Staying Fit
What’s on this week? Whether it’s what’s on cable, streaming on Prime Video or Netflix, or opening at the movie theater, we’ve got your must-watch list. Start with TV and scroll down for movies. It’s all right here.
On TV this week …
We Were the Lucky Ones (Hulu)
Georgia Hunter's novel inspired by her family's history is now an action-packed, eight-hour miniseries about the Kurc clan, who survived the Holocaust when 90 percent of Polish Jews did not. One character voices their philosophy: “Hope is not a crime. I think it a necessity.”
Watch it: We Were the Lucky Ones, March 28 on Hulu
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STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces (Apple TV+)
Comic turned A-list actor Steve Martin, 78, gets the documentary treatment from A-list director Morgan Neville (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?).
Watch it: STEVE! (martin) a documentary in 2 pieces, March 29 on Apple TV+
A Gentleman in Moscow (Paramount+ with Showtime)
All Creatures Great and Small auteur Ben Vanstone presents the tale of Count Rostov (Ewan McGregor, 52), sentenced by Bolsheviks to house arrest in the Metropol Hotel, where he watches Russian history unfold from 1922 to 1958 (if he steps outside, he’ll be shot). He deals with secret police, sips Châteauneuf-du-Pape, drinks in the beauty of a visiting movie star (McGregor’s real-life wife, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, 39), and observes, “It is the business of times to change, and gentlemen to change with them.”
Watch it: A Gentleman in Moscow, March 29 on Paramount+ with Showtime
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Parish, Season 1 (AMC, AMC+)
Liked Giancarlo Esposito, 65, as meticulous criminal Gus Fring in Better Call Saul? Try this twisty, pedal-to-the-metal crime show, with Esposito in the somewhat similar role of Gray Parish, a broke taxi-company owner whose self-sabotaging ex-con bestie (Skeet Ulrich, 54) gets him a gig with Zimbabwean gangsters invading New Orleans.
Watch it: Parish, March 31 on AMC, AMC+
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Chaplin (1992, PG-13)
Robert Downey Jr., 58, who just won his first Oscar for his supporting role in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, first captured the Academy’s attention for his nominated turn as Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin. Richard Attenborough’s biopic can be formulaic, but Downey nails Chaplin’s all-over-London accent (sometimes Cockney, sometimes posh) and his gift for sidesplitting slapstick. —Thom Geier (T.G.)
Watch it: Chaplin, April 1 on Prime Video
Don’t miss this: ‘Frasier’ Star Kelsey Grammer at 69: What I Know Now on AARP Members Only Access
Your Netflix Watch of the Week is here!
Sex and the City (Seasons 1-6)
Who says giant corporate streaming services can’t play nice? The iconic HBO series about 30-something besties in turn-of-the-millennium Manhattan strides to Netflix on its stylish Manolo Blahniks (the comedy will still be streaming on Max). It’s a great chance to catch up with Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw and all her tutu-wearing foibles in search of Mr. Right (or, in her case, Mr. Big).
Watch it: Sex and the City, April 1 on Netflix
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Your Prime Video Watch of the Week is here!
House (2004-12)
For eight seasons, Hugh Laurie, 64, created an indelible portrait of a curmudgeonly, pill-popping physician with a unique ability to sniff out unusual diagnoses. The show continues to hold appeal for fans of hospital dramas, mysteries and WebMD.
Watch it: House on Prime Video
Don’t miss this: The 11 Best Things Coming to Prime Video in April
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What’s new at the movies …
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Carol Doda Topless at the Condor, R
More nostalgic than risqué, Carol Doda Topless at the Condor focuses on the cocktail waitress turned go-go dancer turned topless lounge star. With fans from Frank Sinatra to Liberace, North Beach’s number 1 attraction based at the Condor Club gained fame and notoriety by entering the stage atop a signature white piano lowered from the ceiling. The blond bombshell came to define San Francisco’s Broadway strip club culture from the 1960s to the 1980s, when the popularity of the first public topless dancer sagged. The film, jam-packed with historical footage, is a fun and fascinating tour of a vice that seems benign in retrospect in the age of ubiquitous internet porn. Alas, Doda was an early user of silicone shot straight into her ever-growing breasts — a practice that had many negative medical outcomes as she aged. —Thelma M. Adams (T.M.A.)
Watch it: Carol Doda Topless at the Condor, March 29 in theaters
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ A Cat’s Life, PG
Young Parisian Clémence (Capucine Sainson-Fabresse) discovers an adventurous brown tabby in her attic, adopts him despite maternal resistance and names the kitten Lou. As the furball grows up in this charming, low-tech French film dubbed in English, so does the freckled and curious Clémence. The months pass. They visit the countryside, where Lou gets in touch with his wild side — and a white female playmate — and his owner deals with attachment and loss. Her parents divorce. Lou disappears into the forest. Meanwhile, over time, both cat and kid develop a relationship with the salty loner lady of the countryside, Madeleine (the great comic actress and Captain Marleau star Corinne Masiero, 60). Lovable leaping and nail-biter escapes from wild animals ensue as Clémence discovers the great joys, and attached sadnesses, of loving a cat with a will of its own. She learns empathy and joy, one purr, one death-defying leap, one loss at a time in a rare family movie of gentle pleasures. —T.M.A.
Watch it: A Cat’s Life, March 29 in theaters
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