Top streams for the week
Bob Odenkirk (fresh from the Emmy-nominated "Better Call Saul") is Henry "Hank" Devereaux, Jr., an English professor at a mediocre, underfunded Pennsylvania college, in "Lucky Hank: Season 1" (TV-14). As you might guess, the title is ironic. Hank is miserable, in the shadow of a famous father and on the road to a midlife crisis as he tries to teach uninterested students and navigate a department in disarray, and it only gets worse after he unloads on one of his students. Mireille Enos plays his slightly less miserable wife, the Vice Principal of the local high school, and Diedrich Bader costars. New episodes on Sundays. (AMC+)
"Up Here: Season 1" (not rated), a musical romantic comedy set in New York City in 1999, stars Mae Whitman as an aspiring writer and Carlos Valdes as an ambitious investment banker, opposites who fall in love and break into song when the emotions get too big. Brian Stokes Mitchell costars in the series created by playwright Steven Levenson ("Dear Evan Hansen") and songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez ("Let It Go"). All episodes streaming. (Hulu)
Elizabeth Banks stars in "Call Jane" (2022, R), an alarmingly timely drama set in 1968 Chicago about the Jane Collective, the real-life volunteer network who helped women seeking abortions in the years before Roe v. Wade. Banks plays a housewife and mother whose pregnancy threatens her life and Sigourney Weaver and Wunmi Mosaku are among the activists she turns to. (Hulu)
There's something mysterious—and dangerous—in the skies above a California horse ranch in Jordan Peele's "Nope" (2022, R). Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer star as siblings who investigate the strange phenomenon in this fascinating (if overstuffed) mix of modern western, alien invasion thriller, and ecological parable. (Prime Video)
True stories: the Oscar-nominated documentary "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed" (2022, TV-MA) from award-winning filmmaker Laura Poitras weaves the story of artist and activist Nan Goldin and her protests to hold the Sackler family accountable for the opioid crisis with a survey of the New York art underground from the 1970s and its activism during the AIDS crisis. (HBO Max)
Pay-Per-View / Video on Demand
The animated "Puss in Boots: The Last Wish" (2022, PG) and the horror film "M3gan" (2022, PG-13) are both also available on Peacock and "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" (2022, PG-13) is also streaming for Disney+ subscribers.
Netflix
An FBI agent (Gabrial Basso) in the White House basement answers the emergency line and gets caught up in a conspiracy in the political thriller "The Night Agent: Season 1" (TV-MA), costarring Luciane Buchanan and Hong Chau.
Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara star in "Carol" (2015, R), a love story between a society woman and a department store shopgirl in 1950s New York City that earned six Oscar nominations.
True stories: the three-part documentary "Waco: American Apocalypse" (TV-MA) coincides with the 30th anniversary of the bloody 51-day siege.
International passport: three vigilantes take on a Saigon crime syndicate in "Furies" (2023, Vietnam, TV-MA, with subtitles), a prequel to the 2019 action film "Furie."
International TV: the limited series "Close to Home: Murder in the Coalfield" (German, TV-MA, with subtitles) sends a police officer (Misel Maticevic) back to his childhood time to investigate a mysterious murder.
Kid stuff: the interactive program "We Lost Our Human" (TV-PG) sends two pets to the center of the universe with the help of young viewers.
Hulu
An elderly Irish woman (Judi Dench) and a British journalist (Steve Coogan) go in search of the son that was taken from her as a young unwed mother in "Philomena" (2013, PG-13), based on a true story.
True crime: the docuseries "The Lesson is Murder" (not rated) follows a graduate criminology class taught by former FBI special agent Dr. Bryanna Fox as they study convicted murderers.
International TV: a video game CEO and his wife take on the criminals who kidnapped their daughter in the limited series "My Family" (Japan, not rated, with subtitles, also in English dub version).
Amazon Prime Video
The documentary "Reggie" (2023, PG-13) looks back on the life and barrier-busting career of five-time World Series champion Reggie Jackson.
Peacock
Aimee Garcia and Paul Campbell play a married couple who spice things up by solving a murder in the romantic mystery comedy "The Cases of Mystery Lane" (2023, TV-PG).
Apple TV+
Reese Witherspoon and Kacey Musgraves host the music competition series "My Kind of Country: Season 1" (TV-14).
Other streams
The second season of the acclaimed horror thriller "Yellowjackets" (TV-MA) arrives with new episodes on Fridays. (Showtime Anytime)
Originally produced for HBO Max, "Minx: Season 1" (TV-MA) lands a new home at Starz in advance of the second season debut. (Starz)
Suzanne Lindon was 15 when she wrote the coming-of-age drama "Spring Blossom" (France, 2021, not rated, with subtitles), which she also directs and stars in. (Criterion Channel)
Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. His reviews of streaming movies and TV can be found at https://streamondemandathome.com.
Copyright © 2023 by Sean Axmaker
