Streaming

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

Welcome to Boston.com’s weekly streaming guide. Each week, we recommend five must-watch movies and TV shows available on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, 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 [email protected]. Looking for even more great streaming options? Check out previous editions of our must-watch list here.

Movies

“2001: A Space Odyssey”

In honor of the 2024 solar eclipse, stream my favorite movie featuring a solar eclipse and one of the best sci-fi movies of all time. The solar and lunar eclipse that opens the film is seen from outer space instead of Earth, but the message is clear: Like the featureless obelisk, an eclipse is a phenomenon that marks a momentous change. Rules are thrown out the window, and a new way of thinking takes hold. As sci-fi scholar Lisa Yaszek put it, “the laws of nature seem to be suspended. Day becomes night, the temperature drops, animals start making noises.” Or in the case of Stanley Kubrick’s magnum opus, a tribe of apes learns to use tools and slaughter another tribe.

How to watch: “2001: A Space Odyssey” is streaming on Max.

“The Talented Mr. Ripley” (1999)

With the debut of the Netflix limited series “Ripley” (read more about that show below), now is a great time to revisit Anthony Minghella’s 1999 adaptation. In a career that has spanned more than 30 years, Matt Damon has rarely played a character as complex as Tom Ripley, the striving chameleon at the center of this thriller. Tasked by a shipping magnate to go to Italy and return his wastrel of a son to America, Tom instead becomes a friend and confidant to the spoiled Dickie Greenleaf (Jude Law) and his girlfriend Marge (Gwyneth Paltrow). The central trio is a joy to watch, and supporting turns from two greats in Cate Blanchett and the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, are icing on the cake. Because the film is based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith (“Strangers on a Train,” “Deep Water”), the viewer can reasonably expect a fair share of psychological and sexual intrigue, but Damon and company keep you guessing until the very end.

How to watch: “The Talented Mr. Ripley” is streaming on Paramount+.

“The Zone of Interest”

The final Best Picture nominee from the 2024 Oscars to debut on a streaming platform, “The Zone of Interest” is Hannah Arendt’s “banality of evil” made manifest. Director Jonathan Glazer uses a documentary-style camera setup to capture the story of the Hösses, a family of Nazis living next door to Auschwitz whose patriarch, Rudolf (Christian Friedel), is in charge of most efficiently enacting Hitler’s Final Solution. “The Zone of Interest” is PG-13, and much like his 2014 film “Under the Skin,” Glazer doesn’t show the atrocities that took place at the labor camp. Instead, we see Rudolf’s wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) and their children steadfastly ignore the sounds of bullets and the stench of burning bodies in pursuit of a white-picket fence and a pool. Glazer spent years researching actual dialogue spoken by the Hösses. The commonalities they share with a certain type of American suburban living is deeply disturbing, to say the least.

How to watch: “The Zone of Interest” is streaming on Hulu.

TV

“Loot”

It can be hard to measure the success of shows on Apple TV+. Despite boasting sizable budgets and enviable star power, the platform is one of the least-subscribed of the major streamers, and Apple doesn’t share much data, if any. Hopefully “Loot” is one of its hits, because its second season, which premiered Wednesday, is a lot of fun. Maya Rudolph (“Saturday Night Live”) basically plays a fictional MacKenzie Scott (neé Bezos), an ultra-wealthy recent divorceé struggling to reacclimate to normal life and figure out how to use the massive wealth now that she’s separated from her cheating tech CEO husband (Adam Scott, “Severance”). In Season 2, Rudolph goes public with a giving pledge, a la Bill and Melinda Gates, tries to launch an affordable housing initiative, and opens herself up to love thanks to a hunky Benjamin Bratt. Co-created by former “Parks & Rec” writers Alan Yang and Matt Hubbard and featuring a winning supporting cast that includes Ron Funches (“Undateable”), Joel Kim Booster (“Fire Island”), and Boston native Nat Faxon (“The Way Way Back”), “Loot” doesn’t need to do much to charm an audience.

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

“Ripley”

Netflix’s new series “Ripley” doesn’t completely reimagine the character of Tom Ripley, this time played by Andrew Scott (“Fleabag”). But showrunner Steven Zaillian (“The Night Of”) may actually hew closer to the character’s origins in Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 page-turner. The show is shot in black and white, and Scott’s Ripley feels like someone out of a Hitchcock film or another sinister noir of the 1950s. The eight-episode structure gives us more time to see the depths of Ripley’s narcissism than the 1999 film starring Matt Damon, with early episodes set in New York City showing how his petty grifts prepare him for his fateful trip to Italy to retrieve Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) and his girlfriend Marge (Dakota Fanning). At a time when reboots and remakes are a dime a dozen, it’s refreshing to see one that justifies its existence so strongly as “Ripley.”

How to watch: “Ripley” is streaming on Netflix.