April 10, 2025

What to stream: 'The Studio,' 'Dying for Sex' and 'Widows'

The legal drama 'Dark Waters' is also new to Peacock.

By Kristin Hunt
PhillyVoice Staff

Provided image/Apple TV+

In the Apple TV+ comedy 'The Studio,' Seth Rogen, right, plays film executive Matt Remick.

Have the finales of "Severance" and "The White Lotus" left a gaping hole in your TV rotation? Don't spiral: Two great new shows recently debuted, though neither of them are the stuff of Reddit conspiracy theories.

The first is "The Studio," a cringe comedy about the movie industry. The Apple TV+ series began airing in late March, but new viewers can easily catch up on the handful of 30-minute episodes available before the next installment arrives.

Hulu also added all eight episodes of "Dying for Sex" last week. The limited series stars Michelle Williams as a woman with terminal cancer who's trying to hook up as much as possible in her final days — and yes, it's just as existential, poignant and darkly funny as it sounds.

You can also make it a movie night with "Widows" or "Dark Waters," both new to streamers in April. Here's a little bit about each of them:

MORE: Movie on love story of Hershey Company founder and his wife to begin filming in Pa. next month

'The Studio'

Matt Remick (Seth Rogen) has been itching to take the reins of Continental Studios for years. But when he finally gets them in the pilot episode of "The Studio," he becomes the kind of executive he hates.

The Apple TV+ comedy is a spoof of the movie industry made by two long-time veterans — Rogen and his frequent partner Evan Goldberg, who serve as co-creators and direct each episode. The pair's affection for Hollywood is obvious, but so is their distaste for the business side of it. Matt is constantly compromising his artistic integrity to please his CEO, who assigns him a Kool Aid movie as his first big project. (Martin Scorsese, playing himself, is briefly attached.) To add insult, the filmmakers Matt adores don't actually want him around. He's the big boss now and, as we see in the second episode, capable of wreaking hilarious havoc on set.

Kathryn Hahn, Ike Barinholtz, Chase Sui Wonders and Catherine O'Hara play Matt's stressed colleagues, while real stars and directors cameo constantly as themselves. New episodes drop Wednesdays.

'Dying for Sex'

Some people book plane tickets when they find out they have months to live. Molly, the heroine of Hulu's new limited series "Dying for Sex," leaves her husband to have kinky encounters with strangers.

The show is based on a true story, first immortalized in the 2020 podcast of the same name, about a woman who upends her life upon receiving a stage IV breast cancer diagnosis. Molly (Michelle Williams) has never had an orgasm with another person, and she's determined to do it before she dies. Supporting her on this erotic journey is her best friend Nikki (Jenny Slate), who becomes her new roommate and caretaker.

Molly isn't just fleeing a marriage that's lost its spark. She's trying to get past a childhood trauma that forever altered her attitude toward intimacy. To figure out what she actually likes, she attends a sex party, dabbles in BDSM and bosses around a furry. Her escapades are funny, though never judgmental, and thought-provoking. They also grow increasingly heartbreaking as the show barrels toward its obvious conclusion. Williams and Slate feel like real friends, and the show's frank conversations about dying and desire are unlike any on television.

'Widows'

The basic pitch for "Widows" is perfect thriller fodder. When a botched job wipes out a criminal crew, their wives decide to execute one of their unfinished schemes.

But there's a lot more going on in this 2018 heist movie. For starters, the target of this operation is well-established Chicago politician (Colin Farrell). There's also a mobster (Brian Tyree Henry) and his terrifying brother (Daniel Kaluuya, in his most underrated performance) shaking down the widows for their dead husbands' haul. And those guys were not good spouses. One gambled away his family's livelihood, another was abusive and a third was sitting on a major secret that puts everyone in jeopardy.

While "Widows" is working with some weighty themes, the real draw is watching the women execute their job. Viola Davis leads the crew with typical gravitas, enlisting Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki and pre-"Wicked" Cynthia Erivo as her accomplices. Watch it on Hulu.

'Dark Waters'

In the canon of great movies where Mark Ruffalo says "they knew," there's "Spotlight" and then there's "Dark Waters," the 2019 film depicting a real lawyer's fight against forever chemicals.

"Dark Waters" dramatizes the case Robert Bilott (Ruffalo) brought against DuPont. Working off a tip, he begins investigating the chemical manufacturer for dumping perfluorooctanoic acid, better known as PFOA, into landfills near its West Virginia plant. As Bilott discovers, the forever chemical has harmed not only DuPont workers but local farmers, whose land was contaminated. He continues to work the case for years, even as the obstacles build and his obsession threatens his marriage.

"Dark Waters" synthesizes a complex and increasingly relevant issue into a effective legal drama. It's an "Erin Brockovich" for the 2010s, and it's available to stream on Peacock.