What to watch on streaming: today's picks from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and more

Slow Horses has been a slow burn, achieving what many streaming series can only dream of: there it is on AppleTV+, waiting for people to discover it, and gradually they have.

Based on books by Mick Herron, it’s a spy drama that is set in an MI5 shadow office — Slough House — full of rejects and troubled spooks, led by the physically disgusting but mentally sharp Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman). Series three begins with Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù and Katherine Waterston as spies enjoying a tense tryst in Istanbul.

How does that relate to Jackson noticing he’s being followed as he buys his nightly kebab? As always, Slow Horses will take its time telling us, but the game is soon afoot, and the show remains a laconically savvy take on classic espionage drama.

Jack Seale

A third and final season for one of America’s most underrated comedies. Co-created by Taika Waititi, it follows a group of four Indigenous teenagers from a small town in the Muscogee Nation, Oklahoma — their coming-of-age exploits are presented in a low-key, off-hand fashion, but are deeply involving and relatable due to the fine work of a young ensemble cast.

As we rejoin the “Rez Dogs”, they’re stranded on an ill-advised trip to California. Once they return, a new focus on the lives of the town elders shows us that youthful recklessness is nothing new.

Jack Seale

Remember Baz Luhrmann’s epic 2008 film Australia, starring Nicole Kidman as an English widow who inherits a massive Australian farm just as the Second World War breaks out, and Hugh Jackman as the gruff cattle drover who becomes her ally? You might have missed it: it wasn’t a huge success, with many negative reviews focusing on its sappingly long 165-minute runtime.

Well, it’s back — this drama is not a spin-off as such but a longer version of the film itself, adding footage that was unused at the time to create a mini-series. Whether you think the characters gel now when they didn’t before is up to you, but you won’t see a TV show this year with better cinematography.

Jack Seale

In this serviceable video-game adaptation, Tom Holland plays Nathan, a bartender who is recruited by a treasure hunter (Mark Wahlberg) to help find a 500-year-old fortune that was stockpiled by the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Also on the trail of the loot is a wealthy collector (Antonio Banderas), who may have had a hand in the disappearance of Nathan’s brother.

Venom director Ruben Fleischer keeps the action moving at a swift pace, and Holland is a likeable presence, but the film is oddly devoid of tension.

Alan Jones

This ambitious, three-hour black comedy stars Joaquin Phoenix as the anxious Beau, whose seemingly simple goal of visiting his mother is hindered by surreal events and characters, including a knife-wielding nudist and a woodland theatre troupe. Writer/director Ari Aster’s follow-up to horror hits Hereditary and Midsommar also has a wicked sense of humour.

Unabashedly indulgent in its unconventional storytelling, the film further cements Aster’s reputation as a master of disquieting cinema.

Patrick Cremona

Writer/director Kenneth Branagh’s autobiographical drama is set in August 1969 and sees a Belfast neighbourhood attacked by Protestants seeking to force out Catholics. Schoolboy Buddy (Jude Hill) is frightened by the turmoil, while his parents (Caitríona Balfe and Jamie Dornan) realise that standing up against the mob may jeopardise their safety. Eschewing any broader overview of the Troubles, Branagh’s film is a heartfelt plea against prejudice. As engaging as it is, there’s a lack of precision and punch, which leaves it a touch short of greatness.

Trevor Johnston

Die Hard meets Home Alone in this festive cracker. Stranger Things star David Harbour plays Santa Claus, who must regain his mojo to take action when mercenaries gatecrash the celebrations of a rich family. The breathlessly entertaining battle of wits takes place in a maze- like mansion.

Beverly D’Angelo (as the acid-tongued matriarch) and Cam Gigandet (as a lunkhead actor) have their moments, but it’s Harbour’s big, bold and ultimately heart-warming performance that anchors this laugh- out-loud romp.

Jeremy Aspinall

Uma Thurman and Samuel L Jackson reunite here for their first screen appearance together since Kill Bill Vol 2. In a darkly knockabout satire, Thurman plays a struggling art dealer who allows Jackson’s criminal to launder money through her gallery by selling off the artwork of his killer henchman (Joe Manganiello).

This is a lightly Tarantino-esque jaunt, with Thurman and Jackson playing to their strengths. Too many gangsters bog things down towards the end, but Nicol Paone’s film has pace and smarts, and will appeal to anybody who reckons modern art is a con.

Steve Morrissey

When Netflix announced it was adapting Squid Game into a real-life game show — with 456 people competing for a prize of $4.56 million — some fans thought the streamer had missed the point, replacing social commentary with genial fun. This does feel slightly detached from the drama (the casting was global, it was filmed in the UK, it has an American feel and we see surprisingly few South Korean players), but overall, the result is tense and entertaining, with several games from the drama re-created on dazzling sets.

The show has already proved contentious: contestants complained of cold and fatigue during filming, and the pressure is palpably real. The chance to win such a life-changing amount of money has people crying, arguing, and in one case, almost vomiting.

Laura Rutkowski

An actor who was already a star thanks to Game of Thrones and Ted Lasso became a superstar this year by co-hosting Eurovision — but it’s Hannah Waddingham’s musical theatre background that she draws on for this nicely old-fashioned festive special. At the London Coliseum, she sings everything from big-band standards and soul classics to the pure reverence of O, Holy Night.

Often visibly moved to have been given such a showcase, she welcomes many of her Lasso co-stars to the stage for light-hearted song-and- dance fun. She’s even more adept at the inclusive, energising chat between songs.

Kenneth Branagh turns to Agatha Christie’s lesser-known 1969 novel Hallowe’en Party for his third outing as Hercule Poirot. This time, the extravagantly moustachoied Belgian sleuth is urged to attend a séance by his novelist friend Ariadne Oliver (Tina Fey), and finds himself with another murder to solve.

This very loose adaptation of Christie’s mystery can feel somewhat rushed and convoluted, but Branagh conjures up a spooky atmosphere that sets it apart from his previous Poirot films, and he makes fine use of the moody Venetian locales. The game cast also includes Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Dornan and Kelly Reilly.

Patrick Cremona

The Toy Story movies owe a lot to The Velveteen Rabbit, a 1921 novel by Margery Williams about a toy that can speak to other toys but longs to be seen as “real” by its owner. The story’s now been given a sturdy, reverential new dramatisation. One Christmas, young William (Phoenix Laroche) receives a velveteen rabbit (voiced by Alex Lawther) that gets to meet the other toys in the playroom — a voluble crew voiced by Helena Bonham Carter, Lois Chimimba and Paterson Joseph, among others. Stop-motion-style animation and cartoons are mixed nimbly with live action.

Jack Seale

A droll classroom lizard hands out pithy advice to young students in this scattershot but life-affirming animated comedy. After spending 74 years in a tank, pet lizard Leo (voiced by Adam Sandler) realises he is almost too old to go on adventures and determines to make one last break for freedom.

However, his plans are repeatedly thwarted by the pupils who take him home each weekend. The film is a wacky stew of energetic high jinks, musical interludes, fun visual gags, and life lessons delivered with a cheeky eye-roll.

Josh Winning

“What is wrong with black people?” is the starting point for this superb documentary from African American film-maker Roger Ross Williams, which traces the demonisation of an entire race. Esteemed writers, activists and scholars — including Angela Davis, Imani Perry and Racquel J Gates — take us through the history of enslavement and othering of African Americans in the US, right through to where the country is today.

Passionately argued, accessible and informative, this makes for essential viewing.

Emma Simmonds

Like Y Golau/The Light in the Hall and Un Bore Mercher/Keeping Faith, this series has been filmed in both Welsh and English — the English-language version, Tree on a Hill, comes to iPlayer next year.

But why wait? Subtitled dialogue is probably a better way to experience this odd, slow-paced comedy drama set in a tiny town. Quiet couple Margaret and Clive (Nia Roberts and Rhodri Meilir) live small lives in cosy knitwear — until the antics of their friends and family put them at the centre of a high-profile mystery.

Jack Seale

The early part of this documentary paints a picture of what a blast it must have been to work as a teenage stuntman on the Harry Potter films. David Holmes had been a keen gymnast before he landed his dream job as Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double, with the two becoming good friends.However, we watch with a sense of foreboding, because the Holmes we see is in a wheelchair. In 2009, a simple jerk-back stunt went wrong and he broke his neck. Not only was he paralysed, but as time goes on, his symptoms have worsened. Holmes calls it “the gift that goes on taking”.At one level, it’s a shocking story about how random and fleeting things can be, but at another, Holmes’s determination to keep embracing life feels anything but tragic.

David Butcher

Part screwball comedy, part Mob-movie pastiche, this outlandish yarn stars Toni Collette as a timid American mom who is installed as the head of a crime syndicate following the death of her grandfather. While attending his funeral in Italy, she finds herself in the midst of a war between rival families and forced to broker peace while dodging assassination attempts.

The broad gagfest isn’t subtle, but there’s a lot to like, including Collette, whose comic timing is exemplary.

Terry Staunton

Bayard Rustin was a key figure in the civil rights movement and the landmark March on Washington in 1963. George C Wolfe’s absorbing biopic portrays him as a charismatic and driven individual, whose homosexuality and past Communist affiliations led to friction within the various protest groups he was involved with.

Colman Domingo gives a towering performance as Rustin and makes every line of dialogue feel like a call to arms, while Chris Rock, Jeffrey Wright and CCH Pounder also impress in supporting roles.

Terry Staunton

Godzilla/Kong monster movies successfully transition to episodic television in a series that strikes a good balance between creature spectacle and character drama. In Tokyo, when a woman taking care of her late father’s affairs discovers he had a secret second family, a new monster-tracking team is born. Meanwhile, a team of three monsterologists are investigating a site they think contains dormant super-beasts…and they’re dangerously correct.

With twin timelines exploring the origins of the story and a juicy conspiracy to unravel, there’s plenty more going on here than just reptiles stomping on skyscrapers.

Jack Seale

It’s been 13 long years since we were treated to a love story that packed quite a punch – Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Although it was a box office disappointment, thankfully, it didn’t take long for Edgar Wright’s misunderstood and under-appreciated film to receive the cult following it deserved.

Now all these years later a new show is here led by director Abel Góngora (Star Wars: Visions) and the beloved film cast is back together and along for the ride for new anime Scott Pilgrim Takes Off. The film’s director Edgar Wright also makes a return, taking on an executive producer role, and Scott Pilgrim creator Bryan Lee O’Malley is in the writer’s chair for Netflix’s eight-episode anime, which brings us back to his unforgettable world.

Fraser Overington

With so many high-concept dating shows now available to stream, it’s surprising nobody has thought of this idea before. A house contains ten attractive singletons, who proceed to pair off in the usual Love Island-y way — but there’s a separate, identical house with another ten people looking for love, all of whom are the identical twins of the participants in house number one.

Hosting this intriguing, if potentially confusing, spectacle are former WWE tag team Brie and Nikki Bella.

Jack Seale

More than ever, this series of The Crown has generated reams of column inches before it has been released. There have been whispers about the depiction of Diana’s ghost, further controversial storylines teased and rumours about what has (and hasn’t) been included from this period of the royal family’s recent history. That hubbub befits the opening episodes of this sixth and final season, where it’s the summer of 1997 and the world’s eyes are on Princess Diana (Elizabeth Debicki) and her burgeoning relationship with Dodi Fayed (Khalid Abdalla).

Hushed conversations behind gilded doors in early series have now given way to retelling splashed headlines of 1990s tabloids, with fusty palaces swapped for glamorous yachts bobbing in the Med. As a consequence, the Queen (Imelda Staunton) and Prince Charles (Dominic West) are relegated to the sidelines. As The Crown prepares to wind down, it’s certainly still shiny — even if it’s not quite as opulent.

Frances Taylor

Ten years after their last proper outing, Johnny Knoxville and his troupe of daredevils return for another compilation of slapstick sketches best avoided by the squeamish.

The premise remains the same: the gang challenge one another to variously cartoonish, puerile and outright dangerous stunts, taking in electrocution, groin wallops and live animals. The quality can vary, but the sheer physicality of the mayhem, with its dastardly devices and ample on-screen injuries, is a joy to view — even if through your fingers.

Calum Baker