5 Shows We’re Watching on Peacock

It often feels like a new streaming service is popping up every time you blink. There’s Netflix, Disney+, Peacock, Paramount+, AMC+, Hulu, HBO Max, Prime, Apple TV+, Starz, ESPN+…to name a few of the more well-known services. But getting every service that has something of interest is financially impossible for most people, so the decision has to come down to which shows will you get the most use out of?

Peacock is one of the newer streamers, launching on July 15, 2020 with two tiers – the ad-supported free tier and the paid premium tier. If you’re looking for content that has been off the air, Parks and Recreation, The Office, Modern Family, Friday Night Lights, Battlestar Galactica, and Charmed are all great options to binge. But if you’re looking for new content, here’s what we’re watching right now:

Bel-Air

A reboot of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, this show may follow the same overarching plot as its comedic predecessor but its tone could not be more different. The “one little fight” that sends Will Smith (Jabari Banks) from West Philly to stay with Uncle Phil (Adrian Holmes) and Aunt Viv (Cassandra Freeman) in Bel-Air was not so little and could easily have destroyed his future. Geoffrey (Jimmy Akingbola) is must more than the frequently put-upon butler. He’s certainly much more intimidating. Carlton (Olly Sholotan) is no longer the lovable dork, he’s something of a powerhouse at school, dealing with severe anxiety and a drug habit. Hilary (Coco Jones) and Ashley (Akira Akbar) feel the most similar to their original counterparts, with Hilary trying to figure out her career (albeit as a social media influencer and chef) and Ashley dealing with her first crush. Banks is not as charismatic as Will Smith, but he matches the intensity of this newer version of the story.

Dragons: The Nine Realms

Dreamworks’s How to Train Your Dragon was a beautifully rendered and beautifully told children’s animated movie trilogy (based on but wildly different than the children’s book series by Cressida Cowell). It has spawned three spinoff series, Dragons (featuring the movie characters), Dragons: Rescue Riders (about human twins raised by dragons), and most recently, Dragons: The Nine Realms (which is set in present day). A co-production of Peacock and Hulu, this series follows Tom Kullersen (Jeremy Shada), who joins his mother, a geologist, at a scientific research center to study a fissure in the Earth’s surface. Tom and several other children from the facility discover something amazing in the fissure – where dragons have been hiding all these years. The kids band together to protect the dragons and keep them from being discovered.

Girls5Eva

Girls5Eva were a one-hit-wonder girl band in the 90s who reunite twenty years later to try to fulfill their pop star dreams. If this plot sounds familiar, it’s because Queens on ABC has a very similar plotline. Girls5Eva definitely takes a sillier route than Queens (their hit song has the chorus “We’re gonne be famous 5-eva because 4-ever’s too short”), but it is no less addictive. Dawn (Sara Bareilles), Wickie (Renée Elise Goldsberry), Summer (Paula Pell), and Gloria (Busy Phillips) are on their own journey to popstardom as adults and learning life lessons along the way.

The Girl in the Woods

If you’ve been missing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, finally we have a show to step into those footsteps. Carrie Ecker (Stefanie Scott) escapes a cult in the woods that raises its children to protect the world. They are trained from childhood to fight and be ruthless, all to win the honor of watching over a door in the woods with unspeakable monsters on the other side. Carrie makes her way to the nearby small town of West Pine, Oregon and starts to build herself a new life only for her past to come back and haunt her and the rest of her new community.

Rutherford Falls

Nathan Rutherford (Ed Helms), from the founding family of Rutherford Falls, and Reagan Wells (Jana Schmieding), of the Minishonka Nation that lived on the land long before the Rutherfords found it, have been friends forever. Their friendship is tested when an attempt is made to move a statue of the town’s founder, Nathan’s ancestor, because it is a safety hazard (it is in the middle of a busy street and cars keep crashing into it). As Nathan fights to keep the statue in place, Reagan struggles between supporting her friend and her people as they try to take back some of what they lost in the area. While the topic itself isn’t particularly funny, Ed Helms’s Nathan feels reminiscent of his The Office character Andy Bernard, which goes a long way in bringing the levity.

Photo: Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Paula Pell, and Busy Phillips as Dawn, Wickie, Summer, and Gloria in Girls5Eva. Courtesy of Peacock