Stream On This Week: A Different World Returns, Pulp Rocks, and FKA twigs Teams Up With Hiro Murai

Welcome to the latest issue of Stream On, the weekly newsletter from Consequence that answers the eternally confounding question: What films and TV shows should you be watching? (Subscribe here!) We’re looking at all the new and recent releases from Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Prime Video, Paramount+, Peacock, HBO Max, and more for ideas — not to mention a Blast From the Past and streaming recommendations from this week’s special guest: The directors of Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom!

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This Week’s Picks

A Different World (TV)

Showrunner: Felicia Pride
Cast: Maleah Joi Moon, Alijah Kai, Cornell Young IV, Jordan Aaron Hall, Kennedi Reece, Chibuikem Uche, Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison, Darryl M. Bell, Cree Summer, Ajai Sanders, Karen Malina White, Charnele Brown, Jenifer Lewis, Dawnn Lewis, Glynn Turman, Jada Pinkett Smith, Cliff “Method Man” Smith
Streaming on: Netflix

A sequel to the original classic sitcom (itself a spinoff from The Cosby Show), A Different World begins by introducing new Hillman College student Deborah (Maleah Joi Moon), the daughter of Whitley Gilbert-Wayne (Jasmine Guy) and Dwayne Wayne (Kadeem Hardison). If you don’t know who those latter two people are, it may feel like you’re missing something while first watching Netflix’s single-camera spin on HBCU life (its second go-around here, following Dear White People the series). However, while a lot of attention is paid early on to the legacy characters featured in these 10 episodes, the young cast does emerge as the show’s beating heart, leading to a thoughtful and amusing look at college life rich with fun characters.

Pulp: What Do You Do For An Encore (Film)

Directed by: Garth Jennings
Featuring: Jarvis Cocker
Streaming on: Mubi

There’s a playfulness to this concert film filmed at London’s O2 arena, which also heavily utilizes archival footage to create a true portrait of an artist. Pulp is one of those bands where, if you’re not a superfan, you might know the big hits but don’t know the full story, and director Garth Jennings lets frontman Jarvis Cocker’s narration guide it, along with his own filmic flourishes. As Cocker says at one point during the film, music is like time travel, and projects like What Do You Do For An Encore? really celebrate that.

Youth (TV)

Created by: Sharon Horgan
Cast: Sharon Horgan, Rupert Friend, Sharlene Whyte, Aran Murphy, Robbie Gee, Harriet Walter, Anne Reid, Freddie Fox
Streaming on: HBO Max

Sharon Horgan is one of the most consistently fascinating TV creators working today, always delivering new stories that hew closely to her lived experience, yet still capture universal human emotions. In Youth, she plays a divorced literary agent whose teenage son is on the cusp of leaving the nest. Unrelated, she hasn’t gotten laid in years, a situation she’s eager to change. Along comes past hookup Patrick (Rupert Friend), who might be exactly what she needs right now… As long as the rest of her messy personal life doesn’t bollocks it up. (You too may find some British-isms slipping into your speech as you watch. It’s very British.)

Line of Fire (TV)

Created by: Joshua Safran
Cast: Peter Krause, Hope Davis, Kat Cunning, Tommy O’Brien, Taylor Bloom, Charlie Barnett
Streaming on: Peacock

Feel like your family can get a little intense? Well, Line of Fire might put that in perspective, because the new procedural series is about a family where everyone works for some branch of the U.S. government: Dad’s close to retiring from the Secret Service, Mom is a deputy U.S. Marshal, and their adult children work with their parents or for other agencies. Like a lot of network shows these days, the episodes feature stand-alone plotlines alongside an ongoing season-long mystery, in this case set up by the very twisty premiere. I’ve only seen the first two episodes, so I still have a little trouble keeping straight who works where, but Peter Krause and Hope Davis are a powerful duo on screen, and the mysteries established so far are pretty intriguing.

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Blast From the Past

The home screens of streaming services are always packed with the latest new releases, but we don’t spend enough time appreciating how much good library content is streaming across all of these platforms. Each week, Stream On will spotlight one less-than-new favorite (must pre-date the founding of Consequence, so 15 years or older) that deserves attention from modern-day eyes.

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (Film)

Directed by: Donald Petrie
Cast: Kate Hudson, Matthew McConaughey, Adam Goldberg, Bebe Neuwirth, Michael Michele, Robert Klein, Kathryn Hahn, Thomas Lennon,
Streaming on: Prime Video, Paramount+, Kanopy, Hoopla

This week marks the premiere of Apple TV’s Brothers, a show that I wish had been a lot better. However, I did enjoy its many, many meta nods to the real-life careers of Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, especially this late-season smug aside from McConaughey: “It’s a classic rom-com trope, which I should know something about.”

McConaughey doesn’t have a huge number of romantic comedies under his belt, but he has been in enough of them, including this mildly deranged team-up with Kate Hudson. They both have ridiculous secret motivations for dating each other! But will they catch feelings for real?!

What’s amazing about revisiting this movie is that when it was first released, this wasn’t a critical favorite, currently holding a 42% score on Rotten Tomatoes. But not only did it make a remarkable amount of money at the time (worldwide gross: $177.5 million — adjusted for inflation, that’s $327. million today), but honestly it’s pretty enjoyable, with a remarkable committed cast that includes supporting players like baby Kathryn Hahn (adorable!). If nothing else, it’s worth appreciating on a time capsule level, and compared to some of the direct-to-streaming rom-coms we get these days, it’s a dang triumph.

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A Special Guest Recommends!

Liz isn’t the only person in the world capable of suggesting stuff for people to watch… So each week, Stream On will now feature picks from a special guest! Said special guest could be literally anyone from the world of entertainment — actors, writers, directors, musicians, or anyone else Liz thinks might be watching something interesting.

This Week: The Directors of Shaun the Sheep: The Beast Of Mossy Bottom!

Who Are They? Steve Cox and Matthew Walker are stop-motion animation veterans who teamed up to direct Shaun the Sheep: The Beast Of Mossy Bottom, the latest Aardman adventure featuring the clever and capable sheep and his flock. Like all other Shaun the Sheep projects, the new movie does not feature any spoken dialogue, which Steve (who’s done multiple Shaun projects) enjoys. “I often wonder what it’d be like to make a film with dialogue. I don’t know if I’d know how to do it,” he laughed via Zoom. “We do sometimes really get stuck on certain bits, but it makes us work harder, and I think makes the film better as well because we’ve we’ve not taken a lazy route out.”

Despite the lack of dialogue, Shaun the Sheep does still use voice actors — they simply don’t say actual words, instead making sounds of a vaguely suggestive nature. Matthew confirmed that is a challenge for the cast: “Justin Fletcher, who does Shaun, and John Sparks who does the farmer and Bitzer, they obviously have a lot of experience now, having worked on Shaun from the beginning. But even still, the odd word slips in, they can’t help it. It is a really difficult thing, and it’s a difficult thing to direct as well. You’re trying to clarify what the characters need to say without actually saying it.”

The lack of dialogue, Matthew confirmed, has an additional bonus: Shaun is produced in Britain, but travels internationally with minimal effort. “He’s a worldwide character, and everyone in their own country believes that Shaun belongs to them in their country, which is great. Like in Germany, he has such a big following, and in their minds the farm is in Germany. So yeah, it translates brilliantly.”

What Do They Recommend? Speaking of things that translate to other cultures, both Matthew and Steve picked very American TV shows to recommend:

Matthew Walker: Widow’s Bay (Apple TV) is the most recent thing I’ve really loved. I love the mix of Jaws and Stephen King that it has, and you know, those are both things that are very popular here as well. Even though it’s a very American setting, it’s still relatable, and I love the whole concept of that series, [Matthew Rhys’s character] trying to hide the horror aspects of the island and keep it positive.

Steve Cox: I’m late to the party, but I’m just in the middle of Yellowstone (Peacock) at the moment, really enjoying it. When I first started watching, I thought this is like The Godfather, but with cowboys. Because you’ve got this family and they’re kind of bad, they do bad stuff. But you’re rooting for them as well. It’s drama after drama. I don’t know how true it is to Montana today, but when you’re watching the cowboy stuff, you’re thinking, “Wow, this must have been 50 years ago or a hundred years ago.” But then all of a sudden, it’s modern life.

Thanks so much to Steve and Matthew for these picks! The Beast Of Mossy Bottom is currently in theaters, and you can watch the original Shaun the Sheep animated series now via Prime Video and Tubi.

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One Last One Before Bed

Finally, let’s spotlight a movie or TV show that’s not only great, but won’t take up too much of your time: Think of this section as the answer to the question “What’s something I can watch before hitting the hay, that won’t keep me up too late?” The only rule is that it has to be less than 95 minutes if it’s a movie, or less than 30 minutes an episode if it’s a TV show. Otherwise, sky’s the limit!

Sad Day (Short Film)

Directed by: Hiro Murai
Cast: FKA twigs, Teake
Streaming on: Hulu

This short film collaboration between recent Emmy winner Hiro Murai (Atlanta, Widow’s Bay) and FKA twigs not only showcases her music beautifully, but inspires comparisons to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon of all things. Coming in a little longer than your standard music video, it’s about as weird and lovely as anything you’d expect from Murai. It also makes me really miss the days when music videos were thriving. Yes, YouTube is still full of them, and I did spend 90 minutes in a movie theater last year watching Taylor Swift’s, but it’s not quite the same.

We’ll be back next week with more picks — in the meantime, stay safe out there, or better yet stay inside, where it’s definitely safe, and there’s so much film and TV to watch. Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter!