What to Watch on Streaming This Week: Jan 21-27

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There’s quite a variety of content to stream this week, from several new series to a final season, plus some new movies for good measure. Historical dramas have inexplicably taken up half of this list, but that hardly means that this week’s offerings are old and stuffy—there’s plenty of new and exciting things to watch!

What to watch on Netflix

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Munich – The Edge of War

This spy thriller situates itself at the cusp of World War II, blending historical fact with nail-biting fiction. Set during the tense negotiations of the 1938 Munich Agreement, the film follows Hugh, a British civil servant, and Paul, a German diplomat, two old friends who find themselves at the heart of Europe’s mounting political conflicts. While Hitler’s Germany outwardly promises peace with the agreement, Paul and Hugh uncover the Third Reich’s desire for conquest. This pre-war movie places knowledge as the sole source of power, making the German secret all the more threatening to its protagonists. Munich – The Edge of War premieres Friday, January 21st.

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Ozark

Netflix’s premier crime drama returns for its fourth and final season this week—at least, for Part 1 of its fourth and final season. Ozark continues its descent into darkness as problematic power couple Marty and Wendy Byrde collaborate with the cartel more closely than ever, while up-and-coming crime lord Ruth is forced to pivot to a new illicit venture. The show remains anchored by its trio of incredible performances, with Jason Bateman’s ineffable smarm, Laura Linney’s sharp pragmatism, and two-time Emmy winner Julia Garner’s unending drive. It’s the beginning of the end in more ways than one. Ozark Season 4, Part 1 premieres Friday, January 21st.

What to watch on Hulu

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Hugo

For a wonderfully wintry cinematic escape, try tuning into Martin Scorsese’s Hugo. This charming story champions the sentimentality of childhood and the movies of days gone by, as the titular Hugo ventures around 1930s Paris looking for answers about his father and the mysterious filmmaker Georges Méliès (a real-life pioneer of the form). Despite Scorsese’s reputation as a director of all things gangster and hypermasculine, this 2011 gem tells a sweet, fantastical tale about family and movie magic. It’s a feast for the eyes, and few films have as much heart. Hugo will be available to stream until January 31st.

What to watch on Amazon Prime

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As We See It

In many discussions about representation, whether they be shared in person or examined on screen, neurodivergence is often left out of the conversation. As We See It seeks to remedy that. This new dramedy revolves around the lives of roommates Jack, Harrison, and Violet as they navigate their adulthood on the autism spectrum. The three leads are all played by autistic actors, and showrunner Jason Katims is drawing on his own experience as a parent of an autistic child. It’s a great step forward in representing neurodivergence on screen, and it’ll be a great watch anyway. As We See It premieres Friday, January 21st.

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A Hero

Acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi returned last year with another sensational movie in the form of A Hero. The film follows Rahim, a man sent to debtors’ prison in the city of Shiraz, on a two-day leave from his confinement. In his 48 hours of freedom, Rahim works with his fiancée and brother-in-law to find a way to pay back his debts. When their plan crumbles because of Rahim’s conscience, things get more complicated and Rahim faces mounting consequences. Like Farhadi’s previous films, A Hero tells a story about a man and his family doing their best, even if their best isn’t the right thing. A Hero premieres Friday, January 21st.

What to watch on HBO Max

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The Gilded Age

Big news for fans of Downton Abbey: we’re getting an American version this week! Created by Julian Fellowes, the mastermind behind the beloved British period drama, The Gilded Age chronicles the lives of its sprawling ensemble in 1880s New York City. There are old-money socialites at odds with new-money robber barons, ingenues mixed with the newly educated, all played by tremendous television and stage actors. Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, and Carrie Coon lead the brigade, but the show also features big names like Nathan Lane and Audra McDonald—there’s plenty of talent on display in this series. The Gilded Age premieres Monday, January 24th.

Keeping Watch is a regular endorsement of movies and TV worth your time.

What to Know About Julia Garner, the Award-Winning Actress from Ozark and Inventing Anna

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Julia Garner has gained acclaim (and two Emmys) for her role on Netflix’s Ozark and stars in Netflix’s upcoming Inventing Anna

What to Know About Julia Garner, the Award-Winning Actress from Ozark and Inventing Anna

Julia Garner is taking over Netflix, one show at a time.

Over the past five years, the 27-year-old actress has received critical acclaim for her role as Ruth Langmore on Netflix’s Ozark alongside Jason Bateman and Laura Linney.

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In February, she will be starring in the anticipated new Shonda Rhimes series Inventing Anna.

Based on the New York magazine article about Anna Sorokin, who pretended to be a wealthy German heiress under the name Anna Delvey, the series is sure to be one of Garner’s biggest roles yet.

Ahead of Garner’s upcoming projects, learn more facts about the talented star.

She got into acting as a way to overcome her shyness

julia garner Credit: Nicole Wilder/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

During an interview on BUILD Series, Garner revealed that she actually took acting classes to help her be more outgoing.

She later did student films at Columbia University, where she ended up making a connection with someone working in a casting office for Susan Shopmaker.

Shortly after, Shopmaker cast her in Martha Marcy May Marlene, which marked her first film role at age 17. Since then, she has gone on to appear in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, We Are What We Are, The Assistant, The Americans, and Dirty John.

She’s an Emmy-winning actress

julia garner Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty

Garner has received critical acclaim for her various TV and film roles, including two Emmy Awards. In 2019, she received her first Emmy for outstanding supporting actress in a drama series for Ozark. She ended up receiving the same award the following year, once again for her role as Ruth on Ozark.

She’s married to Mark Foster

julia garner and mark foster Credit: getty

While Garner has become a big name in the acting world, her husband is a big name in the music industry. The actress is married to Foster the People lead singer Mark Foster. After meeting at Sundance Film Festival, the two hit it off and started dating. The couple eventually got engaged during a trip to Yellowstone in 2019 and tied the knot later that year.

She did method acting for her Ozark role

julia garner Credit: netflix

Garner really went the extra mile when preparing for her role as Ruth on Ozark. As a Bronx native herself, the actress prepared a Missouri accent for her audition so she could sound more like the character.

After booking the part, Garner went full method actor by spending a whole month talking like her character. “I wanted to sound authentic, so a month before doing Ozark, I would only speak in the accent,” she told IndieWire. “I would walk around everywhere [using the accent]. I’d order my food with the accent. You kind of get a sense of the character [that way].”

Her style icons probably aren’t what you expect

julia garner Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images

In addition to becoming a big star in Hollywood, Garner has become one to watch in the fashion world, appearing in campaigns for Prada and scoring an invite to the 2021 Met Gala.

As for her personal style icons, Garner told Vanity Fair that she personally draws inspiration from Audrey Hepburn, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and Diane Keaton.

She visited Anna Delvey in prison to prepare for her Inventing Anna role

Inventing Anna Credit: Nicole Rivelli/Netflix

During an interview with Town and Country magazine, Garner revealed that she met the real-life Anna Sorokin before playing her on Inventing Anna.

6 New Shows to Watch on Netflix This Weekend — Best Life

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You may have noticed that 2022 is already shaping up to be a great year of TV, and Netflix’s latest offerings are further proof. If you jump on the service this weekend, you’ll find some compelling new shows and seasons have just dropped. For example, there’s the second season of a reality phenomenon that was hit with a scandal during its hiatus. Or you can press play on the final chapter of one of Netflix’s most-nominated prestige dramas. Read on to find out what other shows you should be watching on Netflix right now.

RELATED: 6 New Movies You Can Watch on Netflix This Weekend.

1 Ozark

On Friday, Jan. 21, Netflix drops the first half of the final season of its hit crime series Ozark, with stars Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, and Julia Garner returning to carry out more illegal activities and rack up more Emmy nominations. While the show started with the Byrde family fleeing to the Ozarks with a cartel on their heels, the fourth season finds them in a somewhat cushier spot, but with many of the same problems. The streaming service has yet to announce the premiere date of Season 4 Part 2, so you have plenty of time to catch up before the almost certainly bloody conclusion.

2 Too Hot to Handle

In the storied tradition of reality shows that trap attractive singles together on an island somewhere, Too Hot to Handle sets itself apart with its No. 1 rule: the dollar amount of the grand prize decreases every time any of the contestants share any sexual contact—even kissing. Check out the newly arrived Season 3 to see who hooks up and how low that number goes.

3 The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman

The Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman centers the experience of the victims of Robert Hendy-Freegard, a con artist who perpetrated some seriously elaborate schemes. In the ’90s, he was able to convince several people that he was an MI5 spy, and in the ’00s, he began dating a divorced mother of two, seducing her further and further away from her family. Her adult children are key figures in the true crime docuseries, unpacking how Hendy-Freegard was able to deceive their mom so completely that she would run away with him. The two are still at large.

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4 Archive 81

In the mood for something creepy? Try Archive 81, an original Netflix horror series about a film and video expert (Mamoudou Athie), who’s tasked with restoring the archive of a grad student who was investigating a suspicious apartment building fire. Working in the secluded compound of his mysterious client, Dan becomes more and more obsessed by the content of the videos and how they unravel some sinister truths.

5 After Life

Co-creator of the original U.K. version of The Office, Ricky Gervais, is also the star of and brains behind After Life, the third season of which just started streaming on Netflix. His character, Tony Johnson, inconsolable after the death of his wife, decides to seek payback from the universe by simply doing whatever he wants, no matter who that hurts. But with the help of people around him, he begins to realize that life as he knew it may not be entirely over after all.

6 Cheer

The reality series Cheer became a very buzzy Netflix success when the first season premiered in early 2020. But its audience’s newfound interest in competitive college cheerleading and the Navarro College Bulldogs specifically was tainted when accusations of sexual abuse and other crimes were made public against breakout star Jerry Harris. Season 2 of Cheer doesn’t ignore that controversy but addresses it head-on, giving his accusers a platform and showing how the team has dealt with that upheaval.

RELATED: This Netflix Star Complains He’s Being “Objectified” After Breakout Role.

What Robin Wright Wishes Had Happened Before House Of Cards Ended

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What Robin Wright Wishes Had Happened Before House Of Cards Ended

Very soon, Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, and co. will be back doing business with some nasty people in the final season of Netflix’s hit series, “Ozark.” One person that’s no stranger to carrying the weight of a popular program’s swan song also happens to be one of its guest directors this year — Robin Wright. The former star of the critically acclaimed drama “House of Cards” was left to lead the David Fincher-produced series on her own after her former co-star Kevin Spacey was ejected from the show following allegations of sexual misconduct, one of the many projects he was either removed from or replaced following the scandal.

The final season saw her character, Claire Underwood, take a seat at the Oval Office after Frank Underwood’s resignation as president and off-screen death. Robin Wright received an Emmy nomination for her performance in the show, marking her sixth nomination since the show’s debut (via IMDB). At the same time, she was commended for her performance in the show’s final season, regardless of Spacey’s presence — or lack thereof — which is felt throughout. While the damage control to send the show off on the best note possible was applied, there was still always one issue had that Wright felt would’ve served her character far better than the ending she received.

30 Most Anticipated TV Shows of 2022

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The pop culture forecast for 2022 is looking mighty fine, and we’re previewing everything we’re excited about this year with a series of lists. Just so you have it all in one place, we’ve also published our Most Anticipated Albums, Most Anticipated Films, and Rising Artists to Watch roundups. Plus, look out for our list of Most Anticipated Heavy Albums soon.

There are a few trends that emerge for 2022 when it comes to television. The influx of movie stars to the small screen continues, for one thing, with Ewan McGregor, Michelle Pfeiffer, Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Olivia Colman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, and more playing featured roles in big properties.

It’s also the year when a number of long-awaited genre properties (with relatively huge production budgets) will be making their debuts: We’re getting Halo, The Sandman, and prequels to The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, hopefully spread out at least a little bit over the next 12 months to keep us nerds entertained all year long.

But more importantly, it’s a year that seems determined to prove that TV, after years of being seen as secondary to film, is where the biggest and most exciting stories can be told, and compellingly so. Not all of the shows on this list will blow us away in terms of quality, but we can’t wait to see how they tackle the complex, intriguing, and fascinating stories promised.

— Liz Shannon Miller

Ozark (Season 4, Part 1) (Netflix)

Created by: Bill Dubuque, Mark Williams

Cast: Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Sofia Hublitz, Skylar Gaertner, Julia Garner, Alfonso Herrera

Premiere Date: January 21st

It’s the beginning of the end for Jason Bateman and Laura Linney’s crime-doing pair, and while we don’t know yet when the final ending will be released on Netflix, the first part of Season 4 does show signs that all of the chickens are coming home to roost — the chickens, in this case, being terrible decisions that the Byrdes have made over the years. Ozark isn’t the sort of show which cries out for a happy ending, but it does deserve a complete one, and here’s looking forward to seeing how all those loose ends get tied up. — L.S.M.

The Gilded Age (HBO)

Created by: Julian Fellowes

Cast: Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Denée Benton, Louisa Jacobson, Taissa Farmiga, Blake Ritson, Simon Jones, Harry Richardson, Thomas Cocquerel, Jack Gilpin

Premiere Date: January 24th

Do you like Downton Abbey, but wish the characters didn’t have all those fancy, hoity-toity accents? Well, you’re in luck: Abbey creator Julian Fellowes is here with a new series for HBO set in New York during the late 1800s — a time of incredible prosperity for America, and the rise of a nouveau riche clashing with the values of the old-money aristocrats of the time. At the center of it is a war between two women: the blue-blood Agnes van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) and recently-wealthy upstart Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon), with all the costumed frippery and withering stares one can expect from Fellowes. — Clint Worthington

The Afterparty (Apple TV+)

Created by: Chris Miller

Cast: Tiffany Haddish, Sam Richardson, Zoë Chao, Ben Schwartz, Ike Barinholtz, Ilana Glazer, Dave Franco, Jamie Demetriou, John Early

Premiere Date: January 28th

Apple TV+’s respectable penchant for delivering boatloads of money at A-list creators for off-the-wall concepts continues apace with The Afterparty, which sees an ensemble cast (including Tiffany Haddish, Ilana Glazer, Sam Richardson, and others) trying to solve a murder mystery at their high school reunion. Each of the first season’s eight episodes will follow one character’s account of the events, filtered through a different film genre — musical, film noir, action movie, what have you. It’s a concept that could get tiresome quick, but since genre-bending wunderkinds Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are at the helm (Miller directs all eight episodes), we’re optimistic. — C.W.

Pam & Tommy (Hulu)

Cast: Lily James, Sebastian Stan, Seth Rogen, Nick Offerman, Taylor Schilling

Premiere Date: February 2nd

Does every news and/or tabloid event of the ’90s really warrant its own eight-part miniseries? Pam & Tommy suggests that it might, exploring the dissemination of a famous sex tape from a number of colorful angles, taking a closer look at the guy who stole it (Seth Rogen), sex symbol Pamela Anderson (Lily James), and disagreeable drummer Tommy Lee (Sebastian Stan), among others. (Oh, and Jason Mantzoukas voices Tommy Lee’s um, “drumstick.”) Craig Gillespie has experience bringing this sort of material to life in I, Tonya, while writer Robert D. Siegel knows his way around characters on the cultural fringes from his work on The Wrestler and Big Fan. — Jesse Hassenger

Inventing Anna (Netflix)

Created by: Shonda Rhimes

Cast: Anna Chlumsky, Julia Garner, Katie Lowes, Laverne Cox, Alexis Floyd, Arian Moayed, Anders Holm, Anna Deavere Smith, Jeff Perry, Terry Kinney

Premiere Date: February 11th

Shondaland feels like the right home for this more-thrilling-than-fiction tale of Anna Delvey (Julia Garner), a Russian-born con artist who successfully tricked multiple banks, New York high society — and one unsuspecting Vanity Fair employee — into believing she was a German heiress intent on launching her very own private members’ club/art foundation in between luxury vacations to Morocco and living the life of a Manhattan socialite.

The scandal took the media by storm following Anna’s arrest (due in part to a well-timed profile in The Cut), and as the Netflix adaptation prepares to roll out on February 11th, we’re still left grappling with whether Anna’s story is a condemnation of the value we place on image, status, and power — or a masterpiece built on the altar of American ambition. — Glenn Rowley