Club Benefits
May Day, mayday, there are plenty of new movies and TV shows to watch this weekend on Netflix, Apple TV and more of the best streaming services, and the lineup answers the call with a mix of brooding drama, swoony romance and a little chaos.
TV leans intense, from the action thrills of "Man on Fire" and the spooky tensions of “Widow’s Bay” to the sweeping adaptation of “The House of the Spirits." On the movie side, “Wuthering Heights” smolders with windswept angst and the animated “Swapped” ventures into body-switching hijinks.
New TV shows
The vibes: Vengeance leads to explosions, fights and shoot-outs.
The plot: Adapted from A.J. Quinnell’s novels — the same source that fueled the 2004 movie starring Denzel Washington — this take swaps in Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as John Creasy. The burned-out ex–Special Forces mercenary with PTSD is half-heartedly attempting normal life until a kid in his orbit sees something she definitely shouldn’t. From there, any hope of quiet redemption goes up in smoke, because when Creasy snaps, he scorches the earth.
All 7 episodes streaming now on Netflix
‘Widow’s Bay’ (Apple TV)
The vibes: The cutesy charm of Stars Hollow is invaded by Stephen King-like horror.
The plot: This offbeat horror-comedy centers on an earnest, buttoned-up mayor (Matthew Rhys) determined to rebrand his remote village as the next must-visit escape, even though the locals insist the place is straight-up cursed. Just as tourists finally start showing up, so do a series of unsettling “coincidences." He soon realizes the town’s darkest legends might not be legends at all; they might be warnings.
Episodes 1-2 streaming now on Apple TV
‘The House of the Spirits’ (Prime Video)
The vibes: History, revolution, love and family dysfunction combine into a sweeping saga.
The plot: The first Spanish-language spin on Isabel Allende's bestselling novel leans all the way into the operatic sweep by charting the Trueba clan through decades of romance, betrayal and political upheaval. At its heart are three generations of women — Clara, Blanca and Alba — whose lives are complicated by shifting class lines and simmering unrest. By the time revolution rolls in, old-guard patriarch Esteban finds himself on opposite sides of his own granddaughter.
Episodes 1-3 streaming now on Prime Video
‘Twenty Twenty Six’ (BritBox, Tubi)
The vibes: What if Michael Scott planned the World Cup?
The plot: John Morton revs up his exquisitely awkward mockumentary engine once more, dispatching career paper-pusher Ian Fletcher to Miami as “Director of Integrity” for World Cup global soccer event. Along with a team of supremely confident incompetents, Ian attempts to turn endless meetings about other meetings into something vaguely resembling a plan
Episode 1 streaming now on BritBox, Tubi
New movies
‘Swapped’ (Netflix)
The vibes: “Freaky Friday” in the animated wild, with eco fable charm
The plot: In a lush valley, two natural enemies — a scrappy woodland creature and a regal bird — accidentally switch bodies after a run-in with some magical flora. Forced into each other’s lives, they strike a reluctant alliance that spirals into something bigger: repairing a broken ecosystem, dodging a looming threat and just maybe rethinking everything they thought they knew about each other.
Streaming now on Netflix
‘Wuthering Heights’ (HBO Max)
The vibes: Angsty, attractive people do awful things in aesthetic settings.
The plot: Emerald Fennell reimagines Emily Brontë's novel via a feverish, teenage gaze. Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi play Catherine and Heathcliff, childhood soulmates turned mutually destructive lovers on the Yorkshire moors. A class divide and their worst impulses push them apart, then yank them back together in a messy romance that’s as visually beautiful as it is bleak.
Streaming now on HBO Max
‘Hallow Road’ (Hulu)
The vibes: Proof that driving at night is the worst.
The plot: Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys star as parents who get the kind of call nobody ever wants: Their daughter has hit someone on a dark, middle-of-nowhere road. They jump in their car and race to reach her before anyone else does, coaching her through what to do while quietly unraveling themselves. As the drive stretches on, old arguments flare up and secrets spill out. And there’s a creeping sense that something much more terrifying is going on.
Streaming now on Hulu
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