We know it’s tough to sort through the content churned out by the 700,000 streaming services, so we’re bringing you a curated little list of what to watch right now.
Pick of the week
Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer
If you went missing, “how would you feel if no one came looking for you?” So asks Mari Gilbert, mother of the missing Shannan Gilbert.
This is the agony that Gilbert and many others had to endure for years after their loved ones fell victim to the Long Island Serial Killer. Many of the disappeared were sex workers; nobody seemed to really care that they were vanishing at an alarming rate: not the police, not the media, not the locals. Gilbert led a dedicated cadre of family members and friends in pressuring the powers that be to find her daughter and bring her attacker to justice.
The case has been immortalized several times already, including in the seminal non-fiction read “Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery,” one of the best reported and most empathetic true-crime books ever written.
Reporter Robert Kolker’s classic was turned into both a Lifetime movie and a Netflix film by documentarian Liz Garbus. Now Garbus returns to her roots with a three-part docuseries about the case, this time covering the recent arrest and indictment of a suspect as well, and featuring interviews with case expert Kolker himself. Stream it Monday on Netflix.
Also on this week
1. Gold & Greed: The Hunt for Fenn’s Treasure
So many treasure hunters spend years and years poking about for lost fortunes of dubious provenance, but Fenn’s treasure is unique in that it is 100 per cent real — and someone actually found it. Discover how the quest for the art dealer’s trunk of gold and jewels buried in the mountains panned out — for some. Stream it on Netflix.
2. Paul American
Love ’em or hate ’em (most folks, it seems, choose the latter), Jake and Logan Paul open up their wacky family to reality-show cameras to document their strange existence as YouTube sensations and now boxing and wrestling impresarios. Stream it on Crave.
3. Small Town, Big Story
Chris O’Dowd helms a black comedy about what happens when a big-shot producer (Christina Hendricks) returns to her weird Irish hometown to investigate the town’s strange supernatural occurrences (birds tend to fall from the sky with some regularity) and creep on her charming old flame (Paddy Considine). Stream it on StackTV.
4. Number One on the Call Sheet
A who’s who of Hollywood’s elite share their experiences as Black artists in the notoriously racist entertainment industry, including Oscar winners Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Daniel Kaluuya, Whoopi Goldberg, Will Smith, Octavia Spencer, Halle Berry, Morgan Freeman and Jamie Foxx, along with Angela Bassett, Cynthia Erivo, Tessa Thompson, Eddie Murphy, Idris Elba, Laurence Fishburne and the Rock, plus many more. Stream it Friday on Apple TV Plus.
5. Mid-Century Modern
The blindingly bright set! The laugh track! The mom jokes! This new sitcom starring Nathan Lane, Matt Bomer and Nathan Lee Graham feels like something out of a ’90s TGIF lineup, except everyone is gay. TV royalty Ryan Murphy, James Burrows and the “Will & Grace” creators are all on board for a series about a trio of queer folks who decide to live together in the aforementioned annoying mom’s Palm Springs manse. (Hijinks, of course, ensue.) Stream it Friday on Disney Plus.
6. MobLand
Guy Ritchie’s latest organized-crime epic stars Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren as a pair of London gangsters trying to protect their turf in the midst of a war, with the help of an enforcer played by Tom Hardy. (Fun fact for all you “Ray Donovan” fans: the show started off as “The Donovans,” an origin story about the Donovan clan, before it got converted into a standalone series with Ritchie directing some episodes.) Stream it Sunday on Paramount Plus.
