What to Watch

A series on Netflix and a film on Amazon Prime

Jul 15

Hi friends,

Welcome to another round of things to watch this weekend. I particularly enjoyed this week’s top show—it’s just the right balance of lighthearted silliness and brainy depth, kind of perfect for zoning out while also doing a bit of work, if that makes sense.

I hope you have a nice weekend!

OUR TOP TV SHOW OF THE WEEK

Extraordinary Attorney Woo

On Netflix 🍅 rating: -

Woo Young-woo is a brilliant young lawyer with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Her memorization and analytical skills are unparalleled, but her lack of emotional awareness and social skills make her an easy target in the law firm she’s just been hired in. This sometimes lighthearted, sometimes heart-wrenching legal drama follows Young-woo defy all odds with the help of her trusty friends, both real and imagined.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo is so adorable and winsome, it’s currently the top show in South Korea. It was also Netflix’s most-watched non-English show at one point, and American producers are reportedly working on a remake, much in the same vein as The Good Doctor.

OUR TOP MOVIE OF THE WEEK

Leona

On Amazon Prime Video 🍅 rating: 100%

Present-day Mexico City—Ariela comes from a Jewish family that insists on getting married only to people of the same religion. This rule is complicated when Ariela falls in love with the non-Jewish Iván. She is then faced with the dilemma of choosing herself or her family, who for all their severity, she still loves deeply.

Leona’s modern-day retelling of Romeo and Juliet recalls the likes of Crazy Rich Asians and The Big Sick, but unlike those big-budgeted moves, this intimate Spanish-language film exchanges melodrama for restraint, and it’s all the better for it. Leona is a quietly moving story that’s easy to relate to, despite the specificity of its premise.

Top picks outside of Netflix and Amazon Prime

The latest season of What We Do in the Shadows (based on the 2014 film of the same name by Taika Waititi, rated as one of the best on the site) is new and worth watching on Hulu. It’s a horror mockumentary following the lives of four vampires living in Staten Island for the last hundred years. It’s even more bizarre than it sounds, but just as enjoyable.
Also worth seeing this weekend is The Bob's Burgers Movie, now available on Hulu and HBO Max. If you’re familiar with the show, which centers on the Belchers clan and their burger joint, you’ll enjoy the signature zaniness and tenderness of the family. But newcomers will also find something to love in this funny little film.

New titles worth your time

New titles worth checking out on Netflix are How to Change Your Mind, a docuseries on the history and uses of psychedelics; Hurts Like Hell, a gritty Thai drama centering on the underground Muay Thai scene; and Tottaa Pataaka Item Maal, a female-led, Hindi revenge thriller.
Meanwhile, on Amazon, great new arrivals include The Woodsman, starring Kevin Bacon as a sex offender building a new life; School Life, an adorable documentary about school life in Britain; and Crime and Punishment, another British production, this time a docuseries about the lives of prisoners and prison staff.

Great titles that will soon expire

On July 22, the intimate and awe-inspiring HBO documentary on Frank Sinatra, Sinatra: All or Nothing at All, will leave Netflix. Django Unchained, the revisionist Western directed by Quentin Tarantino, also leaves the streamer on July 23rd.
On Amazon, the documentary on American lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Casino Jack and the United States of Money, and the Swedish musical film Sound of Noise, will be leaving the platform on July 18.

That’s all for this week. This edition of the newsletter will be back on Friday, July 22.

Until then,

Renee