What to Watch: 19 Specials, Movies and Series to Stream This Weekend

Here’s what else is new to streaming this week:

New Release: ‘Murder Among the Mormons’

( Netflix )

In his teens and early 20s, Jared Hess served as a Mormon missionary in both Caracas, Venezuela and Chicago, an experience that, among other things, instilled in him a deep fascination with the history of the church.

“It’s such a unique American religion—just the culture and the history of persecuted people coming West,” he says. “There’s an endless amount of interesting stories.”

Mr. Hess, best known for directing and co-writing 2004’s surprise comedy hit “Napoleon Dynamite” has created a three-part documentary series about Mark Hofmann, a man who went in another direction during his own Mormon mission. In “Murder Among the Mormons,” Mr. Hess chronicles how a disaffected youth grew up to be a fantastic fraud who remains behind bars for murder.

The series is squarely in the true crime genre, but it also provides a primer on the origins of the religion and explores how important history and research is for church, and how historical artifacts purporting to contradict basic tenets of the faith lead to a pair of murders in 1985.

“We did some early rough-cut test screenings with friends that knew nothing about Mormonism and they were always like: I need to know more,” he says. “To be able to comprehend the story, you have to understand the foundational beliefs of Mormonism, the early stories from which the church grew.”

New Release: Oprah + the Royals, ‘SpongeBob’s Under Years’ and ‘The Real World Homecoming’

(Paramount+)

We’ve reached a phase of the streaming wars in which viewers are asked not just to keep up with which movies and TV shows are coming and going on which service every month, but which services are coming (Discovery+) and going (Quibi) and re-branding.

CBS All-Access, the service been best known for launching Star Trek series like “Star Trek: Picard” and the animated “Star Trek: Lower Decks,” is now Paramount+. The service features content from networks and brands like CBS, BET, Comedy Central and MTV, among others.

The service launchs with new original content, such as the prequel series “Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years,” a reunion special “The Real World Homecoming: New York,” and a news spin-off, “60 Minutes+.” It also retains CBS All Access fare such as “The Good Fight,” and “The Stand,” and it has secured the rights to the coming “Frasier” reboot. Live sports coverage includes both The Masters and the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championships. On Sunday, cord cutters can use it to watch Oprah Winfrey interview Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Paramount+ is a walled garden with a monthly entry fee starting at $6. But some of the titles are being made available on its sister streaming service, Pluto TV, for free this month. Pluto is adding the channel Paramount+ Picks, and populating it with a 24-hour stream of select episodes from Paramount+ titles.

New Release: ‘Renegades,’ ‘Welcome to Your Fantasy’

(Spotify)

Spotify continues its push into non-musical audio products with the recent release of at least two new podcasts featuring iconic American men. “Renegades: Born in the USA,” features conversations between Bruce Springsteen and President Barack Obama. The pair riff on topics like music, drinking, civil rights, how they became friends, and why they’ve each considered themselves outsiders.

“I know why I was an outsider,” the former president tells his co-host. “That I can explain. But a nice Jersey boy doesn’t have to be an outsider, you know what I mean?

“I don’t think it’s something that you choose,” Mr. Springsteen responds. “I think it’s something that’s innate within you.”

“Welcome to Your Fantasy,” another podcast Spotify recently launched, is about the story of Chippendales, a group of men who found themselves on “calendars and T-shirts and coffee mugs available at every self-respecting mall in America.”

Hosted by historian Natalia Petrzela, it traces the story back to the founding of the dance troupe by Steve Banerjee, a former gas station operator who looked up to both Hugh Hefner and Walt Disney. Part true-crime and part exploration of a pop cultural artifact, the narrative involves bizarre encounters and players, such as a hustler named Paul Snider and his Playmate wife Dorothy Stratten, whom Snider later murdered.

New Release: ‘Coming 2 America’

(Amazon Prime Video)

“Coming 2 America,” one of the most anticipated comedy sequels of all time is streaming on Amazon Prime Video. The movie reunites Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, among others, from the ‘80s classic, “Coming to America,” which can also be seen on Amazon Prime Video. In the original, Mr. Murphy plays the prince of an African nation called Zamunda who pretends to be a student looking for a bride in Queens. In the sequel, King Akeem is looking for the son he didn’t know he had in a journey that brings him back to the borough.

In his conversation with the Journal, director Craig Brewer talked to Ellen Gamerman about living up to fans’ expectations.

“I know what it’s like to have people go, ‘Can’t wait to see it’ and then threaten me and say, ‘You better not mess it up because that movie means a lot to me,’” he says. “My job on set was to be the guardian of what from the original movie can be celebrated, and then what’s going overboard, because we did want this movie to be its own thing.” Read more from the interview here.

Streaming Notes:

• Speaking of sequels… Fans of “Napoleon Dynamite,” the now-iconic small-town Idaho comedy, have been begging for a sequel since the first movie was released in 2004. But while co-director Jared Hess says there are currently no plans for part two he adds it’s not entirely out of the question: “We’ve kicked around ideas,” he says. “We’re definitely leaving the door open for further adventures of Napoleon.”

For now, the original film can be streamed on places like Amazon Prime (free for Starz subscribers). Episodes of the short-lived animated series, “Napoleon Dynamite,” is streaming on Hulu.

• The season finale of “WandaVision,” the ambitious Marvel series that has unfolded slowly and surprisingly over the past two months, began streaming today on Disney+. Start bingeing now if you don’t want the finale spoiled by Monday.