The weekend is here! If you’re looking for something to watch, we can help. We’ve dug through Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and Disney+ to find some of the best titles on each service. Over the past week, we’ve been rolling out our 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century list, and now the whole list is available. See recommendations for some of the shows on the list below, and check out the full list to see viewing details for all 100. STREAMING ON NETFLIX ‘Knocked Up’
It’s a tale as old as time: Two incompatible people on a first date have a little bit too much to drink, make some poor choices, and a few weeks later, have to decide what to do about them. Judd Apatow told the tale as his follow-up to “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” plunking the supporting player Seth Rogen into the lead role of a happy-go-lucky stoner whose unexpected night with a whip-smart career woman (Katherine Heigl) turns both of their lives upside down. It’s a rom-com with both a heart and a dirty mind, which proved a lucrative (and much-imitated) combination, but Apatow did it best; the supporting cast is full of comic heavy hitters, including Jay Baruchel, Bill Hader, Jonah Hill, Leslie Mann, Harold Ramis, Craig Robinson, Paul Rudd, Jason Segel, Martin Starr and Kristen Wiig. These are the 50 best movies on Netflix.STREAMING ON NETFLIX ‘Beef’
Ranked No. 71 on our 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century list In this anthology series, everyday conflicts — like a fleeting incident of road rage, or an uncomfortably overheated argument — blow up into full-fledged feuds. The “Beef” creator Lee Sung Jin sets a tone that blends dark comedy with social satire, exploring how the pressures of modern life can curdle into envy and frustration. With A-list casts that include the likes of Steven Yeun, Ali Wong, Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan, the show reveals how people sometimes make unfair presumptions, leading to big problems. Our critic wrote, “What makes this one of the most invigorating, surprising and insightful debuts of the past year is how personally and culturally specific its study of anger is.” Here are 30 great TV shows on Netflix.STREAMING ON HULU ‘Gilmore Girls’
Ranked No. 99 on our 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century list Lorelai Gilmore (Lauren Graham) had her daughter, Rory (Alexis Bledel), when she was only 16; now Rory is 16, and Lorelai will do whatever it takes to help her bookish daughter find success, even if that means reconnecting with her estranged parents (Kelly Bishop and Edward Hermann). This was the initial setup for Amy Sherman-Palladino’s beloved comedy-drama, which deftly explores the intergenerational dynamics of the Gilmore family as Rory comes of age. But it also created a delightful little world of its own in Lorelai and Rory’s hometown, Stars Hollow, a seemingly cozy little hamlet inhabited by enough weirdos and eccentrics to situate it somewhere near “Twin Peaks.” Combining snappy, witty dialogue, soapy romantic plots and charming characterizations, “Gilmore Girls” is comfort viewing of the highest order. Here are Hulu’s best movies and TV shows.STREAMING ON AMAZON PRIME VIDEO ‘Blue Valentine’
As the married couple Cindy and Dean, Michelle Williams and Ryan Gosling are “exemplars of New Method sincerity,” according to our critic, and “able to be fully and achingly present every moment on screen together.” Their director, Derek Cianfrance, tells this story in pieces as they come together and fall apart, in timelines separated by years of hard, unsatisfying living (but shot with only a month between them, an astonishing feat of physical and psychological acting). Aching and heartfelt, the film is an often upsetting yet undeniably powerful account of how not all love stories end in “happily ever after.” Here are a bunch of great movies on Amazon.STREAMING ON HBO MAX ‘Hell or High Water’
Before conquering television with “Yellowstone” and an array of successful neo-western series, Taylor Sheridan tapped into the zeitgeist with “Hell or High Water,” a crime thriller that doubles as a document of the 2008 recession. As two brothers (Chris Pine and Ben Foster) tear through the economically ravaged towns of West Texas on a robbery spree, they consistently hit branches of the same bank that issued the reverse mortgage that’s brought the family ranch to foreclosure. Jeff Bridges does typically flavorful work as the grizzled yet quietly confident Texas Ranger on their tail. Jeannette Catsoulis called it “a parable of corporate exploitation and bleed-them-dry greed.” See more great movies streaming on HBO Max.STREAMING ON DISNEY+ ‘Return to Oz’
Disney would come to regret making a sequel to perhaps the greatest children’s film ever made, but Walter Murch’s “Return to Oz” has picked up a deserved cult following over the years for its half-wondrous, half-nightmarish reading of L. Frank Baum’s Oz novels. This time, Dorothy (Fairuza Balk) goes back to a far less enchanting place, with the Yellow Brick Road and the Emerald City in ruins, her old friends turned to stone and the land patrolled by people with wheels instead of hands and feet. Our critic warned that “children are sure to be startled by [its] bleakness.” The 50 best things to watch on Disney+ right now.
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