The Weekend Binge: Natalie Portman in 'Lady in the Lake', Forest Whitaker in 'Emperor of Ocean Park', Hopkins Goes Full Caesar, Simone Biles Doc, And A Mafia Series Paired With A Delish Brunello
It's the weekend, let's binge!
Hello weekend!
What’s everyone streaming? Do you need to decide what new shows to load up in your queue? This is your guide! Personally looking forward to streaming the Simone Biles documentary, seeing Natalie Portman’s performance in Lady in the Lake, and Forest Whitaker in a crime mystery streaming this Sunday.
Here’s Everything New Streaming This Weekend
Simone Biles: Rising
Simone Biles rocked the 2020 Toyko Olympics when she announced she was dropping out due to mental health concerns. After a hiatus, she embarked on a journey to rebuild her mental strength and her gymnastic skills to prepare for a return to the 2024 Paris Olympics. Streaming Time 📺 : 2 episodes. Forecast: ☀️ Wine Pairing🍷 : Côte de Brouilly Beaujolais
Also New On Netflix - Find Me Falling, Cobra Kai: Season 6 - Part 1, Skywalkers: A Love Story, Sweet Home: Season 3, Too Hot Too Handle: Season 6, Master of the House, Homicide: Los Angeles, Laglia: All Access, Chad Daniels: Empty Nester, The Green Glove Gang: Season 2, T.P. Bon: Season 2, Land of Bad, Skywalkers: A Love Story
Netflix’s Top 5 Weekend Streams (TV/Movies)
Cobra Kai / Land of Bad
Simone Biles Rising / Trolls Band Together
Homicide: Los Angeles / Hillbilly Elegy
Vikings: Valhalla / Fifty Shades Freed
Receiver / Minions
Unprisoned: Season 2
Kerry Washington stars in this comedy about a therapist and single mom whose life is turned upside-down when her dad gets out of prison and moves in with her and her teenage son. Streaming Time 📺: Total 16 episodes. Forecast: ☀️ Wine Pairing🍷: The Prisoner, Red Blend Napa Valley.
Also New On Hulu - Hit Monkey: Season 2, How I Caught My Killer: Season 2, Girl in the Video, I Killed My BFF: Complete Season 4, MeetMarryMurder: Season 1B, Mountain Men: Season 12, Cult Killer, Lucky 13: Series Premiere, The American, Bring Him To Me, Press Your Luck: Season 6 Premiere
Hulu’s Top 5 Weekend Streams
The Kardashians
Cult Killer
How I Caught My Killer
The Bachelorette
Bring Hime To Me
My Spy: The Eternal City
Guardians of the Galaxy’s Dave Bautista stars in this action comedy sequel about a veteran CIA agent who reunites with his protégé Sophie in order to prevent a catastrophic nuclear scheme aimed at the Vatican. Streaming Time 📺: 1 hour, 52 minutes. Forecast: 🌥️ Wine Pairing 🍷: Ruffino Chianti Riserva Ducale Gold
Also New On Prime Video - UnInterrupted Top Class Tennis, Betty la Fea, La Historia Continúa
Prime Video’s Top 5 Weekend Streams
The Boys
My Spy: The Eternal City
Tyler Perry’s Divorce in the Black
The Beekeeper
Sausage Party: Foodtopia
Mafia Spies: Documentary Premiere
A extensive look into the startling story of the CIA’s, the mob’s, and Sinatra’s Rat Pack’s connections from Vegas to Miami to Havana, exploring America’s most notorious espionage operations ever. Streaming Time 📺: 6 episodes. Forecast: ☀️Wine Pairing 🍷: Regaleali Rosso Sicily Italian Red Wine
Paramount+ Top 5 Weekend Streams
Criminal Minds: Evolution
Spongebob Squarepants
NCIS
Evil
Mayor of Kingstown
Those About To Die
Game of Thrones’ Iwan Rheon and Anthony Hopkins star in this action-dramedy about the brutal side of ancient Rome where entertaining the masses is a game of blood and sport. Streaming Time 📺: 10 episodes. Forecast: 🌥️ Wine Pairing🍷: Ca' Rome Barbaresco Romano Marengo Chiaramanti 2018
Also New on Peacock - Abigail, U.S. Paraolympic Trials: Track & Field, Inspiring America: Team USA, A Very Vermont Christmas (Hallmark)
Peacock’s Top 5 Weekend Streams (TV/Movies)
Love Island: USA / Abigail
Those About To Die / Red
Law & Order: SVU / Men In Black
The Real Housewives of Orange County / Megan: Unrated
Chicago P.D./ Transformers
Lady in the Lake
Set in 1960s Baltimore, this limited series stars Natalie Portman as Maddie Schwartz, an aspiring reporter who pursues the murder of a forgotten young woman. Based on the bestselling novel by Laura Lippman. Streaming Time 📺: 7 episodes (first two episodes now streaming). Forecast: 🌥️Wine Pairing🍷: Flowers Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2022
Also New on Apple TV+ - Omnivore: Documentary
Apple TV+’s Top 5 Weekend Streams (TV/Movies)
Presumed Innocent / The Family Plan
Lady in the Lake / Luck
Ted Lasso / Ghosted
Sunny / Fancy Dance
The Last Thing He Told Me / Argylle
Love Lies Bleeding
Kristen Stewart and Anna Baryshnikov (yes, that’s Mikhail’s daughter) star in this action-adventure about a gym manager who falls for a bodybuilder as she passes through town en route to a competition in Las Vegas. Streaming Time📺: 1 hour, 44 minutes. Forecast: ☀️Wine Pairing🍷: Santa Julia Natural La Mantis Pet Nat, Argentina
Also New On Max - Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earth - Part Two, The Black Widower: The Six Wives of Thomas Randolph - Season 1 (ID), Welcome To Plathville: Season 6 (TLC), Wild Wild Space, Kit Man: Hell Yeah! Season 1, The Commandment’s Shadow, Forbidden Love: Season 1
Max’s Top 5 Weekend Streams (TV/Movies)
House of the Dragon / Twister
Real Time with Bill Maher / Godzilla-Kong: The New Empire
Hard Knocks: Offseason with the New York Giants / Justice League Crisis
The Black Widower / Love Lies Bleeding
Kite Man Hell Yeah! / Spongebob Squarepants Movie
Night Shift
During her first night shift at a motel, a woman suspects she’s being followed only to realize that the motel might also be haunted. Streaming Time 📺: 82 minutes. Forecast: 🌥️Wine Pairing🍷: Silver Ghost Cabernet Sauvignon, Napa Valley 2022
Snowpiercer: The Final Season
The fourth and final season of this post-apocalyptic thriller picks up months after Snowpiercer and Big Alice part way. Till and Ben encounter unforseen enemies when Melanie sends them off train on a reconnaissance mission. Meanwhile, the residents of New Eden face uncertain times and unknown adversaries. Streaming Time📺: Total episodes - 41, This Season 10 episodes. Forecast: ☀️Wine Pairing🍷: Opaque Darkness Red Wine, 2019 Paso Robles
Young Woman and the Sea
Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: Episode 7,8,9) stars in this drama biography set in 1926 about the story of swimmer Trudy Ederle who became the first woman to ever swim across the English Channel. Streaming Time📺: 2 hours, 9 minutes. Forecast: ☀️Wine Pairing🍷: Hattingley Valley Classic Reserve, Sparkling Wine - England
Also New On Disney+ - NFL Flag Football Championships, Epcot Becoming: Inside the Transformation - Season Premiere
Emperor of Ocean Park
Based on the novel of the same name, Forest Whitaker stars as Judge Oliver Garland in this crime drama about Talcott Garland whose peaceful life is upended by the death of his father Mariah Denton, a former journalist and ardent conspiracy theorist, he questions the manner of his death and thinks he was the victim of foul play. Streaming Time📺: 10 episodes (first episode now streaming, new episodes Sunday). Forecast: 🌥️Wine Pairing🍷: Law Estates Beguiling Rhone Red Blend, Paso Robles
Kid Streams
Wonderoos (Netflix)
Sip & Stream: Boardwalk Empire x Brunello di Montalcino, 2018
I’m probably the only one super jazzed (insert flapping Broadway hands here) about the new Mafia documentary on Paramount+. Not super jazzed that it’s six episodes long - like that is not a quick binge, people! However, let’s be real, I could watch three episodes on the Rat Pack alone (also rumored to have ties to the mob).
I remember one of my fave documentaries I ever watched was some A&E random doc about The Rat Pack and it was so interesting…but I digress. This is really about how much I love mob movies. I grew up in a time when mob movies were romanticized which made everyone dream of having a crooked crime boss uncle who would ask “who’s bothering you? I’ll take care of ‘em” while eating a double-scoop 🍦 , dripping it on his tie, patting you on the head.
One of my favorite mob/gangster series of all time is Boardwalk Empire. Some seasons were better than others, but if HBO didn’t have an expiration date on their “don’t forget to keep watching” notifications it would let me know that I totally forgot to finish the final season.
Boardwalk Empire, originally aired in September of 2010, and stars Steve Buscemi and a slew of other prominent actors in this epic gangster drama about an Atlantic City politician who plays both sides of the law by conspiring with gangsters during the Prohibition Era. In addition to Martin Scorsese being one of the producers, Director Timothy Van Patten is well-known as directing episodes of The Sopranos, Masters of the Air, Black Mirror, and Game of Thrones. During it’s five season-run Boardwalk Empire received 57 Emmy nominations and won 20.
Interesting Facts About Boardwalk Empire
The pilot episode was directed by Martin Scorsese and costs $18 million.
1920s Atlantic City was re-created for this series in a set built on Rockaway Beach, New York. Executive Producer Martin Scorsese was so committed to accuracy that he demanded the planks of the boardwalk be the exact same size as they were in Atlantic City during that time.
Paz de la Huerta was fired from the series due to being intoxicated on set most of the time. She later admitted in a 2010 Vanity Fair interview that she had been a victim of Harvey Weinstein’s assaults while she was filming season one of the series which fueled her depression and drinking in season two.
Only five main characters were still alive by the end of the Boardwalk Empire finale episode
Boardwalk Empire was one of the most expensive series ever made at its time. Between the period cars, a set that cost $2 million of the 1920s-era Atlantic City boardwalk, and the extravagant and authentic wardrobes purchased by costume houses, each episode cost on average $5 million.
Brunello di Montalcino, 2018 Poggiotondo, Tuscany, Italy
Nothing says mobster like this bold and rich Brunello made with 100% Sangiovese grapes. It starts off kind and friendly with some floral notes and freshly picked blackberries….then BADDA BING! BADDA BOOM! Pop, pop, pop of black fruits, full-bodied with a dry, but long finish. James Suckling gave it 93 points. Oh! And it’s unexpectedly organic.
Happy Streaming 📺🍷