Every week we used to run a feature called 'DVD Week' (where did I put my false teeth?), where we would take a look at the best movies, new and old, that we'd been watching recently. As that is about as old hat and dated as finding love on an app, let's pivot to our new feature 'Across The Streams' (we see you, 'Ghostbusters'), where we recommend the T.V. shows we've been binging on streaming services. Here's a fantastic four...
By TIM DAVID HARVEY
MR. & MRS. SMITH (Amazon Prime): The 2005 film of the same name is how Hollywood heavyweights Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie met...and we all know how that turned out. Now, the Amazon Prime (thank you, Depa) show stars a breakout Maya Erskine and Childish Gambino himself, Mr. Donald Glover. With showrunning and directing from the only Donald we mess with's, aside from "Duck", 'Atlanta' team of Hiro Murai and Francesca Sloane respectively (plus a production team headed by brother Stephen Glover), this feels like another classic like the previous best thing on T.V. We won't reveal how many hit actors are on this guest star list, but even without them the combustible chemistry between Glover and Erskine makes this epic explosive. And what Donald says about parents and kids is everything. We can't wait for a second season. 4/5.
CROSS (Amazon Prime): Cross your heart and hope Aldis Hodge kills it, like he did as Hawkman in 'Black Adam'. James Patterson burns through books like the opposite of 'Fahrenheit 451', and there are 30, and counting, books in his 'Alex Cross' series. When it comes to the big-screen, both the legendary Morgan Freeman ('Kiss The Girls', 'Along Came A Spider') and Hollywood hit-maker Tyler Perry ('Alex Cross') have played Patterson's courageous and compelling cop. From airport book, to script page-turner. Now Hodge gives us the 'Cross' series for Amazon Prime (thank y..) in a darker D.C. with even more depth to the James Bond of black cop characters. These police stories and their procedures are given much more room to breathe over a series run, and we could see this streaming for seasons, like Patterson's prose stocks shelves. 3.5/5.
ZERO DAY (Netflix): The 'Heat' of fellow 'Irishman' and 'Godfather' Al Pacino did it, now it's time for Robert De Niro to hit the small screen. Besides, he already beat his friend and former rival, the Stallone to his Schwarzenegger, when it came to making comedies. 'Zero Day' on Netflix is the end of the world as we might just know it in real life, right now. No R.E.M., just a nightmare. With a bigger doomsday device than Robert Downey Jr. returning to Marvel as the man in the iron mask. This zero dark thirty may be too serious and too close to home in this present day, but De Niro delivers as a former president we'd elect, not shy to subtly jab at the current one, like he does, not so subtly, in real life. Add a crack cast of Lizzy Caplan, Jesse Plemons, Bill Camp, Dan Stevens, Matthew Modine and Angela Bassett as a POTUS we can all get behind (except those guys who love to post hate comments from their car profiles), and this day is anything but a zero-sum game. 3.5/5.
BECOMING KARL LAGERFELD (Hulu & Disney Plus): The oldest of this bunch may just be the best...looking. Doing for 'Becoming Karl Lagerfeld' what Ewan McGregor did for 'Halston' (Netflix) and all those who hate Calvin Klein's clothes (can't beat those briefs, mind you), Daniel Brühl is brilliant, looking the part in each costume change, tailor made to play Lagerfeld. The 'Rush' actor and Marvel baddie Baron Zemo has so much depth and nuance as Karl, but it's Théodore Pellerin who will steal your heart in a show that has everyone from Marlene Dietrich to Yves Saint Laurent for your styling. Not to mention the city of Paris, that comes alive like a character in this six-part French drama you can also watch in English (is that Brühl doing both?), but shouldn't. Even if it is hilarious to hear Homer Simpson say the "merde" equivalent of "DOH!" the next time I put on Disney Plus. That's almost as haunting as the choral theme tune that could give 'Squid Game' a run for its notes. 4/5. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
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