The week’s FIELD OF STREAMS hits the small screen
Welcome to Field of Streams, Cinapse’s weekly guide of what’s playing on your favorite streaming services. What’s new on Netflix and Amazon Prime? What do we recommend on Kanopy, Hoopla, and Shudder? We’ve got it all. From topical roundups, to curated top 5 lists, to reviews of our favorites available now… it’s here. We built it for you, so come and join us in the Field of Streams.
STAR TREK: DISCOVERY (CBS All Access)
STAR TREK: PICARD (CBS All Access)
I’m here to tell you, these two Star Trek reboots are definitely worth a watch. I’m no Trekker, but these series lived up to the hype.
As a prequel, Discovery does a fantastic job of introducing a new world as well as integrating with the existing franchise. The former is done mainly through Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green), an earthly raised on Vulcan by none other than the Spocks! The latter comes in the form of Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), a tremendous use of a barely used character from the original series. Burnham is all gut and instinct while Pike is maybe the best human being every presented on the small screen. The first season is a great introduction with a killer twist, while the second has a fairly complex plot, just this side of too far.
Picard has a very different feel. It does what it should do: explores an iconic character in light of the aging of actor Patrick Stewart. There’s lots of politics and intrigue, but the decision to set lots of the action on the Borg Cube makes all the difference. Lots of great characters help the effort, but Captain Rios (Santiago Cabrera) stands out for his wide ranging characters, even if some of them are holograms.
The three total seasons of these two shows make a month of CBS All Access worth a shot. And at some point, they each be back ready to… Engage!
THE BOYS (Prime)
The decision of whether or not to watch The Boys is an easy one: Just watch the first 6:12. It’s not for the faint of heart, but after my buddy showed it to me, I was hooked. Besides this amazing inciting incident, the premise is a good one: What if the Justice League was full of assholes? That would very much not be a wonderful world, but Superman’s powers don’t automatically come with Clark Kent’s good sense. The Boys shows just how bad it can get.
Everyman Hughie (Jack Quaid, Dennis’s boy) is our standing, while Karl Urban plays the unlikable good guy who’s going to make things right. I didn’t realize how much I missed Elisabeth Shue until she showed up here as the mastermind behind the supergroup. She hasn’t lost a step.
New season our September 4, so catch up now.
SEARCH PARTY (HBO Max)
You probably didn’t see the indie film Fort Tilden–If you did, my congratulations, so you and your family–but it did a great job of capturing a certain slice of Brooklyn hipster-dom. While that might sound horrible, directors Sarah-Violet Bliss and Charles Rogers turned back to that world for Search Party, an oh-so-clever semi-mystery starring the inimitable Alia Shawkat. Throw in the humor of co-creator Michael Showalter, and it’s a good time. Well, a very hip time, anyway. The pair of John Early and his beard Meredith Hagner are worth the price of admission alone. Season one is a fun tale. I’m personally only into season two by a few episodes, and the jury is out. Still, a worthwhile little binge.
There are countless services to explore and great things to watch on all of them. Which ones did we miss that you would suggest to us? And, as always, if you’ve got thoughts on titles we’re missing out on or new services to check out, leave a comment below.
Check out Cinapse’s other streaming content in the meantime, but till next week… stream on, stream away.