Do you feel like you’re drowning … but you haven’t even left your couch? Welcome to the Great Content Overload Era. To help you navigate the choppy digital waves, here are The Globe’s best bets for weekend streaming.
Lioness, Paramount+ Canada
Zoe Saldana in Lioness, on Paramount+.Ryan Green/Paramount+
Despite a cast that includes Zoe Saldana, Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman, and a budget big enough to blow up anything the story merits (or doesn’t), this espionage action series from Taylor Sheridan (mastermind behind the Yellowstone universe) has flown under the radar. Canadian Laysla De Oliveira was highly watchable at the centre of the first season as Cruz, an abused woman whose fateful turn into a Marines office leads to her enlisting and going undercover with terrorists as part of a special ops “Lioness” program with the CIA. A second season starts on Oct. 27 with a new Lioness recruited and, no doubt, by the end wondering if she’s really on the side of the good guys. “A Congresswoman was kidnapped on American soil, her family killed,” intones Freeman, Secretary of State in the series, in the trailer. “I want trophies on the wall – big trophies.” Maybe not trophies like Emmys exactly – but those who like operatic industrial-military spy thrillers will give it a watch-next-episode click at least.
Seth Meyers: Dad Man Walking, Crave
Seth Meyers: Dad Man Walking, on Crave.Supplied
Why is Seth Meyers, perhaps the most politically minded of the current crop of comedians hosting American late-night shows, releasing a HBO stand-up special just a week and a half ahead of a highly contested presidential election? Any material’s going to date quickly, no? Well, it seems as if Meyer – whose last special, for Netflix, featured an innovative “skip politics” button – plans to lean into another mainstay of his repertoire this time around. Dad Man Walking sees the father of three dipping into material about scratching his children’s backs in the middle of the night and playing board games with them down on the floor. ”I hate how much they talk about lava,” he says in the trailer. “The only thing I know about lava is if they see it up close, I’ve done a bad job as a father.” This is dad-nip to those in the dad-zone, but if you wish there were a “skip dad jokes” button in stand-up specials, skip the whole thing. Find it on Crave as of Oct. 26 at 10 p.m.
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, Disney+
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band streams on Disney+.Disney/Disney
Remember the furor over Ticketmaster’s dynamic pricing on Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s last North American tour, which saw some seats to see the blue-collar icon reportedly selling for US$5,000? Well, that should put any of your streaming service’s recent price hikes in perspective. For a mere [insert your pricing level here], Disney+ is bringing you Road Diary, a new doc from frequent Springsteen collaborator, director Thom Zimny, that takes viewers into the legendary musician’s preparation for that 2023-24 tour. It promises a mix of backstage moments with the Boss and his band and footage of the concerts themselves. The Globe and Mail’s Brad Wheeler caught the flick when it was at the Toronto International Film Festival in September; while many concert documentaries can be “more music video and electronic press kit than true films,” Wheeler declared Road Trip an exception – calling it “inspired and strong.” Streaming from Oct. 25.
The Pasta Queen, Prime Video (Oct. 24)
The Pasta Queen features Nadia Caterina Munno.Stefano Montesi/Prime/Amazon Prime
This new cooking/travel show has been built around the charms of viral sensation Nadia Caterina Munno a.k.a. the Pasta Queen on TikTok and Instagram. Munno comes by her title honestly or, at least, hereditarily – a descendant of an Italian pasta dynasty that can be traced back to the 1800s. For this Amazon Original, the Italian-raised, American-based home chef travels back to the old country to hug cheese wheels and do shots of olive oil on gorgeous farms in Campania and Puglia, before heading back to her home kitchen to “teach you how to cook like a real Italian.” Perfect viewing for Canadians officially entering carb season – and eagerly awaiting The White Lotus Season 3.
It Follows, CBC Gem
It Follows, on CBC Gem.CBC Gem
Open your favourite streamer right now and horror abounds. If you’ve already seen all the Screams (six is leaving Netflix soon), and collected all the Cronenbergs (Caitlin’s Humane lands on Crave this week), you can fire up your publicly funded streamer as of Oct. 25 to watch or rewatch this contemporary classic directed by David Robert Mitchell that made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival one decade ago. It’s like a teen-horror adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde, following a sexually transmitted supernatural disease as it makes its way through a Detroit suburb. Liam Lacey called it “superb” in his 2015 review for The Globe and Mail: “Apart from making a low-budget horror film that actually looks wonderful, Mitchell has flipped the script in a few other provocative ways, shedding the Victorian misogyny of the genre.”