Ideally, this weekend would have seen the streaming premiere of Yellowstone season 5, part 2 on Peacock, but apparently next-day streaming is not in the cards for the most popular show on cable TV … unless you live in Canada or elsewhere outside of the U.S. That means it’s a slow weekend in the streaming verse, and things are going to get a lot slower as 2024 runs out the clock during the next two months.
Fortunately, on Sunday, November 10, the season finale of HBO and Max’s The Penguin will wrap up its story and set the stage for The Batman Part II. The only other noteworthy show is the season 2 premiere of Arcane on Saturday, November 9. Netflix is dropping Arcane season 2 over a three-week period, which is a departure from the streamer’s normal release schedule. But it should keep fans of the series on their toes with some cliffhanger moments ahead.
Rather than leave with only one new recommendation this week, we’ll cheat a bit and take an advance look at Apple TV+’s Bad Sisters season 2, which arrives on November 13. You can find all of the rest of the best new shows to stream below. Remember to check back next week, as we update this list every Friday to give you the top choices for your next TV night.
When you’re done here, check out the best new movies to stream this week, as well as the best shows on Netflix, the best shows on Hulu, the best new shows on Max, the best shows on Amazon Prime Video, and the best shows on Disney+.
Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Max, Disney+, Paramount+, Peacock, and Apple TV+ all have one thing in common: They’re more expensive than they used to be. We can live with higher rates as long as new shows keep coming, but it’s always a good idea to consider signing up for the ad-supported tiers, which are worth it if you can sit through a few commercials.
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Bad Sisters2022 -
Arcane2021
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The Diplomat2023
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Lioness2023
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Apple TV+
Bad Sisters (2022)
7%
8.3/10The Garvey sisters are returning to Apple TV+ on November 13, and they’ve gotten away with murder … kind of. In Bad Sisters season 1, Eva (Sharon Horgan), Ursula (Eva Birthistle), Bibi (Sarah Greene), and Becka (Eve Hewson) helped Grace (Anne-Marie Duff) cover up the murder of her odious husband, JP (Claes Bang), who really got what was coming to him. But suspicion fell on the sisters as a whole, and they had to make a deal to keep the truth from coming out.
Season 2 picks up two years later, and the Garvey sisters are moving on with their lives … right up until a fresh corpse arrives on their proverbial doorstep and once again thrusts them into a world of trouble. Did one of the sisters murder the new victim? And if not, who is throwing the Garvey family to the wolves in order to get suspicion away from them?
Shrinking (2023)
75%
8.0/10Ted Lasso co-creator Bill Lawrence is back on Apple TV+ for the second season of Shrinking, which features Jason Segel as Jimmy Laird, a therapist who is far from over the death of his wife. Harrison Ford plays his mentor, Paul Rhoades (Harrison Ford).
Jimmy’s idea for dealing with his grief was to become more involved with his patients’ lives and more freewheeling with his advice. That came back to bite him when his friend and colleague, Gaby (Jessica Williams), kind of tried to kill her abusive husband in the first season finale. The repercussions for that action come back to haunt Gaby and Jimmy in season 2, but the show quickly gets back on course for more laughs and pathos. It’s a surprisingly poignant combination.
Netflix
Arcane (2021)
9.0/10Although Arcane is technically an adaptation of the League of Legends video game, it works incredibly well as a standalone story without that connection. The animation is some of the best ever produced for television and rivals Pixar for detail and emotion. The story revolves around two estranged sisters, Violet (Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx (Ella Purnell), who been separated from each other for years.
In the present, the sisters find themselves on opposite sides of a brewing conflict between the cities of Piltover and Zaun. War is inevitable thanks to Jinx, with Zaun declaring her a hero for striking against their oppressors. As for Violet, she now finds herself among Piltover’s defenders, and the battle between the sisters may decide the fate of the two cities and everyone around them.
The Diplomat (2023)
76%
8.0/10The Americans‘ Keri Russell stars in Netflix’s thriller series, The Diplomat, as Kate Wyler, the U.S. ambassador to the U.K. and potentially the next vice president of the United States. Kate may have felt like celebrating if she wasn’t in such a desperate situation. Kate has discovered that a terrorist attack against the U,K, may have been orchestrated to set off a war. Kate’s rocky marriage with Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell) was already in trouble before he was the target of a car bomb last season.
Season 2 finds Kate trying to salvage her personal life while continuing to find the proof she needs that the U.K. prime minister, or someone in his government, is the real culprit behind the terrorist attacks. And if Kate fails, it means all-out war with the Middle East.
The Lincoln Lawyer (2022)
60%
7.7/10Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), the title character of The Lincoln Lawyer, is no stranger to legal quagmires. But things are really hitting home for him in the third season of the Netflix legal drama. Mickey is defending Julian La Cosse (Devon Graye) against charges that he murdered their mutual friend, Glory Days (Fiona Rene).
Things really don’t look good for Julian, as he’s the only viable suspect that the police have and all roads seem to go back to him. This forces Mickey to wonder if he’s defending an innocent man or the killer who murdered one of his best friends.
Paramount+
Lioness (2023)
56%
7.7/10Lioness is back for its second season on Paramount+, and Zoe Saldaña’s Joe is once again at the forefront as the leader of the CIA’s Lioness program, which sends female operatives in undercover where no male colleague could follow. This season, the primary new recruit for Lioness is Captain Josephina Carrillo (Genesis Rodriguez), a woman whose family connection to a Mexican cartel may help her locate a kidnapped American congresswoman south of the border.
Series creator Taylor Sheridan is actually joining the cast as former Delta Force operative Cody Spears. However, Joe remains the heart and soul of the show. Her responsibilities to her family and her women in the field weigh heavily on Joe, especially when her boss, CIA officer Kaitlyn Meade (Nicole Kidman), warns her that their latest mission has more unwanted government attention than usual.
Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020)
64%
7.7/10Star Trek’s one and only animated comedy series, Star Trek: Lower Decks, is back for its fifth and final season. Although this show is intentionally ridiculous, it does tend to have story arcs for the season. As a result of last season’s story, Tendi (Noël Wells) had to go back to her people, the Orions, and become a pirate queen. But don’t bet against her rejoining her former crew at some point in the season.
The remaining Lower Decks cast — Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid), and Sam Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) — are still on the U.S.S. Cerritos and getting into wild misadventures as usual. But they may all end up on the command staff by the time this show is over.
Disney+
Wizards Beyond Waverly Place (2024)
78%
6.7/10Disney Channel fans had their own Harry Potter with Wizards of Waverly Place, the fantasy sitcom that propelled Selena Gomez to stardom. Gomez briefly reprises her role as Alex Russo in the sequel series, Wizards Beyond Waverly Place, when she tries to convince her brother, Justin (David Henrie), to take up magic again and train a young wizard named Billie (Janice LeAnn Brown) how to control her powers.
While Justin accepts Billie into his life, it exposes his magical side to his wife and two sons, changing their relationships forever. Billie is also being stalked by dark forces that want to ensure that she’ll never live up to the prophecy that says she’ll be the one who saves the world from an evil threat.
Peacock
Teacup (2024)
53%
7.1/10What’s going on with the new James Wan-produced horror series Teacup? Peacock has been very protective about the particular plot details so far. What we do know is that Maggie Chenoweth (Yvonne Strahovski), her husband, James Chenoweth (Scott Speedman), their children, and a few of their neighbors find themselves trapped on their rural property. Strange things are happening with their livestock even before a killer in a gas mask shows up. Now, there’s no place to run, and there may be more than one murderer walking around under that mask.
Amazon Prime Video
Like a Dragon: Yakuza (2024)
48%
6.5/10You don’t need to have played any of Sega’s Like a Dragon video games to follow the story of Like a Dragon: Yakuza. That’s because this is a crime and action series, first and foremost. The series unfolds in two timeframes. In the past, Kazuma Kiryu (Ryoma Takeuchi) pulled off a heist against a Yakuza-controlled arcade with potentially deadly consequences.
In the present, Kiryu has been released from prison after a 10-year sentence, and he’s left the life of a Yakuza member behind him. Or so he thinks. In his absence, his best friend, Akira Nishikiyama (Kento Kaku), has risen to crime boss, and Kiryu will soon be drawn back to his old life, whether he wants it or not.
Hulu
What We Do in the Shadows (2019)
79%
8.6/10Ten years after the movie that inspired the show, What We Do in the Shadows is coming to an end after the current sixth season. This is a comedy mockumentary series about four vampires — Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), Nadja (Natasia Demetriou), and Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) — who live together in Staten Island with Nandor’s familiar, Guillermo (Harvey Guillén).
This season, the “fifth” vampire roommate returns, and the other vampires clash over a newly empty room, among other conflicts. The real question is whether the series will end with the vamps still together or if they’re destined to go their separate ways.
Max (formerly HBO and HBO Max)
The Franchise (2024)
66%There are so many superhero movies that it was inevitable that someone would use that as a premise for a comedy TV series. The Franchise is exactly that. It’s a biting critique of Marvel and DC superhero flicks, but more so the former than the latter. The show invents its own superhero, Tecto, as played by Adam (Billy Magnussen), an actor who has put all of his hopes and dreams into the idea that this flick will make his career.
Daniel (Himesh Patel), the film’s assistant director, has the unenviable job of trying to placate Adam and the other stars, as well as his director, Eric (as played by the MCU’s Daniel Brühl). The Boys‘ Aya Cash also stars as Anita, Daniel’s ex-girlfriend who suddenly finds herself overseeing the Tecto film. But there may be no stopping this disaster-in-the-making from lurching its way into theaters in an unwatchable state.
The Penguin (2024)
72%
8.8/10If you’ve seen The Batman, then the world of The Penguin should be very familiar. The city’s top crime boss, Carmine Falcone (Mark Strong), is gone. The title character, Oswald “Oz” Cobb (Colin Farrell), has grand designs about taking his place and becoming Gotham City’s new kingpin.
Oz doesn’t have a lot of friends among the criminal underworld, besides his new driver/enforcer, Victor “Vic” Aguilar (Rhenzy Feliz). But the biggest threat to the Penguin’s potential reign is Carmine’s daughter, Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti). Sofia wants her father’s empire for herself, and she’s just crazy enough that she might be able to steal it out from under Oz.
