If you’re like us, you subscribe to a lot of streaming services, and yet you can never figure out what to watch when you reach for the remote. It drives us batty! So in an effort to lend a hand, as we wait anxiously for Season 3 of Bridgerton, here are 12 streaming service shows to consider. For winter 2024, this is our watch list of the best TV streaming shows and movies, some new and some we missed in 2023 and will catch now. Because on a cold winter night, we need Peak TV. And gourmet potato chips.
12 winter 2024 streaming shows we can’t wait to watch
Thanks to Mike Hale, Margaret Lyons and Jason Bailey of the New York Times for steering us to these new offerings and outstanding films and shows we missed in 2023.
1. Mr. and Mrs. Smith
Donald Glover follows up “Atlanta” and “Swarm” with a remake of the 2005 film that famously starred Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Glover and Maya Erskine, as John and Jane Smith, lead a cast that includes John Turturro, Sarah Paulson and Parker Posey – Amazon Prime Video, Feb. 2.
2. Gospel
Henry Louis Gates Jr. follows up with a documentary based on his nonfiction book “The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song.” Gospel is a four-hour history of this iconic music, directed by Stacey L. Holman and Shayla Harris – PBS, Feb. 12.
3. The New Look
Ben Mendelsohn plays Christian Dior in the postwar era just before he revolutionized the fashion world (see also the fabulous museum exhibit, Dior Designer of Dreams). Juliette Binoche is Dior’s most formidable competitor, Coco Chanel – Apple TV+, Feb. 14.
4. Cristóbal Balenciaga
If you love tales of intrigue about legendary fashion designers, there’s more! Disney+ debuts its first original drama series, Cristóbal Balenciaga, this month. It tells the story of how the Spanish designer, the son of a seamstress and a fisherman, defied societal expectations to become one of the most successful and influential designers in the world. Part of the fun of the series is that there will be recreations of 70 of the designer’s iconic looks. Christian Dior and Coco Chanel agreed that Balenciaga was the greatest of them all, so it seems only fitting that his story launches about a month before theirs – Disney+, Jan. 19
5. The Regime
This new limited series is about the ruler of a fictional, failing Central European autocracy. Kate Winslet stars. Hugh Grant plays the opposition leader and Martha Plimpton is the American secretary of state – HBO, March 3.
6. Palm Royale
Kristen Wiig stars as a woman campaigning to join 1969 Palm Beach society. The cast includes Allison Janney, Laura Dern and Carol Burnett – Apple TV+, March 20.
7. Death and Other Details
Mandy Patinkin stars as the world’s greatest detective in this shipboard mystery-comedy. It promises to be a mash-up of “Only Murders in the Building,” “White Lotus, ” the “Knives Out” franchise – and Hercule Poirot – Hulu, Jan. 16.
8. Girls5Eva
Girls5Eva returns for Season 3. We haven’t seen the first two seasons but they sound great (we love the Pitch Perfect franchise, and Daisy Jones and the Six, and the first couple of seasons of Empire, and pretty much any show set backstage in the music business). Here’s the summary of what we’ve missed so far. “Season 1 found the ’90s girl group reuniting, and in Season 2 they put out their album. This season, they’re heading out on tour, an experience for which they are not prepared” – Netflix, March 14.
9. Rye Lane
This film was a sensation at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. It’s the debut feature from director Raine Allen-Miller, and the plot is a classic. Dom and Yas meet at an art gallery; both are nursing broken hearts. They set out to help each other settle some scores, and . . . well, you know the rest.
Rotten Tomatoes says “Good news, rom-com fans: Anyone looking for a smart, funny, and heartwarming new addition to the canon can find it waiting on Rye Lane.” With a 98% Fresh rating, we’re sold – watch it on Hulu.
10. Science Fair: The Series
This three-part documentary follows high school students from across the world who are vying for a spot at the International Science and Engineering Fair. The New York Times notes: “If you need a bubbly pick-me-up kind of show . . . watch this”- currently on Disney+ and Hulu.
11. Feud: Capote vs. the Swans
In this delightfully nasty biopic, Tom Hollander plays Truman Capote. Naomi Watts, Diane Lane, Chloë Sevigny and Calista Flockhart play some of the society women Capote befriended and then used as material in his highly unflattering book “Answered Prayers.” Let the feathers fly! – FX, Jan 31.
12. The Greatest Night in Pop
We read about this in the New Yorker, and we cannot wait to see it. “One historic night in 1985, more than forty music superstars convened in a Hollywood recording studio to sing the anthem ‘We Are the World,’ to raise money for famine relief in Africa. Bao Nguyen’s documentary ‘The Greatest Night in Pop’ retraces the evening’s logistical nightmares and sonic magic, using extensive archival footage and new interviews with such luminaries as Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper, and Lionel Richie, who wrote the song with Michael Jackson” – Netflix, Jan 29
our winter 2024 watch list
Those are the streaming shows that caught our attention and made our watch list for winter 2024. And come the spring, you know where we’ll be: sacked out on the couch watching Season 3 of Bridgerton, which drops on Netflix on May 16.
