What to stream: ‘The Staircase’ on HBO Max, ‘Bosch: Legacy’ on Freevee, ‘The Outfit’ on Peacock, ‘Clark’ on Netflix

Here’s what’s new and ready to stream now on Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max, Disney+, Amazon Prime, video-on-demand, and other streaming services …  

Colin Firth and Toni Collette star as Michael and Kathleen Peterson, an apparently happily married couple and parents of a sprawling North Carolina family, in The Staircase (TV-MA). This limited series crime thriller is based on the true story of the death of Kathleen and the secrets that coming spilling out about Michael during the investigation, which previously inspired a riveting documentary series. This dramatic take from creator/director Antonio Campos incorporates the media scrutiny in its exploration of what we know, what we don’t know, and what is ultimately unknowable after all these years. Michael Stuhlbarg, Juliette Binoche, Dane DeHaan, and Parker Posey costar. Three episodes available, new episodes on Thursdays. (HBO Max)

The original documentary series, also called The Staircase (2004-2013, TV-MA), streams on Netflix.

Titus Welliver returns as Harry Bosch in Bosch: Legacy: Season 1 (TV-MA), a sequel series that follows the former LAPD homicide detective as begins a new life as a private investigator while his daughter (Madison Lintz) joins the force as a rookie patrol officer. Mimi Rogers costars as high-powered attorney Honey Chandler, who hires the services of Bosch on select cases. It’s great to see longtime character actor Welliver back in the role that he was born to play. Like the original “Bosch,” it’s based on the novels by Michael Connelly, who developed the series with co-creator Eric Ellis Overmyer, and features much of the production team of that superb series. Four episodes available, new episodes on Fridays. Free with ads. (Amazon Freevee, formerly IMDb TV)

The Outfit (2022, R) stars Mark Rylance as a British tailor (or rather, a cutter, as he insists) in 1950s Chicago who has to outwit violent gangsters when they take refuge in his shop during a mob war. Clever and suspenseful, this is a marvelously entertaining mix of American gangster thriller and British drawing room psychodrama that keeps reframing the story with each fresh revelation. Dylan O’Brien, Zoey Deutch, and Johnny Flynn costar. (Peacock)

Bill Skarsgård plays real-life criminal Clark Olofsson in Clark (Sweden, TV-MA, with subtitles), a wildly over-the-top limited series action comedy about the notorious gangster who inspired the term “Stockholm syndrome.” Swedish music video wunderkind Jonas Åkerlund directs and cowrites the six episode series about the flamboyant career criminal who conned the Swedish public into falling in love with him. (Netflix)

Classic pick: the film noir classic The Big Sleep (1946) stars Humphrey Bogart as the screen’s smoothest Philip Marlowe and Lauren Bacall as his match as the spoiled socialite daughter of his client. It’s snappy, sexy, and witty. (HBO Max)

Pay-Per-View / Video-On-Demand

In Blacklight (2022, PG-13), Liam Neeson plays a government fixer who becomes a target after he stumbles onto a covert program.

Netflix

Mike Myers created and stars in multiple roles in The Pentaverate: Season 1 (TV-MA), an irreverent comedy about a Canadian journalist on the trail of a centuries-old secret society. Jennifer Saunders, Keegan-Michael Key, Ken Jeong, and Lydia West costar and Jeremy Irons narrates.

Based on the long running comic about a big, lovable dog, the animated comedyMarmaduke (2022, TV-Y7) features the voices of Pete Davidson, J.K. Simmons, and David Koechner.

Streaming TV: Wild Babies: Season 1 (TV-PG) is a new natural history series that casts its lens on the babies of the wild.

True stories: the four-part documentary series Meltdown: Three Mile Island (TV-MA) looks back on the biggest nuclear disaster on American soil and the people it impacted. Also new:

International TV: a group of young adults who find a tropical paradise in anything but in the science fiction thrillerWelcome to Eden: Season 1 (Spain, TV-MA, with subtitles).

International passport: Omar Sy reunites with his “Lupin” director Louis Leterrier in The Takedown (France, 2022, TV-MA, with subtitles), a cop comedy costarring Laurent Lafitte as his mismatched partner. Also new is the crime drama Thar (India, 2022, TV-MA, with subtitles) starring Anil Kapoor, best known stateside for “Slumdog Millionaire.”

42 (2013, PG-13) features Chadwick Boseman in his first feature film lead as Jackie Robinson and costars Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey. Also new:

  • Guy Ritchie’s gangster comedy The Gentlemen (2020, R) with Matthew McConaughey as an American crime boss in London;
  • second act comedy Hello, My Name Is Doris (2015, R) with Sally Field;
  • Sergio Leone’s gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984, R) with Robert DeNiro and James Woods;
  • and a pair of beloved romantic comedies from writer/director Nora Ephron and star Meg Ryan, When Harry Met Sally (1989, R) with Billy Crystal and You’ve Got Mail (1998, PG) with Tom Hanks.

Hulu

Julianne Moore won the Academy Award for her devastating performance in Still Alice (2014, PG-13) as a renowned linguistics professor who is diagnosed with a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Alec Baldwin and Kristen Stewart costar.

Streaming TV: reality TV and true crime meet in Who Do You Believe?: Season 1 (TV-PG) as viewers listen to competing narratives in real-life cases. New episodes on Wednesdays.

Also arriving this week are new seasons of the animated Fox comedy Duncanville (TV-14) and the ABC reality shows The Chase (TV-PG) and Holey Moley: Fore-Ever (TV-PG). Episodes available a day after their respective network debuts.

International passport: a 12-year-old girl cares for a strange egg that gives birth to a very strange creature in the horror film Hatching (Finland, 2022, not rated, with subtitles).

Hot Fuzz (2007, R), from the creators of “Shaun of the Dead,” is the funniest film you’ll ever see that combines American action movie clichés with British small town murder mysteries. Also newly arrived:

  • Sergio Leone’s gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984, R) with Robert DeNiro and James Woods;
  • international martial arts action hit Ong Bak (Thailand, 2003, R, with subtitles) with Tony Jaa.

HBO Max

Dear Evan Hansen (2021, PG-13) brings the hit Broadway musical to the screen with Ben Platt reprising his stage role as an isolated high school kid suddenly accepted because of a lie.

True stories: Spring Awakening: Those You’ve Know (2022, TV-14) revisits the Tony-winning musical with a remembrance timed to a 15th anniversary reunion concert and Yellowface: Asian Whitewashing and Racism in Hollywood (2019, TV-MA), well, it’s all there in the title.

Among the older films arriving this month are classics by Japanese masters Yasujiro Ozu (Dragnet Girl,” 1933; Floating Weeds,” 1959) and Akira Kurosawa (High and Low,” 1963; Red Beard,” 1965) and Hong Kong New Wave legend Wong Kar-wai (Chungking Express,” 1994, PG-13; Fallen Angels,” 1995, R). All with subtitles.

Amazon Prime Video

Bill & Ted Face the Music (2020, PG-13) reunites Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter as the fun-loving duo as middle-aged father in arrested adolescence who go on a new excellent adventure with their teenage daughters (Samara Weaving and Brigette Lundy-Paine). Also streaming on Paramount+.

True stories: the four-part limited series The Unsolved Murder of Beverly Lynn Smith (2022, TV-MA) is another true crime documentary about a murky case. Also new is Day Zero (2022, PG), a documentary on the threat to the global fresh water supply.

Streaming TV: the second season of The Wilds (2022, TV-14) continues the young adult thriller about a group of teenage girls stranded on deserted island for an insidious social experiment.

AMC+ and sister streamers

Grieving parents (Teresa Palmer and Steven Cree) relocate to Finland after the death of a child but don’t escape the horror that follows their surviving son in the horror film The Twin (2022, not rated). Streams same day as limited theatrical release. (AMC+ and Shudder)

Peacock

The new season of Girls5eva (TV-MA) begins with new episodes on Tuesdays.

Kevin Costner made his first foray into TV in the historical limited series Hatfields & McCoys (2012, TV-14), costarring Bill Paxton, Powers Boothe, and Jena Malone.

Showtime Anytime

The documentary Sheryl (2022, TV-PG) profiles popular music star Sheryl Crow and her battles with battling sexism, depression, and cancer in her personal and professional life.

Acorn TV

Signora Volpe: Season 1 (not rated) stars Emilia Fox as a burned-out British MI6 agent who moves to small Italian town and starts solving mysteries with the help of her estranged sister (Tara Fitzgerald). Giovanni Cirfiera and Jamie Bamber costar. New episodes on Mondays.

The Criterion Channel

The spotlight “Directed by Richard Linklater” collects ten films from across the career of the filmmaker who moves between independent productions and studio projects, from his breakthrough Slacker (1991, not rated) to his award-winning Boyhood (2014, R). Also includes three short films and two documentaries. (Criterion Channel)

Two Japanese filmmaker are also celebrated this month. “Death and Taxes: 11 Satires by Juzo Itami” spans the filmmakers career, from his breakthrough films Tampopo (1985) and A Taxing Woman (1987) to his final feature Woman in Witness Protection (1997), most starring his wife and frequent star Nobuko Miyamoto. Four films “Directed by Naomi Kawase” offer “fiction with a documentarian’s gaze,” from the coming-of-age drama Still the Water (2014) to the streaming premiere of her award-winning drama True Mothers (2020) All from Japan, not rated, with subtitles.

The Last Waltz (1978, PG), Martin Scorsese’s first concert film, chronicles the Band’s legendary farewell concert. This presentation also includes two commentary tracks, a documentary on the making of the film, and bonus interviews among the supplements.

MUBI

The Franz Rogowski retrospective comes to a conclusion with three films starring the acclaimed German actor: Transit (Germany, 2018, not rated) from director Christian Petzold, the indie drama Love Steaks (Germany, 2013, not rated), and Great Freedom (Austria, 2021, with subtitles), an historical drama about life as a gay man in post-war Germany under a repressive law that made homosexuality grounds for imprisonment. It won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes. All three with subtitles.

Free with ads

Mamas: Season 1 (not rated) looks at how matriarchs of the animal kingdom protect their young in the wild in a series of short featurettes narrated by Connie Britton in English and Zoë Saldaña in Spanish. (The Roku Channel)

The weekly column is featured in The Seattle Times, The Spokesman-Review, and other newspapers.

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Sean Axmaker is a Seattle film critic and writer. He writes the weekly newspaper column Stream On Demand and the companion website, and his work appears at RogerEbert.com, Turner Classic Movies online, The Film Noir Foundation, and Parallax View.

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