5 must-watch movies & TV shows streaming right now (2024)

Streaming

The best of what's new streaming on Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney Plus, and more.

By Kevin Slane

August 9, 2024

Welcome to Boston.com’sweekly streaming guide. Each week, we recommend five must-watch movies and TV shows available on streaming platforms likeNetflix,Hulu,Amazon Prime,Disney+,HBO Max,Peaco*ck,Paramount+, and more.

Many recommendations are for new shows, while others are for under-the-radar releases you might have missed or classics that are about to depart a streaming service at the end of the month.

Have a new favorite movie or show you think we should know about? Let us know in the comments, or email[emailprotected]. Looking for even more greatstreaming options? Check out previous editions of ourmust-watch list here.

New Movies Streaming

“The Bikeriders”

Inspired by photojournalistDanny Lyon’s 1968 book, “The Bikeriders” captures 10 years of tumult in America, when the culture and people were changing, regardless of what group or class they belonged to. After a chance encounter at a local bar, Kathy (Jodie Comer, “Killing Eve”) falls for Benny (Austin Butler, “Elvis”), a fresh-faced member of motorcycle club The Vandals. As the ’60s roll on and the Vandals become more deeply enmeshed in a cycle of violence and danger, Benny must choose between Kathy and his club, led by the magnetic Johnny (Tom Hardy, “Inception”).

“The Bikeriders” is one of those movies audiences will look back on to marvel at its stacked cast of early-career stars and mid-career vets, like “Saving Private Ryan” or “The Thin Red Line.” Michael Shannon (“Man of Steel”), Mike Faist (“Challengers”), Boyd Holbrook (“Logan”), Damon Herriman (“Justified”), Emory Cohen (“Brooklyn”), Norman Reedus (“The Walking Dead”) — the list goes on and on.

How to watch: “The Bikeriders” is streaming on Peaco*ck.

“The Instigators”

“The Instigators” (read full review) is not your average Boston movie. The newest film from Matt Damon and Casey Affleck owes more of a debt to action comedies like “Midnight Run” than crime dramas like “The Departed.” Filmed and set in Boston, “The Instigators” stars Damon as Rory, a depressed ex-Marine who teams up with an ex-con named Cobby (Affleck) to rob the Mayor of Boston (Ron Perlman). The hare-brained scheme goes wrong, leaving Rory and Cobby on the run from the mayor, the police, hitmen, and seemingly everyone else in the greater Boston area.

Despite Damon’s top billing, “The Instigators” is Affleck’s movie from start to finish. Playing a slightly savvier version of his“real” Dunkin’ Donuts customerfrom “Saturday Night Live,” nearly all of Cobby’s sarcastic rejoinders get a laugh, with Damon playing a reliable straight man. Director Doug Liman makes sure the action half of the action-comedy is well-represented, pulling out his “Bourne Identity” roadmap for the car chases and his “Edge of Tomorrow” playbook for the gunplay. Clocking in at a brisk 102 minutes with credits, “The Instigators” is the perfect after-dinner streaming choice. Unlike its protagonists, it knows how to get in, do its job, and get out before overstaying its welcome.

How to watch: “The Instigators” is streaming on Apple TV+.

“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”

Set generations after the events of the most recent three films in the franchise, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (read full review) introduces us to a tribe of apes who aren’t even aware that humans were once Earth’s dominant species. The decades-long question of whether humans and apes can coexist is a non-issue for these primates, who can go their entire lives without seeing a man (which they fittingly call “echoes”). That changes when Noa (Owen Teague, “It”) is suddenly imperiled by a tribe of rival apes who are led by an orangutan who hordes books like precious gems, and twists the words and legacy of Caesar (Andy Serkis) to his own ends.

In a movie landscape in which Disney is promising to limit its Marvel output and studios are scrambling to figure out what’s next, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” offers one possible blueprint. Rather than exhaust audiences with dozens of films connected by countless branching spinoffs and streaming-exclusive shows, 20th Century Studios made a standalone trilogy, waited seven years, then launched another.

How to watch: “Kingdom of Planet of the Apes” is streaming on Hulu.

New TV Streaming

“Industry”

The third season of HBO’s “Industry” doesn’t premiere until Sunday, which means now is the perfect time to catch up on the series, which has slowly built an audience since its 2020 debut. The first season chronicled a group of recent grads starting at the fictional London investment bank Pierpoint, covering everything from frantic financial decisions to office hookups. The second season opened its lens wider, showing a wider cast of characters in the bank’s orbit even as the staff work remotely.

The third, which premieres this Sunday, zooms out even further, incorporating the world of media and politics to show how the backroom games are played. Also new and exciting this season is Kit Harrington, shedding his nice-guy “Game of Thrones” persona as a green tech CEO whose motives and methods are hardly altruistic. The characters that populate “Industry” broadly lack the generational wealth of the Roy family on “Succession,” but watching these modern-day yuppies from across the pond tear each other apart scratches the same itch.

How to watch: “Industry” is streaming on Max, with new episodes airing Sundays on HBO.

“The Umbrella Academy”

The bloom has come off the rose a little bit for “The Umbrella Academy,” which premiered its fourth and final season on Thursday. That said, the dysfunctional family of superheroes at the center of the action — each of whom was seemingly born via virgin birth to separate mothers on the same day all over the world — still has a few tricks up its sleeve. That includes three brilliant comedians all playing villainous roles; David Cross of “Arrested Development” plays the mysterious Sy Grossman, while married couple Nick Offerman and Megan Mulally (“Parks and Recreation”) play conspiracy theorists and cult leaders known as the Keepers. At only six episodes, you’ll breeze through the final season, which thankfully has the sense not to hang around too long.

How to watch: “The Umbrella Academy” is streaming on Netflix.