The best things to watch on Paramount+ 2025

Even the M:I franchise reaches its explosive conclusion with Final Reckoning, we still keep coming back to that very first movie, directed with aplomb by Brian de Palma. While later films in the series pushed envelope of stunts and spectacle to ever more preposterous degrees, the original’s labyrinthine plot and moody film noir vibes make it feel a bit more John Le Carré than Michael Bay. Don’t worry, though: there are still some killer action sequences – and plenty of latex masks being pulled off to great dramatic effect.

Tom Cruise (who else?) stars as top IMF agent Ethan Hunt, framed for the destruction of his entire team. His fight to be exonerated takes him into the depths of the CIA headquarters and across most of Europe, before those aforementioned masks and some chewing gum explosives save the day.

Watch Mission: Impossible on Paramount+

Watch Mission: Impossible on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

The Coen brothers’ adaptation of Charles Portis’ classic Western novel has the dubious honour of being the film nominated for the most Oscars without winning a single one. Watching it a few years on from its release, it’s clear that the Academy made a mistake (not with the nominations – with the… not winning thing). This is a truly outstanding modern day Western, an exploration of how courage and heroism (aka “true grit”) comes in many forms, as well as being thrilling, humorous and beautifully shot.

The cast is a highlight too. Jeff Bridges is in fantastic form as gruff, hard-drinking marshal Rooster Cogburn, tasked with hunting down an on-the-run murderer, but it’s a young Hailee Steinfeld as his spirited 14-year-old employer whose performance steals the show.

Watch True Grit on Paramount+

Watch True Grit on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

The late Leslie Nielsen may have possessed the square jaw and deep voice of a matinee idol, even in his advancing years, but was never better than here, clowning around as error-prone, prat-falling LA detective Frank Drebin.

Nielsen masterfully plays Drebin as a guy who thinks he’s the hero of a serious crime thriller, seemingly completely oblivious to his social gaffes and tendency to cause disaster wherever he goes. When he uncovers a plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II during a state visit, he springs into action to save the day.

This film is ridiculously, relentlessly silly (even if the inclusion of a pre-trial of the century OJ Simpson as Drebin’s sidekick Nordberg is somewhat jarring), and remains a great watch over 30 years after its release.

Watch The Naked Gun on Paramount+

Watch The Naked Gun on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

When three brothers from the same American family are killed in the line of duty during World War II, Tom Hanks’ grizzled army squad, freshly landed in Normandy, is sent to grab the fourth and bring him to safety. Viewing it as a PR exercise, these men resent it from the get-go, but as they travel through war-torn France, they realise it could be the most important mission of their lives.

Steven Spielberg’s 1998 war movie is high on both drama and sentimentality, but it’s impossible to deny the power of its combat sequences – particularly the opening sequence in which Hanks and his men storm Omaha Beach amidst some of the most harrowing and visceral scenes ever committed to celluloid.

Watch Saving Private Ryan on Paramount+

Watch Saving Private Ryan on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

Just what is it about Dexter? What is it, within an apparently straightforward contemporary drama series – police department employee with dark secret – that let it get green lights all the way through to eight seasons and 96 episodes? The sunny, sexy Miami setting, perhaps?

It’s certainly not hampered by its charming titular protagonist and his goodly mix of attractive and/or amusing cohorts. Nor by its slick production. So, it must be those moments when Dexter – both the character and show – hovers, knife already bloodied, unsure of itself… And then does what you thought it wouldn’t.

That said, the first few seasons are where the show is at is strongest, so do be aware that that initial quality doesn’t hold up forever – and that things become more crazier, more intense and less believable as the series goes on.

Watch Dexter on Paramount+

Watch Dexter on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

How to describe this series? On one level, The Curse a satirical comedy-drama about gentrification, generational wealth, greenwashing and, yes, a curse. On another, it’s an exploration of reality TV’s insidious production tricks. On yet another, it’s a drama about a couple who seem to be spiralling apart even as they finally enjoy the success they’ve been striving for.

Whatever mix of the above it is, it works for us. Nathan Fielder and Emma Stone are fantastic as the home makeover gurus/ethical landlords attempting to build an eco-community in a New Mexico town (who cares if they have to displace a bunch of minorities in order to usher in the new buyers?), all while Benny Safdie’s sleazy producer is trying to make a reality show following their exploits as dramatic and watchable as possible (who cares if he has to rile them up to create the tension he deems necessary?). It’s clever, awkward and genre-busting stuff, and one of 2023’s most original new shows.

Watch The Curse on Paramount+

Watch The Curse on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

Succession with stirrups? The Godfather, but with gruff hillbillies? A conservative response to the proliferation of ‘woke’ shows on TV? The exceedingly popular Yellowstone is none of the above, seeming to us not particularly conservative, as gripping as The Godfather, nor half as clever (or funny – or even really as dramatic) as Succession. What it is is a solidly enjoyable and well-acted if frequently ludicrous and overblown drama series about a rich and powerful Montana ranching family who aren’t averse to a bit of bribery, intimidation or simple good ol’ fashioned murder if it’s done in the name of protecting their own.

It’s far too melodramatic to take as seriously as some people might suggest, but its modern-day take on cowboy tropes makes it an easy and fun binge watch. Oh, and there are two star-studded spin-off series about earlier generations of the Dutton family to chew on once you’re done.

Watch Yellowstone on Paramount+

Watch Yellowstone on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

Matt Damon plays Will Hunting (yes, that’s really his name), a blue-collar Boston boy genius who mops the floors at Harvard University at night. Taking a break every now and then to solve unsolvable mathematical equations on the blackboard, naturally.

But Will’s prodigious talent comes with an excess of baggage from his childhood, and when his wayward behaviour leads him to reluctantly start seeing a therapist (Robin Williams in one of his career best performances), his past begins to catch up with him in calamitous fashion.

If that makes the film sound serious and sentimental, you should know that it’s also riotously funny and eminently quotable, with an Oscar-winning script penned by Damon and co-star Ben Affleck.

Watch Good Will Hunting on Paramount+

Watch Good Will Hunting on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

David Lynch’s supernatural murder mystery is now 30 years old but remains a small screen masterpiece, still every bit as involving, creepy, funny and mind-bendingly oddball as when it first had the world hooked. The first season is where it’s at its strongest (Lynch left halfway through the second season and it shows, with a major lull in the middle and a succession of sillier storylines) but stick around for the final few episodes and you’ll be nicely set up for the (once again Lynch-helmed) third season, which released in 2017 and rounds off everything in truly inventive and memorable fashion.

Just remember: the owls are not what they seem.

Watch Twin Peaks on Paramount+

Watch Twin Peaks on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

Paul Thomas Anderson’s American epic is relentless; the first we see of protagonist Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a wordless 20-minute sequence as he scrabbles in the dirt in search of silver. As fate would have it, he strikes oil instead. Plainview progresses to drilling and, in his unquenchable thirst for the black gold, begins dispensing homespun charm to rural folk as he dupes them out of their oil rights – his young adopted son proving the perfect prop for the God-fearing family man be wants to be seen as.

Young evangelist preacher Eli Sunday (Paul Dano) isn’t fooled, though, because in Plainview he recognises a kindred spirit. Just as corrupt in his own way, he identifies him as a serious rival to his church’s supremacy. And thus the stage is set for a grand clash between religion and capitalism, played out in operatic fashion against the looming derricks.

Watch There Will Be Blood on Paramount+

Look, if you haven’t seen The Godfather and The Godfather Part II already, stop reading this and just go watch them. And then maybe watch the third one just to round things out, even though it’s a bit of a dud by comparison to its stellar predecessors.

Francis Ford Coppola’s mafia epic spans a generation as it follows the story of Vito Corleone, a dirt-poor Sicilian immigrant who becomes a wealthy and powerful mobster in America, and his intelligent second son Michael, who yearns to turn his father’s criminal empire into a legitimate concern – a task that proves monumentally challenging.

With fantastic performances from a cast that includes Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Diane Keaton and James Caan and a true sense of scale and grandeur that no later mob movie has ever matched, The Godfather trilogy (or at least the first two thirds of it) can rightly be called one of the greatest feats in cinematic history.

Watch The Godfather on Paramount+

Watch The Godfather on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

Whenever we talk about the greatest TV shows to suffer an untimely cancellation, Deadwood is the name that comes first to most people’s lips – and the ones that don’t say it probably just haven’t seen it yet.

David Milch’s Old West drama, set in the eponymous frontier town, is so much more than a simple tale of grizzled gamblers and upstanding lawmen. It’s more like a rich, ugly, booze- and tobacco-stained tapestry, encompassing so many threads of early American life that it’s almost novelistic in its scope and detail. That detail came at a huge budgetary cost, which is why HBO decided to cancel it after three seasons, despite several storylines left very much unresolved.

Note: A 2019 movie does tie up some of the loose ends, but sadly it isn’t streaming on Paramount+ – you’ll need a Now entertainment pass to watch it.

Watch Deadwood on Paramount+

Watch Deadwood on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

A high school soccer team reaches the national finals, meaning a flight to the west coast and a shot at glory – but when their plane crashes in the middle of the Rockies and rescue never materialises, the girls must cross horrifying boundaries to survive their wilderness ordeal – which comes with more than a tingling of the supernatural about it.

25 years later we catch up with the survivors, who are now approaching middle age but just as troubled, confused and dysfunctional as they were at 17. What really happened back there in the mountains, and can they ever escape the terrible choices they made? Yellowjackets’ back-and-forth time-hopping structure means its mysteries are unravelled slowly, but the excellent cast (including real-life 90s icons Christina Ricci and Juliette Lewis) keeps things engaging throughout. Creepy, nostalgic and surprisingly funny.

Watch Yellowjackets on Paramount+

Watch Yellowjackets on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

Private eye Jake Gittes gets more than he bargained for when a wandering-husband case gets him tangled up in the shady business of the Los Angeles water grab. Roman Polanski’s neo-noir is painted in dusty shades of brown rather than the crisp black and white of the original film noirs – and it’s similarly murky in its outlook.

Jack Nicholson’s Gittes finds himself quickly out of his depth as his efforts to pursue justice run up against the entrenched interests of the corrupt elite – personified with lip-smacking relish by John Huston. It all builds to a devastating conclusion, in which the darkness underpinning the city – and Huston’s tyrannical Noah Cross – is laid bare. One of the greats.

Watch Chinatown on Paramount+

Watch Chinatown on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

Pulp Fiction has an astonishing legacy: not only did it instantly elevate writer and director Quentin Tarantino to the pantheon of Hollywood greats, it turned Samuel L. Jackson into a household name, got John Travolta’s wayward career back on track and delivered one of the all-time great movie monologues as Christopher Walken explained the significance of that pocket watch.

But over and above all that, it’s just an incredible bit of moviemaking. This non-chronological series of interrelated stories about Los Angeles crooks serves up a cavalcade of unforgettable scenes. It’s as eminently quotable as it is perfectly framed and executed, and it’s the kind of film you can watch over and over again, each time finding some small new detail to appreciate. Luckily, streaming is perfect for that very purpose.

Watch Pulp Fiction on Paramount+

Watch Pulp Fiction on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

Cormac McCarthy’s metaphysical crime novel gets the Coen brothers treatment – and how. This is truly top-drawer cinema, thanks not only to the source material and its sympathetic adaptation by two of America’s finest filmmakers, but the superb performances from Josh Brolin, Kelly Macdonald, Tommy Lee Jones and, most memorably, Javier Bardem as the philosophising and seemingly unstoppable hired killer Anton Chigurh. If you like your thrillers as contemplative and lyrical as they are nail-biting, look no further than this gem.

Watch No Country for Old Men on Paramount+

Watch No Country for Old Men on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)

This bold, brilliant and bonkers spoof reality series, in which deadpan Canadian comedian Nathan Fielder swoops in to rescue ailing small businesses with absolutely woeful (but somehow completely logical) money-making advice, has largely flown under the radar this side of the pond, but do yourself a favour and give it a shot. Often so surreal and bizarre you won’t believe Nathan’s poor clients aren’t in on the joke, Nathan for You is a true comedy original.

Watch Nathan For You on Paramount+

Watch Nathan For You on Paramount+ (Amazon Prime Video channel)