It was only a matter of time before streaming would coax the Alien franchise onto the small screen, making Alien: Earth the flashiest and most accessible entertainment out this week. You would think it would be a brand-new Spike Lee and Denzel Washington movie, but Apple has made seeing their new collaboration in theaters near impossible if you don’t live in New York or Los Angeles. But if you are near a theater that has it, it ends on a high. Here’s the rest of our picks for this weekend in the meantime — like the end of And Just Like That … RIP.
Featured Presentations
FX’s Alien: Earth
Noah Hawley, who created Fargo and Legion, is behind this TV prequel to the original Alien set on our little planet. The plot is familiar enough — a spaceship crash-lands on Earth, a crew of soldiers find it and quickly realize the danger they’re facing — but Hawley has pulled a lot of inspiration from, strangely, Peter Pan. Most important, Timothy Olyphant is here as an android, and his bleach-blond hair really works. —Roxana Hadadi
Streaming on Hulu
Highest 2 Lowest
Denzel Washington and Spike Lee reunite for Lee’s adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 thriller, High and Low. In this version, Washington stars as the head of Stackin’ Records, who gets entrapped in a ransom plot. Jeffrey Wright, Ice Spice, and A$AP Rocky co-star.
In theaters now
Nobody 2
“But the most fascinating thing about Nobody 2, as with the previous entry, remains Bob Odenkirk’s face. With his sharp eyebrows, perpetually quizzical grimace, and quivering voice, he locates a certain lostness in Hutch that actually runs counter to the character’s expertise at killing people.”
(Read Bilge Ebiri’s full review here. In theaters now.)
Americana
Paul Walter Hauser summer continues. Joining The Naked Gun and Fantastic Four actor is Sydney Sweeney and Halsey as they star as a trio fighting to grab ahold of a valuable Native American ghost shirt, in this crime thriller from Tony Tost. Americana also features appearances from Zahn McClarnon, Eric Dane, and Simon Rex.
In theaters now
Reality Bites
Love Is Blind: UK season 2
If it weren’t for Love Is Blind: UK season one, Ollie may have never found Love Is Blind season six’s AD. Who knows if the second season of the U.K. spinoff will provide another major Netflix crossover like that, but the first season was good enough to satiate fans of the LIB community.
Streaming on Netflix
Grand Finale
And Just Like That … season 3
“And Just Like That … was a state of mind, and that mind was in a coma. It was a place to go for 44 minutes a week, a windowless white room filled with nitrous oxide. It was a safe and necessary container for our wild and dangerous national id, which will now roam unchecked and destroy us all.”
Writer Rachel Handler on the bittersweet end of And Just Like That …, a show we all loved to hate. But with it ending, we have to confront the idea that Carrie, Charlotte, and Miranda are actually going to be gone, which is really sad! We weren’t prepared that season three would be its last. At least Handler eulogizes the show perfectly here.
Streaming on HBO Max
Animation Station
Action-animation god Genndy Tartakovsky may be celebrated nowadays for the heart-pumping combat of Samurai Jack and Primal, but he made his bones with comedies like Dexter’s Laboratory and Powerpuff Girls. His newest feature is a 2-D-animated, raunchy, hard-R adult comedy about a dog’s last hurrah before he’s due to be neutered.
Streaming on Netflix
Finally Streaming
The Legend of Ochi
A24’s attempt to make an Amblin-style family film, The Legend of Ochi follows a young girl (Helena Zengel) who befriends the titular creature. But in her village, the ochi are meant to be hunted, an idea her father (Willem Dafoe) had always instilled in her, so she goes on an adventure to deliver the cutie back to his family in true E.T. fashion.
Streaming on HBO Max
➽ Or you could make your kids watch another brand of creatures, Smurfs, out on digital; though your family might thank you for choosing Superman, also flying onto digital, instead.
Want more? Read our recommendations from the weekend of August 8.
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