Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of February’s most promising new titles
New to Peacock
‘Bel-Air’
Starts streaming: Feb. 13
At the start of each episode of the teen-friendly 1990s sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” the show’s star, Will Smith, would rap the premise of the show: all about how his character, Will, was shipped out of Philadelphia to live with rich relatives in Los Angeles after a fight threatened to derail his promising future. In 2019, Morgan Cooper wrote and directed a trailer for an imaginary “Fresh Prince” reboot, re-conceiving the original as a lurid, soapy modern prime-time drama for adults. Smith liked what he saw and bought the concept. The resulting series has the newcomer Jabari Banks playing Will: a smart and athletic kid torn between his obligations to his old West Philly crew and the expectations of his upper-crust Los Angeles kin.
Also arriving:
Feb. 3
“Dragon Rescue Riders: Heroes of the Sky” Season 2
Feb. 11
“Marry Me”
New to Hulu
‘Nightmare Alley’
Starts streaming: Feb. 1
In the end-of-year crunch of blockbusters and awards contenders, the director Guillermo del Toro’s visually sumptuous and thematically rich take on William Lindsay Gresham’s creepy 1946 crime novel, “Nightmare Alley” (previously adapted, beautifully, in 1947), didn’t draw as much attention or as big of an audience as it deserved. Now that it’s arriving on Hulu, fans of film noir will have another chance to catch up. Co-written by del Toro and Kim Morgan, “Nightmare Alley” has Bradley Cooper playing a sketchy drifter who gets a job at a carnival, where he learns the secrets of a mentalism act and starts passing himself off in high society as a psychic. As usual with del Toro’s work, the elaborate set designs and memorably offbeat characters are eye-catching, pulling viewers into a morally unsteady world where nearly everyone is either a hustler or a mark.
‘Pam & Tommy’
Starts streaming: Feb. 2
The mini-series “Pam & Tommy” is partly about the tumultuous romance and tabloid scandals of the rock drummer Tommy Lee and the actress Pamela Anderson. The show’s third major character is played by one of its producers and creators, Seth Rogen, who takes on the role of a disgruntled carpenter looking to exact some revenge on the celebrity couple, selling their homemade sex tape in retaliation for an unpaid bill. Sebastian Stan plays Lee and Lily James plays Anderson in the series, which also features the work — and the ironic sensibilities — of the director Craig Gillespie (“I, Tonya”) and the screenwriter Robert D. Siegel (“The Wrestler”). While “Pam & Tommy” is based on a true story, it has a satirical edge, commenting on how the public sometimes prefers to be entertained by celebrities’ private lives more than by their actual work.
Also arriving:
Feb. 1
“Your Attention Please” Season 2
Feb. 3
“The Deep House”
Feb. 4
“Beans”
“The Beta Test”
Feb. 5
“Rick and Morty” Season 5
Feb. 10
“Gully”
Feb. 11
“Dollface” Season 2
Feb. 17
“A House on the Bayou”
Feb. 18
“The Feast”
“The King’s Man”
Feb. 22
“How It Ends”
Feb. 24
“The Last Rite”
“Snowfall” Season 5
Feb. 25
“No Exit”
New to Prime Video
‘Reacher’ Season 1
Starts streaming: Feb. 4
The author Lee Child’s best-known creation is Jack Reacher, a stoic, hulking ex-military policeman and inveterate wanderer who, in over two dozen novels, has frequently stumbled into dangerous situations where he has felt compelled to right wrongs and help the helpless. Tom Cruise played Reacher in two solid action movies, but fans of the books complained that the actor’s physical type was never quite right. The tall and muscular Alan Ritchson looks much more like Child’s character in the pulpy TV series “Reacher.” Its first season adapts the first Reacher novel, the 1997 “Killing Floor,” in which the beefy do-gooder kicks around the suspicious locals in a small Georgia town to unravel a murder mystery.
‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ Season 4
Starts streaming: Feb. 18
Season 3 of this award-winning period dramedy ended on a down note, with the stand-up comedian Midge Maisel (Rachel Brosnahan) being kicked off a lucrative tour and her manager, Susie Myerson (Alex Borstein), dropping into deep debt. After a two-year hiatus, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is due for a reset — because this isn’t the kind of series where characters wallow for long. The creator, Amy Sherman-Palladino, and her writing-directing partner (and husband), Daniel Palladino, will keep moving their story further into the 1960s, when American popular culture started becoming a bit freer and Midge and Susie can find more outlets for a frank, funny, fast-talking kind of comedy.
Also arriving:
Feb. 4
“Book of Love”
“Phat Tuesdays”
Feb. 11
“Homestay”
“I Want You Back”
“Sofia Niño de Rivera: Lo Volvería a Hacer”
Feb. 18
“LOL: Last One Laughing Canada”
“Lov3”
New to Apple TV+
‘Suspicion’
Starts streaming: Feb. 4
Based on the Israeli series “False Flag,” the thriller “Suspicion” begins with an abduction caught on a security camera, as the son of a powerful American media mogul is grabbed by masked criminals. Though the mogul is played by Uma Thurman, she is not the show’s lead. Instead, “Suspicion” is about a handful of seemingly unrelated Londoners who are hauled in by the police because of their possible connections to the crime. The series is structured as a mystery, with the investigators piecing together what actually happened and who was involved. But it is also a slice-of-life drama, following the suspects as their lives are upended by an unexpected accusation.
‘Severance’
Starts streaming: Feb. 18
It’s tough to pin down the genre for “Severance,” which is perhaps best described as a science-fiction dramedy satire. Created by Dan Erickson — with Ben Stiller serving as an executive producer and as the director for the first few episodes — the series is set at Lumen Industries, a conglomerate that offers its employees an unusual benefits package. If they choose, workers can divide their work and personal lives so that while they’re at the office, they have no memory of home, and while they’re at home, they don’t recall what happened during the workday. With its sterile, dystopian look and its hints at deeper mysteries, “Severance” recalls similarly allusive and abstract TV shows like “The Prisoner” and “Nowhere Man.” Erickson aims to keep viewers at once disoriented and intrigued.
Also arriving:
Feb. 11
“The Sky Is Everywhere”
Feb. 18
“Lincoln’s Dilemma”
New to HBO Max
‘Kimi’
Starts streaming: Feb. 10
The director Steven Soderbergh and the screenwriter David Koepp titled their new film “Kimi” after the name of a fictional voice-activated digital assistant, akin to Siri or Alexa. Zoë Kravitz plays Angela, a woman suffering from agoraphobia who works as a voice-stream interpreter for the company behind Kimi, helping to refine the device’s utility. When Angela thinks she hears a murder on one of her streams, she has trouble making her bosses or the authorities take her seriously, and she decides to investigate herself. Shot — and set — during the pandemic, “Kimi” borrows from the likes of “Rear Window” and “Panic Room,” telling a thriller story with a small cast and limited locations.
Also arriving:
Feb. 3
“Raised By Wolves” Season 2
Feb. 10
“The Girl Before”
Feb. 18
“Painting with John” Season 2
Feb. 28
“My Brilliant Friend: Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay”
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