If you’re looking for something to keep you entertained this weekend then look no further.
For our critics have hand-picked the 20 best new releases on streaming services to save you the hassle.
From a superb Jake Gyllenhaal as a conflicted district attorney who finds himself complicit in a murder case to the real-life twists and turns of the hunt for a saboteur who tampered with a skydiver’s parachute, you will be on the edge of your seat.
Presumed Innocent
Jake Gyllenhaal stars in a steamy courtroom murder mystery series
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Apple TV+
When lawyer Carolyn Polhemus is found raped and murdered, her colleague in the District Attorney’s office, Rusty Sabich (Road House’s Jake Gyllenhaal), is assigned with running the investigation into the crime. Unbeknown to everyone, though, married man Rusty had been having an affair with Carolyn. If that fact comes out, the seemingly respectable lawyer could suddenly find himself the chief suspect in the case, so he begins twisting the investigation to divert attention away from himself.
If all that sounds familiar, then it’s probably because Scott Turow’s original 1987 book has already been filmed as a 1990 thriller starring Harrison Ford. Don’t let that put you off though – this eight-part retelling is a great twisty steamy affair with a fantastically opaque performance by Gyllenhaal as Rusty and top-flight support from the likes of O-T Fagbenle, Ruth Negga and Peter Sarsgaard – who also happens to be brother-in-law to Gyllenhaal by virtue of his marriage to the leading man’s sister, Maggie. (Eight episodes)
Bridgerton (Series 3 Part 2)
The last four episodes of series three of the period romance
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
After spending two series of the gorgeously over-the-top period romantic drama as the wallflower of the Featherington clan, series three has properly allowed Penelope Featherington (Derry Girls’ Nicola Coughlan) to shine.
The first four episodes saw her finally getting close to her long-time crush Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton), even if it was initially under the guise of him helping her to find a suitable husband among the swirl of eligible bachelors cavorting through the ballrooms and bedrooms of the show’s lively take on Regency England. Once up-close-and-personal in each other’s company, though, it didn’t take long for all that to evolve into something much more intimate.
These last four episodes offer all the tightly corseted and britches-wearing wooing and conniving that fans expect as the romance develops and Penelope’s secret life as society gossip columnist Lady Whistledown comes under threat.
Whatever happens, this isn’t the end – Bridgerton will be back for a fourth series. (Four episodes)
The Fall: Skydive Murder Plot
When a skydiver survives the failure of both her parachutes, two dogged detectives uncover a dark and murderous plot
Year: 2024
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Channel 4
You will remember this – it’s not the kind of news story you forget. In 2015, Victoria Cilliers survived a 4,000ft free fall when her parachute and reserve failed to open. In 2018, her husband, Emile, was convicted on two counts of attempted murder.
This three-part docuseries has all the usual suspects – interviews with the investigating detectives, archive footage and dramatic reconstruction – but it’s the latter that really sets it apart. MyAnna Buring (recently seen in The Responder) plays Victoria, and the approach is unique and profoundly affecting – as is the appearance of the real Victoria at the end of the first episode, and she goes on to give her most in-depth interview on the whole shocking series of events.
Unusually for a true-crime show, there’s a happy ending for the victim. Not only because Victoria survived her seedy and manipulative husband’s murderous plot, but also because she was able to free herself from his insidious brainwashing of her, even if it takes far longer than you might think. (Three episodes)
The Traitors US
Find the faithful in a nest of vipers in the US version of the hit reality contest
Year: 2023-
Certificate: PG
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
If you thought Claudia Winkleman had style when she hosted this hugely entertaining contest, then check out Alan Cumming, who pushes the dress code to maximalist extremes for the second series of this US version.
Alan (known for The Good Wife) is Scottish, so feels quite at home in the Highlands – and at Ardross Castle, where this version is also set. In fact, were it not for the change of host and a new batch of players, it is virtually indistinguishable from the UK show.
Series one features 22 suspects pulled from American reality shows such as The Bachelorette, Big Brother and Below Deck. But for series two, the reality show stars are mixed with public figures who will be more familiar to British viewers, namely former Commons Speaker John Bercow, Love Island’s Ekin-Su Culculoglu and boxer Deontay Wilder. As ever, it’s guaranteed to be a veritable feast of deceit. (Two series)
Paranormal
Radio 1’s Sian Eleri investigates the paranormal activity around Wales
Year: 2023-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on BBC iPlayer
Channelling the spirit of X-Files sceptic Dana Scully, Radio 1 presenter Sian Eleri takes a deep dive into creepy and unexplained phenomena in her native Wales. She’s naturally curious and a captivating guide to the unsettling events she investigates.
In series one, Eleri visited one of Britain’s most haunted houses. Penyffordd Farm in north Wales is a family home that made national headlines in the 1990s thanks to more than 300 reports of paranormal activity, including the appearance of a ghostly girl. Unusually, there is a wealth of archive and documented evidence for her to dig into.
The same is also true for the case covered in series two, of mass UFO sightings in 1977, with evidence including recently declassified government documents. In the seaside village of Broad Haven, 14 schoolboys made global headlines when they reported seeing a UFO in their playground. Eleri learns that the phenomena was not just confined to the village, but stretched all along the coast as far as Swansea. There were further sightings in 1983. Was it aliens, secret military craft, or a joke that went too far? (Two series)
The Boys (Series 4)
Series four of the gritty and bloody US superhero thriller show
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Prime Video
Brutally violent, acidly cynical and darkly funny in equal chunks, The Boys takes the idea of real-world superheroes and shoots it full of celebrity culture, political extremism and corporate corruption. The powerful and very grown-up result may not be for the faint of heart (or stomach), but it is frequently amazing television.
As the eight-episode fourth series dawns, increasingly psychotic All-American superman Homelander (Banshee’s Antony Starr) is inches away from shrugging off his good-guy pretence and finally becoming the god-like fascist ruler he’s always dreamed of being.
The only person capable of stopping him is brutal anti-superhero vigilante Billy Butcher (Star Trek’s Karl Urban). But to do so, he’ll need to persuade his team of desperate losers to accept him back. Oh, and deal with the small matter that he only has a few months left to live.
Is a happy ending possible for anyone on this show? There will be one more series after this one. (Eight episodes)
Criminal Minds: Evolution
The revival of the grisly US drama about specialists tracking serial killers
Year: 2022-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
Anyone who worried that the revival of Criminal Minds after a break of more than two years was a mistake can rest easy. The first series of the show’s return under the Evolution banner turns out be rather rewarding, with the team’s quirky chemistry still bubbling away nicely as they solve a different crime each week, but also move closer and closer to cracking the overall mystery of Sicarius and his network of serial killers with each individual Unsub (unknown subject) they bring down.
Series two follows Rossi (Joe Mantegna), JJ (AJ Cook), Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness), Prentiss (Paget Brewster), Lewis (Aisha Tyler) and the rest of the Behavioral Analysis Unit as they investigate the Gold Star mystery. Be warned, for all that quirky chemistry, the show is still as grisly as it ever was. (Two series)
Under The Bridge
Murder mystery drama starring Riley Keough based on real-life events
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
In 1997, a quiet island in British Columbia, Canada, is rocked when 14-year-old Reena Virk fails to return after attending a party with her friends.
When the search for the girl becomes a murder investigation, a novelist who grew up in the town, Rebecca Godfrey (played by Riley Keough – of Daisy Jones And The Six fame, who also happens to be Elvis’s granddaughter), returns to the area to look into the case. Discovering a tangled mess of jealousy and menace among the area’s teenaged girls, Rebecca begins to wonder if some of them could have been behind Reena’s death.
A fictionalised account of a genuine crime (the real-life Rebecca Godfrey wrote the investigative book that inspired the series), this is a dark and unsettling eight-part mystery. Keough again proves that she’s a talent on the rise, but watch out, too, for a fine turn from British actress Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife) as Reena’s mother. (Eight episodes)
Queenie
Sharp, honest and funny drama based on Candice Carty-Williams’s 2019 bestseller
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Channel 4
This eight-part adaptation of Candice Carty-Williams’s 2019 bestseller and British Book Awards Book Of The Year winner hits the ground running and barely catches a breath. Twenty-five-year-old South Londoner Queenie Jenkins (Dionne Brown) reacts to a break-up by throwing herself into casual dating and drinking, depicted in unvarnished and often excruciating detail.
There’s a lot of sex and self-destruction, but Queenie’s story and her inner monologues are driven by humour and punchy lines.
Unfiltered and honest in her narration, Queenie finds it all but impossible to be real with the people closest to her, something even her old boyfriend struggled with. And as the darkness that haunts her slowly comes out into the open, it only endears her to us all the more.
Queenie’s family – including her grandparents (Llewella Gideon and Fresh Prince Of Bel Air’s Joseph Marcell), her boss (Sally Phillips) and her friends (including best friend Kyazike played by rapper Bellah) – all bring a lot to the show, but it’s Brown’s performance that is the making of it. (Eight episodes)
The Flash
Fun DC Comics superhero series stays in the fast lane
Year: 2014-2023
Certificate: 12
This DC Comics show puts the super back into superhero, with a lightness of touch that sets it apart from the more earnest approach of Superman’s New Adventures or darker Marvel TV shows such as Daredevil. After making the right impression in a cameo of sister show Arrow, Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) landed a headline act and impressed viewers and critics straight off the starting line.
It launches immediately into his origin story, with clean-cut Barry working as a forensic investigator for the police when he has his fateful appointment with a bolt of lightning, caused by the explosion of a particle accelerator. He survives the strike but has ‘become the impossible’ and is the fastest man alive. He is The Flash!
With his lab-based support team, Barry joins a group of other ‘metahumans’ in battling a variety of threats, including his very own nemesis, the Reverse Flash.
There are monsters of the week, time travel and multiverses (with multiple versions of key characters), and it’s all held together by strong personal relationships and longer story arcs which make it compulsive viewing. Mostly, though, it’s simply a nimble bundle of fun. (Series 1-7, ITVX, Series 7-9, Sky/Now)
How Music Got Free
Documentary series charting the rise of Napster and online music sharing
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Paramount+
In the 1990s, CD sales were big business, shifting hundreds of millions of units a year. But then along came online file sharing and the business model began to crumble.
This two-part documentary series tells the story of the rise of Napster and other streaming sites, from the perspectives of both the record industry figures who opposed them and the pirates who ripped off and streamed the music.
Were they heroes setting the music free? Or were they crooks, stealing music (in some cases literally – the series is full of tales of pirates smuggling copies of master discs out of studios and uploading them to the internet) and destroying the model that had kept the music industry alive for decades?
It’s fascinating stuff, with contributions from unsung heroes as well as big names such as Eminem, 50 Cent and Timbaland. (Two episodes)
Becoming Karl Lagerfeld
German miniseries about the rise of the iconic fashion designer
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Disney+
When the 1970s dawned, Karl Lagerfeld (Daniel Bruhl) was a little known 38-year-old creator of ready-to-wear clothes. How he went from these relatively humble beginnings to become one of the iconic figures of world fashion, known as much for his own idiosyncratic style as for the haute couture he created, is quite a story.
This six-part German drama series is a feast of ambition, jealousy and 70s excess as Lagerfeld – driven by passion, insecurity and the desperate need to prove himself – goes to war with his sometime friend Yves Saint Laurent for the title of world’s greatest fashion designer.
The period detail is fantastic and the film swims with glitz and glamour, but it’s the mesmeric Bruhl (of Rush and All Quiet On The Western Front fame ) who holds your attention throughout with a magnificently self-obsessed turn as the Kaiser of Fashion himself. (Six episodes)
The Pursuit Of Love
Nancy Mitford’s 1945 classic gets a lavish and spirited adaptation for contemporary times
Year: 2021
Certificate: 15
This exuberant three-part adaptation of Nancy Mitford’s 1945 novel – loosely based on her own family – follows upper-crust bright young things as they blaze a trail through the inter-war years.
Lily James and Emily Beecham star as Linda and Fanny, cousins with very different outlooks on life – Fanny is well-educated and quite serious, while Linda ‘lives in a world of superlatives’, and has a blind devotion to the idea of love that will surely be her undoing.
It’s written by Emily Mortimer (who plays Fanny’s flighty mother ‘The Bolter’), and the superb cast also includes Dominic West and an archly flamboyant turn from Andrew Scott. (Three episodes)
Star Wars: The Acolyte
Star Wars spin-off series set 100 years before the films
Year: 2024
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Disney+
Most of the Star Wars TV series so far have been devoted to filling in gaps between the films, whether it’s the magnificent Andor giving us events leading up to Rogue One, or The Mandalorian exploring the Outer Rim after Return Of The Jedi.
This atmospheric eight-parter, though, heads to a hundred years before The Phantom Menace, back to a seemingly happy galactic republic. But then someone starts murdering individual Jedi Knights and the investigation that follows uncovers cracks in the facade of universal harmony…
With a mix of Western, noir and Japanese martial arts adventure, this is a solid addition to the galaxy far, far away which is particularly strong in that last ingredient.
The Matrix’s Carrie-Anne Moss adds considerable initial appeal with her ‘force fu’ as the Trinity-like Indara, while other cast members include Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials) and Manny Jacinto (The Good Place), although the actual star is The Hunger Games’ Amanda Stenberg who plays two very different twin sisters.
All of these actors have to contend with that unfortunate deadening that directors of Star Wars seems to bring to the scripts, but there are still enough sparks to keep you watching – and the action, when it comes, is undeniably cool. (Eight episodes)
Mysteries Of The Terracotta Warriors
Documentary marking 50 years since the discovery of the Terracotta Army
Year: 2024
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Netflix
In 1974, near Xi’an in Shaanxi Province, China, an incredible find was made – 8,000 life-sized individually crafted terracotta sculptures of armed soldiers buried in the ground. Placed there in around 210BC, they were guarding the tomb of China’s first emperor. In the decades since the discovery, the terracotta warriors have gone on to global fame, but remarkably the story of the emperor who ordered them placed there is little known.
This info-packed and thoroughly involving documentary, from the makers of Secrets Of The Saqqara Tomb, sets out to correct that, marking the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the warriors by literally digging into the tale of their master, Emperor Qin Shi Huang (who was also responsible for the construction of the Great Wall) and his ill-fated dynasty.
It paints a vivid picture of events as dramatic reconstructions dovetail with the archaeological record to bring the ancient past to life. (77 minutes)
The Great Escaper
Michael Caine stars in a true-life tale of an escapee from a retirement home
Year: 2023
Certificate: 12
In 2023, two films were released based on the true story of Bernard Jordan, who ran off from his nursing home in 2014 to attend the D-Day commemorations in France. The Last Rifleman with Pierce Brosnan is a decent enough affair, but The Great Escaper is in a different league altogether.
Michael Caine plays Bernie, who heads solo across the Channel when he misses out on a group trip at the suggestion of his wife (Glenda Jackson). Flashbacks to the time they met, and to Bernie’s wartime experience, pepper the story that unfolds from there.
It has its jaunty moments of pensioners cocking a snook at the younger generation but it’s a deeper story than that. At its heart it’s a quiet film about the damage life, war and ageing does to people, how they hide it and how they deal with it, and the love they find along the way. Caine in particular gives a performance of magnificent subtlety and restraint, and the film is one of those bittersweet experiences that leaves you better than it finds you. The scene in the pub with the German soldiers is one of the best of 2023 in film altogether. (96 minutes)
Future Man
Madcap sci-fi comedy about a humble janitor recruited to a time-travelling quest
Year: 2017-2020
Certificate: 15
Watch now on UKTV Play
Hunger Games’s Joel Hutcherson took a boot to his clean-cut young-adult image with this rude, sweary and fully bonkers sci-fi comedy romp.
He stars as Josh Futterman, a humble janitor who, in the seclusion of his bedroom, is a gaming king. Taking its cue from 1984 cult classic The Last Starfighter, Futterman wins videogame Biotic Wars, and time-travelling soldiers Tiger and Wolf (Eliza Coupe and Derek Wilson) arrive to recruit him to their cause. Futterman thinks, why not? Stay home and mop floors or risk life and limb on a madcap intergalactic quest? He’s in.
The show is rough around the edges but that’s half the charm. Galloping roughshod through the various sci-fi franchises it has no intention of being (from Star Wars to Star Trek), all the rules are broken, with sex, toilet humour, nudity and swearing applied liberally throughout.
It would be a nonsensical mess were it not for the outlandishly good comedy performances from the central trio. They could so easily have been overblown, empty caricatures but you actually end up caring about Josh, Tiger and Wolf. And this is one show that is so off the charts that it’s all-but impossible to predict from one moment to the next. (Three series)
The Silence
Intriguing human-trafficking thriller set in Croatia and Ukraine
Year: 2021-
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Channel 4
Based on a series of fact-based novels by Croatian investigative reporter Drago Hedl, this Ukraine-Croatia co-production is a slick and intriguing thriller with darkly relevant and timely themes underpinning its story of human trafficking across the continent.
Series one opens with the discovery of a series of dead women, all seemingly unrelated, apart from the fact that their identities cannot be established.
The deaths draw together weary police detective Vladimir Kovac, dogged journalist Stribor Kralj and Ukrainian Olga, the philanthropist wife of a powerful man, whose 15-year-old niece is missing. The story ties together the Croatian city of Osijek and Kyiv in Ukraine, as well as the troubled lives of its three main protagonists.
Series two opens with the war in Ukraine raging and as Croatia is about to join the EU Schengen zone, bringing the story right up to date and even more eerily poignant. (Two series)
Ultraman: Rising
Animated action set in the world of Japanese giant robots and kaiju
Year: 2024
Certificate: PG
Watch now on Netflix
Industrial Light & Magic, the renowned visual effects company founded by George Lucas, is behind the impressive look of this animated superhero adventure set in the world of giant robots and kaiju, those enormous Japanese monsters.
Ultraman is a Japanese character who dates back to 1966. But you don’t need to know anything about all that lore to enjoy this adventure, which is packed with eye-catching spectacle from the start.
American soap actor Christopher Sean is the voice of Ken Sato, a high-profile baseball player who isn’t giving the attention to his Ultraman alter ego that he should. When the dragon-like kaiju Gigantron shows up, the fight and what comes after makes him realise that he’s been ignoring destiny’s call for far too long.
With a mix of action, humour and even a surprising dose of cuteness when a baby kaiju shows up on the scene, Ultraman: Rising is clearly designed for all-family viewing. (120 minutes)
Till The Stars Come Down
Beth Steel’s play is a mix of comedy and tragedy, playing out across a single wedding day
Year: 2024
Watch now on National Theatre At Home
Beth Steel’s earthy play is set across a single day packed with drama, following the wedding of Sylvia (Hullraisers’ Sinéad Matthews), one of three sisters, to Polish Marek (Marc Wootton).
Sylvia’s family are a force to be reckoned with, from her siblings Hazel (The Durrells’ Lucy Black) and Maggie (Mum’s Lisa McGrillis) to her outspoken Aunty Carol (Bridgerton’s Lorraine Ashbourne) – a woman who loves a drink and a dance to Britney Spears – and the day is punctuated by booze and outbursts, comedy and tragedy, unfolding in all-too-believable fashion.
Set as it is in a declining East Midlands mining town, Till The Stars Come Down has a strong theme of immigration, but is mostly concerned with the lives and wants of its characters. The script has a similarly robust mix of drama and comedy to Chekhov and, while primarily concerned with its wonderfully extreme female characters, there are moments for the cowed male members of the family, too – notably Alan Williams as Tony, the widowed dad of the three sisters.
If you want a full spectrum experience, this is certainly that. (150 minutes)