Streaming Showdown: Critic’s Weekly Picks Across Netflix, Prime, Hulu & More

A movie made entirely of animated oil paintings, with a cast including Saoirse Ronan, just landed on Netflix. Last week, we talked about navigating the sheer volume of the streaming showdown, but this week the story is about finding the signal in the noise. So, let's survey the field. Over on Prime Video, they're pushing into new territory today with two debuts: a docuseries called Untitled Female CEOs Project and an animated comedy, Kevin. Meanwhile, Paramount+ is servicing its existing customers, rolling out new seasons of Landman and MobLand, plus the final season of Dora. Peacock has a split personality this week, offering both the genuinely brilliant conspiracy thriller The Capture and...

season eight of Love Island USA. And Apple TV+ finally dropped its postponed drama The Savant, alongside a new season of the kids' show Stillwater. Hulu also has a new drama called The Season and a docuseries with the very subtle title, Squatters: Get the F*** Out of My House. It's a lot, but most of it is just... content. Filling the digital shelves. The real story this week is Netflix. And the story is... well, it’s complicated. There’s a phrase going around — "Netflix’s June gloom." And it’s accurate. The platform that perfected the firehose of content is having a surprisingly light month. Their big returning shows are Season 5 of Sweet Magnolias — which is exactly the comfy, low-stakes drama you think it is, perfect for a quiet night in — and Season 2 of the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender.

The pressure is on for Avatar to fix the problems of its first season, but that's a hope, not a guarantee. So what's the play here? Netflix is leaning hard on its back catalog. It’s the old video store model, really. The new release wall is looking a little sparse, so they're hoping you'll wander the aisles. They’ve added some solid, if familiar, movies: Four Weddings and a Funeral, the classic sports drama Miracle. They also added Cinderella Man with Russell Crowe, which is... fine. It's a perfectly watchable boxing movie, but it's not a must-see. You can safely skip it unless you're a die-hard fan of the genre. But here’s the turn. Buried in that gloomy forecast are a few flashes of lightning.

And one of them is that movie I mentioned at the top: Loving Vincent. It's a truly one-of-a-kind film about the life of Vincent van Gogh, where every single frame is an oil painting. It is breathtaking. It's not just a gimmick; it’s an immersive, deeply moving experience. This is your absolute must-watch on Netflix this weekend. It’s the kind of artful, ambitious project that reminds you what streaming could be. So what does it all add up to? It means the two best things you can watch this weekend probably aren't the big, promoted titles. One is Loving Vincent on Netflix. And the other two? They aren't even on Netflix. If you want a sharp, paranoid thriller that feels ripped from tomorrow's headlines, you need to be watching Season 3 of The Capture on Peacock.

It’s all about disinformation and deep fakes, and it’s smarter and scarier than almost any other show on TV. And if you missed it late last month, Prime Video’s Spider-Noir is still the best thing on that platform by a mile. Nicolas Cage voicing a black-and-white Spider-Man in a 1930s setting? Yes. A thousand times, yes. It's stylish, clever, and everything a new show should be. This week confirms a pattern we've seen brewing for a while. The biggest platform doesn't always have the best show. Your job now, as a viewer, is to be your own curator. The era of appointment television on a single service is over; we're in the age of the scavenger hunt.