Streaming services are too often lacking in the classics department, but HBO has a solid fall lineup with newly added Hollywood gems. These are films with no limit to the number of times they can be watched: East of Eden, On the Town, Guys and Dolls, and the 1956 musical comedy High Society. The latter is famously the remake of 1940’s The Philadelphia Story—a movie adapted from a stage production starring Katharine Hepburn. The first film cast Hepburn once again as the debutante bride-to-be Tracy Lord, opposite Cary Grant and James Stuart, while the remake gives us Grace Kelly, Bing Crosby, and Frank Sinatra. Yes, critics will tell you High Society pales in comparison to the original, but marvel at Kelly as she floats around, shooing and wooing her many suitors in pretty pretty chiffon and organza ballgowns from costume designer extraordinaire Helen Rose. – Lilah Ramzi
I like Scandi-noir TV as much as the next person, but for me, for pure muscular escapist bliss nothing beats an Italian crime series. Exhibit A: Gomorrah, that ruthless epic of the Naples underworld, the amazing first two seasons of which are available on HBOMax. Gomorrah seasons 3 and 4, long unavailable in the U.S.—the lost scrolls of Eurocrime—are apparently due to arrive on HBOMax soon, but while we wait for that, let me introduce Exhibit B: Suburra: Blood on Rome, which debuted on Netflix in 2017. Netflix has just released the third and final season of Suburra, and I can’t get enough. It is gorgeously gaudy, luridly violent, and full-throttle in its melodrama. Set in an endlessly corrupt and power-mad Rome, the show tracks the fortunes of three young friends—all tied to warring crime families. Come for the tough-guy talk, stay for the gorgeous production design (the friends constantly meet for secret parleys in abandoned modernist architectural sites). And don’t even get me started on the way these guys dress and look. The show’s hero Aureliano Adami, played by the insanely handsome Alessandro Borghi, has got me seriously contemplating twin-wing neck tattoos. —Taylor Antrim
About ten years ago, I began to hear about a thrilling show focused on the intricacies of Danish politics. Sound … less than thrilling? You’ll have to trust me. The show has been called “Denmark’s West Wing (But Even Better),” and as someone who didn’t love The West Wing, I concur. Borgen is a fascinating sociology of functional government and competent leadership, and in the lead-up to the 2020 election—when the show was newly on Netflix—I couldn’t get enough of this seeming Utopia. Sure, there are love children and sovereignty scandals (you will learn a lot about Denmark’s relationship with Greenland, and it will be gripping), but all of that seemed positively quaint when faced with the complete erosion of normalcy within our own government for the past four years. Bring back bureaucracy! (And catch up on this show before Netflix revives it for new and updated episodes.) – Chloe Schama