Streaming

5 must-watch movies & TV shows streaming right now

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

A scene from "The Boys" Season 4, streaming June 13 on Prime Video. Jasper Savage/Prime Video

June 14, 2024

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

“Brats”

Disney and Hulu have been pumping out nostalgia-inducing documentaries at a frantic clip, giving us rosy looks back at The Beatles, The Beach Boys, and Jim Henson in the last month alone. “Brats,” the new documentary about the loosely affiliated collection of 1980s movie stars known as the Brat Pack, is an entirely different animal.

Sure, there are plenty of warm memories to be unearthed as Andrew McCarthy (“Pretty in Pink,” “Weekend at Bernie’s”) sits down with his fellow former heartthrobs, including Demi Moore, Rob Lowe, and Emilio Estevez. But McCarthy’s doc features some hard truths about the nature of fame and controlling your own narrative, and uses the conceit of the documentary to hold an extended therapy session for himself and the other Brat Packers.

How to watch: “Brats” is streaming on Hulu.

“Inside Out”

If you missed my “Inside Out 2” review earlier this week, the short version is that the new sequel doesn’t quite capture the magic of 2015’s “Inside Out,” but it’s still an enjoyable 90 minutes at the movies. Whether or not you’re planning to head out to the theaters, now is a good time to revisit this charming title about anthropomorphized emotions living in the head of a young girl named Riley.

Joy (Burlington native Amy Poehler) runs things in Rileyville, which works fine most of the time. But when Riley’s family moves across the country, Sadness (Phyllis Smith, “The Office”) begins to take over. “Inside Out” not only gives adults plenty to laugh about when building out the inner workings of Riley’s brain, but also teaches a valuable lesson about how every emotion has its time and place in a well-rounded human being.

How to watch: “Inside Out” is streaming on Disney+.

“Monkey Man”

Dev Patel’s breathrough performance was in Danny Boyle’s 2008 Best Picture winner “Slumdog Millionaire,” in which Patel played Jamal Malik, an orphan from India’s lowest caste who sits on the precipice of making it big on the country’s version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire.” Patel’s directorial debut, “Monkey Man,” shares a number of traits with Boyle’s film, including slick camera work, flashy editing, and a hero’s journey story that offers commentary on contemporary Indian society.

“Monkey Man” is about a fighter named Kid (Patel) who lurks on the outskirts of a fictional Mumbai while plotting ways to infiltrate the city’s high society and enact revenge on those who have wronged him. Drawing inspiration from Hong Kong action films and movies like “The Raid,” “Monkey Man” has some of the best fight sequences you’ll see this year. The film sometimes struggles to balance these scenes with weightier sociopolitical commentary or flashbacks about Kid’s family, but overall “Monkey Man” is a promising showcase for an actor flexing his filmmaking muscles — hopefully not for the last time.

How to watch: “Monkey Man” is streaming on Peacock.

TV

“The Boys”

As the old aphorism goes, the night is darkest just before the dawn. With the announcement that Amazon will be ending its hit series “The Boys” after Season 5, we can only hope that Season 4, which began streaming June 13, is as dark and bleak as the show will get. Showrunner Eric Kripke has always been very clear that “The Boys” is a thinly veiled allegory for our current sociopolitical condition, telling Entertainment Weekly that the show represents “conspiracy-minded movements and the super extreme right-wing news media.” If you’re the type of person whose anxiety spirals when thinking about the upcoming presidential election, Season 4 of “The Boys” may not be for you.

Omnipotent conglomerate Vought International continues to consolidate power around the Superman-esque Homelander (Antony Starr), while finding new superheroes that fit their prescribed worldview — and even giving one of them her own political talk show on Vought News. The anti-Vought faction, lead by Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher, are fighting the war against fascism as well as a battle for the soul of Homelander’s son, Ryan.

How to watch: “The Boys” Season 4 is streaming on Prime Video.

“Presumed Innocent”

Full disclosure: While I’ve only seen a few episodes of David E. Kelley’s Apple TV+ miniseries “Presumed Innocent,” I prefer the 1990 Harrison Ford movie so far. That doesn’t mean you should skip tuning in, though: Kelley’s forte is adapting tense legal thrillers for television, and he’s in fine form here. In his first television series, Jake Gyllenhaal takes Ford’s role as prosecutor Rusty Sabich, the prime suspect in the murder of fellow prosecutor Carolyn Polhemus (Renate Reinsve), with whom Rusty was having an affair.

Gyllenhaal is a scuzzier, more hateable Rusty than Ford was, and it remains to be seen whether he redeems himself enough to get the audience on his side. Beyond Gyllenhaal, “Presumed Innocent” has some excellent supporting performances, especially from Massachusetts native Bill Camp (“The Queen’s Gambit”) as an embattled State’s Attorney and Ruth Negga (“Loving”) as Rusty’s long-suffering wife.

How to watch: “Presumed Innocent” is streaming on Apple TV+, with new episodes debuting Wednesdays.