Poker Face - Peacock
Picked by Growth Associate Keara O’Driscoll
If you're still riding the high of Glass Onion, the newest work from its creator Rian Johnson is a 10-episode "case-of-the-week" starring Natasha Lyonne. In the words of Cheddar News’ own Digital Editor Mike Nam, “So it's Columbo with Natasha Lyonne — why did it take so long for us to figure out that we needed this?” I’ll leave it at that.
National Geographic Investigates: LSD and Psychedelics - Hulu
Picked by Newsletter Writer Graison Dangor
The use of psychedelic drugs is still heavily restricted by federal law, but that is bound to change as more states decriminalize psilocybin, ketamine, and ayahuasca and more investors are willing to write big checks to companies that provide them as mental health treatments. Nat Geo's new documentary looks like a good primer on the criminalized history (and present) of these substances, and the growing list of benefits that researchers are ascribing to them.
The Legend of Vox Machina - Prime Video
Picked by Digital Editor Mike Nam
The vulgar misfits who became heroes of the realm are back! The animated Amazon Prime series was adapted from the popular role-playing adventures of Critical Role, a group of professional voice actors hanging out and playing Dungeons & Dragons. In its second season, Vox Machina ups the stakes with a cataclysmic dragon attack that sends the heroes reeling and looking for a means to save the entire continent, possibly the world, from being destroyed. The fortunes of the Critical Role team have risen meteorically since they started recording their games together, including another animated show and a long-term, first-look development deal with Prime.
The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker - Netflix
Picked by Reporter Lawrence Banton
This one is a wild ride and sort of sad. It's the story of Kai McGillvary's rise to stardom and near immediate fall into disgrace. McGillvary rose to viral fame in 2013 after he saved a man from being killed by a white supremacist in Fresno, California, by whacking him in the head with a hatchet in 2013. He became a media darling, had offers for his own reality show, and even appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Then, it all went downhill just three months later when McGillvary admitted to murdering a New Jersey attorney. It's a rollercoaster ride that ends tragically.
M3GAN - Amazon Prime Video
Picked by Reporter Alex Vuocolo
M3GAN is the perfect January release. While cinephiles rush to their local arthouse theaters to catch up on all the Oscar-nominated films, the hoi polloi head to the multiplex to see what studios have dumped there for our winter-viewing pleasure. In this case, we were rewarded for our commitment to keeping up on the latest second-tier releases with a lightly satiric riff on the killer doll genre. Unlike Chucky, the doll in M3GAN is a robot, and the movie has a lot of fun skewering the tech industry. It's also well-paced and consistently surprising. See it with a crowd, if you can, but if you feel like staying home this weekend just look it up on Amazon Prime Video.
Last Night in Soho - HBO Max
Picked by Sr. News Editor Dina Ross
After watching Anya Taylor-Joy's darkly funny performance in The Menu, I turned on her 2021 flick Last Night in Soho. The psychological thriller jumps between present-day and 1960's London where Taylor-Joy, a bombshell of a different era, splits screentime with actress Thomasin McKenzie, a modern fashion student trying to find her way in the big city. Their lives cross paths in terrifying ways, even though they lived decades apart, but the bright and colorful directing is captivating. McKenzie just hit the silver screen with Anne Hathaway in Eileen during the Sundance Film Festival — I'll be looking forward to that one as well.
