Looking for some great TV to watch this weekend on Netflix? If you’re not currently wrapped up in season two of One Piece like I am, or still have the Peaky Blinders movie on your watch list, I’ve got a handful of shows you can nestle into this weekend.
This roundup includes a darkly hilarious series that will be returning with a second season soon, a steamy new dramatic comedy starring Rachel Weisz, an Emmy-nominated animated series about a washed-up horse, and one of the funniest sort-of travel shows I’ve ever seen. Let’s go!
4
Beef
A road rage rivalry is taken to hilarious extremes
The hugely popular Emmy-winning Netflix series Beef hit home for so many viewers because, at some level, we’ve all lived out the show’s all-consuming, ridiculously over-the-top rage feud in our minds at one time or another. Beef allows you to live vicariously through its characters to supremely hilarious effect. What starts as a seemingly basic road rage incident between Danny (The Walking Dead‘s Steven Yuen), a struggling contractor drowning in debt, and Amy (Always Be My Maybe‘s Ali Wong), a supposedly “zen” lifestyle entrepreneur who is actually a ball of repressed rage, snowballs into an obsessive and petty rivalry that threatens to ruin their lives.
Yuen and Wong are just perfect together, as the show exposes life’s pressures and the hidden volatility living in all of us—it just so happens to boil over with Danny and Amy. Created by Korean writer/director Lee Sung Jin and produced by A24, Beef heads into its second anticipated season on April 16, leaving you enough time to catch up before it starts.
3
Vladimir
A professor’s midlife crisis crosses lines and gets steamy
If you like dark and funny shows that break the fourth wall, a la Fleabag, and that poke a little fun at mid-life crises, then give Vladimir a try. Based on the 2022 novel of the same name by playwright Julia May Jonas, Vladimir stars Rachel Weisz, who is devilishly funny as the unnamed protagonist, M, a fifty-something professor/novelist at a liberal arts college who’s feeling like her life has stalled. While her husband John (Mad Men’s great John Stanley) is caught up in a sexual misconduct scandal, M is spiraling.
That is, until Vladimir (Leo Woodall), a young, hunky new professor, arrives at the school and ignites a perhaps unhealthy obsession of fantasy and desire in M. Lines between reality and imagination are crossed in often dark and funny ways as M unhinges—made even funnier by her direct-to-camera narration. Vladimir is just eight half-hour episodes that can easily be binged in a few days.
2
BoJack Horseman
Will Arnett stars as a washed-up sitcom star who happens to be a horse
Don’t be fooled, BoJack Horseman isn’t just a weird cartoon about a horse living in Hollywood. And if you haven’t given it a chance, you should, because it’s a supremely funny, honest, and surprisingly emotional show about fame, failure, and self-destruction. One of Netflix’s first forays into adult animation, BoJack Horseman streamed for six seasons from 2014 to 2020, and earned three Emmy nominations.
It follows the titular BoJack (voiced by Will Arnett), the washed-up star of ’80-’90s sitcom Horsin’ Around, as he struggles with his dead career and wallows in booze-soaked self-pity from his house in the Hollywood Hills. The supporting voice cast is stellar, too, and features Alison Brie as his human ghostwriter Diane, the brilliant Amy Sedaris as his Persian cat agent Princess Carolyn, and Aaron Paul as his slacker roommate, Tood. Comedian Paul F. Tomkins also shines as BoJack’s polar opposite, the eternally optimistic golden retriever, Mr. Peanutbutter. BoJack Horseman has a whopping 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is widely considered one of Netflix’s greatest originals.
1
Cunk On Earth
A hilarious travel mockumentary with deadpan brilliance
I love a good nature or travel docuseries, but I do find that they can sometimes be a bit stuffy (no shade thrown at the GOAT, David Attenborough). Cunk On Earth is a brilliantly satirical five-part mockumentary series starring British comedian, actress, and writer Diane Morgan, who plays the show’s wonderfully deadpanned and ill-informed host Philomena Cunk, who travels the world in an attempt to trace the entire history of human civilization.
The best part of Cunk On Earth is Cunk’s interviews with actual professors and historical experts who have no idea what’s coming to them. Cunk tackles everything from The Middle Ages and the Great Wall of China to the Pyramids (“It’s obviously just big bricks in a triangle”), and travels from Italy and Greece to America, Iraq and France asking some of the best stupid questions ever. The series, which only has a single season, is a must-watch and currently has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Cunk on Earth
- Release Date
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January 31, 2023
Cast
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Diane Morgan
Philomena Cunk
At How-To Geek, we scour all the streaming services for the best movies and shows for you to watch every week and weekend. Check back each week for more, because we want to help you get the most out of your Netflix subscription.
- Subscription with ads
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Yes, $8/month
- Simultaneous streams
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Two or four
Stream licensed and original programming with a monthly Netflix subscription.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
