What to Watch,#82
HBO free programming and the two weekly top picks
Dear friends,
This week, HBO made a large catalog available to stream online for free. This includes classics such as Veep and The Sopranos, but more interestingly, top-notch series from the past couple of years - like Succession or Barry. The full list and more details are in the newsflash section.
In the meantime, here are two picks that I’m really excited to introduce you to.
THE TOP TV SHOW OF THE WEEK
Sunderland Til I Die
Season two was added to Netflix this week.
An endearing show about a working-class town and their team who had just been demoted out of the English Premier League. Nothing is going well in the town of Sunderland, and to put it in the words of a fan, if the team doesn’t do well (it doesn’t) “that’s just the last nail in the coffin”.
This story of a failing team struggling not to let down its town makes you an instant fan and puts you through the disappointment and triumphs that life-long supporters have to live with every week.
With everything from game footage to interviews and behind the scenes politics, it’s also the perfect fix for anyone who misses sporting events.
📰 Wall Street Journal: “not a panegyric to a first-rate ball team, nor a Cinderella story in glass cleats. It is an intimate, knowing look at the internal workings of a sports organization and a critique of both managerial style and the politics of sports entertainment.”
📺 on Netflix almost everywhere; 🍅 rating: - not yet rated
THE TOP MOVIE OF THE WEEK
Invisible Life
New on Amazon Prime U.S. today. In Portuguese.
This 140-minute Brazilian movie is an epic and touching tale of two sisters torn apart. In 1950s Rio de Janeiro, Eurídice, 18, and Guida, 20, are inseparable, but their dreams soon take them away from each other, from their conservative family, and from Brazil.
After they are separated, each one of them believes the other is achieving her dreams when often the opposite was happening. Family betrayal, silence, and a suffocating social climate shatter the aspiration of the sisters but also highlight their strength.
📰 The New York Times: “Its mix of vivid period detail and raw frankness about sexuality and poverty and women's oppression is heady and bracing; its depiction of female friendship and love is pointedly ferocious.”
📺 on Netflix everywhere; 🍅 rating: 93%
Readers’ top picks
The Spanish science-fiction/horror movie The Platform on Netflix is our readers’ favorite movie this week.
Feel Good on Netflix is readers’ favorite TV show for the second week in a row. It’s an original British comedy-romance about a stand-up comic who starts dating a fan.
New titles worth your time
Season four of Money Heist, the hit Spanish series, is new on Netflix today.
Many recent favorites have been added to Netflix on April 1st. The list includes The Social Network, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Mud with Matthew McConaughey, and Molly's Game with Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, and Michael Cera.
Amazon Prime premiered a new science-fiction series today called Tales from the Loop. It’s about a town whose people live above a machine that causes a variety of strange things to happen.
Invisible Life, the top movie pick, is also new on Amazon Prime today.
Great titles that will soon expire
The 2016 documentary Strike a Pose leaves Netflix this Monday, April 6th. It’s about seven dancers who go on tour with Madonna in the 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour and where they are now after that brief moment of spotlight.
The Oscar-nominated The Florida Project with Willem Dafoe leaves Amazon Prime tomorrow, Saturday the 4th. It follows a six-year-old who grows up not far from Disney World in Florida but faces a much harsher environment.
The Newsflash: HBO makes extensive programming free
Ahead of the launch of HBO Max in May and in a stated effort to help people stay at home, HBO has made over 500 hours of content available to stream for free.
You can visit hbonow.com or download the HBO Now app to access this newly available content.
Here is a snippet of what is available to stream without an HBO subscription according to Variety.
Full Series
1. Ballers (5 Seasons)
2. Barry (2 Seasons)
3. Silicon Valley (6 Seasons)
4. Six Feet Under (5 Seasons)
5. The Sopranos (7 Seasons)
6. Succession (2 Seasons)
7. True Blood (7 Seasons
8. Veep (7 Seasons)
9. The Wire (5 Seasons)Warner Bros. Movies
1. Arthur
2. Arthur 2: On the Rocks
3. Blinded By the Light
4. The Bridges of Madison County
5. Crazy, Stupid, Love
6. Empire of the Sun
7. Forget Paris
8. Happy Feet Two
9. Isn’t It Romantic?
10. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
11. Midnight Special
12. My Dog Skip
13. Nancy Drew and The Hidden Staircase
14. Pan
15. Pokémon Detective Pikachu
16. Red Riding Hood
17. Smallfoot
18. Storks
19. Sucker Punch
20. UnknownDocuseries and Documentaries
1. The Apollo
2. The Case Against Adnan Syed
3. Elvis Presley: The Searcher
4. I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter
5. The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
6. Jane Fonda in Five Acts
7. McMillion
8. True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality
9. United Skates
10. We Are the Dream: The Kids of the MLK Oakland Oratorical Fest
As I mentioned in the introduction, I highly recommend Succession, a great drama about a family that controls the largest media conglomerate in the world (the equivalent of Disney or Warner in our world). With Brian Cox and Jeremy Strong (Spotlight).
For a comedy, the other excellent option is Barry with Bill Hader. He plays a cold-blooded hitman who is frustrated with his career choices and decides to become an actor instead.
That’s it for today, I hope there is something in there for you.
The next edition will be in your inbox on Friday, April 10th.
Until then,
Bilal Zou, founder [bilal@agoodmovietowatch.com]
Carried with the support of the Creative Europe Program – MEDIA.