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Week of February 28 – March 6

It’s another huge week for television, which is a good thing for those of us that are still shaking off the last of the great winter storms. On the docket this week are a buzzy new HBO Sunday night drama (“DTF St. Louis”), a new “Yellowstone” spinoff on network TV (“Marshals” on CBS) and a Netflix movie where Alan Ritchson fights a giant intergalactic robot (“War Machine”). Plus a new Guy Ritchie-directed Sherlock Holmes show (“Young Sherlock” on Prime Video) and a sexy Rachel Weisz drama (“Vladimir” on Netflix). Everybody gets something this week.

On with the television! 

DTF St. Louis

Sunday, March 1 at 9 p.m., HBO

Source: HBO

Steven Conrad, the darkly observant writer of “Wrestling Ernest Hemingway” and Gore Verbinski’s “The Weather Man,” returns to television after creating Prime Video’s “Patriot” and co-creating (with Bruce Terris) “Perpetual Grace, LTD” for Epix, series as beloved as they were short-lived.

In “DTF St. Louis,” Jason Bateman plays a local weatherman who becomes friends with an American Sign Language interpreter played by David Harbour. In the first episode, which jumps along the timeline and also freely mixes tones and styles, Bateman’s Clark introduces Harbour’s Floyd to DTF St. Louis, an app for those who want to open up their marriage.

That can only lead to some very dark stuff. And it does. By the end of the episode, someone is dead and a pair of detectives (Richard Jenkins and Joy Sunday) have entered the series, attempting to put the pieces together. Conrad wrote and directed the seven-episode series, which is a darkly hilarious spin on the middle-class, suburban malaise that we have seen countless times before. This is really unlike any show that you’ve seen recently – or maybe at all. And we can’t wait to see where “DTF St. Louis” goes. It’s one of the first must-see series of 2026. [TRAILER]

The Beauty

Wednesday, March 4 at 9 p.m., FX

Source: FX

While “Love Story” (formerly known as “American Love Story”) is currently airing on FX, another Ryan Murphy production is wrapping up – at least for now. “The Beauty,” created by Murphy and Matthew Hodgson and based on the comic book series Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley, concerns The Beauty, a treatment that can turn back the clock. Of course, people start dying and all manner of Murphy-approved body horror runs amok. Will there be more installments of “The Beauty” or is this it? Only one way to find out. [TRAILER] 

War Machine

Friday, March 6, Netflix

Source: Netflix

Alan Ritchson, the star of Prime Video’s extremely popular “Reacher,” gets a big, muscular action movie all its own. And it’s a hoot. In “War Machine,” Ritchson plays a slightly over-the-hill soldier who attempts to become an Army Ranger after a promise made to his deceased brother (Jai Courtney in a brief but memorable role).

Training to be an Army Ranger is, as you can imagine, very difficult, especially when his commanding officers are a couple of hard-asses played by Esai Morales and Dennis Quaid. But he makes it to the final training exercise with his squad only to uncover something … otherworldly. Then he and his squad (including the always excellent Stephan James) are forced to fight for their lives against something they can barely understand.

Smartly directed by Australian filmmaker Patrick Hughes and full of tense, violent set pieces and a nifty creature design, “War Machine” is a throwback to a simpler time when a high-concept and a big star was all you needed to make a movie a hit.  If “War Machine” was made and marketed in the 1980s, it’d probably have a poster that simply read “Ritchson vs. Robot.” And, really, what more do you need? Besides, of course, a 2-liter bottle of RC Cola and a copious amount of popcorn, we mean. [TRAILER]

The Dinosaurs

Friday, March 6, Netflix

Source: Netflix

Steven Spielberg, the director of “Jurassic Park” and “The Lost World” and the producer of all subsequent installments in the prehistoric series, has become so synonymous with dinosaurs that he is even crossing over into nonfiction territory.

“The Dinosaurs,” produced by Spielberg and his Amblin Entertainment shingle, is described as a “new, four-episode documentary series charting the story of the rise and fall of the dinosaurs — where they came from, why they mattered, how they evolved, and how they met their ultimate fate.”

It's basically "Planet Earth" for dinosaurs.

Narrated by Morgan Freeman and featuring computer-generated dinosaurs from Industrial Light & Magic, the same visual effects house that brought the dinosaurs of “Jurassic Park” to life in 1993, this is the rare must-see documentary series that has a truly cinematic pedigree. [TRAILER]

Hamnet

Friday, March 6, Peacock

Source: Focus Features

“Hamnet,” which is currently nominated for a whopping eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director (for Chloe Zhao) and Best Actress (for Jessie Buckley), finally hits streaming next Friday, but if you can't wait, it’s one of those movies that is very much worth the price of a sale or rental on whatever digital platform you prefer.

Based on the 2020 novel by Maggie O’Farrell, who co-wrote the screenplay with Zhao, it imagines the life of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife Anne Hathaway (Buckley) and the tragedy that befell their family and ultimately led to his play “Hamlet,” now considered an immortal classic. Zhao, who directed the Oscar-winning “Nomadland” and Marvel Studios’ underrated “Eternals,” gives the story a lyrical beauty, particularly towards the end, with a climax that will leave you weeping audibly.

But this isn’t some downer of a movie, it’s a celebration of life and its preciousness, rendered meticulously by some of the most incredible actors and craftspeople of their generation. (Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes produced it.) “Hamnet” is a singular and singularly moving experience and you’d better catch up now, before it takes home some trophies next month. [