The Best Shows and Movies to Watch This Week: Surviving Jeffrey Epstein, Project Power

Knock knock. Who's there? Orange. Orange who? Orange you glad I have some recommendations for the best shows and movies to watch on TV and streaming services this week? 

This week's picks include another documentary to watch if you can't stop thinking about the Jeffrey Epstein case, the season finale of one of HBO's best new shows, a big-budget action flick that's going to be one of Netflix's biggest movies ever, and much more.

If this isn't enough and you're looking for even more hand-picked recommendations, sign up for our free, daily, spam-free Watch This Now newsletter that delivers the best TV show picks straight to your inbox, or check out the best shows and movies this month on Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime.

Surviving Jeffrey Epstein

Sunday at 8/7c and Monday at 9/8c on Lifetime
It's been a year since sex trafficking suspect Jeffrey Epstein was found dead in his cell at a federal detention facility, and Lifetime is commemorating that grim anniversary with a two-night, four-hour docuseries about the women who survived his abuse. Epstein's death has denied them the justice they deserve, but they have another chance with the recent arrest of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's alleged accomplice, who was apprehended while this documentary was in production. The directors and survivors hustled to respond to Maxwell's arrest, and this documentary is a timely, powerful demonstration of the survivors' bravery and an indictment of the systems of wealth and power that allowed Epstein and Maxwell to operate for years while mixing with the global elite.    

Perry Mason

Sunday at 9/8c on HBO
After an encouraging start, HBO's Perry Mason has plateaued storywise (what is up with that baby resurrection and funeral riot?), but it remains one of the best-looking and well-acted new series on television, thanks to a stellar cast and truckloads of cash. Sunday's finale sees a frazzled Perry (Matthew Rhys) wrapping up his defense case of Emily Dodson while his team works overtime for one last shred of evidence to pin the murder of Charlie on corrupt cops, and the episode won't end until there's one more high-profile death and Della proves once again she's the series' heart and soul. Originally pitched as a miniseries, HBO liked what it saw enough to renew Perry Mason for a second season, and you'll get a peek at what next season's case might be as the final moments set up what's coming next. -Tim Surette

(Un)Well

Wednesday on Netflix
Have you already purchased every single product featured in Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop Lab series, but that stubborn tummy flab still won't go away? Here's another docuseries examining potentially hooey medical practices, like essential oils and fasting, for you to blindly latch onto because a guy with a ponytail said it worked. The tone of the show appears to be a series of warnings rather than actually promoting getting stung by bees to help immunodeficiency conditions, but it at least gives those who support it a chance to say why they think it works before talking to a widow of someone who died from it. -Tim Surette

Yusuf Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn

Wednesday at 9/8c on HBO
This documentary tells the story of Yusuf Hawkins, a Black teenager who in 1989 was murdered by a group of young white men in the then-largely Italian American neighborhood of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, setting off an explosive season of unrest and racial tension in the city. It's a powerful film, both for its memorialization of Hawkins through interviews with his family and friends and for its resonance in showing how the cultural problems of racism and inequity in America today have been going on for many years. Looking back at Yusuf Hawkins' story, we see how much hasn't changed, but we also see the little bit that has. The Black Lives Matter movement didn't exist then, but people were fighting for it just the same.

Ted Lasso

Series premiere Friday on Apple TV+
Jason Sudeikis returns to TV with this comedy series based on a character he created for NBC Sports promos. Ted Lasso is a small-time college football coach from Kansas who gets hired to coach a professional soccer team in England, despite having no experience coaching soccer, or even much familiarity with the sport. Typical American! The series is executive-produced by Sudeikis and Scrubs' Bill Lawrence, so you know it will have a nice balance of snark and heart. The first three episodes go live Friday, with subsequent episodes coming out weekly. 

Project Power

Friday on Netflix
Netflix recently released a list of its 10 most popular original movies as measured by number of views in their first four weeks of release, and four of the top five were action movies, with The Old Guard rapidly ascending (it's definitely already bumped Murder Mystery from the top five since the list was published). Project Power will almost certainly also make the list, because it's that kind of movie. It's an original story set in New Orleans, where a pill available on the streets either gives people superpowers for five minutes at a time or kills them. Jamie Foxx stars as a guy trying to get his daughter back because her lifeforce is being harvested for the pills. He's helped by a cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and a teenage dealer (The Deuce's Dominique Fishback). It'll be big whether or not it's good, and there's a chance it'll be good.   

Fearless

Friday on Netflix
This animated family movie will indoctrinate your children with a pro-gamer agenda. It's about a teenage slacker who's forced to play the hardest level ever when he has to babysit the superpowered children of his favorite video game character when they come out of the TV and into real life. The voice cast includes Miles Robbins (son of Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon), Yara Shahidi, Dwyane Wade, and top five dead or alive rapper Jadakiss as the video game dad, Captain Lightspeed. Netflix has put out so much stuff that this is its second piece of content called Fearless (the first was a documentary about Brazilian bull-riders). This Fearless looks like more fun than your kids will have in a Fortnite. 

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