Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of February’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)
New to Amazon Prime Video
‘Soul Power: The Legend of the American Basketball Association’ Starts streaming: Feb. 12
The American Basketball Association began operating in 1967, hoping to follow the lead of the upstart American Football League, which had been successful enough to forge a working partnership with the more established N.F.L. The docuseries “Soul Power” looks back the A.B.A.’s tumultuous nine-year existence, during which the new league’s innovations — including introducing the three-point line, encouraging slam dunks, and generally rewarding stars who played with flash — ultimately pushed the more staid N.B.A. to make changes. The documentary features insights from some A.B.A. veterans, who describe the trade-offs between the at-times thrilling freedom the league offered and what it was really like to play for its often cash-poor, sloppily run teams.
‘Paul McCartney: Man on the Run’ Starts streaming: Feb. 27
The sudden, shocking dissolution of the Beatles in 1970 left the band’s four members adrift, unsure whether to retreat from their status as rock superstars or to prove themselves as solo artists and top what they had done. Paul McCartney went small initially, making quirky little albums that confused the era’s critics. Then he formed a new band, Wings, and started working his way back to being one of the most popular musicians in the world. The director Morgan Neville’s documentary “Man on the Run” covers McCartney’s comeback years, using interviews and rare archival material — some of it shot by Paul’s photographer wife, Linda McCartney — to detail how a Beatle got back his artistic purpose and competitive spirit.
Also arriving:
Feb. 1 “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension” “La La Land”
Feb. 4 “Relationship Goals”
Feb. 11 “Cross” Season 2
Feb. 18 “56 Days”
Feb. 23 “The CEO Club” Season 1
Feb. 25 “The Bluff”
Feb. 26 “The Gray House”
New to AMC+
‘Dark Winds’ Season 4 Starts streaming: Feb. 15
One of TV’s best crime shows returns for a fourth season, with its three major characters at various crossroads. The Navajo Tribal Police Lt. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon) is contemplating big changes after his wife leaves. And Joe’s most trusted colleagues — Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) and Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) — are balancing their romantic relationship with their evolving career goals. All of these personal issues affect their latest case, which involves a missing teenager, an icy drug lord (Titus Welliver), a relentless assassin (Franka Potente) and a tense trip to Los Angeles. Adapted from the novels of Tony Hillerman, “Dark Winds” always offers a strong mix of thoughtful mystery plotting and richly drawn characters, all grounded in Native American culture.
Also arriving:
Feb. 1 “Rise of the 49ers”
Feb. 6 “Violent Ends”
Feb. 13 “Honey Bunch”
Feb. 16 “The Last Sacrifice”
Feb. 19 “True Crime Story: It Couldn’t Happen Here”
Feb. 23 “The Family Next Door”
Feb. 27 “Crazy Old Lady”
New to Apple TV
‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’ Season 2 Starts streaming: Feb. 27
Set in the same universe as the recent American-made Godzilla and King Kong movies, this ambitious action-adventure series spent much of Season 1 showing how a handful of scientists and soldiers became aware of the existence of giant monsters. Season 2 continues that story using the same narrative structure, flashing back from the present day — where the world is still reeling from a recent Godzilla attack — to the 1950s and ’60s, when a secret agency called Monarch attempted to study and understand these titans. Most of the Season 1 cast returns too, including Kurt Russell and his son Wyatt Russell, who play the same character at different ages: Lee Shaw, a U.S. Army veteran who has sacrificed everything to this mission, including friendships, romances, his career and maybe his sanity.
Also arriving:
Feb. 20 “The Last Thing He Told Me” Season 2
New to Disney+
‘The Muppet Show’ Starts streaming: Feb. 4
Nearly every attempt at reviving the Muppets on television over the past couple of decades has been entertaining; but none of those other shows have been as good as “The Muppet Show,” the original 1970s classic that combined backstage farce, variety show shenanigans and major-league celebrity guest stars. So it’s great news that at long last, Disney and The Muppets Studio are giving fans what they have been clamoring for: a full revival of the original “Muppet Show” format, with kooky sketches, pop song covers performed in elaborate production numbers, and a lot of behind-the-scenes Muppet mayhem. The bad news? For now, this is just a one-off special, co-produced by and guest-starring Sabrina Carpenter.
Also arriving:
Feb. 4 “Ancient Aliens” Season 17 “We Call It Imagineering”
Feb. 7 “Engineering Europe”
Feb. 11 “Hey A.J.!”
Feb. 13 “Arranged” Season 1 “Cartoonified! With Phineas and Ferb” “Incas: The Rise and Fall”
Feb. 14 “Chibi Tiny Tales” Season 7
Feb. 17 “RoboGobo” Season 2
Feb. 18 “Armorsaurs” “Dead Girl Summer” “History’s Greatest Mysteries” Season 6 “A Roommate to Die For” “A Sorority Mom’s Guide to Rush” “Storage Wars” Season 16 “Trapped in Her Dorm Room”
Feb. 26 “Inside the C.I.A.: Secrets and Spies” “To Catch a Smuggler” Season 10
Feb. 27 “Ancient Autopsy: Mysteries of the Dead” Season 1 “Miraculous World: Tokyo Stellar Force” “Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess”
Feb. 28 “Danger Decoded”
New to HBO Max
‘Last Week Tonight With John Oliver’ Season 13 Starts streaming: Feb. 15
Through its first 12 seasons, this HBO political comedy series has won 32 Emmys, including seven for outstanding talk series and 10 in the category of outstanding writing for a variety series. “Last Week Tonight” has become such a cultural institution and such a big part of American sociopolitical discourse that fans can get a little edgy whenever the show is on an extended hiatus — especially when the daily news is as frightening and confusing as it has been since Season 12 wrapped, back in November. When Season 13 premieres, John Oliver and his astute team of writers and researchers will have a lot to work to do — and a lot of material to work with.
Also arriving:
Feb. 2 “Madame Beja” Season 1
Feb. 6 “Boys Go to Jupiter”
Feb. 13 “Neighbors” Season 1
Feb. 15 “Like Water for Chocolate” Season 2
Feb. 19 “Murder in Glitterball City”
Feb. 20 “Banksters” Season 1 “Dead of Winter” “Fit for a Killer” “Portobello” “Surviving the Jehovah’s Witnesses”
New to Hulu
‘Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette’ Starts streaming: Feb. 12
Following the path laid down by “American Crime Story,” “American Sports Story” and “Feud,” the newest Ryan Murphy-produced anthology series is focused on real-life romances that made headline news in their day. Created by Connor Hines (adapting an Elizabeth Beller book), the first season of “Love Story” transports viewers back to the 1990s, when John F. Kennedy Jr. (Paul Kelly) was both a scandal-prone playboy and potentially his generation’s next great politician. Sarah Pidgeon plays Carolyn Bessette, the Calvin Klein stylist who captured J.F.K. Jr.’s imagination and then was whisked into a world of paparazzi and American aristocracy. Naomi Watts plays Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Grace Gummer plays Caroline Kennedy, two women who keep a close eye on the couple, knowing firsthand the high stakes of any Kennedy fling.
‘Paradise’ Season 2 Starts streaming: Feb. 23
The first season of this conspiracy thriller delivered twists upon twists, beginning with a first episode that featured both the mysterious murder of a U.S. president and the revelation that the story is mostly set in an elaborate postapocalyptic underground bunker. The season ended with the secret service agent Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) learning that the surface of the Earth is still habitable, and that his wife may be alive up there. As Season 2 begins, he’s on a mission outside the bunker, while Samantha Redmond (Julianne Nicholson) — the billionaire who founded and controls the underground society — is dealing with challenges to her leadership. It shouldn’t take long for everything in “Paradise” to change again, though. This is the kind of show that keeps the surprises coming.
‘Scrubs’ Season 1 Starts streaming: Feb. 26
After the feel-good medical sitcom “Scrubs” ended its eighth season in 2009 — with an episode titled “My Finale” — the series returned later that same year with a short-lived reboot, featuring a mostly new cast of young interns. Now, 16 years after that reboot, the show is rebooting again, but this time with more of a focus on the original characters, and a few new faces. The “Scrubs” narrator Dr. John Dorian (Zach Braff), known as J.D., returns to Sacred Heart hospital, alongside his best bud Dr. Christopher Turk (Donald Faison); his sometime romantic partner, Dr. Elliot Reid (Sarah Chalke); and his cranky mentor Dr. Perry Cox (John C. McGinley). The creator Bill Lawrence serves as the executive producer, while the showrunner is Aseem Batra, a writer and actor on the earlier series.
Also arriving:
Feb. 2 “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”
Feb. 6 “Splitsville”
Feb. 9 “The Good Place” Seasons 1-4
Feb. 10 “The Artful Dodger” Season 2 “Clown in a Cornfield”
Feb. 11 “The Scream Murder: A True Teen Horror Story”
Feb. 16 “Beyblade X” Season 28
Feb. 17 “Urchin”
Feb. 19 “Girl on the Run: The Hunt for America’s Most Wanted Woman”
Feb. 20 “Watching You” Season 1
Feb. 27 “Kiss of the Spider Woman”
New to Peacock
‘The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins’ Season 1 Starts streaming: Feb. 24
Robert Carlock, one of the producers of “30 Rock” and “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” cocreated this fast-paced and sweetly silly mockumentary series with his frequent collaborator, Sam Means. Tracy Morgan plays the title character, a disgraced former N.F.L. superstar who tries to rehabilitate his reputation by paying for a documentary about himself. Daniel Radcliffe plays Arthur Tobin, a formerly acclaimed filmmaker whose career tanked when he botched his chance to make a Marvel movie. “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” combines scenes from the documentary with scenes from it being made, and generates much of its comedy from the tension between the hard-hitting expose Arthur wants to make and the puff piece Reggie is hoping for.
Also arriving:
Feb. 5 “Field Generals: History of the Black Quarterback”
Feb. 8 “The ‘Burbs” Season 1
Feb. 26 “House of Villains” Season 3
The post The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Disney+, Amazon, HBO Max, Peacock and More in February appeared first on New York Times.
