You’ve kept up to date with all the new and returning shows coming this month and beyond, likely thanks to our handy guides! But there are always hidden gems that you might have glossed over. Is it really something you’ll want to watch? You haven’t heard or read much about the show, so maybe it’s best to wait. We have you covered.
Here, we highlight three hidden February streaming TV shows that might have flown under your radar but are worth checking out. Chances are you probably haven’t even heard of these shows. One new FX series, in particular, promises to breathe new life into a fascinating story that was last adapted way back in the ‘80s.
A Korean series based on the webtoon of the same name, A Bloody Lucky Day was released in two parts in November and December 2023, but it didn’t make its way to North America until this month. Oh Taek (Lee Sung-min) is a taxi driver working to make a living. When he’s offered a high fee to transport a passenger to Mokpo, he agrees, albeit reluctantly. But as they travel, Oh Taek soon realizes the man he is stuck in a vehicle with is a dangerous serial killer. It’s a scenario that screams unimaginable tension and panic.
But Oh Taek quickly adapts into cool, calm, and collected survival mode, using his astute sense and resourcefulness to hopefully make it out alive and not become a victim. Intense and gripping, A Bloody Lucky Day has a thrilling premise to keep you invested through all 10 episodes.
Stream A Bloody Lucky Day on Paramount+.
Justin Hartley captured hearts as Kevin Pearson on This is Us, and he’s back on the small screen in Tracker. The drama is already set up for success, premiering immediately following Super Bowl 2024 and all those great commercials. Hartley plays a very different character in this series, a man named Colter Shaw, a survivalist traveling across the U.S. looking for “rewards.” He’s an expert tracker and uses his skills to help law enforcement solve some of their most difficult cases.
With all the makings of a cookie-cutter police procedural, Tracker sounds like several of them mashed into one, from Will Trent to Poker Face. Whether the series lives up to the hype and can last beyond a single season remains to be seen; shows of this genre tend to become long-running or peter out quickly. But if you’re looking for a solid new police procedural to fill a hole while you wait for a favorite to return or mourn the end of another, Tracker is a worthy contender.
You might be familiar with the 1980 TV series of the same name, based on the James Clavell novel. So, too, is this iteration of Shōgun, the story of a female samurai, an English sailor, and a power daimyo who are all shipwrecked in Japan. They each have their own challenges: Lado Mariko (Anna Sawai, who currently also appears in Apple TV+ series’ Pachinko and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters) has friction with her family, John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) is unfamiliar with the Japanese culture, and Lord Toranaga (Mortal Kombat’s Hiroyuki Sanada) is fighting off political rivals.
The story in Shōgun is fictional, but it’s loosely based on real historical facts, with Blackthorne based on William Adams, an English navigator who trained with daimyo Tokugawa Ieyasu (on whom Lord Toranaga is based) to become a powerful samurai. Mariko, meanwhile, is based on Hosokawa Gracia, a member of the aristocratic Akechi family in the 1500s and 1600s. Called a must-watch by early reviewers, with Time Magazine referring to Shōgun not as a remake but as a “radical reimagining,” the historical drama is poised to be one of the best new shows of 2024, and one you might not even have heard of yet. There are 10 episodes in the first season.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.