📺 What to Watch: Scavengers Reign, Murder at the End of the World, Dr. Death...
and 4 new TV shows premiering this week
Happy first week back to work! …Or not. If you need a break from the reality of the holidays being over, may we recommend spending an ungodly amount of time watching all the new shows coming out this month? Tomorrow, premium subscribers can look forward to our first “Monthly Preview” — a detailed list of all the series premiering in January and where you can watch.
Join our premium tier to get access to the January Preview and other fun bonus content, or check out our weekly watchlist below for a smaller selection of premiere dates.
In today’s edition:
Weekly Watchlist
Scavengers Reign (Max)
Murder at the End of the World (Hulu)
Dr. Death - S2 (Peacock)
— Jenni Cullen and Jess Spoll
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We keep an eye on all of the new streaming content that is set to premiere. Here’s a list of new shows and movies to watch this week.
Fool Me Once (Limited Series) — The newest Harlan Coben adaptation centers around an ex-military Captain who sees her murdered husband on a nanny cam and works to uncover what seems to be a larger conspiracy.
Watch on Netflix: January 1 (all 8 episodes)The Brothers Sun (Season 1) — This dark comedy-action series was created by Brad Falchuk (American Horror Story) and stars Michelle Yeoh. When a mysterious enemy targets his family, a Taipei triad member heads to Los Angeles to protect his strong-willed mother and oblivious younger brother.
Watch on Netflix: January 4 (all 8 episodes)Echo (Limited Series) — Delayed from its original 2023 release, Echo is the newest Marvel series, and the first to be labeled as a “Marvel Spotlight”, meaning you don’t need deep MCU knowledge in order to watch. It follows the titular character, originally introduced in Hawkeye, as she flees to her hometown in Oklahoma and reconnects with her Native American roots.
Watch on Disney+ and Hulu: January 9 (all 5 episodes)Criminal Record (Season 1) — Peter Capaldi stars in this British crime thriller set in London. An anonymous phone call draws two brilliant detectives—a young woman in the early stages of her career and a well-connected man determined to protect his legacy—into a fight to correct an old miscarriage of justice.
Watch on Apple TV+: January 10 (2 of 8 episodes, then weekly)
Our thoughts on brand new streaming content, and where you can watch.
Scavengers Reign
Keywords: sci-fi, animated, adventure drama
Watch if you like: Studio Ghibli, The Last of Us, Planet Earth (but sorta creepy)
Jenni’s Rating: A-
This incredibly imaginative animated series has flown under the radar for a lot of people, and it’s time to right that wrong. Scavengers Reign follows five marooned survivors of a starship crash who are scattered across a beautiful but unforgiving alien planet. As they try to make it back to the main ship and (more importantly) stay alive, they must figure out how to interact with and use their surroundings.
Watching this series is like enjoying the cutscenes of a really good, engrossing video game. Every new piece of the planet revealed feels like a clue or tool, and I find myself thinking about how to get out of a situation or solve a puzzle the characters are dealing with as though it’s my turn next. The environment-as-a-character aspect gives the show a distinct Miyazaki energy, and its unhurried cadence makes every shot feel deliberate and important. The pace also lends to the sense of dread present throughout the series, as our main characters narrowly escape dangerous circumstances and feel further isolated from each other and their paths home.
There are no clear-cut heroes or villains in Scavengers Reign. All things on the planet — even the outsiders — are interconnected and influence one another and in the end create balance from chaos. It’s a beautiful aspect to the narrative. My one small piece of criticism for the series is that there are a few confusing plot points and some motivations that seem a little arbitrary or unfinished. I’m desperately hoping for a Season 2 to clear up those things and address the cliffhanger in the final episode! But all in all, the individual character arcs are pretty satisfying, and the execution of the project as a whole is truly astounding.
In gorgeous, vivid detail, Scavengers Reign tells a story of “adapt or die” complete with some kick-ass adventure scenes and heartbreaking redemption arcs. If you’re interested in the question: “What does it mean to survive?” and even: “What does it mean to be alive?” or just want a cool sci-fi to sink your teeth into, run don’t walk to watch all twelve episodes now.
— Jenni
Length: 25-min runtime, 1 season / 12 episodes
Watch on: Max
These popular shows came back with new episodes. Here’s what we thought and where you can watch them.
Dr. Death - Season 2
Keywords: true crime dramatization, medical horror, con man
Watch if you like: The Act, Dopesick, Dirty John
Jess’s Rating: C+
Dr. Death on Peacock is a true crime anthology series based on the podcast of the same name, following high-profile doctors who were found guilty of knowingly causing harm to their patients. While the first season follows the story of convicted neurosurgeon Christopher Duntsch (portrayed by Joshua Jackson), the second dramatizes the story of medical researcher/surgeon Paolo Macchiarini.
Over the course of these 8 episodes, we see Macchiarini (Edgar Ramirez) fall from grace. At the peak of his career, he was thought to be pioneering groundbreaking stem cell research, claiming to have developed an artificial trachea that could save lives. Investigative journalist Benita Alexander (Mandy Moore) falls for the charming doctor, but finds her world crumbling down as she uncovers his plentiful lies. Around the same time as her discovery, Macchiarini’s colleagues form a case against him for malpractice.
As you know if you’ve been around for a while, I have a lot of thoughts about true crime dramatizations. When they serve to highlight a perpetrator’s acts without delivering a greater message or paying respect to the victims, they are simply exploitative. This installment of Dr. Death, I’m happy to report, is executed with care. By representing Macchiarini through the lenses of Benita and his colleagues, he never becomes larger than life; he is painted as no more than a reckless con-man. The season also dives into the stories of the victims and their families with unflinching honesty, and delivers a warning to viewers about the fallible nature of the medical system. It’s hard to watch, and it should be.
While it may be mostly successful as a dramatization of harrowing events, as a tale meant to entertain, it falls a bit flat. There is a lot of time spent on the romance between Macchiarini and Benita, but it’s far less interesting material than the medical bits and feels far-fetched. Moore is a solid actress, but she’s miscast here, and she and Ramirez don’t have the chemistry to pull off a believable romance. With all of the other versions of this story available, including the podcast and the recent Netflix documentary, there isn’t much of a reason to watch this one.
— Jess
Length: 45-min runtime, 2 seasons / 8 episodes per season
Watch on: Peacock
We reviewed a show in its early days on air. Now that we’ve watched more of it, would we change our initial rating?
A Murder at the End of the World
Keywords: murder mystery, thriller, limited series
Watch if you like: Glass Onion, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Murder on the Orient Express
Jess’s Original Rating: B+
Jess’s Updated Rating: B
As promised, with the full season of A Murder at the End of the World now available, I watched the remaining episodes and am back with an update to my original review.
If you need a refresher, this new murder mystery series was created by Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij (creators of The OA) and centers around a young introverted author named Darby Hart (Emma Corrin) who has recently published a memoir detailing how she solved a cold case involving a serial killer. In the present, she is invited by an elusive tech billionaire to a secretive retreat in a remote part of Iceland. Soon after the retreat begins, one of the attendees — who happens to be someone Darby knew from her past — is found dead.
Locked room murder mysteries are very much my jam, and so I was hooked from the start of this series. Admittedly, it could have used more judicious editing; many of the episodes stretch past 60 minutes, an uncommonly long runtime not exactly justified in this case. It also moves rather slowly for 6 episodes and then rushes the denouement.
That said, there are two aspects of this show that really shine. First, it’s absolutely stunning. The action of the present timeline all takes place in an Arctic hotel-slash-compound that looks both futuristic and cozy, and the cinematography evokes the feeling of being trapped in a harsh, isolating landscape. Denny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaan’s score is the cherry on top to perfectly craft a sense of dread. Second, the chemistry between Emma Corrin and Harris Dickinson — both exceptional in their own right — is off the charts. With a dual-timeline show, often one of the timelines is much weaker than the other, but with the flashbacks buoyed by their partnership, that wasn’t the case here. I’m sure some people will be disappointed in the end, but that’s par for the course with a whodunnit.
— Jess
Length: ~65-min runtime, Limited Series / 7 episodes
Watch on: Hulu
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