Happy Friday! As I type this, the sun is shining here in Boston and it's looking like it may be a beautiful weekend. In quarantine, weather makes all the difference, am I right?
This is week 22 of the pandemic, which means it is week 22 of this streaming recommendation series. If you missed any of the previous lists, you can find all of them on my TV recaps page.
Now for some new and upcoming releases:
- Today - Season three of Selling Sunset is live on Netflix. Finally! I cannot wait to watch the drama unfold. Work It, a movie about a high school student starting a dance team, is also now available on Netflix.
- Monday, August 10 - Josh Duhamel and Leslie Bibb co-star in a new Netflix movie called The Lost Husband.
- Friday, August 16 - My celebrity crush, Eddie Redmayne, hits Netflix in the film adaptation of Les Miserables.
- Saturday, August 22 - Love in the Time of Corona premieres on Freeform. It will be a two-night event. Check out the trailer - it looks super cute!
OK! Onto this week's list.
1. In the Dark (Netflix) - My favorite thing I watched this week was In the Dark, a murder mystery centered around a young woman named Murphy Mason. Murphy is blind, and when her best friend Tyson goes missing, she will stop at nothing to find out the truth.
Despite it's scary and suspenseful premise, this show is full of warm, wonderful characters. There is Jess, Murphy's best friend, roommate and vet at the guide dog organization run by Murphy's parents. There is Chloe, a middle school girl who is also blind and quickly becomes Murphy's sidekick. There is Max, Murphy's love interest, who works overtime to earn her trust. And of course, Pretzel, Murphy's adorable seeing eye dog.
There are currently two seasons available on Netflix. Each season has 13 episodes, about 45 minutes each.
2. Get Even (Netflix) - This 10-episode drama series on Netflix feels like Pretty Little Liars meets Gossip Girl. It stars four high school girls who band together to take down evil men in the community. For example, an abusive athletic coach.
As a group, they go by "D.G.M." which stands for, "Don't get mad . . . get even."
What keeps the show interesting is that none of the girls are friends outside of this mission. They unite to seek justice.
Each time they make a new plan, they stand in a circle, put their hands in, and do a D.G.M. chant. It reminded me so much of Captain Planet, one of my favorite cartoons as a kid. "By your powers combined, I am Captain Planet!"
Each episode is only 30 minutes, which makes this show extra bingeable.
3. Almost Love (Netflix) - Netflix will pretty much recommend anything to me with the word "love" in the title. This movie co-stars Scott Evans (yes, brother of Chris Evans) and Augustus Prew as a gay couple, living together and working through the natural ups and downs of a romantic relationship.
Michelle Buteau plays their friend Cammy, who finds herself accidentally dating a man who is currently homeless, and Zoe Chao plays Haley, a tutor falling in love with her underage pupil.
They are a friend circle of misfits, who support each other through all of life's curve balls.
4. Jerry Maguire (Netflix) - This week I discovered that Jerry Maguire is available to stream on Netflix! This movie originally came out in 1996, when Tom Cruise was a proper heart throb (before he fell in love with Katie Holmes and before he jumped on Oprah's couch).
If you've never seen this movie, (1) blasphemy! and (2) it's amazing. Cruise stars as a sports agent who leaves a big time talent agency to go out on his own. He desperately clings to one client, Rod Tidwell, played by Cuba Gooding Jr.
Of course, Jerry also falls in love. With his assistant, Dorothy, played by a young and beautiful Renee Zellweger. This movie came out five years before she starred as Bridget Jones.
There are so many memorable lines in this movie, from Gooding Jr.'s enthusiastic, "Show me the money!" to Zellweger's tearful, "You had me at hello."
5. The Wedding Date (Amazon) - Another classic rom-com is this 2005 hit co-starring Debra Messing and Dermot Mulroney. Messing plays Kat, a single woman dreading going to her sister's wedding alone. She hires Nick (Mulroney) to be her date to the week of festivities in London.
I love this movie and I have watched it countless times. Mulroney is so ridiculously handsome and charming in this part.
6. Something's Gotta Give (Amazon) - What do you get when you mix together a script by Nancy Meyers and a cast starring Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Amanda Peet and Keanu Reeves? A delightful rom-com about dating partners your own age, that will have you in stitches laughing.
The Hamptons home Diane Keaton's character lives in was a hot topic of conversation when the movie first came out. So much so, Architectural Digest did a feature on the set design. You can read that here.
This is one of those movies that I stop to watch any time it's on TV. It was just added to Amazon Prime (for free). Enjoy it!
There you have it! This week's top picks. I'll be back next Friday with a fresh round.
*Images courtesy of Unsplash, The CW, Cosmopolitan, PEOPLE, Vulture, Empire Online and TODAY Show.
