Hello, friends! Happy Friday. My plan for this weekend is to watch season two of The Flight Attendant on HBO Max.
Before we get into this week's recommendations, let's chat about a few things coming up:
- Friday, May 6 - Season two of The Wilds goes live on Amazon Prime. This show is like Lord of the Flies, but if all the characters were teenage girls and they were part of a controlled experiment.
- Tuesday, May 10 - Season six of Workin' Moms lands on Netflix. A friend got me into this show and I binged the first five seasons very quickly.
- Wednesday, May 11 - The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills return to Bravo. This is one of my favorite cities in the franchise, so I'm excited.
- Friday, May 13 - Bling Empire is back on Netflix! The level of wealth on this show is jaw dropping.
I did a lot of streaming over the past week, so I have six suggestions for you today.
1. Selling Sunset (Netflix) - Last Friday, Netflix released season five of Selling Sunset and I couldn't start watching it fast enough. I love this show. It's produced by Adam DiVello, who was also the executive producer of Laguna Beach, The Hills and The City (all of which I watched religiously). He has a particular style of reality TV that is not only addicting, but fueled by the perfect song selection for every moment.
When we rejoin the Oppenheim Group, Chrishell and Jason have just gone public with their romantic relationship. This was hard to watch, because true fans know that in real life, they already broke up. I found it very unsettling to watch them so in love and so affectionate, knowing it wasn't going to last.
Christine is back as the office villain. This time, she has a new friend, Chelsea, who she's trying to recruit for the brokerage. Chelsea is from London, but now lives in LA with her tech millionaire husband and two young kids. She has the most outrageous style, showing up to every event in a head-turning outfit and accessories.
We get to see Heather's bridal shower and wedding, Vanessa's new man, Davina's attempts at redemption, and Maya's decision to leave LA and head to Miami to spend more time with her growing family.
Of all the story lines in season five, my favorite was the new romance for Emma! She has a crush on a developer, Micah, and watching the two of them dance around each other was the highlight of the season.
There are 10 episodes in this new batch, with a reunion show coming out on Friday, May 6. You better believe I have that in my calendar!
2. Anatomy of a Scandal (Netflix) - Is it just me, or is scandal the new murder mystery? It feels like this genre has really exploded lately. In this new, six-part series, Rupert Friend plays James Whitehouse, a government official in London accused of rape by his mistress.
His wife, Sophie, is played by Sienna Miller. While her fashion is incredible, her muted reaction to the news her husband had been having an affair for five months was not believable.
Michelle Dockery of Downton Abbey fame plays Kate Woodcroft, the prosecutor for James' case. She is determined to serve justice.
In the fourth episode, there is a major, shocking plot twist that will have you on the edge of your seat for the final two episodes. I was watching with my mom and we kept looking at each other and asking, "Is that really going to happen?!"
I guarantee that once you start watching this, you won't be able to stop.
3. The Lost Daughter (Netflix) - I had meant to watch this movie ahead of the Academy Awards, but I never got to it. The film is written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal, adapted from a book written by Elena Ferrente.
In the movie, Olivia Colman plays a woman named Leda who is on holiday from her teaching job at Harvard. While on the beaches of Greece, she becomes fascinated by another family who frequents that same beach. There's a little girl in that group who loses her favorite doll, which becomes an important part of the story later on.
Colman is captivating in this role, even while being supremely unlikable.
Mixed in with this present day vacation are flashbacks to Leda's life in her twenties when she was a young mother of two, trying to balance parenthood and her academic career. Leda feels suffocated by her children and isn't ashamed to walk away from them to pursue her own desires. Jessie Buckley plays Leda at that younger age and gives an arrestingly honest performance.
The supporting cast is superb, including Ed Harris as the property manager who starts flirting as he drinks, Dakota Johnson as a sexy young mother clinging to her youth, Paul Mescal (Connell from Normal People) as the beach club cabana boy, and Peter Sarsgaard as the celebrated academic who fractures Leda's marriage.
While the ending of this movie definitely has you screaming, "WTF," is it worth the watch.
4. The Adam Project (Netflix) - This movie stars Ryan Reynolds, Jennifer Garner and Mark Ruffalo. Need I say more?
I downloaded it to watch on the plane ride down to Charleston and it was the perfect airplane movie. Funny, smart and with tons of action to keep me distracted from the people standing up while the seat belt sign is still on.
Ryan Reynolds plays a man named Adam who travels back in time to try and rewrite history so he can save his wife. He winds up crash landing into his own life when he's twelve years old. Adult Adam and tween Adam band together to try and make things right. Garner and Ruffalo play their parents.
I really enjoyed this and couldn't help but think how amazing it would have been on the big screen in a movie theater. I've only seen two movies in the theater the whole pandemic and I really miss it.
5. White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch (Netflix) - When I found out there was going to be a documentary about Abercrombie & Fitch, I knew I would watch it. When I was in middle school (1995 - 1997), wearing Abercrombie was the ultimate status symbol. I had exactly three items from there: one gray tank top, one pair of yellow shorts, and one pair of red track pants. I treated those items like gold.
Watching this brought back all the memories: the smell of the store, the signature black and white marketing photos, and the gorgeous people who worked at the register.
What I did not remember was the lawsuits. When you watch this, you hear from many former models and employees who shared what it was really like to work in the stores and in the corporate office. Summary: it wasn't good.
The leadership team at Abercrombie was blatantly racist and had absurd recruiting guidelines.
It's unclear to me why this documentary came out now, in 2022, nearly a decade after Abercrombie had any remaining culture relevance, but I hope it was validating for all of the employees and shoppers who felt wronged by the brand and their elitism.
This film is 90 minutes, my ideal length.
6. Ronnie Chieng: Speakeasy (Netflix) - While in Charleston, my sister and I were looking for something to watch together, and she mentioned the new Ronnie Chieng stand up special was on her list. I hadn't seen him perform before, but she thought I'd like it.
We laughed so hard at his first bit, that two family members came into my room to check on us. That's how loud we were howling.
The first twenty minutes of the special had us cackling. At times we had to pause it so we could catch our breath. Unfortunately, after that, it lost steam. It was such a shame because he kicked it off brilliantly, and then we started to feel badly as the jokes got worse and worse.
My advice to you is this, press "play" and enjoy those first twenty minutes. It will be like you're at a dinner party and someone just told an incredible joke. Then, you can move on and watch something else.
There you have it! This week's top picks. Happy streaming!
*Images courtesy of Unplash, TV Insider, TV Insider, IMDB, Forbes, PEOPLE and Vocal Media.
