What’s Actually Worth Watching on Netflix This Weekend
Summary: This weekend’s streaming slate has a clear crowd-puller, but the stronger picks may be the quieter ones — a new true-crime story from Ryan Murphy and an adaptation of a Polish literary classic.
Streaming services load up their libraries on Fridays, and the result can be overwhelming. This weekend, one title is getting most of the attention: a Second World War thriller directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Henry Cavill and Alan Ritchson. It is not the only strong option, though. The week’s best lists also point toward a new true-crime anthology instalment and a period drama with more on its mind than period costume.
One War Movie Leads the Pack
Ritchie’s film is pitched as an R-rated war thriller, which places it closer to his violent, wisecracking action work than to his lighter crime comedies. The casting does half the work. Cavill and Ritchson are both known for action roles, and Ritchie puts their very different physical presences in the same frame. The film has found a second life on streaming, where its straightforward appeal makes it easy to pick on a Saturday night.
What it does not offer is much subtlety. That is fine for one mood, but it helps to know what the rest of the weekend looks like before pressing play.
The latest instalment of Ryan Murphy’s Monster anthology takes on Lizzie Borden, the woman accused of murdering her father and stepmother with an axe in 1892. Borden was acquitted and spent the rest of her life in the same town. That unresolved ending is exactly why the story suits Murphy’s approach. As The Guardian notes, the series tries on various theories about what happened rather than settling on one. Ella Beatty plays Borden.
This is not a mystery set up to be solved. It is a story about how a community lives with an open accusation, and the show uses its lurid title as a way to ask whether Borden deserves the label at all.
A Polish Classic Takes a Darker Turn
The other standout is an adaptation of the 1890 novel by Bolesław Prus, one of the most celebrated works of Polish fiction. The story follows Stanisław, a working-class man who wants to climb into Warsaw’s high society, and his obsession with Izabela, the beautiful and elusive woman he believes will complete his rise.
The Guardian describes the production as lavish and imaginatively staged, so it is not a dour historical lesson. But the tone turns darker as Stanisław’s ambition curdles into paranoia. That gives the period setting a psychological edge, which makes it a good counterweight to the war movie’s brute-force thrills.
Returning Shows Keep the Menu Mixed
The same weekly round-up includes returning series such as Slow Horses and Neagley. Their presence means the weekend covers the full range: a spy drama about institutional failure, a straight-ahead action spinoff, a true-crime anthology, and a literary adaptation. That range is useful because the best way to judge a streaming slate is not by the size of its biggest title. The real question is whether the second and third choices give you something to switch to if the first one does not land.
This weekend’s answer is yes, as long as you know what you are choosing between.