February 27, 2025
Provided Image/HBO
'The White Lotus,' available to stream on Max, follows a group of wealthy and dysfunctional people as they navigate a vacation, and attempt to keep secrets buried, at a posh resort in Thailand.
If you're looking to escape everyday life, there are plenty of new shows and movies to stream that will either distract from boredom with thought-provoking drama or quell your stress levels with mindless entertainment.
Once you've finished binge-watching the Oscar best picture nominees ahead of Sunday's awards show, you can hop on a plane to Thailand where treachery bubbles beneath the surface at a posh hotel in "The White Lotus." Or grab your tissues and witness a poignant love story, told completely out of order, in "We Live in Time." If you simply want something to throw on in the background while you veg out and scroll TikTok, you can try reality shows like "Summer House" or "The Floor" — but beware, you may get sucked in to the point where you actually put your phone down.
MORE: How to watch all the movies nominated for best picture at the 2025 Oscars
Here are some streaming recommendations including shows and movies that recently hit Peacock, Hulu and Max:
A group of pals and frenemies in their 20s, 30s and 40s escape New York City's concrete jungle to share a house in the Hamptons every weekend during the summer in this Bravo reality show, which returned for its ninth season earlier this month. Each season, as the summer heat stretches on, parties, bar hopping and beach trips inevitably end in drama for the unlikely group of friends — which includes multiple couples and pairs of exes.
Early on in Season 9, the drama is already coming in hot — as longtime cast members Lindsay Hubbard and Carl Radke are forced to reside under one roof despite shockingly calling off their engagement at the end of last season. Plus, Hubbard shows up to the house with a huge secret that shakes the friend group to its core. The cast also features Ciara Miller, who competed on the new season of "The Traitors," and must also face her ex from last summer. Plus, a few Gen Z newcomers arrive and try to make their mark.
"Summer House" airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo and is available to stream Thursdays on Peacock.
Do you have knowledge on a vast array of super niche topics? Then you might just have a ball watching the Fox reality competition, "The Floor." The series, which began airing its third season earlier this month, is hosted by Rob Lowe and begins the season with 100 contestants standing on a massive LED game floor. Each player has their own square and their own special topic that they're an expert in, and they go head-to-head with each other in trivia duels to try to gain more territory on the floor. There's a $20,000 cash prize available at the end of each episode for whoever has earned the most squares, with a grand prize of $250,000 for the last competitor standing at the end of the season.
Personally, I love to play the duels along with "The Floor" competitors, testing my knowledge in topics across pop culture, geography, history, science and more. One of my favorite duel categories last season involved fill-in-the-blank Taylor Swift song titles.
"The Floor" airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on FOX, and is available to stream on Hulu the next day.
How do I limit my glowing review of "The White Lotus" to just a couple paragraphs? I'll try my best to keep it brief because I could go on and on about creator Mike White's genius and how this is one of the best shows on television right now (along with "Severance," of course).
As with its previous two installments, "The White Lotus" Season 3, which began airing this month, brings a group of spoiled rich people — many of whom are hiding huge secrets and ulterior motives — to an opulent hotel in a tropical locale. Usually a murder takes place. This season, the White Lotus resort in Thailand welcomes quite the cast of characters, including a rich Southern family with a patriarch hiding shady business dealings, a group of blonde longtime gal pals who cannot wait to gossip about each other, and an unhappy couple with a confusing power dynamic. Plus, there's something mysterious happening among the staff. ... I just haven't quite figured out what it is yet. This season also marks the return of a couple of characters from previous seasons, one of whom has a lot to answer for his previous villainous turn.
There are already so many theories circulating social media that I don't even know what to think when it comes to who this season's killer may be, and who will still be alive when it's time to check out from the White Lotus.
"The White Lotus" airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO and also begins streaming on Max at that time.
This is the one where you need to have your tissue box at the ready. The A24 film "We Live in Time" stars Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield as two people whose unconventional meet-cute sends them on a bittersweet rollercoaster of a love story involving parenthood, cooking competitions and, sadly, a cancer diagnosis.
Pugh's and Garfield's lovable star power, and their tangible chemistry, would surely be enough to melt any viewer's heart. But what really sets this flick apart is its unconventional setup: their decadelong love story is fed to the audience in out-of-order snippets.
Following its theatrical run in the fall, "We Live in Time" became available to stream on Max this month.
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