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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Paradise, season 2
(Hulu)
Season one of this breakout hit was one of the most original high-concept murder mysteries to come along in quite a while – and one that actually landed the plane with a pretty high level of difficulty. If you need a reminder, this is the show about the Secret Service agent investigating the death of a President, only there’s a massive twist at the end of the first episode that makes you understand exactly what kind of closed-circle mystery you’ve been thrown into. (How was that for avoiding spoilers?) Season 2 moves…let’s say outside the closed circle. We’ll leave it at that.
DTF St. Louis
(HBO)
A new miniseries kicks off on HBO this Sunday, starring Jason Bateman and Linda Cardellini. It’s about some middle-age couples who try to spice things up by joining a hookup app, and of course one of them ends up dead. Looks like another in the growing oeuvre of Bateman shows and movies that live in a weird interstitial space where you can’t quite tell what the storytelling tone is and somehow it works.
CIA
(CBS)
The proliferation of acronym procedurals (FBI, SVU, NCSI, etc) probably made this one inevitable, and it comes with just the right pedigree, created by Dick Wolf and David Hudgins. Honestly if I’m going to watch a broadcast procedural, I’m way more drawn to the shadowy world of international espionage than some others on offer.
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Movie Night
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For thriller and mystery fans, the action this weekend is over on the Disney+ app in the Hulu tile (in the byzantine terminology of today’s fractured streaming services), Two standout films that are going to be competing at this year’s Oscars hit the service on March 1st. There’s The Secret Agent (2025), starring Wagner Moura in a powerhouse performance. (Radha Vatsal recently broke down the reasons why you should be watching this one asap.) If you’ve been reading about how Brazil-fever is sweeping over the Academy this year, this film is a big reason why. Another great option streaming on Hulu is the movie, It Was Just An Accident (2025), also an Oscar nominee for Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay. The movie, written and directed by Jafar Panahi (who did not seek the Iranian government’s authorization for the production), follows a group of former political prisoners considering taking revenge on the man they suspect of having tortured them. It won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes film festival. So between the two, you have some pretty great options for your movie night. But if you’re in need of more, or just want one from the archives, Tubi is streaming Roman Polanski’s Death and the Maiden (1994), based on the Ariel Dorfman play, which makes an appropriate, chilling companion piece to It Was Just An Accident. I watched this one recently – for the first time – and was absolutely knocked out by the performances, especially from Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley.
And 5 more movies new to the streaming libraries:
Ghosts of Mississippi (1996) (Netflix)
Get Shorty (1995) / Be Cool (2005) (Tubi)
No Way Out (1997) (Prime)
Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985) (Criterion)
