Denzel meets the mob in ‘The Equalizer’
What’s new to watch this week on pay-per-view and streaming services:
“The Equalizer” takes little more than the concept and name from the ’80s crime drama. Denzel Washington is a working-class guy with a murky past as an American operative who puts his skills to work to right wrongs done in his neighborhood. His efforts to help a teenage streetwalker (Chloë Grace Moretz) put him on a collision course with the Russian mob.
Netflix
To ring in the New Year, Netflix presents the complete run of “Friends”: 10 seasons and 236 episodes of young singles and best friends in New York City, working on careers and looking for love (often with each other). The eventful lives of Chandler and Joey, Monica and Phoebe, and Rachel and Ross turned the bright, snappy sitcom into one of the rare TV shows that became part of the popular culture. You can now revisit the romantic shuffles, the marriage proposals, the births, the break-ups, the make-ups, and the slow headway through respective careers from the first episode (“The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate”) to the last (titled, appropriately, “The Last One”). Which means that even when you’re alone, as long as you have Netflix, you’ll have “Friends.”
Also new: the cult comedy “Mean Girls,” written by Tina Fey and featuring Lindsay Lohan when she was still a nice, respectable, likable young star; the Oscar-nominated survival drama “Cast Away” with Tom Hanks; the gritty ’70s crime-thriller “The French Connection” with Gene Hackman and one of the most unnerving high-speed chases in the movies; and the classics “The Quiet Man” with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara and the original 1953 “The War of the Worlds.”
Amazon Instant Prime
The second season of the FX series “The Americans,” about deep cover Soviet agents raising thoroughly Americanized kids in suburbia during the final years of the Cold War in Reagan’s America, has been getting high praise from TV critics in the year-end roundups. It’s now available to stream for Prime members.
“Spy Kids” offers James Bond action for teens, tweens and adolescents, while “Midnight Cowboy” is a classic Oscar winner for adults.
Hulu Plus
Hulu now offers a selection of shows from the Discovery Channel. Hulu Plus subscribers can now watch seasons of “Mythbusters,” “The Little Couple,” and “The Deadliest Catch.”