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6 best movies, podcasts, and TV shows to stream in Houston this weekend
This weekend, we can all rest easy knowing we've dodged a devastating hurricane (our thoughts with those affected by Laura — here's how you can help). You can celebrate by venturing out, or you could simply stay in and stream some hot new releases.
This week, look for a most excellent return of two of cinema's most favorite, rockin' airheads. Check out a podcast that makes the boring...interesting. And a new TV shows sheds light on the dirty disruption that OCD can cause. Here are your best weekend streaming picks.
Movies
Bill and Ted Face the Music (Orion)
Yeah, Tenet may be the big-name movie that''ll be hitting selected theaters and drive-ins this weekend. But this latest installment in the Bill and Ted saga is highly anticipated as well. The film, which boasts Houston producers, has airhead rock-star wannabes Bill S. Preston, Esq. (Alex Winter) and Ted "Theodore" Logan (Keanu Reeves) once again going time, space, and all kind of different dimensions in order to save their young daughters, as well as human civilization as we know it. (Available for rent on Friday)
The Binge (Hulu)
For those of you wondering when a comic version of The Purge was gonna show up, it's finally here! Instead of people using one night to commit any crime they want, this comedy takes place on the night where people can legally take all the drugs they possibly can. The movie mostly follows a trio of teens who meet a fair share of messed-up people as they try to get to a rager of a party. Vince Vaughn co-stars as a conservative (of course), high-school principal. (Premiering Friday)
Podcasts
Secretly Incredibly Fascinating with Alex Schmidt (self-distributed)
Ken Jennings isn't the only fascinating Jeopardy! champion out there, folks. We also have comedy writer/emoji creator Alex Schmidt (formerly of The Cracked Podcast), who is out to show how awesome the mundane is with this weekly podcast. Whether it's microwave ovens, grocery stores, the color gray, or U.S. post offices (who we can all agree need our support now more than ever), Schmidt is ready to give us the beauty in the boring.
The Treatment (KCRW)
For nearly 25 years, film critic/gadfly Elvis Mitchell has done this weekly interview show from the studios of California public-radio station KCRW. He has talked to big-screen stars both behind and in front of the screen, and he still continues to do so. Just this year alone, he's hollered at filmmakers Oliver Stone, Judd Apatow, and The Old Guard director Gina Prince-Bythewood. But he also continues to talk to people in arts and entertainment who, just like him, are fascinating as hell.
Television
Love Fraud (Showtime)
We don't know if this was the filmmakers' intentions, but this four-part docuseries serves as yet another jarring reminder that maybe being alone isn't a bad idea. Oscar-winning documentarians Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing (Jesus Camp) follow a group of women and their search for Richard Scott Smith, the criminal/bigamist/flim-flam man who spent the past two decades scamming ladies out of their money by simply telling them those three little words. (Premiering Sunday at 8 pm)
Pure (HBO Max)
While television shows portray characters who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder as quirky, good-hearted weirdos (shout-out to Monk!), this British import is out to show people how much OCD can wreck a person's life. Based on Rose Cartwright's biography of the same name, this coming-of-age dramedy focuses on a young lady (Charly Clive) who moves to London and tries to stop the intrusive, sexual thoughts that are stuck in her head. (Now streaming)
