest show is about), including employees of the company and players of the game. McElhenney is the only major cast member who's set to star, and fans are going to need to wait until its release gets near to find out more about the stories.

Spin-offs are becoming Apple's new favorite toy with Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season 2 and For All Mankind season 5 both slated to get orbital shows set in the fictional universes. The announcement of Side Quest suggests that more Apple TV Plus shows could get spin-offs in the future - hopefully Foundation season 3 will be one!

• I can't stop listening to the soundtrack for this Apple TV Plus show

If you're surprised to see a new Netflix series coming out on a Saturday, you're not alone, because the streamer rarely releases content on weekends. What's also surprising is that Netflix is ending said show after just two seasons, despite it being one of its biggest hits.

The show in question is Arcane season 2, an animated fantasy series which serves as a prequel to the video game League of Legends (though people who've seen it insist that you don't need to know about the game to enjoy the show).

First released in 2021, Arcane was a massive hit, netting 100% on Rotten Tomatoes and winning four Primetime Emmy Awards and accolades in many other awards ceremonies. It remains one of Netflix's bigger animated series, despite not seeing an update in three years.

That is, until Saturday, November 9, when Arcane season 2 premiered onto Netflix. In another break from tradition beyond its Saturday air date, it's also got a weekly release: three episodes will come on the 9th with three more landing one week later and the final trio dropping a week after that.

Arcane is set in the League of Legends world of Runeterra, and in particular it focuses on two settlements: the futuristic city of Piltover and its seedy underbelly of Zaun. In them two sisters, Vi and Jinx, find themselves at the forefront of a conflict that could change the power dynamic between the two cities, but they end up on opposite sides of the battle lines.

The sisters are voiced by Fallout's Ella Purnell and Across the Spider-Verse's Hailee Steinfeld.

The first season of the show set up the conflict and put the sisters at odds, and the second season should show how they became the warriors from the video game. However fans who've been enjoying Arcane will be sad to know that this second season will be the last.

What's the reason for this cancellation? Well it's a rare reason in the TV world: the show's creators have simply finished telling the story they wanted to tell. In a quote shared on Netflix's own blog Tudum, the show's co-creator Christian Linke said "from the very beginning, since we started working on this project, we had a very specific ending in mind, which means the story of Arcane wraps up with this second season."

However soon afterwards Linke also teased that there might be more shows based on League of Legends on the way, so it might not be the end for good.

If you're a Netflix subscriber in the UK, you probably know that the movies which get added run the gamut from golden oldies to poorly-received blockbusters and must-watch indies, and the streamer has just added to its library a bona fide classic that you need to stream this weekend,.

First released in 1999 and now added to Netflix UK's library in early November 2024, Eyes Wide Shut was the final movie by legendary director Stanley Kubrick, which he first screened just days before passing away of a heart attack.

Eyes Wide Shut stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, in their last movie together as real-life husband and wife. It's an erotic thriller about a husband and wife, the latter of whom admits to having fantasies about other men, which puts the former down a self-destructive path as he tries to grapple with his own identity.

It's based on a novella from 1926 by Arthur Schnitzler, and the movie has over time become one of the director's most beloved works, often being considered on the level as his other classics.

Despite Kubrick considering Eyes Wide Shut his magnum opus, and it being his most successful movie at the box office, the movie has a surprisingly low Rotten Tomatoes score of 76%. That makes it one of his lowest-rated on the site, only undercut by his first feature movie called Fear and Desire at 70%. For extra context most of the rest of his movies are in the high 80s or 90s, including Dr Strangelove at 98% and 2001 at 92%. Eyes Wide Shut is his only movie on Netflix right now.

Star Tom Cruise is easy to picture as an action icon of the modern day, and it's sometimes overlooked that he starred in plenty of fantastic drama movies in the 1980s, 1990s and noughties. Both Top Gun movies are on Netflix in the UK too as well as the first three Mission Impossible movies and the remake of The Mummy.

Nicole Kidman is a star from the same era, thoguh she's stuck closer to the drama genre through time. On Netflix you can find many with her like A Family Affair, The Hours (which is leaving soon), Boy Erased, Cold Mountain, Just Go With It and recent show The Perfect Couple.

If you don't live in the UK, you can't use Netflix to watch Eyes Wide Shut. In the US it's on Paramount Plus.

One of the biggest new TV shows of the second half of 2024 is The Day of the Jackal, which is now available to watch (well, depending on where you live, with a late release date in some countries, but it's streaming in the UK).

The first five episodes are available to watch right now on Sky TV or Now TV, though in the US, Canada and New Zealand you'll have to wait a little while — here's how to watch The Day of the Jackal if you're interested.

The Day of the Jackal, an modernized version of a 50-year-old Frederick Forsyth novel of the same name, about a talented international assassin who becomes the target of a dedicated intelligence officer who wants to bring him down. Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch star in the two roles respectively.

You're going to have to wait until mid-December to see all ten episode of The Day of the Jackal but if you don't want to wait that long, you might be glad to know that the TV show isn't the first adaptation of the book. A critically-acclaimed version was released two years after the novel, in 1973, and it's FREE to watch in the UK.

The Day of the Jackal as the movie is called was directed by High Noon and Oklahoma!'s Fred Zennemann and stars Edward Fox, Michael Lonsdale and Derek Jacobi.

It tells the same story as the book: of an underground military group which hires The Jackal to assassinate Charles de Gaulle while authorities try to stop the assassination from taking place.

The movie is remembered as a gripping thriller, with its 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and its many accolades (including an Oscar nomination for best editing) a testament to its quality.

And if you live in the UK, you don't have to pay to watch The Day of the Jackal, because it's on ITVX, so you just need to be a license fee payer. Unfortunately it's not streaming anywhere in the US, and is on Binge in Australia. If you're abroad from the UK but want to see it on ITVX, you can use a streaming VPN or follow the instructions below to do so.

The movie and TV versions of The Day of the Jackal aren't the only adaptations, with an Indian version from 1988 and also a 1997 American movie called The Jackal with Bruce Willis, Richard Gere and Sidney Poitier (which was only listed as being 'inspired by' Forsyth's work, despite the name and plot). However the 1973 movie remains the most popular and best-received, so if you're going to watch a previous version, it should be this one.

Or you could just read the book, found on Amazon here.

How to use a VPN to stream from abroad

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

After finding fame as the lead in Netflix's hit legal drama The Lincoln Lawyer, which recently saw a third season, Mexican actor Manuel Garcia-Rulfo's new movie is now on the streaming service too.

Pedro Páramo is the name of the film, and it arrived on the streaming platform on Wednesday, November 6. Like The Lincoln Lawyer, it's a Netflix Original, having been made for the streamer, so you can't watch it anywhere else.

The movie is about a young man who tries to fulfill his mother's deathbed request to travel to the village he was born in, to locate his father (after whom the movie is titled). He finds the village full of ghosts (literal and metaphorical ones) which help him to better understand his past.

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo plays the titular Pedro Páramo with Tenoch Huerta as the lead, Juan Preciado.

Pedro Páramo is based on a classic novel of the same name by Juan Rulfo, first published in 1955, which is currently considered one of the most influential Mexican books ever written. It was a favorite of Jorge Luis Borges and Gabriel García Márquez (the latter of which is seeing their classic novel One Hundred Years of Solitude also adapted into a Netflix series).

The novel was written in a nonlinear fashion as a magical realism novel, and by all accounts, this movie follows suit. Reviews suggest that it can be a little hard to follow at times but have interesting themes like the book.

At the time of writing, prior to the movie's full release on Netflix, Pedro Páramo has a perfect run on Rotten Tomatoes, with all six reviews listed on the site being positive ones (although when the movie comes out, and more people review it, the full score could alter).

With The Lincoln Lawyer season 4 not officially confirmed by Netflix yet (at the time of writing), Manuel Garcia-Rulfo doesn't have any upcoming projects for the streamer in the pipeline. According to IMDb, his only upcoming project is Jurassic World Rebirth, the seventh movie in the Jurassic Park franchise which is scheduled for release in July 2025.

He's joining Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali, Jonathan Bailey and Rupert Friend in the cast and he's set to play the patriarch of a civilian family who gets dragged into the expedition of the main characters when he's in a shipwreck.

National Geographic’s latest documentary movie is a spectacle of modern technology and adventure, but I think you’ll enjoy it best by pairing it with a 20-year-old hit drama series.

Released onto Disney Plus and Hulu on Friday, November 1, Endurance is the movie in question. It follows the 2022 voyage of a team of scientists and adventurers to locate the shipwreck of the Endurance, a boat lost over a century before in the Weddell Sea near Antarctica.

The Endurance was lost in Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated 1914 attempt to cross the South Pole, and for 100 years we’ve had only faint ideas as to where it actually lies. That changes in Endurance, which compares its modern-day scientists and technicians to Shackleton himself in their daring attempts to locate the vessel before the ice floes trap them in the Weddell Gyre.

I saw Endurance at the London Film Festival in October 2024 and found it a fascinating look at this hero of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, while also showing how the spirit of adventure is still alive in the polar regions today. But coming out of the screening, I found myself fascinated to find out more about the explorer himself: Ernest Shackleton.

My first port of call was by watching South, the documentary which resulted from footage taken during the expedition (yes, the 1914 crew included a videographer) and was recently remastered by the British Film Institute.

But I still wanted more after that, and found myself stumbling upon a well-received TV show that I hadn’t heard of before.

This show is Shackleton, first broadcast by the UK’s Channel 4 in 2002.

Starring actor Kenneth Branagh as the titular explorer, Shackleton is a 206-minute story (broadcast in a different number of instalments in different countries) that charts the 1914 voyage of the man. The first half looks at his attempts to raise funds for the voyage while planning it, and the latter half focuses on how the expedition went wrong and the crew’s attempts to survive in the face of the odds.

Shackleton was evidently beloved when it came out several decades ago: it was nominated for Emmy, BAFTA and Golden Globe awards, and enjoys a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Watching Shackleton helped me understand the story of Endurance in a different way; while the Nat Geo documentary does tell the tale of the 1914 expedition, it doesn’t go into nearly as much detail (or give the figures a human face) as Shackleton does. Plus the movie makes the odd choice to get creepy-sounding AI reproductions of the real crew members to read their journal entries, which strips humanity from their stories, and I liked being able to see real actors inhabit each crewmember.

Unfortunately Shackleton isn’t readily available to watch everywhere. In the UK it’s free to watch on Channel 4 (with people travelling abroad able to use streaming VPNs to watch it) but it’s not streaming in many other places. In the US it was broadcast by A&E Network and now doesn’t seem to be online, which is the case in most other places I checked.

Netflix has added season 2 of The Law According to Lidia Poët, a binge-worthy period crime drama series rated 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Exploring the life of Italy's first female lawyer and set during the late 19th century, the first series was a surprise hit for Netflix and now the new six-part second season has landed.

If you've not seen the first series, obviously start there and we gave it a positive review, saying: "The series sheds an important light on a historical figure who may have been overlooked, so it's refreshing to see Netflix focusing on such an influential person."

Each episode sees Lidia (Matilda De Angelis) tackle a different case while she also fights for women to be allowed to practice law.

The second series sees Lidia continue her struggle to become a lawyer, but this time she's aiming to change the law itself. In the dramatic trailer below we see her declare she wants men and women to share the same rights. It also hints that Lidia could be in danger, while one of the cases sees her investigate the death of four girls.

Meanwhile, to help her achieve her overall goal, she tries to persuade her brother Enrico (Pierluigi Pasino) to run for Parliament so that her law can finally find a voice. After previous romantic disasters, Lidia is done with love but she’s forced to work with Jacopo (Eduardo Scarpetta) on a secret investigation that touches both of their lives. They soon rediscover the spark that connected them and are having fun again.

• Will Netflix have a Black Friday deal in 2024?

Netflix teasing the plot says: "Giving a hard time to the protagonists, the new King's Attorney, Fourneau, a man of the institutions who unexpectedly treats Lidia as his equal, prompting her to question the complex and contradictory relationship she has with feelings, and the cost of personal renunciation that she is sustaining in the name of her ideals."

If you're looking for a period crime drama to get your teeth stuck into this could be perfect. With just six episodes in each series and each episode only being 50 minutes long, it's not too big a commitment and the series whizzes along nicely.

The Law According to Lidia Poët season 2 is available on Netflix now.

Towards Halloween everyone finds themselves turned to a horror movie or two, and lots of the best streaming services have new originals to cater to that taste. However, if none of them pique your interest, I'd recommend you instead boot up Prime Video or Peacock, because hiding in their libraries is the movie that I'd dub the best horror movie I've ever seen.

The film in question is called The Endless and it was released in 2017. I'm always surprised by the number of people who've never even heard of it because it created a dedicated fanbase and was well-received (it has 92% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing).

The Endless is about two brothers who escaped a commune when they were younger and receive a mysterious video cassette from one of the members of the group.

They travel back to the camp in order to make amends with their past, however, something mysterious is going on behind the scenes which could trap them in the woods. I know that this last sentence is endlessly vague but I've made sure not to spoil anything, including the nature of the mystery or how they'd be trapped, so that you go in with fresh eyes.

Spooky stuff is certainly happening all the way through The Endless, with some creepy imagery juxtaposed with some horrifying concepts; it's not your generic slasher or paranormal story by any means! It's one of those movies that leaves you wondering what was really going on: were we witnessing the truth, was it all a metaphor, or was there really more going on under the surface?

I loved this movie as soon as I saw it, and it introduced me to the loosely defined genre of cosmic horror (which isn't about space, but horror that pertains to humanity's tiny space in the cosmos). More than that, though, it brought me to two amazing horror & sci-fi directors who are making amazing movies.

The third movie from writing / directing / acting / filming duo Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, The Endless created a cult following of fans due to the unique style of cosmic horror it taps into. I've been to Q&As from the two when fans have picked apart references between all of their movies!

They previously directed the fantastic low-budget Resolution (which is on Prime Video as well as most of the major free streaming services) as well as a segment on V/H/S Viral, and also the horror romance Spring (which is on Tubi)

Their more recent filmography includes the Anthony Mackie sci-fi movie Synchronic and episodes of Moon Knight, Loki and Daredevil: Born Again for Disney. Fans of horror should also check out the movie they produced After Midnight, which again is on most free streamers as well as Hulu, as it's the perfect combination of a character drama with a creature feature. It also has 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, for those of you who rely on the review website!

If you're looking for horror recommendations this Halloween, I presume it's because you've already worked your way through the classic horrors as well as the new originals for 2024. If that's the case, I can't recommend The Endless enough, as well as the other movies by its directors.

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• Will there be a Peacock Black Friday deal?

I've seen all sorts of movies about Artificial Intelligence since it became a hot topic a few years ago, from rabidly pro-AI ones to vehemently anti-AI stories, but Eternal You is probably the most balanced of them that I've seen so far.

Eternal You is a look at various companies and groups that are using AI as a way to digitally revive dead loved ones. After playing at prestigious film festivals like Sundance, Hot Docs and the UK's Sheffield Doc Fest (where I first saw it), the BBC will be showing at as part of Storyville on Tuesday, October 29. It currently stands at 90% on Rotten Tomatoes.

You might be wondering what I mean, "AI as a way to digitally revive dead loved ones" and don't worry, it's not literal. It's about using tech to digitally recreate someone.

One example of a method used by a company to 'bring back the dead' shown early on in Eternal You is by a text-based chat bot, which scans social media posts from a dead person in order to replicate their style of texting. Another later on uses virtual reality to create computer generated children that run around you. The methods run the gamut from low-key texting to full-on experiences like this.

After reading that synopsis, you probably had a strong reaction, whether it be in wonderment at just how far technology has come, or in repulsion at what modern technology is being used to do.

But that's what's great about Eternal You: its balance. The movie doesn't put a firm foot down in favor or opposition of Artificial Intelligence (although it seems to come close at times), instead simply showing you what it's being used to do, and letting you make up your own mind.

Part of that is that the doc doesn't just look at the technologies, but the people pioneering and creating them. One tech creator seems intent in ignoring the ethical ramifications of his chat bot, despite issues raised by his friend, and just wants to fly drones instead. Another man is seemingly trying to cope with a messy break-up, and he elicited a laugh in my screening when people noticed that his computer monitor was propped up by a stack of raunchy magazines.

By showing the technologies alongside the troubled people who created them, Eternal You solidifies itself as an honest and nuanced look at AI. Sure, tools like ChatGPT, Gemini or Grammarly may seem like magical intelligence machines, but they were all created by humans and therefore have a little piece of that creator in everything they put out. That would make AI seem negative, but it's not all so.

One moment that stays with me is a woman sobbing uncontrollably at the digital recreation of her deceased daughter; to the outsider, this image looks like an incredibly creepy artificial creation, but from the mother's reaction we can see that it still has meaning to her.

Is it morbid that this woman is having such a strong emotional reaction to a digital character, or heartwarming? That's for you to decide.

You can watch Eternal You on TV on BBC Four, where it'll play at 10 pm on Tuesday, October 29. If you can't watch it then, it'll be shown on iPlayer shortly afterwards and you can find its landing page here.

The second most-watched movie on Netflix UK at the time of writing is A Man Called Otto, a popular Tom Hanks comedy-drama from 2022 which was added to the streaming service on Sunday, October 13. The movie is currently the second-most-watched film on the service, just below original documentary Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare and above other originals like The Menendez Brothers and Lonely Planet.

Hanks stars in the movie as a grouchy widower living in the Pittsburgh suburbs who's given up on life, until a Mexican family moves in next door. While they initially clash, slowly the man (who's called Otto, if you couldn't guess) learns to open his heart to these strangers. But people who've watched the modern Tom Hanks movie might not be aware that it's actually a remake of an even more popular film.

• Will there be a Netflix Black Friday deal?

A Man Called Otto is a remake of a Swedish movie called A Man Called Ove, which came out in 2015. The plot is similar, and stars Rolf Lassgård in the titular role, setting the action in a quiet neighborhood as a family of Iranian immigrants move in.

Both of these movies were based on a Swedish novel called "A Man Called Ove" by Fredrik Backman, which apparently was very loosely based on a real person.

After it came out, A Man Called Ove was a big hit, becoming one of the best-known Swedish movies of recent years. It was nominated for two Oscars (Best Foreign Language Film, which it lost ironically to Iran's The Salesman, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling which it lost to Suicide Squad), and sits at 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a lot higher than A Man Called Otto's 70%.

Given those accolades, A Man Called Ove is the perfect watch if you enjoyed A Man Called Otto. If you live in the UK it's available to stream on Mubi while in the US it's on plenty of free streaming services including Freevee, Plex, Crackle and Tubi.

If you haven't watched A Man Called Otto yet, then you can see it on Netflix in the UK as well as in the US. In the latter country, it's on its way out, as its last day to stream is on Tuesday, November 5. So catch it in the next few weeks if you're interested.

Netflix has done it again - Nobody Wants This season 1 is the perfect rom-com for cozy autumn nights, making it no surprise that it has spent the last two weeks at number one on Netflix's top 10 list. 

With 10 half-hour episodes available to binge, Nobody Wants This follows agnostic podcaster Joanne (Kristen Bell) who has a knack for being rather unfiltered about her personal life. But when she falls for Noah (Adam Brody) a guy she wouldn't necessarily label as her type, their whirlwind romance comes with more baggage than a transatlantic flight. 

But what makes Noah so different from the other men she's dated? Well, for starters, he's a rabbi. And, if that wasn't tricky enough for atheist Joanne, add in a tricky ex and an interfering family from hell and this is a romance that shouldn't work, but somehow really, really does.

The series has a solid 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and an impressive 88% audience score and it is easy to see why - this show is most definitely one of the best I have seen this year and easily the best romcom. The writing is pitch-perfect, the comedy one-liners hilarious and Kristen Bell and Adam Broady make the ideal leading couple.

In fact, it is so good Nobody Wants This season 2 is already confirmed, just two weeks after the first season was released.

The conclusion of Nobody Wants This season 1 sees the couple declare their love for one another and they're determined to make it work. But with that meaning Noah will have to give up his dream career, they just aren't sure what that means going forward. We will now have to wait for the new episodes to land to find out what happens next!

All ten episodes of Nobody Wants This season 1 are available to stream on Netflix now. 

One of the most beloved animated movies of all time has never been streaming on Netflix... before now, and so you can finally watch what's considered a bona fide classic.

Grave of the Fireflies is a 1988 war movie made by the legendary Studio Ghibli, based on a short story written by a survivor of World War Two. It was added to Netflix on Monday, September 16, in both the US and UK (and possibly more countries too), making it one of the best movies on Netflix to watch this month..

Set in Japan towards the end of the Second World War, Grave of the Fireflies is about two siblings who try to survive amidst the bombings and rationing as the land around them descends into ruin.

The movie is considered one of the best war films of all time, with a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, and plenty of publications list it in round-ups of the best war-related or animated movies. 

It's also known to be a tear-jerker, something you should know before you go in. This is something that audience reviews reflect, although some point out that it's not quite suitable for young viewers.

If released nowadays, Grave of the Fireflies could well have been up for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, if not for the fact that the award was first granted 13 years later, in 2001, for Shrek. 

Grave of the Fireflies was Studio Ghibli's fourth movie, but the first not directed by the studio's beloved founder Hayao Miyazaki. Instead, it was directed by Isao Takahata who also helmed The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Only Yesterday and Pom Poko. It was released as a double feature alongside Miyazaki's My Neighbor Totoro and is considered the more "adult" of the two due to its themes.

If you've never seen Grave of the Fireflies before, then its addition to Netflix gives you a great opportunity to finally watch it. 

In the US, most Studio Ghibli movies are on Max, so Grave of the Fireflies' addition to Netflix gives people who use this larger streamer, a way to watch it.

In the UK, it joins plenty of other Studio Ghibli movies on the platform including Howl's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke and My Neighbor Totoro — in fact there are 24 movies from the studio on the streamer, which is pretty expansive!

• These are the best Studio Ghibli movies to show kids

One of the best horror movies available to watch on Netflix is one I'd wager most people reading this article haven't even heard of — I didn't know about it until a friend recommended it, but now I've watched it, I think everyone needs to see this masterpiece of creepy cinema.

The movie I'm referring to is called The Wailing, and it's from 2016, not to be confused with another horror movie of the same name from this year (news of which is what reminded me to finally take up the recommendation and watch the 2016 movie!). It's been off and on Netflix a few times in the last few years but has never been publicized much by the streamer, which doesn't make sense because as I discovered it's one of the best movies on Netflix right now. It's on the platform in both the US and UK.

• These are the best horror movies on Netflix

A Korean movie, The Wailing is about a spate of violence in a remote village in the mountains, which may be linked to a strange Japanese man who recently began living in the woods. A police officer called Jong-goo begins to investigate resulting murders after his own daughter seemingly becomes possessed.

To describe more about the story, or twists and turns, of The Wailing would threaten to spoil some of it, and therefore make it less exciting and confusing as you watch it yourself. I appreciated it most going in blind, and so you should have that same experience. So I'm not going to say a single word more on the story; suffice to say it has an incredibly oppressive atmosphere all the way through, and each new element added will keep you guessing as to what's really going on in the village.

You don't have to take my word for its quality though, because The Wailing has the near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score of 99%, with every single review save for one praising the movie. And the major gripe of the sole negative review is the movie's meaty runtime, which is certainly a valid point as the movie is over two and a half hours long.

The Wailing has built up quite a cult following in the west since its release, largely based on word-of-mouth viewership which is how I saw it. While it played at Cannes Film Festival in 2016, it was in the Out of Competition section, which doesn't always receive as much press attention as it deserves, and most of the other awards it was put up for were Asian ones. So it might not have been brought to the attention of western viewers as much as it should.

That's a shame because as its reviews point out, The Wailing is a great counterpoint to the typical American horror movies we see, as it puts more of a focus on atmosphere and tension-building rather than loud jump scares and buckets of blood and gore.

If you're looking for something new to watch this weekend, then, I'd definitely recommend The Wailing — as long as you're okay with tense and slow-burn horrors.

If you don't have Netflix, then you'll be glad to know that the movie is also free to watch on Tubi and The Roku Channel in the US and can be seen with a Prime Video subscription in the UK.

In the 1990s and 2000s, Roland Emmerich directed a string of big-budget disaster movies that he's still arguably known for to this day; he attacked it with aliens in Independence Day, stomped a monster across it with Godzilla, drowned it in water in 2012 and froze it over in The Day After Tomorrow.

That latter movie isn't his best-known of the bunch but with it having just been added to Netflix in the UK (as of Sunday, September 8), subscribers to the world's biggest streaming service are getting a new opportunity to revisit the 2004 epic.

The Day After Tomorrow is about a series of freak weather events that strike the world due to climate change; when New York City is flooded and subsequently frozen over, the paleoclimatologist who predicted the changes needs to save his son who's stuck in the city.

Dennis Quaid stars as this scientist, Jack, in a cast that also includes Jake Gyllenhall, Ian Holm, Sela Ward and Emmy Rossum.

While topics of climate change are bandied about in modern blockbusters loads nowadays, back in 2004 it was a little rarer to see a movie depicting it as the fall of mankind.  Emmerich is reportedly working on a spiritual successor to the movie called Exodus which sounds like it's a few years out, but fans of the director might be apprehensive about him releasing continuations to his classics after Independence Day: Resurgence...

In true Roland Emmerich style, The Day After Tomorrow wasn't popular with critics (it has a 45% score on Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing) but was a much bigger hit with audiences, making a huge profit and becoming the sixth highest-grossing movie of its year.

As a result The Day After Tomorrow may not be joining our list of the best movies on Netflix any time soon, but its addition to the platform will give you a change to re-watch it 20 years after its release to see if it stands up.

While Emmerich's popcorn blockbusters should be the perfect kind of Netflix movie for after a long day of work, 2012 is actually the only other one on Netflix at the time of writing. However the director's movies are constantly jumping on or off the streamer, so you'll be able to see more if you just wait around for a few months.

Not in the UK? The Day After Tomorrow is on Disney Plus in the US and Australia.

Looking for something new to watch on Netflix that isn't an original from the streamer? Well if you live in the UK, you need to watch a new indie horror movie from 2023 which was just added and may be one of the best movies on Netflix.

This movie is called New Life, and it was added to Netflix UK's library on Sunday, September 1. If you live in the US, you can watch it by renting or buying it digitally, and it's not on any streaming service.

New Life is about a woman on the run, played by Hayley Erin, who wants to escape across the Canadian border. She's near but an agent called Elsa Gray (Sonya Walger) is close on her tail, and as their paths cross an illness changes the scop of their interaction. To say any more would be a spoiler.

• These are the best horror movies on Netflix

It's fair to say that New Life is an undiscovered gem. It polls at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes with many excited reviews praising its fresh tone and growing sense of dread, with an audience score a fair bit lower at 70%. However there's a good chance that you haven't heard of the movie.

That's because New Life is an indie movie, not made by a studio, and so it saw a relatively modest digital release. This was in 2023 in the US, and it took until 2024 for it to be available to watch in the UK — again this was on digital, so you'd need to know the movie exists to watch it.

New Life's release on Netflix will almost definitely bring it to countless new viewers, because the streamer cut its teeth with low-budget horrors for many years and it's still what draws many subscribers to the service.

That's doubly true due to the fact that Netflix UK has fairly few new movies in September 2024. Usually, each month starts with a bunch of new additions on the first day, but this time around New Life is one of the few new features gracing the platform. 

So if you're a fan of horror or thrillers, maybe New Life is what you need to watch on Netflix this weekend (or week, whenever you want to watch a horror movie!). It's also worth flagging that the movie clocks in at just shy of 90 minutes, so it's a great watch for people who don't like longer films!

• These are Netflix's best horror shows

All sorts of odd movies become huge on Netflix, ranging from forgotten classics to modern under-the-radar gems... but its new smash hit is neither of those. The Other Woman was lambasted by critics and audiences when it was released in 2014, but right now it's the second most-watched movie on Netflix UK.

This film, which probably won't make an appearance in our list of the best Netflix movies, sits at just 26% on Rotten Tomatoes (and a slightly higher, though still rotten, 57% audience score). It was added to the streamer's UK catalog on Thursday, August 15, and it's also on Disney Plus, but it's not streaming anywhere for US watchers right now and is only available via on demand.

The Other Woman stars Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton as three separate women who all discover that they're individually dating the same man, played by Nikolaj Coster-Waldau. They slowly create a friendship as they enact a plot to get back at the man, and end up exposing him for some crimes.

• Here's what's new on Netflix this week

Audience viewers on Rotten Tomatoes call The Other Woman "the worst movie I've ever seen" and "unwatchable", with critics echoing those sentiments in more polite terms. It wasn't nominated for any Oscars, but it did win Cameron Diaz a worst actress award at the Golden Raspberry Awards. So why is it the second most watched movie on Netflix?

That achievement by the movie is particularly impressive when you consider that it's beating recent Netflix Originals like The Murder of Air McNair, and big-name movies that have been dominating the streamer's most-watched movies list lately like Kingsmen: The Secret Service and U.S. Marshalls.

In fact, the only movie beating The Other Woman right now in Netflix UK's most-watched movies list is The Union, an action comedy Original from the streaming starring Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry.

While Netflix usually has a breakneck roster of new additions, including its own Netflix Originals and third-party movies, that's not been the case as much in the second half of August. The streamer hasn't had as many new movies joining its library, so perhaps Netflix subscribers are just watching whatever they can find.

But with quite a few thrillers on the Netflix top 10 movies list, perhaps The Other Woman is a nice antidote to the drama and tension, even if it's not the best movie ever made.

What is your Emoji reaction to the fact that 2017's The Emoji Movie has been Netflix's top movies in the US for the last couple of days? This despite the fact that the movie has a 6% score on Rotten Tomatoes from critics and only a slightly 36% positive rating from general audiences.

The Emoji Movie landed on Netflix on Thursday, August 8, as part of what's new on Netflix in August and quickly rose up the viewing charts to where it has started the week of August 12 as the most-watched movie in the US. The movie follows Gene, an Emoji that has the ability to show a multitude of expressions, which makes him an outlier in the city of Textopolis. So he tries to figure out how he can fix that and attempt to become "normal." The voice cast for The Emoji Movie includes TJ Miller, James Corden, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Jennifer Coolidge, Christina Aguilera, Sofia Vergara, Sean Hayes and Patrick Stewart.

Admittedly, I haven't seen The Emoji Movie, as a talking poop Emoji voiced by Sir Patrick Stewart wasn't enough of a draw to overcome the bashing that critics gave it. But it is surprising to see it reach the heights it has on Netflix based on its reputation. There may a trend though, as half of the US's top 10 movies on August 13 are kid/family-friendly movies; in addition to The Emoji Movie there's Trolls: Band Together, Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie, Dr. Seuss' The Lorax and Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat. Perhaps in these last days of summer kids are bingeing what they can before they head back to school and do homework.

Whatever the case may be, there are a handful of family-friendly movies that I would recommend if you and/or your kids have already watched The Emoji Movie or any of the others currently in the top 10 that I can personally recommend.

First up is an all-time classic, Matilda. To be clear this is the 1996 version of Roald Dahl's story starring Mara Wilson and Danny DeVito, not the musical that came out in 2022. Matilda is such a wholesome watch and is a peak 1990s kids movie. With so many of us 1990s kids now parents, what better time to share with your own youngster a movie you have fond memories of.

Back on the animated front, The LEGO Movie is a blast to watch. No one knew what to expect when they were making a movie about LEGOs, but what we got was one of the most original and hilarious movies in recent memory. Crazy to think this movie is already 10 years old, but that means a whole new generation can now discover it.

Another throwback to when I was a kid that is ripe for sharing with youngsters today is The Road to El Dorado. Often forgotten because Disney was such a powerhouse in the late 1990s/early 2000s, The Road to El Dorado is fantastic, featuring gorgeous animation, a great voice cast that includes Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh and Rosie Perez and original songs from Elton John.

Finally, Netflix has its own original movie that you won't be in danger of losing access to, The Mitchells vs the Machines. This is a hyperactive animated family adventure, but one that has a powerful message about family and accepting each other.

To watch any of these movies on Netflix, you must have a subscription to the streaming service. Also check out our full list of the best Netflix movies.

Suspect, a crime thriller that divided audiences and critics, has claimed a spot in Nettflix's Top 10 list for TV shows in the UK. 

The series, originally shown on Channel 4, sees James Nesbitt star as a troubled detective on the hunt for his daughter's killer.

It has rapidly climbed Netflix's Top 10 chart, currently sitting at number five, but while it scored a respectable critic score of 67 % on Rotten Tomatoes, its audience score is 35 %. It seems to be one of those shows that people either love or hate. We'd say if you like watching James Nesbitt and are into crime dramas then this could be for you.

There's no arguing it has a great cast. Nesbitt is joined by Joely Richardson (The Tudors) as pathologist Jackie Sowden, Anne-Marie Duff (Shameless), as Danny's ex-wife Susannah, and Richard E. Grant (Withnail and I) as business mogul Harry Carr. 

The plot sees veteran detective Danny Frater (James Nesbitt) get a devastating shock when he's called to a hospital mortuary and discovers the young woman on the slab is his estranged daughter, Christina. The autopsy suggests suicide but Danny’s convinced Christina was murdered and goes on the hunt for her killer.

Talking about the part at the time, James said: "Danny's a very complex, difficult, sad, angry man, who we find in quite a bad state. When he sees Christina's dead body in the mortuary, it re-ignites both the copper and the father in him as he tries to unlock the truth about what happened to his daughter.

"We learn that Danny didn't fulfill his duties as a father or as a husband and he feels he let his daughter down. Danny walked away from all responsibility; to his ex-wife, to his daughter, to his job and to himself. This is his one last shot at redemption."

The eight-part series is actually based on a Danish series called Face to Face. 

If you do enjoy the drama there's good news as Suspect season 2 has now been made and is available on channel4.com. Note the first series is just on Netflix. 

If you're in the US you can't watch Suspect on Netflix however it is available via BritBox or Acorn TV.

Netflix gives people a chance to rediscover previous gems, with the Keeley Hawes series Honour also recently hitting its Top 10 chart in the UK after being released on the streamer having originally been shown on ITV in 2020.