What Should You Watch This Weekend?

A mystery lover’s guide to what’s new to streaming this weekend.

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New and Returning Mystery and Thriller Series

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Lanterns
(HBO Max)

Yes, this is a superhero show, from DC Comics, featuring the Green Lantern, but really it’s a detective show, with two mismatched investigators at the center of the story, one a veteran, one a rookie, and there’s a small-town murder that points towards a much larger (in this case, world-threatening) conspiracy. Aaron Pierre and Kyle Chandler star, and the writing team that created the show is pretty damn impressive, too: Chris Mundy (Ozark), Damon Lindelof (The Leftovers), and Tom King. This is one of the season’s best crime shows, it’s just wrapped up in a superhero comic.

Reacher, season 4
(Prime)

The fourth season of Reacher is based on Gone Tomorrow, which skews a little more toward political thriller territory than most Lee Child novels, so it should make for a pretty interesting adaptation. The action starts on a New York subway in the middle of the night and pretty quickly shifts attention to the D.C. security establishment. I’ll be curious to see how they handle all the government scheming and intrigue.

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Movie Night

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If you’re in the mood for a supernatural dystopian thriller, The Last House (Netflix) seems to be a pretty huge streaming hit. Starring Wagner Moura and Greta Lee, it’s about a family that’s suddenly and mysteriously trapped inside their house, and they’re not quite sure what’s going on in the outside world, which, honestly, sounds like a really, really heavy handed parable about the world-altering thing we all recently went through. I have absolutely no interest in watching this one, despite liking all the people involved in its making, wishing them well, and agreeing that it looks like a very high quality rendition of this kind of story. It’s just not for me. But I am told it is definitely for my wife, so it will nevertheless be streaming in our household this week. Meanwhile I’ll be watching the new Olivier Assayas political thriller, The Wizard of the Kremlin (Hulu), starring Paul Dano, Alicia Vikander and Jude Law, and chronicling the early days of Putin’s post-Soviet rise, alongside the TV producer who became his lieutenant, hype man, and spin doctor.

Plus 5 new additions to the libraries…

Nightcrawler (2014) (Netflix)
Tokyo Drift (2014) (Netflix)
Killing Me Softly (2003) (Prime)
Murder on the Orient Express (2017) (HBO)
Looper (2012) (Tubi)