Since “The Sopranos” was the most game changing series in TV history, it’s fitting that the long, long awaited prequel “The Many Saints of Newark” (HBO Max, streaming) is available on the small screen (as well as in theaters). David Chase crafted the prequel with a nifty casting turn: James Gandolfini’s son Michael playing a young version of Tony Soprano. Vera Farmiga steps in for another deceased cast member in playing Livia Soprano. Also in the movie, Ray Liotta, Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Bernthal and Corey Stoll.
Margaret Qualley is already getting accolades for her starring role in the limited series “Maid” (Netflix, streaming), based on Stephanie Land’s best selling memoir, a young mother who becomes a housecleaner after she escapes an abusive relationship and homelessness. Quelley’s actual mother, Andie MacDowell, plays her mother in the series that also features Billy Burke and Anika Noni Rose.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays a detective demoted to 911 operator in the new drama “The Guilty” (Netflix, streaming), a film whose cast includes Riley Keough, Paul Dano, Peter Sarsgaard and Ethan Hawke. Antoine Fuqua directs from a screenplay by Nic Pizzolatto, who created “True Detective” for HBO. The two worked together on the 2016 “The Magnificent Seven.”
Filmed in an empty theater before it was to have opened on Broadway in March 2020, “Diana, the Musical” (Netflix, streaming) gets a streaming showcase before it officially opens next month. With Jeanna de Wall in the title role, Roe Hartrampf as Prince Charles.
“All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs” (Amazon Prime, streaming) follows the preseason preparations of the Canadian hockey mainstay.