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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Lucky (Apple)

This new series on Apple features Anya Taylor-Joy as a con woman on the run following a heist. (Please don’t confuse this with the short-lived David Milch show, Luck. Just kidding, I know nobody was going to make that mistake; I just wanted a chance to remind you that show exists, and was actually pretty good! But, I mean, serious issues with the horses.)  The show has some star power, and Taylor-Joy is always watchable on screen, with some clever set pieces to push her through. The early reviews are pretty underwhelming, so if you need more enticement to give it a shot, I’ve saved pivotal information for last – also starring Timothy Olyphant.

Ride or Die (Prime)

This action comedy stars Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham as a pair of new friends, just happily going through the early stages of their relationship, when one of them discovers the other is an international assassin. And I’ll give you one guess who the next assassination target is. Spencer and Waddingham are a fun pair and there’s a lot of value going into production on this one, with some satisfying globetrotting and big old car chases.

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Movie Night

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If you’re looking to stream from one of your usual services this weekend, consider The Amateur (Disney), starring Rami Malek as a CIA cryptographer who loses his wife to a terrorist attack and convinces the higher-ups to train him into a lethal weapon so he can go extract his revenge. Laurence Fishburne is doing the training, so you’ve got a pretty nice duo at the top. It’s all based on the Robert Littel novel. If you’re willing to pony up some cash for VOD, you’ll have a couple more options. First, you might want to check out Backrooms, another of the big horror breakout films of the year, from a very young director with an impressive YouTube pedigree and some good stars on board. The other choice, and honestly this one’s probably my choice, is Normal, starring Bob Odenkirk who’s lately been making an unlikely turn as an action star. Here he plays the new cop in Normal, Minnesota, a seemingly idyllic town that erupts into all-out war, with the new lawman in town standing dead center. Odenkirk brings volumes of humanity to every role he plays, and he manages the same trick here, balancing some pretty entertaining shootout work with the subtleties of his everyman-with-a-soul performance.

Plus 5 new additions to the streaming libraries…

Fargo (1996) (Netflix)
Capote (2006) (Prime)
Ronin (1997) (Prime)
The Magnificent Seven (1960) (Prime)
The Bling Ring (2013) (Tubi)