This week on On Our Streaming Radar, we have two of my favorite genres being melded together: superheroes and classic noir detective stories. We also have a return to The Four Seasons just in time for the summer, and a second season of a Hulu sleeper hit that, if you have not seen it yet, you need to check out.
Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage is bringing us something I did not know was possible with Spider-Noir. To understand how we got here, you have to go back to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the animated film that introduced a wide audience to Miles Morales, an alternate Spider-Man to Peter Parker, and brought in several different versions of the Spider-Man character.
You had Miles Morales. You had Peter Parker. You had Spider-Ham, not Spider-Pig, although shoutout to all my Simpsons fans, we came close. And then you had Spider-Noir.
Spider-Noir was voiced by Nicolas Cage, who has flirted with the comic book genre for years. Cage was originally supposed to play Superman in Tim Burton’s scrapped Superman Lives. He would later finally get to put on the cape, briefly, in The Flash. Then, of course, there was his portrayal of Johnny Blaze in the Ghost Rider movies.
The man even borrowed his stage name from comic book character Luke Cage and named his son Kal-El, so it is safe to say he is definitely a fan of the genre.
Now Cage steps back into that world with Spider-Noir, a limited series from MGM+ and Prime Video. Cage stars alongside Lamorne Morris, Li Jun Li, Karen Rodriguez, Jack Huston and Brendan Gleeson. The series follows Ben Reilly, a down-on-his-luck private investigator in 1930s New York, who is forced to confront his past as the city’s masked superhero after a deeply personal tragedy.
This is not a traditional MCU entry. It still lives under the Sony Spider-Man umbrella, with MGM+ and Prime Video bringing it to audiences. What makes this one even more interesting is that viewers will be able to watch the series in both color and a traditional black-and-white version, giving it that classic noir caper feel.
I will probably watch it both ways.
Spider-Noir premieres on MGM+ and Prime Video this week.
Up next is The Four Seasons, returning for a second season on Netflix. The show stars Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Will Forte, Colman Domingo, Kerri Kenney-Silver, Marco Calvani and Erika Henningsen. It follows a group of longtime friends who take seasonal vacations together, only for that rhythm to be shaken when one of the couples splits up, changing the dynamic of the group and complicating their tradition of quarterly getaways.
The series is an adaptation of the 1981 Alan Alda film of the same name, and while it is not as breezy as some of Tina Fey’s other comedies like 30 Rock or Mean Girls, it still delivers, especially in its more dramatic moments.
There is something very watchable about this cast, and the show understands that friendships, marriages and vacations all get more complicated with time. Sometimes the laughs come from the jokes. Sometimes they come from the awkward silence after someone says something a little too honest.
Season 2 of The Four Seasons streams May 28 on Netflix.
Last but not least, Deli Boys is back for a second season on Hulu. The first season of this show was one I absolutely loved. I had no idea what to expect when I first started it, but as a huge Poorna Jagannathan fan, especially from her work in Never Have I Ever, I definitely wanted to give the show a shot.
The series also stars Asif Ali, Saagar Shaikh and Brian George, who many people will remember as Babu Bhatt from Seinfeld. The show follows two Pakistani American brothers whose father built a massive convenience store empire. After he suddenly dies, the brothers discover the family business was actually a criminal front. With help from Lucky Auntie, played by Jagannathan, they have to survive the underworld while keeping up appearances that everything is going smoothly.
Season 1 was over-the-top ridiculous in the best way, so I have high hopes for Season 2. It is an original comedy with a very specific point of view, and if you identify with the culture, I imagine even more of it will hit home. But even as someone outside of that world, I fell in love with the characters, the comedy and especially the chemistry between Asif Ali and Saagar Shaikh. They are magic together on screen, and they feel so much like brothers that it is hard to believe they are not.
Deli Boys Season 2 streams May 28 on Hulu
