During any extended break, there’s always that familiar realization: a whole cavalcade of streaming shows and movies slipped right past us. Titles we meant to get to. Shows that lived in our queue for months. Series friends swore would click if we “just pushed through the first couple episodes.” Now, as 2025 winds down and we head into 2026, this is the perfect moment to catch up on a few final must-watch titles before the ball drops.
Stranger Things (Netflix)
Few shows in the streaming era have matched the cultural footprint of Stranger Things, and this closing stretch delivers exactly what fans hoped for: massive stakes, large-scale confrontations, and a true sense of finality. The story that began as a nostalgic genre throwback now comes full circle, and with it, one of Netflix’s defining pop-culture crazes finally reaches its end.
Stranger Things Season 5, Part 2 is streaming Wednesday on Netflix.
Mayor of Kingston (Paramount Plus)
From there, it’s impossible not to talk about the ongoing dominance of Taylor Sheridan, who has quietly built one of the most powerful television empires of the modern era. What began with Yellowstone turned into a sprawling slate of must-see series, including 1883, 1923, Tulsa King, Landman, and Special Ops: Lioness. Nearly all of them have become reliable go-to viewing in the streaming age, and more often than not, they deliver.
One of Sheridan’s most underrated series, though, remains Mayor of Kingstown, which has now quietly completed four seasons. Starring Jeremy Renner as Mike McCluskey, the series follows a man tasked with keeping order in a fictional Michigan city where incarceration isn’t just a system—it’s the economy. In season four, Mike finds himself deeper than ever in an impossible balancing act as rival power structures shift both inside and outside the prison walls.
Law enforcement, gangs, politicians, and inmates all push for control, and the line between survival and morality becomes increasingly blurred. Peace feels impossible to maintain, yet impossible to abandon. Unlike some of Sheridan’s more humor-leaning projects, Mayor of Kingstown is relentlessly grim. The violence is harsh, the consequences are real, and the weight of every decision lingers.
As the season four finale arrives, Mike McCluskey continues his uneasy role as the “mayor” of a company town built entirely on incarceration. It stans as one of the most uncompromising dramas currently available.
Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 is streaming now on Paramount+.
Together (Hulu)
There’s a creeping sense of unease that settles in early while watching Together, long before the film fully embraces its horror elements. What begins as a story about a couple attempting to reconnect after emotional distance slowly reveals itself as something more unsettling — a meditation on intimacy, dependency, and the fear of letting go. The film’s body horror isn’t there for shock value alone; it functions as metaphor, turning emotional closeness into something physical and invasive.
That ambition was clear to Dave Franco the moment he read writer-director Michael Shanks’ script. He said they were “definitely blown away by the horror set pieces,” noting that they felt “so innovative and just like nothing we had ever seen before.” At the same time, Franco admitted the scale of those ideas raised immediate questions. Because Together is a low-budget indie, he recalled thinking, “I don’t know how we’re all going to pull this off.”
The answer didn’t come from a pitch meeting or a promise — it came from proof. Franco explained that Shanks sent them his short film Rebooted, which instantly shifted their perspective. After watching it, Franco said it became clear that Shanks’ background in visual effects wasn’t just theoretical, adding that the short was “one of the most beautifully crafted shorts I’ve ever seen” and that it ultimately “gave us a lot of confidence going into this.”
Alison Brie echoed that sentiment, saying the concern was never about the material itself. She explained that when they read the script, they were excited by the chance to do “weird, crazy things that we’ve never gotten to do before on screen,” but the lingering question was whether Shanks could execute it. After seeing Rebooted, Brie said their mindset shifted to, “Yeah, I think he can.”
That trust became crucial once production began. Franco pointed out that Together moved at a relentless pace, explaining that they often only had “one or two takes per setup.” Because of that, preparation became everything. Franco said living together during production allowed them to rehearse constantly, which meant they could “come in every day and just hit the ground running.”
For Brie, that efficiency was amplified by history. She noted that she and Franco have been together for over 13 years and that Together marked their fifth project working together. That long-standing partnership, she said, meant their “unspoken communication” and “nonverbal cues” were already dialed in, saving valuable time on set. Brie added that even Shanks noticed, recalling moments when he’d walk in and realize the two were already “mind-melding,” prompting him to simply say, “Alright, let’s go.”
Together is making its streaming debut on December 31 on Hulu.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2025.