Are you ready for it? No, not for Taylor Swift, for M. Night Shyamalan. This week, the master of twists turns the frenzy of a pop star’s concert into a captivating new thriller. And there are more serial killers afoot: in Netflix’s latest teen crime drama and another season of its rebooted Unsolved Mysteries. Elsewhere on streaming, a new Batman animated series also battles corruption, and Matt Damon and Casey Affleck try to pull off heists in an Apple TV+ movie. I thought there was more to this weekend than murder and crime solving, but after looking at the list again, damn, maybe that’s the theme. —Savannah Salazar
Featured Presentations
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Trap
Imagine being trapped at the Eras tour. Maybe some of y’all would like that, but in M. Night Shyamalan’s Trap, a serial killer (Josh Harnett) and his unknowing daughter are surrounded in a sting operation during a Lady Raven concert (a Taylor Swift equivalent played by Shyamalan’s daughter, Saleka Shyamalan). —S.S.
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A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
You may remember Emma Meyers from Wednesday, but now she’s leading her own series, as a student with an investigative streak named Pip Fitz-Amobi. Five years after the murder of a teen and the conviction of that teen’s boyfriend, Pip has a feeling the real murderer is still out there. Maybe this is Nancy Drew for Gen Z. —S.S.
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Batman: Caped CrusaderÂ
From Matty Reeves’s The Batman film to HBO’s upcoming spinoff series The Penguin, pop culture will never let Gotham go. HBO Max canceled a Reeves project about Batman, the animated Caped Crusader, in 2022, and its loss is Prime Video’s gain. Batman: Caped Crusader is an entertaining spin on an old formula that reimagines versions of classic villains in an old-timey corruption story. —Roxana Hadadi
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Carmen Christopher: Live From the Windy City
Maybe you recognize Carmen Christopher from The Bear or from his pandemic-era Street Special. Maybe you’ve somehow wandered over onto the streaming platform Veeps and thought, What is this? Christopher’s new special is a solid watch for anyone who just wants a well-built special with a nontoxic dudes-rock vibe. —Kathryn VanArendonk
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Unsolved Mysteries season 4
I’m such a sucker for these creepy crime stories. Even though afterward I need, at least, three Sex and the City episodes to wash the taste of Unsolved Mysteries away. Netflix is premiering four episodes, with five more to come. For a bingeable show like this, that’s quite annoying, but oh well. —S.S.
The One-Sentence Review
The Instigators
“It’s a role that plays into Casey Affleck’s defeated aura and wiseass edge — Cobby is basically doing color commentary on his own life, as though he isn’t an active participant in his own bad decisions.â€
Kids Corner
Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie
In this new film from the perpetual IP machine that is the SpongeBob franchise, we learn a little bit more about Sandy Cheeks, meet her family, and watch her fly. If you have little ones, it’s probably already in the watch queue. —Eric Vilas-Boas
âž¼ Our other kids-movie recommendation? Maybe skip Harold and the Purple Crayon.
Finally Streaming
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
What a wonderful day … to watch the latest Planet of the Apes film on streaming if you missed it at the theater or on VOD. —E.V.B.
âž¼ Want another creature feature? Well, after Godzilla Minus One landed on Netflix, the steamer is introducing Minus Color for your rewatch needs.
A Master’s Works
Philip Seymour Hoffman on the Criterion Channel
I really didn’t need Twisters to remind me of this fact, but it did anyway: I miss Phillip Seymour Hoffman. What a talent. Thankfully, the Criterion Channel is honoring him with a collection of his films, from The Master and Capote to Synecdoche, New York and Jack Goes Boating — plenty to dive into after your Twister/Twisters double feature. —S.S.
Grand Finale
House of the Dragon season 2
The penultimate episode of House of the Dragon was its own little Jurassic Park plot about taming a dragon, so where do we go from here? Well, if you avoided the criminal leaks, you’ll have to wait until Sunday to see. —S.S.
➼ Who isn’t doing crimes in Westeros? Hop aboard our Dragon newsletter for one last flight.
Want more? Read our recommendations from the weekend of July 26.