📺 A new 'Friends', a murder mystery, and an unstable family reunion

Reviews of Sirens (Netflix), The Better Sister (Prime Video), Adults (Hulu), revisiting The Rehearsal S2 (HBO Max), plus our weekly watchlist

Happy Thursday. It’s a been a glorious week for good comedy. Sunday gave us one of the craziest callbacks that’s ever aired, courtesy of The Rehearsal’s season two finale, and just yesterday Max confirmed that Hacks will return for a fifth season. While we wait to see what happens with Deborah and Ava in tonight’s S4 finale, we’ve also got thoughts on the week’s new releases—some better than others, and all at least a little unhinged.

In today’s edition:
Weekly Watchlist
The Rehearsal - S2 (HBO Max)
The Better Sister (Prime Video)
Adults (FX/Hulu)
Sirens (Netflix)

— Jess Spoll and Jenni Cullen

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Below is a selection of new shows and movies premiering this week on streaming. Our unabridged list of May releases, including 3 movies premiering in theaters this week, is available for premium subscribers.

• Adults (Season 1) — This new ensemble comedy follows five twenty-somethings crashing in one friend’s childhood home in Queens as they try (and mostly fail) to figure out adulthood.
  Watch on FX/Hulu: May 29 (all 8 episodes)

• And Just Like That… (Season 3) — Season 3 of the Sex and the City sequel promises a fresh chapter—with new romances, big fashion, and summer in New York as the backdrop. New faces this season include Rosie O’Donnell, Kristen Schaal, and Patti LuPone.
  Watch on Max: May 29 (1 of 12 episodes, then weekly)

• The Better Sister (Limited Series) — Based on the bestselling novel, Jessica Biel and Elizabeth Banks star as estranged sisters forced back into each other’s lives after a brutal murder tears their family apart.
  Watch on Prime Video: May 29 (all 8 episodes)

• Dept Q (Season 1) — A haunted detective takes on cold cases in Edinburgh’s newest crime unit in this sharp, slow-burn mystery from The Queen’s Gambit’s Scott Frank.
  Watch on Netflix: May 29 (all 8 episodes)

• Mountainhead (Movie) — Jesse Armstrong’s new satirical comedy-drama stars Steve Carrell, Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, and Ramy Youssef as billionaire tech founder friends who meet up amidst an ongoing financial crisis.
  Watch on Max: May 31

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These popular shows came back with new episodes. Here’s what we thought and where you can watch them.

The Rehearsal - Season 2

Photo: HBO

Keywords: docuseries, social experiment, meta comedy
Watch if you like: Nathan for You, How To With John Wilson, Synecdoche, New York
Jenni’s Rating: A

🚨 Light spoilers ahead for Season 2 🚨

I almost can’t believe I’m writing about this show again so soon. But just when you think Nathan Fielder couldn’t possibly go bigger, he delivers a bonkers season finale so perfect, it begs to be reviewed.

After five episodes exploring how airline captains and co-pilots communicate, with plenty of tangents and side quests along the way, Fielder puts his theories to the ultimate test. In order to exploit a loophole in 737 pilot regulations, he decides to fly a real passenger plane filled with actors in an intensely high-stakes rehearsal of his proposed communication solution. As it turns out, this has been the plan the whole time. He’s been training for this moment for two years.

That’s the thing about Fielder, he’s always ten steps ahead and relentlessly self-aware. The way he folds social experiment and personal reflection into perfectly constructed comedy is truly an art. His jokes are meticulously crafted and all the more rewarding for how they loop back in—like the Wings of Voice competition, a plot point seemingly abandoned early in the season, only to return with perfect payoff in the finale.

Nathan Fielder understands all the fundamentals of comedy—and how to bend them to his will. I want everyone to watch The Rehearsal to experience the sheer audacity of it, but I get that the cringe-inducing beats and off-kilter storytelling won’t work for everyone. Still, if you appreciate elaborate schemes, intricate jokes, and a narrative that threads itself back together in wildly unexpected ways, this show is for you.

— Jenni

Length: 30-min runtime, 2 seasons / 12 episodes
Watch on: HBO/Max

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Our thoughts on brand new streaming content, and where you can watch.

The Better Sister

Photo: Prime Video

Keywords: domestic thriller, murder mystery, limited series
Watch if you like: Sharp Objects, Presumed Innocent, Big Little Lies
Jess’s Rating: B-

The Better Sister begins with an attention-grabbing setup: a Manhattan exec (Jessica Biel) finds her husband dead, and the prime suspects are her estranged sister (Elizabeth Banks) and her teenage stepson…who also happens to be her nephew. Biel plays Chloe, a magazine editor whose life has been curated to present the ultimate WASP-y ideal of a wife and corporate leader. But that carefully managed veneer crumbles when her older sister, Nicky, crashes back into her life.

The series pulls from classic domestic thriller tropes—cheating husbands, fragmented memories, long-held familial secrets—but it nails the tone more than it nails the tension. The murder kicks things off, but the whodunit quickly takes a backseat to the sisters’ reunion. Biel and Banks don’t share the screen until a few episodes in, but once they do, it’s clear the show’s real hook is the friction between them. Banks brings a brash quality to Nicky, while Biel plays Chloe like a woman perpetually on the verge of cracking. Their dynamic is hostile, darkly funny, and shaped by a lifetime of mutual damage—it’s far more compelling than the mystery’s procedural scaffolding.

There’s a version of The Better Sister that could’ve gone sharper or darker, but this one settles for competently bingeable and lightly campy. The dialogue is often overwritten, the structure frustratingly diluted, and the emotional beats spelled out too obviously. Despite those flaws, it’s never dull. Even when the plot meanders, the performances keep things interesting, and the show’s willingness to lean into its own melodrama gives it enough bite to justify the binge.

— Jess

Length: 60-min runtime, Limited Series / 8 episodes
Watch on: Prime Video

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Adults

Photo: FX

Keywords: comedy, New York, ensemble
Watch if you like: Girls, Broad City, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia