What to stream this week: Searching, Ted Lasso, Dirty John, The Boys and more

Season two is only weeks away so now is the time to catch up with the unfiltered and stylised violence of The Boys if you haven’t already.

What are we streaming at home this week? A new comedy from Apple TV+ with Jason Sudeikis and some movies guaranteed to entertain.

SOMETHING CONFRONTING

The Boys: Think of The Boys as the opposite of the shiny superhero movies that take in billions at the cinemas. Here, the powered ones are the depraved villains, despite the glean of their public, corporatised image, while a group of vigilantes seek to expose them. The Boys is very violent so if you’re not copacetic with loads of guts exploding and blood splashed across your screen, then this may not be for you. But if you’re not so sensitive, damn, this is a lot of fun. Season two drops later this month so now is the time to familiarise yourself with season one. Watch it: Amazon Prime Video

Not for sensitive souls

Mindhunter: Esteemed director David Fincher’s prints are all over Mindhunter, which explains why this 1970s-set crime series literally looks so great and is permeated with an uneasy vibe. Inspired by the work of real-life FBI profilers, it follows two fictional agents who set off to find what makes serial killers, well, kill – before the law enforcement community recognised any connecting pathologies between these notorious murderers. Creepy. Watch it: Netflix

RELATED: Mindhunter season two review

SOMETHING UNEXPECTED

Searching: What makes Searching a heart-thumping, not-your-average drama is how it marries a familiar story about a missing teenage girl and the widowed father desperately trying to find her, with what could have easily been a tiresome gimmick. That “gimmick” is the way the story is told, through a plethora of screens – computers, iPhones, CCTV, texts, social media. Not only is it unusual, but it adds another layer, which is that as much as technology connects us and allows us to share every aspect of ourselves, maybe we don’t know each other at all. Performances from John Cho and Debra Messing ground this effective thriller. Watch it: Foxtel Now

Searching is an effective, pulsing thriller.

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Inside Llewyn Davis: Sometimes prickly, oftentimes frustrating but that is par for the course for the Coen brothers. Inside Llewyn Davis is the perfect distillation of the Coen brothers’ sensibilities, a story about a thwarted folk musician in 1961 Greenwich Village and his perpetual battle to be appreciated or acknowledged. It’s darkly comical and features a multi-layered turn from Oscar Isaac, and a cat. Watch it: Stan

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SOMETHING NEW

Ted Lasso: Created by Bill Lawrence (Scrubs) and Jason Sudeikis, this easy comedy stars the latter as an earnest, enthusiastic and super-nice American football coach who is dropped into the very, very different world of English football, having to navigate a different game, a voracious press pack, a foreign vernacular and some nefarious schemes. Watch it: Apple TV+ from Friday, August 14

Fish out of water.

Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story: The first season of the series born from a popular true crime podcast featured Eric Bana as the eponymous con-artist who weaselled his way into a wealthy woman’s life. The second season of this now anthology series follows the true story of Betty Broderick, a woman serving a jail sentence for shooting her ex-husband and his new lover. It’s domestic melodrama, prime-time soap territory but it has Amanda Peet and Christian Slater, so, that’s something. Watch it: Netflix, from Friday, August 14 at 5pm AEST

SOMETHING TO WARM YOUR COLD HEART

Pleasantville: With then-young stars Reese Witherspoon and Tobey Maguire headlining, Pleasantville may have been lost among the throng of teen movies out in the late-90s, but this is actually a smart adult drama, with a twist. David and Jennifer are twins with very different personalities and priorities who are sucked into the black-and-white world of a 1950s TV show. Their presence disrupts the staid social order as its citizens awaken to the possibilities of more than just their prescribed roles. One of Joan Allen’s best performances. Watch it: iTunes/Google Play

RELATED: Essential Charlize Theron movies

Life is more complicated than black and white.

Little Women: Greta Gerwig’s universally praised adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s classic novel does what few period pieces do – it adds dynamism and modernity to a beloved story without losing its soul. It may have a slightly altered ending but it’s probably closer to what Alcott would have written than what she was allowed to write. Beautifully crafted, superbly performed and a redemption of Amy March that few would have expected. Watch it: iTunes/Google Play

SOMETHING LIGHT

Travels With My Father: It’s such a simple set-up but it works so well. Comedian Jack Whitehall – young, progressive and a bit of a rapscallion – decides to go on a cultural holiday with his father – traditional, prickly and very posh. The two unlikely bedfellows, bound together by their familial ties and a shared history, gallivant through South-East Asia, Eastern Europe and the US, having as many disagreements as fun times. It’s utterly delightful. Watch it: Netflix

Jack Whitehall and his dad are an odd couple of clowns.

Superstore: There’s a lot to like in this winning workplace comedy about a group of retail employees in what the Americans call a “big box store” – those places that sell everything, like Walmart. The ensemble is a hodgepodge of eccentric characters, chief among them, single mother and highly competent supervisor Amy (the charismatic America Ferrera), no-nonsense assistant manager Dina (Lauren Ash) and newbie Mateo (Nico Santos). Watch it: Binge/Foxtel Now/Amazon Prime Video

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