The 2024 Paris Olympics were a consistent delight, with breathtaking feats of athleticism, compelling underdog stories, and, of course, plenty of video game and anime references from fans and athletes alike. But one of the most surprising parts of this year’s games for long-time watchers of the Olympics was how strong NBC’s coverage was, particularly the options available on their streaming service Peacock.
Like previous Olympics, every event was available to stream live, but the experience on Peacock was much smoother than in years past, especially with the addition of the Multiview feed (which allowed viewers to watch many events at once and pick which of them had the audio feed piped in) and the excellent Gold Zone. Gold Zone, essentially a spinoff of the very successful NFL RedZone with much of the same talent, promised to show all the medal events and every important moment of the Olympics. It delivered on that promise.
The experience wasn’t all flawless – watching replays was sometimes an arduous process, as Peacock doesn’t show a visual preview as you scroll over the time bar (and every time you clicked on a specific place in the time bar, a long series of ads would play). And when the ads weren’t for aggravating AI tools, they were for upcoming NBC programming that we can safely call uninspiring.
Even with those few quibbles, this was the first year in recent memory that NBC’s streaming platform felt up to the task of showing us the global competition. But what do you do with Peacock now? Maybe you signed up for Peacock for the Tour de France-Olympics-Paralympics (starting Aug. 28!) stretch of great international sports. Maybe you already had it and started to use it more consistently for the first time this summer. Or maybe you’re a dedicated Peacock user who’s looking to dig in more to the platform. Whatever reason you have for keeping your subscription, we’ve got you — here’s the best of what to watch on the platform.
TV
Poker Face
One of the best new shows of 2023, Rian Johnson’s Poker Face brought back Columbo’s beloved inverted detective story format (also known as a “howcatchem”) with a new face — Natasha Lyonne. Lyonne is terrific as Charlie Cale, a woman on the run who has the mysterious power to tell when people are lying. The first season had a terrific run of guest stars — Adrien Brody, Hong Chau, Lil Rel Howery, and Charles Melton, to name a few — and the fun premise allowed the show to move from situation to situation with aplomb. A second season is on its way, but no estimated release date has been announced yet. —Pete Volk
Girls 5 Eva
The heir to 30 Rock’s impressive jokes-per-minute crown, this Tina Fey-produced series follows the members of a one-hit wonder girl group as they reunite more than a decade after they first broke up. Girls5Eva features exceptionally funny performances from Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Busy Philipps, and Paula Pell, but it’s the ridiculous and hilarious musical numbers in each episode that really steal the show. —Austen Goslin
Top Chef
If top-shelf competition is what you miss most from the Olympic Games, then Top Chef might be the answer you’re looking for. The long-running reality show gathers some of the best chefs in the United States to do culinary battle, and over the last few seasons has focused on the craft of cooking more than the reality show personalities and feuds that fueled the show’s earlier seasons. All of that – plus excellent new host Kristen Kish – makes this a great time to catch up on the series’ latest season, or go back and watch the competitions from the last few years. —AG
Action
Baby Assassins
Action comedies have been in a rough place in Hollywood as of late, consistently failing to deliver on one (if not both) of the words in the genre’s name. Luckily, the Baby Assassins movies are here to help.
The franchise follows two teen girl assassins who are trying to balance their dangerous job with their desires to live like teenagers — you know, eat junk food and watch TV all day. When their boss demands they get a real job to better fit into society, many hijinks ensue. Both leads are terrific in these movies (two have been released and a third is due later this year), but special marks go to Saori Izawa, a stuntwoman who proves she has the chops to be an action lead too. —PV
SPL 2: A Time for Consequences
I’m often asked for recommendations for intro-to-martial arts movies. I love the genre, and there are many potential great starting places — Jackie Chan’s Hong Kong peak, Donnie Yen’s Ip Man movies, Bruce Lee’s catalog. But more often than not, I recommend Soi Cheang’s modern masterpiece SPL 2: A Time for Consequences.
Don’t get fooled by the number in the title: While SPL 2 is technically a sequel to SPL: Sha Po Lang (also a good movie!), the two really have nothing to do with each other and returning cast members play new characters in the second version. In this one, Wu Jing stars as an undercover cop who befriends a prison guard (Tony Jaa). Together, the two uncover a vast organ trafficking conspiracy, and work together to stop it. The movie has terrific fight choreography and great performances from its outstanding cast, and director Cheang is one of the best visual stylists currently working in the action genre. His new movie Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In is one of the very best of 2024. —PV
Shadow
Speaking of great visual stylists in the action genre, that category could start and end with the great Zhang Yimou. The legendary director may be best known for wuxia films like Hero and House of Flying Daggers, and this 2018 addition to his wuxia catalog is one the best action movies of the century.
Shadow is a period drama about an attempted coup in the Chinese royal court by an army commander. There’s plenty of court drama and twists and turns in the narrative, but the biggest appeal of the movie is in Yimou and cinematographer Zhao Xiaoding’s use of contrast between black and white. While the movie is technically in color, the visual language of the film largely sticks to black and white, down to the costumes, props, and sets. This was intended to invoke Chinese ink paintings, and the effect is remarkable. —PV
Horror
Day of the Dead
George Romero’s first movie in the “of the Dead” franchise, Night of the Living Dead, is also on the platform and well worth watching, but Day of the Dead is my favorite of the franchise and often gets overlooked in favor of its more famous predecessors. The film takes place in an underground bunker years after the breakout of the zombie apocalypse, and follows tensions between scientists and soldiers as they try to determine their best course of action. Top it off with some gnarly practical effects gore and you’ve got a great time at the movies. —PV
The Host
Parasite director Bong Joon-ho’s terrific monster movie about a family trying to survive when a strange creature suddenly appears and starts terrorizing South Korea is one of the best movies of the 2000s. It’s equal parts beautiful, haunting, and outright scary. —AG
Chucky
The most fun show on TV right now, for my money. Chucky is a ludicrously good time no matter your familiarity with the franchise — while it’s willing to go deep into the recesses of its own canon to poke fun (or just have a good time), it’s an approachable teen-focused horror series for all sorts of viewers. And yes, the excellent Brad Dourif (along with his daughter Fiona!) is back as Chucky. —PV
New movies
The Bikeriders
Loosely based on a photo-book by Danny Lyon, the new movie by Jeff Nichols (Take Shelter, Mud) follows a fictional motorcycle club as it transforms from a social group to something closer to a gang. I’ll note I haven’t seen this movie yet, but the great cast (Jodie Comer, Austin Butler, Tom Hardy, Michael Shannon, Mike Faist) and strong reviews from trusted colleagues means it’s what I’ll be watching on Peacock this weekend. —PV
Monkey Man
Dev Patel’s directorial debut sees the actor cast himself as a martial artist in India who suffers from a childhood emotional wound that never quite healed. After years of struggling to get by on money from fixed matches in underground fighting, he finds a way to get revenge, and sets off down a bloody path. —AG
Abigail
If by some miracle you haven’t seen a trailer for this movie or any hint of promotional material, you should jump straight in and enjoy one of the better horror comedies of the year. Even if you do know the premise, which the marketing disappointingly gave away, Abigail is still a pretty fun ride, with plenty of gore to keep things exciting. —AG
Sports
Tour de France Femmes
Cycling’s biggest tours are always reliable for background entertainment. They consist of many individual stages, each of them hours long, and if you’re in the United States they’re usually happening during the work day. I loved putting the Tour de France on in the background while working in July, and I’ve been doing the same with the third edition of the Tour de France Femmes, which concludes Sunday, August 18 but the replays are available on Peacock. Defector has a neat short preview of this year’s event if you want to learn more. —PV
Premier League football
While this is technically England’s top flight of football, it also might be the closest sporting league in the world to the Olympics when it comes to including players from all corners of the globe. That, combined with the constant yearly tug of promotion and relegation, mean that the Premier League always has an underdog to root for, a Goliath champion who looks seemingly unstoppable, and a parade of talent that can wow even the most casual viewer looking to pick up a new sport after the 2024 Paris games. —AG
Moneyball
A more recent entry in the sports movie Hall of Fame, Moneyball isn’t exactly a sport itself, but it’s close enough that we’re giving it credit here. Brad Pitt is excellent as former Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane, and the movie’s explanation of how Beane helped change baseball forever makes for a surprisingly exciting movie for one that’s mostly about statistics. —AG
The post What to watch on Peacock now that the Olympics are over appeared first on Polygon.
