During those long, cold months between the current year and the next, what better way to warm up than with a blanket, a cup of tea, and a good series? To help you navigate the ocean of offerings from streaming platforms, here's a small selection.
Pluribus
More than twelve years have already passed since the poignant last episode of Breaking Bad., the series that revealed the show runner genius Vince Gilligan, who previously worked for the stable X-FilesSince then, the creator has given us a high-end spin-off, B, spread over seven years and 6 seasons. If we exclude the series' failure Battle Creek (launched and then canceled in 2015 on CBS), Vince Gilligan hasn't offered a new universe since the first episode of his cult series about a drug-dealing chemistry teacher in 2008. That long-awaited moment has arrived: his new series, Pluribus, has been airing on Apple TV since November. Gilligan, a fan of La Fourth Dimension, He finally returns to science fiction in this dark comedy where the world's population is confronted with a virus of extraterrestrial origin. But the director also revisits the formulas that made him successful: the story unfolds under the scorching sun of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and is carried by the formidable Rhea Seehorn, star of BAvailable on Apple TV.
The Girlfriend
Everything was going well in Laura's (Robin Wright) life until her son brought home his new girlfriend, Cherry (Olivia Cooke). Laura sees Cherry as an ambitious and manipulative social climber who wants to use her son to advance her own career. Does Cherry have something to hide, or is Laura simply paranoid? Alternating between perspectives, this paranoid thriller, directed, produced, and starring Robin Wright, escalates the confrontation between the two women, each deliciously detestable and incredibly charismatic. Available on Prime Video.
Slow horses- season 5
For three years now, we've been following the adventures of the bumbling MI5 spies, led by the brilliant, misanthropic, and slovenly Jackson Lamb (the priceless Gary Oldman). This time, a mysterious terrorist group is sowing chaos in a London reeling from an election campaign. Created by Will Smith (a namesake of the actor-rapper), the British series is a comedic gem, thanks in part to its colorful and often hilarious characters—like the arrogant geek Roddy Ho (Christopher Chung) at the heart of this fifth season. But it's also a gem of writing, with such suspense that when Mick Jagger's voice starts singing the original end-credits song composed by Daniel Pemberton, it's hard not to immediately start the next episode. Available on Apple TV.
Ça : Bienvenue à Derry
Already adapted into a film in 1990 (with a terrifying Tim Curry in the role of the clown), Stephen King's cult novel has recently been the subject of two spectacular feature films with undeniable success: It (2017) et It: Chapter 2 (2019). This new series follows on from these two films, and we find the unrecognizable Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise, the clown. A prequel meant to reveal the origins of this horrible character, the series is directed by Andrés Muschietti (the Argentinian filmmaker who rose to fame with...) Mama (and already behind the camera for the two previous installments) adapts passages from King's two-part novel set in the 1960s that the films had not yet explored. We thus encounter a character considered a cult figure among fans of the author: Dick Hallorann, a man endowed with extraordinary gifts, who had already appeared in Shining (played here by Chris Chalk). A dark and terrifying tale that recaptures the unsettling strangeness that made the 1986 novel so compelling. Available on HBO Max.
