Stream On This Week: An MCU Gem Returns, Project Hail Mary Debuts, and Tom Everett Scott Recommends!

Welcome to the latest issue of Stream On, the weekly newsletter from Consequence that answers the eternally confounding question: What films and TV shows should you be watching? (Subscribe here!) We’re looking at all the new and recent releases from Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Prime Video, Paramount+, Peacock, HBO Max, and more for ideas — not to mention a Blast From the Past and streaming recommendations from this week’s special guest: Elle star Tom Everett Scott!

This Week’s Picks

X-Men ’97 Season 2 (TV)

Cast: Ray Chase, Jennifer Hale, Alison Sealy-Smith, Cal Dodd, J. P. Karliak, Lenore Zann, George Buza, A. J. LoCascio, Holly Chou, Isaac Robinson-Smith, Matthew Waterson, Ross Marquand, Adrian Hough
Streaming on: Disney+

You’ll want to revisit the Season 1 finale of X-Men ’97 before diving into Season 2, but oh what fun is in store! The Marvel animated series continues its fidelity to its namesake, which introduced the high-octane action and soap opera of the X-Men comics to a whole generation of young fans, all while continuing the great character stories established before. Only the early episodes of the season were made available to critics in advance, so all I can tease at this stage is that these first three installments each focus on a specific set of mutants coping with the X-Men becoming unstuck in time. Very excited to see how the rest of the season unfolds.

Project Hail Mary (Film)

Directed by: Phil Lord, Christopher Miller
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, Lionel Boyce, Ken Leung, Milana Vayntrub, James Ortiz
Streaming on: MGM+, Prime Video (beginning July 3rd)

Project Hail Mary currently reigns as my favorite movie of the year (controversial, I know) — it’s been available on MGM+ for a few weeks now, but I held back on recommending it here because, well, how many people actually subscribe to MGM+? This Friday, it is finally making its way to corporate sister Prime Video — will it play as beautifully on your home TV as it did on a big screen? Maybe not. But at home you can put on subtitles during all the science talk, and that’s always nice. Plus, the power of friendship always comes through.

Deli Boys Season 2 (TV)

Created by: Abdullah Saeed
Cast: Asif Ali, Saagar Shaikh, Poorna Jagannathan, Alfie Fuller, Brian George, Fred Armisen
Streaming on: Hulu

If this is the first you’re hearing of Deli Boys, know that it’s a quick show to catch up on, and it’s also a really well-done blend of crime and comedy, like if The Sopranos was led by two fumbling newcomers to gangster-dom. Fortunately, they have the incredible Poorna Jagannathan as their Aunty Lucky to guide them — though her guidance tends to involve a predilection towards violence. Season 2 introduces Fred Armisen as a ruthless casino owner/money launderer, which understandably shakes up the series a great deal, with Andrew Rannells and Kumail Nanjiani also appearing in recurring roles.

How to Make a Killing (Film)

Directed by: John Patton Ford
Cast: Glen Powell, Margaret Qualley, Jessica Henwick, Bill Camp, Zach Woods, Topher Grace, Ed Harris
Streaming on: HBO Max

Speaking of crime! How to Make a Killing (inspired in part by the movie Kind Hearts and Coronets) makes excellent use of Glen Powell’s charm — a less charismatic actor might not be as successful at selling this story about a guy who realizes that great fortune could be his… If he figures out a way to eliminate the other members of his estranged, toxic family. In addition to Powell, you’ve got Margaret Qualley exploring her femme fatale side, Jessica Henwick being awesome, and folks like Zach Woods and Topher Grace unleashing new layers of inner sleeze. Overall, it’s a morally complicated light thriller with enough wit to keep things interesting — exactly the sort of small movie that plays well on a chill afternoon.

Blast From the Past

The home screens of streaming services are always packed with the latest new releases, but we don’t spend enough time appreciating how much good library content is streaming across all of these platforms. Each week, Stream On will spotlight one less-than-new favorite (must pre-date the founding of Consequence, so 15 years or older) that deserves attention from modern-day eyes.

Apollo 13 (Film)

Directed by: Ron Howard
Cast: Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, Kathleen Quinlan
Streaming on: Netflix, AMC+

Happy 250th birthday to the United States, a messy, weird, sometimes cruel and sometimes beautiful country I have loved my whole life, no matter who might be in office. In thinking about an appropriately patriotic pick for this week, Apollo 13 came to mind relatively quickly — not just because of the way it pays tribute to the incredible legacy of the space program, but because of what it celebrates: Innovation in the face of impossible challenges, and the power of people working together in the most desperate of times. That feels like America to me.

Also, it’s much more recent than Ron Howard’s opus, but for another side of the story, Hidden Figures is currently streaming on HBO Max.

A Special Guest Recommends!

Liz isn’t the only person in the world capable of suggesting stuff for people to watch… So each week, Stream On will now feature picks from a special guest! Said special guest could be literally anyone from the world of entertainment — actors, writers, directors, musicians, or anyone else Liz thinks might be watching something interesting.

This Week: Tom Everett Scott!

Who Are They? No matter his age, Tom Everett Scott’s got one of those all-time great faces, breaking out in Tom Hanks’ That Thing You Do! and then starring in an eclectic array of projects, including the underrated dark comedy Dead Man on Campus, Van Wilder, Boiler Room, Because I Said So, and more.

I spoke directly with Tom during a recent junket for Prime Video’s Legally Blonde prequel series Elle — he plays the plastic surgeon father of Elle Woods, a role which, among other things, required him to learn how to fake his way through performing “Wonderwall” on guitar. (He laughed when asked if he was actually the guitarist heard on the track — “I barely got through playing the drums in That Thing You Do!“) Both of us then realized that we don’t know what the song “Wonderwall” is actually about. It was a great chat!

What Do They Recommend? Tom said that while they were shooting Elle in Vancouver, he didn’t bother hooking up his usual streaming accounts, and so he “let the YouTube algorithm wash over me and wound up watching so much live music.” Additionally, though, he came across what he called “the British version of Murder, She Wrote” — Midsomer Murders (Acorn TV, The Roku Channel, Tubi, Hoopla, Pluto TV, Prime Video), which premiered in 1998 and debuted its 25th season in 2025:

It’s somewhere in between Murder, She Wrote and Law & Order… They’re just solving all these murders that happen in this one county. And there are so many actors that are now huge stars that are bit parts in this, kind of like Law & Order — Olivia Colman, Orlando Bloom… People just pop up in it. And it’s quirky in a weird way and a little dark at times. It’s fun to watch.

Thank you so much to Tom for this pick! Also fun to watch — Elle! The very enjoyable prequel is streaming now on Prime Video.

One Last One Before Bed

Finally, let’s spotlight a movie or TV show that’s not only great, but won’t take up too much of your time: Think of this section as the answer to the question “What’s something I can watch before hitting the hay, that won’t keep me up too late?” The only rule is that it has to be less than 95 minutes if it’s a movie, or less than 30 minutes an episode if it’s a TV show. Otherwise, sky’s the limit!

Serious Matters In The Middle Of The Night (Short Film)

Directed by: Josh Copeland
Cast: Brittany Carlton, Thashana McQuiston, Devin Walls, James Rudolph, Izzi Rojas, Brontë England-Nelson, Ben Copeland, Will Sinclair, Breck Wilhite, Matt Taylor
Streaming on: YouTube

This indie short film imagines a not-too-distant future where, per the official description, “a rideshare driver traffics electronic empathy drugs to her passengers.” How that ends up becoming an off-kilter look at faith in the era of technology is hard to explain, but reveals how a small-scale script with big ideas can lead to some fantastic low-budget sci-fi. And a tight 15 minutes, to boot!

We’ll be back next week with more picks — in the meantime, stay safe out there, or better yet stay inside, where it’s definitely safe, and there’s so much film and TV to watch. Be sure to subscribe to the newsletter!