There's a reason Paramount+'s fast-paced new movie Wardriver sits at the top of the streamer's Top 10 rankings—it's a thriller, and people love them. In fact, according to FlixPatrol, most of the biggest streaming services currently have thrillers among their top five because they offer mystery, crank up the tension, and dare you to look away lest you miss something.

When it comes to in-flight entertainment, there are two kinds of flyers—the ones who gamble on the random crud on the seat-back screen or the airplane Wi-Fi and those who download their entertainment the night before. Be the second kind. TV shows offer the ultimate flexibility when flying. You can watch a single episode between the drink cart and your nap, or binge a whole season on a long-haul flight—it's your call.

Paramount+ subscribers in the U.S. can look forward to boldly going where no one has gone before, with Captain Pike and the crew of the Starship Enterprise in the fourth season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds this Thursday. But before then, if you're hunting for a flick or two for movie night this week, I've got some primo selections below.

As we round the corner into the final straight of July, Netflix still has a lot of life left in it when it comes to options that make for good weekday movie nights. Netflix U.S. viewers seem to still be flocking to the disaster doc, Shipwrecked: Nightmare at Sea, that we covered in our weekly roundup of documentaries, as it still sits in the streamer's Top 3, but if a doc isn't what you're looking for, read on.

Netflix has its fair share of exclusive titles in the form of Netflix Originals, but of all the titles in the niche library, only a few can truly be recognized for being groundbreaking. Some pioneered new film-making techniques, others raised the bar for animation, and a few have reshaped television today.

Streaming hasn't officially replaced cable or satellite TV, but it's come pretty close. According to a Pew Research Center survey, 83% of U.S. adults watch streaming services. I'm certainly someone who uses streaming, but I have noticed that some of the medium's capabilities feel antiquated. Here are the four streaming features that feel outdated in 2026.

After using Jellyfin for a while, I've finally got it running how I want. But the process wasn't without a few issues, and the software comes with a steeper learning curve than Plex. Here are some of the things I wish I knew before I started using Jellyfin.

Smart features on a TV can be very useful. You can stream content using apps such as Netflix or control your TV remotely with your smart home. You need to connect your TV to the internet to use some of these features, and doing so can expose a lot of your data.

Paying a monthly fee to stream movies and shows you already own that sit on drives in your house sounds silly when you think about it. Plex built its reputation on solving the home media problem, but it quietly put the best features behind a subscription. Jellyfin does everything Plex does, like remote streaming, mobile apps, offline downloads, metadata, and collections, and it doesn't charge you for any of it.

If you're in the market for a documentary this weekend to throw a bit of realism and fascination in between all the fire-breathing that HBO Max has been focused on for the last few weeks, then you've come to the right place. Not only has the prestige streamer's new Top 10 four-part Burning Man series, The Man Will Burn, continued to air its weekly episodes (episode 2 is now streaing), but this weekend has a couple of new additions in store, too.

With the World Cup wrapping up this weekend, we're about to have a lot of sports fans staring into their pints looking for the next thrill. Netflix might just have a few things that can help, for U.S. subscribers, including a new season of the docuseries Quarterback (read about it in this weekend's documentary roundup), and my top pick this weekend, a hilarious new golf series starring Will Ferrell (more below).

Awards don't always mean a great movie or a streaming session worth sitting through, but they do make narrowing down Netflix's extensive catalog a little easier, especially when you are getting overwhelmed by new releases that flood your home page recommendations.

If you've already binged your way through Paramount+'s fantastic new docuseries The Real Wolf of Wall Street that we included in last week's roundup, then now is the perfect time to take a dive into the streamer's vault as we unearth some juicy and controversial shows from not too long ago that still make for compelling weekend viewing.

Somehow it's 2026, and Little House on the Prairie is the most-watched show in America, adding a whole lotta wholesome to Netflix’s summer. But its documentary side just got a shot of adrenaline.

Long-haul flights are where sanity goes to die. Six to twelve hours can feel like an eternity, especially when the in-flight entertainment (if there is any) promises 400 titles, but somehow has nothing good. On my last transatlantic haul, my mental health survived on one thing–the movies I'd downloaded from before takeoff.

Streaming services have made watching movies almost frictionless. However, most people don't think much about what they're giving up for it. Every time you open Netflix or Hulu, you're not just watching something; you're being watched in return. The platform logs what you pause, what you skip, how long you hover over a thumbnail, and that data feeds into profiles that eventually get sold. If you've ever felt vaguely uneasy about how well an algorithm seems to know you, there's a reason for that, and buying used DVDs with cash is one of the few remaining ways to actually opt out.

If your Google TV seemed fast and smooth at first, but is getting slower the longer you own it, you're not alone. One of the most frustrating aspects of a smart TV is how great they are at first, but eventually get laggy, stutter, and run out of storage space. A quick unplugging helps for a few weeks, but then it's back to running slow. Thankfully, you just need to adjust a few settings, kill background tasks, and free up some space.

I’m no Apple fanboy, but I’m not afraid to admit that when it comes to streaming devices, Apple TV has been my go-to for years. One sits under the TV in my main home theater; my family uses iPhones and iPads, and it's the hub of our entertainment at home. But when I needed streaming devices for the older TV at our family cottage and for a second TV at home, the math got ugly — Apple's box currently costs over $200 new, and multiplying that across rooms that will mostly run rainy-day movies and the occasional Netflix binge felt like overkill.

Fire TV remotes are pretty good. They're stripped back and easy to use, and they put all the most common features right at your fingertips. But the lack of extra buttons makes the remote look quite limited. In fact, a series of long presses and button combos unlocks a host of shortcuts that many people never discover. Here are the best of them.