25 Great Things to Watch on Max This Spring

Blue Velvet (1986, R) 

Is this neo-noir masterpiece already on your watchlist as homage since David Lynch's death in January? If not, it should be. Then just try to walk past a picket fence and not scan the grass for a severed ear.

Watch Blue Velvet

In the Mood for Love (2000, PG) 

How’s this for a meet-cute? Two neighbors (Maggie Cheung, 60, and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, 62) in early 1960s Hong Kong suspect their spouses of cheating on them — and that shared anxiety deepens theirrelationship. Lushly shot and beautifully scored, Wong Kar-wai’s critically acclaimed romantic drama is swoonworthy.

Watch In the Mood for Love

The Florida Project (2017, R) 

After director Sean Baker’s 2025 Oscar bonanza Anora, take a moment with his beautiful examination of another bundle of lives on society’s fringes – in this case, a six-year-old girl and her mom living hand-to-mouth in a budget motel near Disney World. This is the one that made him famous.

Watch The Florida Project

The Lighthouse (2019, R) 

No matter your take on this year’s Nosferatu, it’s absolutely worth catching writer-director Robert Eggers’s earlier, arguably weirder and wonderful film about two 19th-century lighthouse keepers (Willem Dafoe, 69, and Robert Pattinson), marooned together in a New England storm. 

Watch The Lighthouse

Stream two recent theatrical hits

Juror #2 (2024, PG-13)

Critics felt that this legal thriller from indefatigable director-producer Clint Eastwood, 94, got a bit lost in the shuffle at the theaters. In a high-profile murder trial, a journalist juror (Nicholas Hoult, The Great) realizes he might be the person actually responsible for the victim’s death. Cozy in and give Clint a chance to pin you to the sofa. 

Watch Juror #2

I Saw the TV Glow (2024, PG-13)

Horror films just seem to get better and better (and more numerous), so you may have missed the theatrical run of director Jane Schoenbrun’s psychological tale of teens Owen and Maddie, who bond over a supernatural TV show … until things go terribly wrong. 

Watch I Saw the TV Glow

Did you miss these TV gems the first time? Now’s your chance

Barry (2018–2023)

For a batch of black humor, dip into this Emmy-award winning HBO dark comedy/crime drama starring Bill Hader as a hitman who ends up in acting classes, plus a new career among the “killers” of Hollywood. It's worth the watch just for Henry Winkler, 79, as Barry’s eccentric acting coach, one of his richest roles ever. 

Watch Barry

Pushing Daisies (2007-2009)

Here’s ABC's seven-Emmy winner you never heard of, likely, as it came and went in two seasons. Which is why it’s a perfect streaming project now: Check out the quirky dramedy about a pie maker (Lee Pace) who can bring people back to life. Think of it as The Good Place, but with dessert!

Watch Pushing Daisies

Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014)

Rich with great performances (including Emmy winner Steve Buscemi, 67) and HBO-level production values, this crime drama set in Prohibition-era Atlantic City is the perfect watch for cozy nights. 

Watch Boardwalk Empire

Enlightened (2011–2013)

If you love Mike White’s The White Lotus, go back and spend two seasons with his brief but equally sharp and funny series about a high-strung executive (Laura Dern, 57, who snagged a Best Actress Golden Globe for the role) trying to build back her life after a breakdown. 

Watch Enlightened

Veep (2012–2019)

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 64, triumphs comedically, along with a stellar supporting cast, in this razor-sharp and often profane satirical sitcom about presidential (and vice-presidential) politics.

Watch Veep

I May Destroy You (2020)

This single-season dark comedy from Great Britain (written, directed by, and starring Michaela Coel) drew acclaim for its bold and unstinting narrative about a novelist’s life after being raped. Tough stuff, but absolutely worth a watch. 

Watch I May Destroy You

Somebody Somewhere (2022-2024)

As HBO’s beloved, all-too-brief series aired its final, third season in late 2024, the fan base seemed to grow and grow (perhaps too late). Join the crowds who have discovered the beauty of Bridget Everett’s Sam, who comes home to her rural small town to tend to a dying sister and learns to love and trust again amid her marvelously diverse (and hilarious) friends and sister.  

Watch Somebody Somewhere

Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (2022-2023)

Like numerous HBO gems that are somehow buried by HBO juggernauts, this fast-paced, absorbing drama about the Kareem-and-Magic era of the Los Angeles Lakers (with John C. Reilly, 57, as colorful team owner Jerry Buss) eked out only two seasons. Which is a shame, because Winning Time is a winner worth watching.

Watch Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty

Go full prestige-TV with this trio

Succession (2018–2023)

Is it too soon to return to the roiling dynamics of media tycoon Logan Roy (Brian Cox, 78) and his scheming, striving offspring? Absolutely not. And if you thought you couldn’t handle the machinations of showrunner Jesse Armstrong’s late-stage-capitalism clan, give it another go. The writing is searingly funny as the tragedies mount. This is must-see prestige TV.

Watch Succession

The Sopranos (1999–2007)

Are you one of those people who never watched the series that is credited with inventing prestige TV, and putting HBO on the map as its wellspring? Now’s your chance to head back to Jersey and showrunner David Chase’s criminally captivating criminals. 

Watch The Sopranos

The Wire (2002–2008)

Coming of age alongside, but not in the shadow of, The Sopranos, David Simon’s innovative examination of life and times in Baltimore, from cops and drug dealers to politicians and newspaper editors, was a dramatic tour de force full of memorable characters and bravura performances. 

Watch The Wire