Streaming 5 must-watch movies & TV shows streaming right now The best of what’s new streaming on Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney Plus, and more. Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh in “We Live in Time.” Peter Mountain/A24
Welcome to Boston.com’s weekly streaming guide. Each week, we recommend five must-watch movies and TV shows available on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, HBO Max, Peacock, Paramount+, and more.
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For even more great streaming options, check out previous editions of our must-watch list here.
New Movies Streaming
“Groundhog Day”
Even if you missed the back-to-back-to-back-to-back airings on AMC on Feb. 2, every day in early February feels like Groundhog Day — especially with this weekend’s weather forecast.
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Viewing the movie in the dead of winter lets you match the psyche of arrogant-TV-weatherman-turned-time-paradox-prisoner Phil Connors (Bill Murray). Murray’s “Ghostbusters” co-star Harold Ramis knows how to get the best out of the actor, capturing his slow transformation from nihilistic to romantic over the thousands of Groundhog Days he lives through over and over. That you’re rooting for Punxsutawney Phil to win over producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) is a testament to Ramis and Danny Rubin’s script, which posits that even the most irredeemable louses can turn their lives around if they put in the work.
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How to watch: “Groundhog Day” is streaming on Prime Video.
“We Live in Time”
Speaking of romantic movies that eschew linear storytelling, Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh’s time-hopping melodrama “We Live in Time” makes its Max debut just in time for the weekend. Garfield and Pugh play a couple whose meet-cute leaves Garfield’s salesman in a neck brace. (Pugh’s award-winning chef hits him with her car.) Director John Crowley and writer Nick Payne then take us through the highs and lows of their relationship, showing us their first date, their first fight, their first child, and their first reckoning with death — though not in that order.
Occasionally the discombobulated narrative can be alienating. Emotional beats are occasionally abandoned right before they reach their conclusion. But both Pugh and Garfield make us care about their wellbeing, whether their life story is being told backward, forward, or round and round.
How to watch: “We Live in Time” is streaming on Max.
New TV Shows Streaming
“Invincible”
While Marvel’s volume of output remains unmatched, between “The Boys” and “Invincible,” the most compelling superhero stories are on Prime Video. The animated series, which returned for a third season on Thursday, stars Steven Yeun (“Nope”) as Mark Grayson, the son of the world’s most powerful superhero, Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons, “Whiplash”).
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Season 1 is all about Mark finding his own identity when he begins to gain powers of his own, while Season 2 finds him in a more confident and vital role after the shocking events of the Season 1 finale (which we won’t spoil in case you’re still catching up). Also featuring Sandra Oh (“Grey’s Anatomy”), Gillian Jacobs (“Community”), and Walton Goggins (“Justified”), “Invincible” doesn’t follow the Marvel playbook, and isn’t afraid to get dark when the plot calls for it.
How to watch: “Invincible” Season 2 is streaming on Prime Video.
“Paradise”
I love a show that toys with viewers in its very first episode before fundamentally altering expectations with a last-second twist. “The Shield,” “How I Met Your Mother,” and “Dead to Me” are a few good examples of this, and more recently, the Kathy Bates “Matlock” reboot did something similar. Without spoiling things, “Paradise” is one of those shows. The nominal plot — a Secret Service agent finds the President of the United States dead and becomes the primary suspect in his death — sounds juicy enough. But the show, starring Sterling K. Brown, James Marsden, and Julianne Nicholson, totally flips the script in a way I won’t spoil here.
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How to watch: “Paradise” is streaming on Hulu, with new episodes airing Tuesdays.
“Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man”
While fans of “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” patiently await the final installment of Sony’s gorgeous animated film trilogy, Disney+’s “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” is an adequate substitute. Apparently this series has a tangential connection to the Tom Holland “Spider-Man,” but it certainly feels like a standalone story. In this universe, Peter Parker (Hudson Thames) is mentored by a considerably less goblin-like version of Norman Osborne (Colman Domingo), while Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is nowhere to be found.
How to watch: “Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man” is streaming on Disney+.