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There are roughly 47,000—oh, wait, a new Netflix Original just dropped; make that 47,001—TV shows and movies coming out each week. At Obsessed, we consider it our social duty to help you see the best and skip the rest.
We’ve already got a variety of in-depth, exclusive coverage on all of your streaming favorites and new releases, but sometimes what you’re looking for is a simple Do or Don’t. That’s why we created See/Skip, to tell you exactly what our writers think you should See and what you can Skip from the past week’s crowded entertainment landscape.
See: The Traitors Season 2
The Traitors Season 2 is even more bonkers and bloody than round one. This U.K. import finds stable footing here in America, the land of greed, where 21 reality stars face off to “murder” each other for a shot at $250,000 through skillful cunning and outrageous challenges.
Here’s Laura Bradley’s take:
“At the start of Peacock’s The Traitors Season 2, Alan Cumming—our immaculately costumed host—issues a prescient warning to all of his celebrity players. ‘In this game,’ Cumming cautions, ‘there are no BFF’s, unless ‘BFF’ stands for betrayers, fakers, and fraudsters!’ The words come out like a raspy gasp, snapping us right back into the murder mystery for another tantalizingly treacherous season.
The Traitors is essentially a celebrity-studded live-action roleplay of the game ‘Mafia’: 21 reality stars compete to split $250,000, but they must first suss out who among them is a Traitor. The show’s second season premiered on Peacock with three episodes on Thursday, and future episodes will debut one at a time on Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT. While the Faithfuls will all split the money should they make it to the end, any Traitors who remain by the finale will take all of the money and run. Each week, the Traitors meet in the castle tower to ‘murder’ a new player. The Faithfuls’ only recourse, meanwhile, are regular banishing ceremonies at the show’s roundtable—where everyone votes to decide which suspected Traitor should go home. If even one Traitor makes it to the end, the Faithfuls lose.”
Sexy Beast.
Andres Moret Urdampilleta/Paramount+See: Sexy Beast
Sexy Beast is a surprisingly decent prequel series to Jonathan Glazer’s 2000 film, taking a look at its mastermind criminals in their early, pettier days. Luckily, there’s still plenty of sex, criminal misconduct, and rollicking hedonism in the ’90s too—bowl cuts not included.
Here’s Fletcher Peters’ take:
“When folks nowadays hear the phrase ‘sexy beast,’ they might think of the furry-esque Netflix dating show Sexy Beast. Perhaps they imagine Barry Keoghan’s carnal performance in Saltburn. ‘Sexy beast’ can mean a lot of things, but let’s be clear: It truly belongs to Gal Dove, his stunning wife DeeDee, and his foolish, loud friend Don Logan.
The trio stars in Sexy Beast, a Paramount+ prequel series based on the film of the same name (streaming Jan. 25). In series creator Michael Caleo’s take on the world of Jonathan Glazer’s 2000 film, these returning characters still live up to that title. Gal, a suave British criminal played by Ray Winstone in the original film and James McArdle in the series, is—and always has been—a provocative mastermind, whose good looks and smooth moves make the refreshed story so watchable.”
Skip: Death and Other Details
Death and Other Details tries so desperately to capitalize on the popularity of the Knives Out franchise, only to come out looking like Knives Half-Sheathed. “Mandy Patinkin solves a murder on a cruise ship” isn’t enough when cruise ships are scary enough as they are!
Here’s Jesse Hassenger’s take:
“Death and Other Details is a long-form murder mystery with voiceover narration directly encouraging its audience to stay on its toes, keep on guard, be aware of the seemingly innocuous or practically invisible little clues that can eventually add up to a closed case. So it’s fitting, in a way, that the show generates so much suspicion. A little of that is directed as intended, toward the ensemble of potentially shady characters gathered on a private cruise where a murder occurs.
Most of the suspicion, though, funnels back to the program itself. It’s difficult to watch Death and Other Details without suspecting it of something untoward, if not necessarily nefarious: of smugness, of opportunism, of prioritizing attempts at cleverness over well-crafted characters. This material might have gotten away with these mild creative infractions as a feature film. As a 10-episode TV series, it doesn’t hold up to much interrogation (at least not through the first eight installments provided for review).”
Queer Eye.
Ilana Panich-Linsman/NetflixSee: Queer Eye Season 8
Queer Eye Season 8 is, for the most part, exhausting. The show is still as charming and earnest as ever, but there’s no novelty or freshness here. Returning viewers are just coming back for more of the same. Guess they should call them “the drab five.”
Here’s Barry Levitt’s take:
“Queer Eye, the Netflix reboot of the early 2000s unscripted Bravo hit, has positioned itself as the ultimate makeover show. The concept is simple: Five queer men (Antoni Porowski, Tan France, Karamo Brown, Bobby Berk, and Jonathan Van Ness) spend a week with someone, helping to improve every aspect of their life. What makes the show stand out beyond its dynamite hosts, whose chemistry can brighten the darkest day, is their unique approach.
It’s not just about a home renovation, learning to cook, or a new wardrobe (all of which happen in every episode). The Fab Five also encourage self-love and self-care. The show has earned a reputation for finding emotional honesty in the confines of reality TV, regularly delivering hilarious and touching moments in equal measure. Now entering an eighth season (streaming on Netflix Jan. 24), the Fab Five head to New Orleans to change lives, and look good doing it. The show is at its best when the hosts forge genuine connections with the people whose lives they’re changing. Take the season’s lovely standout, “Protect the Nest,” in which JVN—who gives his whole heart to every episode, and just might be the single most charming television personality in recent memory—bonds with deaf athletics director Denton. Unfortunately, these kinds of moments, the bread and butter of Queer Eye, are few and far between this season.”
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