Welcome to the Gold Ticket, your VIP guide to the best of pop culture for the weekend ahead, curated by the Gold Derby team of experts. (May 16-18)
The main stream
No one loves anything as much as Apple loves science fiction. But who’s complaining?
The streaming service’s latest addition to its sci-fi heavy library is Murderbot, a 10-episode series adapted from All Systems Red, the first book in Martha Wells’ award-winning Murderbot Diaries series of novels. The show — the first two episodes of which are now streaming on Apple TV+ — hails from Oscar nominees Chris and Paul Weitz and stars Emmy winner Alexander Skarsgård as a self-aware cyborg. Dubbed Murderbot, its purpose is to protect a group of scientists led by the empathetic Mensah (Olivier Award winner Noma Dumezweni) as they explore the surface of an uninhabited planet. However, if you’d ask Murderbot, its mission is to binge-watch every episode of the long-running space opera The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon without anyone realizing it has free will. Unfortunately, this very important work is regularly interrupted by the fragile beings it’s meant to protect, who treat it like one of their own, a baffling decision Murderbot doesn’t understand. With easily digestible 25-minute episodes, a well-deployed sense of humor, and a strong performance from Skarsgård, Murderbot is the awards contender to watch this weekend.
If exploring other worlds and the human condition isn’t your cup of tea, consider these other contenders:
- Welcome to Wrexham: FX’s Emmy-winning docuseries following the triumphs of the third-oldest professional football club in the world returns this week. For three seasons, viewers have celebrated alongside the Welsh team, owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, as it has beaten the odds and successfully climbed through the tiers of the English football league system. Now Season 4, featuring appearances from Tom Brady and Channing Tatum, takes fans back into the locker room and onto the pitch as the cameras chronicle yet another incredible season on the way to the team’s historic back-to-back-to-back promotions. The premiere is now streaming on Hulu.
- Duster: Welcome back to TV, Josh Holloway! The Lost star teams with Emmy winner J.J. Abrams and showrunner LaToya Morgan for this action-packed 1970s-set drama with an appropriately rockin’ soundtrack. Holloway stars as Jim Ellis, a fearless driver for a crime syndicate who begins to question everything he thought he knew about the powerful man at the top (Keith David) once a young but determined FBI agent (Rachel Hilson) comes to town and sets her sights on dismantling his growing empire. The series premiere is now streaming on Max.
- Overcompensating: Created by and starring Benito Skinner, Amazon’s newest series is a college-set comedy following Benny (Skinner), a closeted freshman who had it all in high school — we’re talking star athlete, homecoming king, and the valedictorian — and Carmen (Wally Baram), an outsider who just wants to fit in. After becoming fast friends, they embark together on a wild journey to find out who they are. Guest stars include everyone from Andrea Martin, Connie Britton, and Kyle MacLachlan to Megan Fox, Charli XCX, and James Van Der Beek. All eight episodes are now streaming on Prime Video.
Home movies
After a brutally long wait, The Brutalist is finally streaming on Max. The million epic won three Academy Awards in March — Best Actor for Adrien Brody (his second win), Best Cinematography for Lol Crawley, and Best Original Score for Daniel Blumberg — and was nominated for 10 in total, including Best Picture and Best Director for Brady Corbet. It’s one of the most acclaimed films of 2024.
The historical drama tells the story of László Tóth (Brody), a fictitious Hungarian Jewish architect who comes to America after World War II in search of the elusive American Dream. Alongside Brody, the cast includes Felicity Jones, Joe Alwyn, and Guy Pearce, who delivers a towering, terrifying, career-best performance. You can now stream the three-and-a-half-hour film on Max, where you can hit pause and take a bathroom break if needed before the intermission.
If you’ve already seen it, here are some other movies to stream or buy on-demand:
- Deaf President Now!: A landmark protest for the Deaf community is the subject of this rousing Apple TV+ documentary from Deaf activist Nyle DiMarco and Academy Award-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim. In 1988, students at Gallaudet University, America’s only institute of higher learning specifically for Deaf students, staged a protest demanding a Deaf university president over a hearing one. It started small and evolved into a Deaf rights movement. Here, the activists tell their stories. DiMarco is a Gallaudet graduate himself, and the film is his directorial debut, while Guggenheim won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2006 for An Inconvenient Truth.
- The Quilters: This documentary short tells the story of a group of incarcerated men in a maximum security Missouri prison who make beautiful, personalized quilts as birthday gifts for foster children in the surrounding area. It’s a moving portrait of redemption and meaning that made the Academy shortlist for Best Documentary Short last year. It’s now available to watch on Netflix.
- A Minecraft Movie: Minecraft may not be a cinematic masterpiece, but if you live in a household with children, you’ll likely find yourself purchasing it on Amazon, as they will want to watch it repeatedly. The blockbuster video game adaptation stars Jack Black as Steve, a man trapped in the cube-based Minecraft universe, who teams up with new visitors to the world — played by Jason Momoa, Emma Myers, Danielle Brooks, and Sebastian Hansen — to defeat the piglins (pig goblins) who have been holding him captive. With the home release, you can let a live chicken loose in your living room when Steve says, “Chicken jockey!” if you wish, and no one can tell you to leave.
- Snow White: Disney’s ill-fated live-action version of the studio’s very first animated feature. While Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is one of the most important movies ever made, Snow White is not, and the endless string of controversies surrounding its production and its star, Rachel Zegler, overshadowed a film that wasn’t guaranteed to succeed with audiences anyway. But now that the furor around Snow White has died down, you can watch it in a less charged climate on VOD platforms like Amazon and decide for yourself how you feel about it. Your kids might enjoy the songs.