Stream On This Week: A Fun Legal Drama Battles Silicon Valley, and the Taskmasters Have Recommendations

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 guests: Taskmaster‘s Greg Davies and Alex Horne!

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This Week’s Picks

Cupertino (TV)

Created by: Robert and Michelle King
Cast: Mike Colter, Rachel Keller, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Busy Philipps, Ella Stiller, Nik Dodani
Streaming on: Paramount+

I am on the record as being a real sucker for shows produced by the creators of The Good Wife, and as someone who literally grew up within a 15-mile radius of literal Cupertino, this legal drama about a law firm taking on the behemoths of Silicon Valley has been one of my most anticipated shows of the year. And it’s really fun so far, based on the episodes I’ve seen — a proper network procedural (the first season will have 20 episodes!) with some fascinating cases and a solid ensemble. (The Kings previously cast Mike Colter as a drug dealer and a Catholic priest; him getting to play a do-gooding lawyer here feels like splitting the difference to some degree.) The message that this is a David vs. Goliath story gets mentioned more than a few times just in the pilot, but these are not subtle times, and this is a show that’s well aware of that.

I Tested Every Cruise Line to Find the Least Evil (YouTube Essay)

Written by: Lindsay Ellis, Angelina Meehan
Featuring: Lindsay Ellis, Angelina Meehan, Princess Weekes, Jessie Gender, Foreign Man in a Foreign Land
Streaming on: YouTube

Lindsay Ellis’s video essays are always a treat to watch, and this one’s packed with ambition and insight into a world that doesn’t lack for secrets. For her art, Ellis went on multiple cruises run by multiple companies to evaluate their pluses and minuses: The food, the accommodations, the activity, the pricing, and the environmental impact all get explored over the course of two hours and 20 minutes — which is long, but breezes by thanks to Ellis’s trademark wry approach. Overall, the result is a pretty even-handed look at the industry, though whether you’ll feel tempted to go on a cruise afterwards is very much up to you.

Small Prophets (TV)

Created by: Mackenzie Crook
Cast: Pearce Quigley, Mackenzie Crook, Michael Palin, Paul Kaye, Lauren Patel, Sophie Willan, Jon Pointing
Streaming on: Apple TV

There are some big loud releases this week from Apple TV: Ted Lasso dropped its Season 4 finale, and there’s also Matchbox: The Movie (which has pretty much nothing to do with the toy car brand in execution, but does deliver some decent enough action comedy if you’re in the mood for that). Meanwhile, there’s this quiet little British dramedy, created by Mackenzie Crook, about a lonely man who starts concocting some magic in his garden shed in the hopes of tracking down his missing girlfriend. Watching Michael (Pearce Quigley) bond with his younger coworker (Lauren Patel) in the quest to create “homunculi” brings real humanity to this sweet fantasy tale, which has already been greenlit for a second season.

V/H/S/Mixtape (Film)

Directed by: Ernest Dickerson, Flying Lotus, Tobias Forge, David Moreau, RZA, Renee Zhan
Cast: Barbara Crampton, Michael Bishop, Neela Jolene, Jihad Brent, Alex Hsu, Julie Clergerie, Elie Kaempfen
Streaming on: Shudder

It kind of feels obligatory to recommend this latest installment of the V/H/S anthology series, seeing how it’s a music-themed collection of shorts that features friends of Consequence GWAR. But I did genuinely enjoy the different kinds of derangement featured, most especially “Dance, Dance, Dance, Dance,” a short directed by Renee Zhan and featuring puppets designed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. Imagine the classic Angel episode “Smile Time,” but without any broadcast standards and practices and a lot more blood. If you’ve not seen “Smile Time”… well, you probably get the gist.

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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.

Hackers (Film)

Directed by: Iain Softley
Cast: Jonny Lee Miller, Angelina Jolie, Fisher Stevens, Jesse Bradford, Matthew Lillard, Laurence Mason, Renoly Santiago, Wendell Pierce, Alberta Watson, Lorraine Bracco, Penn Jillette
Streaming on: MGM+, The Roku Channel, Hoopla, Tubi

Cupertino isn’t the only recent project to explore the impact of Silicon Valley on our world today — with awards season now in full swing, I saw Musk, Artificial, and The Social Reckoning over the course of a week, which was a bit exhausting. Hence me wanting to look back on the idealistic anarchy of the early Internet with this 1995 classic, a cult favorite that asks questions like “are you allowed to be a bad-ass hacker if you don’t have a cool nickname?” and “how does one hack the planet?” It’s pure ’90s cheese, which doesn’t always age great, but the movie’s retro charms (and fantastic EDM soundtrack) are hard to deny.

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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: Greg Davies and Alex Horne!

Who Are They? Speaking as as a recent convert to Taskmaster fandom, this one’s a real thrill, y’all. Greg Davies and Alex Horne are the key personalities behind one of Britain’s silliest comedy series, currently available on both YouTube and Hulu: Greg is the titular Taskmaster, setting random tasks for a panel of comedians to execute, and Alex is his assistant (he also happens to be the actual creator of the show).

Like a fair number of Americans, my interest in the show was really awakened when Jason Mantzoukas appeared on the show in 2025. During a recent Zoom chat, Alex admitted that when Mantzoukas joined the cast, “I was worried that he was too strong a flavor for our British people, who don’t like spicy food. But they love Jason so much. And actually it sort of showed that the show could withstand quite a lot… It was just a thrill having him. And if it means more people discover it across the world, then that’s brilliant.”

The 22nd “series” of Taskmaster is currently in progress, and after all these years of making the show, Greg does feel that there are certain seasons where “you do get a feel for when a group has gelled especially well, which I always find quite magical in the studio.” He then grinned. “Or when a group hasn’t gelled well. That’s fun as well. You can only do so much in putting the right people together, but sometimes an alchemy appears and you think, oh yeah, this has got a feel of a special one.”

What Do They Recommend? We’ve got two very different picks this week, with different levels of availability. Alex picked Make That Movie (Channel 4 in the UK), featuring past Taskmaster participant Sam Campbell:

“It’s very Sam Campbell. It’s, I would say, very British, but he’s Australian. The idea is he finds a member of the public who’s got an idea for a movie, and then he makes that movie, all within 22 minutes. It’s ridiculous. I was in the first episode, but my scene was cut, so I’m not actually in it. But despite that, I’d still recommend it. The cast is really good as well. There’s a couple of people on it who you might see more of in our world soon, but I can’t see any more than that.”

It’s not currently possible to watch full episodes of Make That Movie in the US, but there is a 38-minute-long compilation of the most hilarious moments on YouTube. Hopefully, one of the many American streamers that likes to drift off UK content will pick it up for distribution soon.

Meanwhile, Greg went a bit more serious with his pick:

“Mine’s a film I’ve been banging on about for the last couple of years, a Danish film called Riders of Justice (Kanopy, Hoopla, Tubi). It’s a Mads Mikkelsen film, who you’ll know straight away when you see his face — he was a Bond villain in one of the Bond films [2006’s Casino Royale]. But he mainly makes interesting Danish films. It’s a really sensitive, beautiful film about oddballs finding each other, but it’s also a violent revenge thriller. I absolutely have been obsessed with it for two years, and whenever anyone asks me for a recommendation, that’s my go-to.”

Huge thanks to Greg and Alex for these picks! Stream the current season of Taskmaster now on YouTube and Hulu.

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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!

Get Jiro (TV)

Developed by: Brian Gatewood, Alessandro Tanaka
Cast: Brian Tee, Alison Pill, Titus Welliver, Justin Kirk, Seychelle Gabriel, Tessa Inez
Streaming on: HBO Max

I don’t typically put new releases in this section, but it’s a pretty jam-packed week of stuff and I really wanted to get this one on peoples’ radars. This wild new anime-style series is based on a comic written by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose back in 2012, and takes place in a bloody dystopian future where brilliant chefs are the only celebrities that matter, and quality food the only currency that counts. There are a lot of big concepts and big characters in the mix here, but at the end of the day it really is a love letter to food, with no shortage of action as well.

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!