Our 17-year-old daughter introduced my wife and me to The Umbrella Academy on Netflix and we’ve been watching one or two episodes a night. There are two seasons so far, with a third on the way. Set in an Earth-like alternate universe where computers and mobile phones don’t exist, the story is centered around seven adopted siblings, born 30 years ago on the same day in different places around the world. Each person has a special ability, and while they dislike one another for the most part, they’re forced to band together in an attempt to stop an apocalypse that’s set to happen in a week. I’m not a fan of superhero shows, but the twisty plot, compelling characters, and astounding sets have me glued to this one. — MF

The TV sitcom Ted Lasso is as good as everyone says it is. It’s a sophisticated feel-good comedy drama that we really needed in 2020. It’s full of no cliche, no sap, smart positivity that is rare and so welcomed. The world would be a better place if there were more Ted Lassos. The show is very bingeable. I’m eager for more seasons. The 10-part first season runs on Apple TV. If you’ve bought an Apple product in the past year (or know someone who did), you may have free access to Apple TV. — KK

Documentary Mania is a website with hundreds of documentaries you can watch for free. So far I’ve enjoyed Free Solo, about the first person to free climb Yosemite’s El Capitan Wall, and The Bit Player, a movie about information theorist Claude Shannon. — MF

At 94, the legendary naturalist David Attenborough has produced a full length documentary about his life. Just released on Netflix, “A Life on Our Planet” doubles as his “witness statement” to our drastic loss of wilderness. But he combines his harsh, honest critique with an unexpectedly hopeful vision of “re-wilding” the planet. This is a high tech, highly urban, but green civilization with vast areas of sea and land protected as wild zones. I find his “re-wilding” framework more appealing than the technically similar “sustainability” framework, because re-wilding suggests exuberant, open-ended thriving (in nature and tech) rather than just responsible, constrained sustaining. Attenborough’s last 11 minutes in this doc is the closest visualization of the future I hope for that I’ve seen. — KK

This is one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. Yet nothing about its subject would suggest greatness. My Octopus Teacher is about a tired middle-age man who befriends a small octopus in a South African kelp reef. He visits the octopus every day for a year (while filming it), and what he learns from the octopus is oceanic. This tiny creature is otherworldly, a superhero alien from another galaxy, and her life connected to the particular reef expands until it fills the universe. Everything is divinely photographed. Must see. — KK

This year I’ve watched more movies at home than I thought possible. When I finish a movie I enjoyed I always check the “more like this” tab to find related films to watch, and now as an alternative discovery engine, I’ve been searching Cinetrii, which pulls any mention of influences or inspiration from movie reviews to suggest films with similar moods. — CD 

My family watches an awful lot of anime. We also like horror and thriller movies, so we enjoyed Perfect Blue, a violent, disturbing, R-rated psychological thriller from 1997 about a former pop idol who loses her ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality. If you like the films of Darren Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream, Black Swan) you’ll like Perfect Blue, because Aronofsky is a fan of the anime and even recreated a scene from it in Requiem for a Dream. — MF

Ronnie Chieng makes me laugh. Might be because most of my relatives are Asian American, but I think his humor is much broader than that. You can catch him on Netflix’s stand-up special Ronnie Chieng: Asian Comedian Destroys America. — KK

By the early 1990s television cartoons had hit a depressing nadir. The stories, art, characters, and animation were terrible, and the cartoons existed for the sole reason of selling toys and merchandise. Then along came Ren & Stimpy, a hyperkinetic, rubbery, explosive, hilarious, and beautifully animated cartoon that harked back to the era when Bob Clampett and Tex Avery were producing insanely great work for Looney Tunes. Ren & Stimpy changed the course of animation. The documentary Happy Happy Joy Joy recounts the tragic history of Ren & Stimpy and features extensive interviews with everyone involved, including its creator, John Kricfalusi, a supremely talented animator, a sadistic tyrannical boss, and sexual predator of teenage girls.  — MF

Everyone knows Anthony Bourdain’s various travel/food series, but in 2015 Bourdain did his hanging-out thing with master craftsman and craftswomen, going to their shops, watching them work with their tools, and at times trying his own hand at their craft. I can watch masters work all day. Their obsession with details is astounding, and their extreme excellence is captured in 14 episodes of Raw Craft. The art ranges from hand-tailored suits to a traditional letter-press printer, all sponsored by a whiskey company, and available on YouTube. — KK

For sheer summer-movie enjoyment, we really liked Knives Out. This is a fun murder mystery, constructed with fantastic, vivid characters, great acting, with clever plotting and pitch-perfect editing. It’s a real page turner, if you know what I mean. Now streaming on Amazon Prime. — KK

To have a research station on another planet, we have to figure out how to recreate a tiny biosphere for humans. That’s what the Biosphere 2 project in Arizona was trying to do in 1991. I was so interested in this experiement that I spent time locked inside their test module. But this $150 million structure was built by a theater group instead of scientists, and therein lies the drama worthy of a film. Skip the comedy (Biodome, 1996) and watch Spaceship Earth (2020), a new sympathetic documentary on this remarkable project. What they learned, of life support and human dynamics, should be better known. (Imagine being really locked down for 2 years.) Streams on Hulu, Amazon. — KK

Before I watched Middleditch and Schwartz, the very little improv I was exposed to was not enjoyable. I get anxious when jokes don’t land and then I sympathy laugh and the whole thing is awkward. But now I’m stuck at home, and in desperate need of laughs and this have been the best comedy special I’ve seen. It’s like they’ve harnessed the superpowers of a childlike imagination and then threw it into adult situations, and it’s hilarious and magical to watch. — CD

Do yourself a favor and watch Shtisel, a two-season (24 episode) series on Netflix. It’s an incredibly written Isreali drama that is now a world-wide hit. It just happens to take place in an ultra-orthodox Jewish family. Ironically, it is a big hit in many conservative Muslim countries because these two traditional cultures overlap so much. Part of Shtisel’s charm is the full immersion into a world that is alien as Mars to most moderns, but the main attraction in this global gem is its universal humanism and real people characters. (Shtisel should not be confused with Unorthodox, another recent good Netflix series taking place in the same orthodox Jewish community, but with a very different ambiance and different artistic mission.) Shtisel is not loud or flashy; it is a quiet, low-budget masterpiece that leaves you feeling you encountered something remarkable. — KK

I recommend this long movie for a stay-at-home visit to India. This 2009 Bollywood hit is called 3 Idiots (a better title would be 3 Renegades) and was the all-time bestselling movie in India in its time. Besides being fun and campy, almost a parody of a bollywood hit, it is a brilliant depiction of the ongoing tension between tradition and innovation in this most populous country on the planet. Here’s what a billion young Indians are contending with. Although it is almost 3 hours long, I’ve seen it three times. This version on Amazon Prime is in Hindi. You need to turn CC on for subtitles. — KK

I’ve been wow’d by the Netflix series Messiah, and binged all 10 episodes in a few sittings. The initial premise is: What if a Jesus figure came to the Mid East today and started doing miracles? Would he be declared a fake? A Prophet? By what religions? A potential revolutionary terrorist? All of the above? It goes on from there in unexpected ways, including becoming a CIA thriller. The Messiah’s lines are really good. — KK

My Los Angeles Library card entitles me to 8 free movies on Kanopy a month. Your local library probably has a similar Kanopy offering. It’s like Netflix for classic, foreign, documentary. and indie films. Visit the site to see what they have. — MF

While failure is to be avoided, no teacher is as powerful. The tech startup General Magic failed big time, but it was also one of the most influential companies of all time that no one has heard of. Its all-star team of tech wizards invented the smartphone 15 years too early. General Magic is a fantastic documentary about the dilemma of dreaming big versus paying attention to reality. It’s now streaming on Amazon Prime ($0.99). — KK

I am a huge fan of spending big bucks to explore space scientifically. But I bet humans won’t settle (live long-term) on Mars, or the Moon, or in space willingly. To get a glimpse of why not, watch the Netflix mini-series, A Year in Space. This documentary follows two astronauts as they subject themselves to the harsh punishment of living off our planet. We’ll keep improving the process of space fitness, but this documentary is very sobering about the steep cost of doing without the things we get for “free” on this planet. — KK

If you have never seen a Bollywood movie, the action epic Bahubali is a great one to start. The plot revolves around a mythical demigod, Bahubali, who must reclaim his throne. This 2-movie 5-hour extravaganza is part Lord of the Rings saga, part kung-fu spectacle, part crazy soap opera, part Saturday morning cartoon, part LSD trip, and unlike anything you’ve seen. It is ridiculously corny, absurdly fictional, un-ironically campy, and immensely cinematic. It’s a lot of fun, all 5 hours of it. It streams on Netflix in 4 different languages. (The films are technically Tollywood, filmed in Telugu language, not Hindi.) The first movie, Bahubali: The Beginning has an English dub audio version, while the second movie, Bahubali: The Conclusion, has an English subtitle version. These films are the highest grossing films in India. Once seen, they cannot be unseen. — KK