This Week in Streaming (September 3rd)
Our recommendations to counteract the endless scrolling.
The Killer (Peacock) As if last Christmas’s Silent Night weren’t enough, John Woo just remade the Hong Kong action classic that turned him into an international icon. Nathalie Emmanuel stars as a hitwoman whose refusal to kill a singer she blinds on a job earns the ire of her handler (Sam Worthington). It may sound derivative, but when the guy who pioneered these now cliches is behind the camera, the end result is much more suited to theaters than a second-string streamer.
The English Teacher (Hulu/FX) The fall’s first prestige cable series finds the titular educator (Brian Jordan Alvarez) struggling with personal and professional traumas in Austin’s hipster mileu. While it could have gone wrong in so many ways, star/showrunner Alvarez’s willingness not to treat public educators as sacrosanct gives it the probing insights other shows of its ilk are fully convinced they offer.
Beetlejuice (Max/Prime) The Ghost with the Most returns to theaters Friday after a 36-year-sabbatical, which makes this the ideal time to revisit Tim Burton’s Hot Topic classic. Hollywood movies have gotten a lot less weird since Michael Keaton’s crafty ghoul went apeshit on suburbia and tried to take Winona Ryder as his teenage bride. Hopefully, things are about to turn around.