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Welcome to our weekly guide to the best new shows or movies to watch this week. In this article, we've put together a list of the hottest movies and TV shows that you can find across all the best streaming services over the next seven days, including the likes of Netflix, Prime Video, Disney Plus, and Max.
With new shows and movies dropping all the time, it can be tricky to know what to watch. But that's where we come in: we've put together a list of seven fantastic films and shows across a wide range of genres. This week we have a blockbuster action film that looks like Speed on a train, Tina Fey's new comedy series Four Seasons, and even a historical drama about the world's first celebrity chef, who is also a spy! Let's get into it...
Bullet Train Explosion
Available: US/UK
Where to watch: Netflix
How's that for a "does what it says on the tin" title? This Japanese action film sounds like Speed on rails, with an anonymous assailant planting a bomb on an E5 Series Shinkansen train that will explode when the vehicle drops beneath 100 km/h. In fact, it's a sequel to an older film, 1975's The Bullet Train, which had a similar premise. Can the police and train crew find a solution to dispose of the bomb before it hits Tokyo Station and causes massive devastation?
Directed by Shinji Higuchi, Bullet Train Explosion is a gripping thriller that delivers both exciting action and a pleasingly thoughtful approach to the crisis, with smart characters racing to find a solution before it's too late.
For more great picks, check out our guide to the best Netflix shows to watch right now.
Carême
Available: US/UK
Where to watch: Apple TV Plus
This new French-language show has a delicious premise. Inspired by Ian Kelly’s book Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Carême, The First Celebrity Chef, it follows the real-life exploits of a chef in the Napoleonic Era known as "the king of chefs and the chef of kings," played by the swoonsome Benjamin Voisin. The young Carême was born into poverty.
He catches a lucky break when he is offered the chance to become an apprentice to a Parisian pâtissier – a decision which sets him on a culinary path that would eventually see him cook for everyone from Tsar Alexander I of Russia to the Prince Regent George IV in Britain. But Carême isn't just a show about cooking. Along the way, the beloved chef is recruited as a spy for France, and his adventures will force him to choose between a life of wealth, women, and fame or treading a more dangerous path.
For more picks, read our list of the best Apple TV Plus shows.
The Four Seasons
Available: US
Where to watch: Netflix US/UK
30 Rock star Tina Fey co-writes and stars alongside Steve Carell in this glossy eight-episode adaptation of Alan Alda's '80s rom-com classic. The series follows six friends, all couples, who enjoy spending a weekend away together once a quarter. Tensions are stirred up, however, with the revelation that one of the couples – Nick (Carell) and Anne (Kerri Kenney-Silver) are in the middle of a divorce...
As you may expect from the title, The Four Seasons takes place over the course of a year and follows these six friends as they grapple with the harsh realities of middle age. But if that sounds like a drag, don't worry – it's funny as hell, too, and there's no arguing with the quality of that cast.
For more quality TV, head over to our list of the best shows on HBO Max.
Andor season 2
Available: US/UK
Where to watch: Disney Plus
Andor's second and final season launched last week with three terrific new episodes that saw Cassian embark on a perilous mission to steal an experimental TIE Fighter, then took in the wedding from Hell. Thanks to Disney Plus's unusual release schedule we have a second batch of three episodes to look forward to this week, which will take us to the halfway mark of the season.
At this point there's no doubt that Andor isn't just the best Star Wars TV show to date, it's one of the finest parts of the franchise full stop. With mature writing and performances, compelling personal drama and intrigue, and genuinely exciting action set pieces, we're going to be really sad to see this one go. Let's savor it while we can.
Check out our Andor season 2 release schedule, and don't forget to check out our list for the best TV shows on Disney Plus.
The Eternaut season 1
Available: US/UK
Where to watch: Netflix
This Argentine post-apocalyptic thriller is based on Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López's classic 1950s comic series, El Eternauta. Juan Salvo (Ricardo Darín) and his friends are relaxing one summer's night in Buenos Aires when it unexpectedly starts to snow. Not only does the world freeze over, but the snow is toxic, killing anyone who is exposed to it.
That's just the beginning of the survivors' problems, however – it turns out that the snow is the first wave of a full-on alien invasion of Earth. Filmed in Buenos Aires, and in close collaboration with the families of the comic's creators, this looks like a faithful and gripping retelling of a mind-bending science fiction classic.
Need more streaming TV? Here's our list of the best Amazon Prime shows to watch right now.
Conclave
Available: US
Where to watch: Prime Video
In the wake of the death of Pope Francis, one of last year's best films has suddenly been propelled to the number 1 spot on Prime Video. Conclave, based on the novel by Robert Harris, gets into the nitty gritty of precisely how a new Pope is elected, with Ralph Fiennes starring as Cardinal Thomas Lawrence, the head of the College of Cardinals, who must navigate a web of intrigue and conspiracy that could shake the church to its foundations.
Directed by Edward Berger, Conclave is a smart, cerebral thriller that's also surprisingly witty – there's more than a dash of Mean Girls about some of these characters. But where it really excels is in exploring the complex mix of politics and religion that takes place in the run up to seeing that plume of white smoke.
For more recommendations, head over to our list of the best Paramount Plus shows to watch next.
Annihilation
Available: US/UK
Where to watch: Disney Plus
This 2018 adaptation of Jeff VanderMeer's modern classic sci-fi novel was on Netflix until recently. Now Prime Video subscribers have the chance to see one of Civil War director Alex Garland's most intriguing and unnerving films. It's set in a near future where a meteor has struck a remote region of Florida, transforming and mutating it into an anomalous area protected behind a mysterious barrier. Natalie Portman plays Lena, a biologist still grieving the apparent loss of her husband (Oscar Isaac), who enters the zone with a squad of soldiers searching for answers.
What they find there is strange, beautiful, inexplicable and terrifying all at once. With touches of surreal horror and some startlingly weird imagery, this is both a thought-provoking thriller with a provocative final act, and a haunting exploration of grief.
When you've seen Annihilation, check out our list of the 25 best movies on Prime Video.
Looking for something else to watch? Check out our list of the best Netflix movies or the best movies on Disney Plus.
