Now Streaming Weekly Roundup: LAST SAMURAI STANDING Fights, TATSUKI FUJIMOTO 17-26 Dazzles, THE CREEP TAPES Startle

Our weekly guide to new and noteworthy indie and international genre series.

Last Samurai Standing
All six episodes are now streaming on Netflix.

Kind of like Squid Game, only with desperate samurai. Many heads will roll, as the savage action commences. But first, a word from the official synopsis, which is accurate, but does not properly convey the extreme bloody action. Did I mention that heads will roll?

"In the early Meiji era, Shujiro, once known as an undefeated samurai, decides to participate in a deadly survival game to save his family and villagers."

Tatsuki Fujimoto 17-26
All eight episodes are now streaming on Prime Video.

Just last month, Chainsaw Man -- The Movie: Reze Arc come to big screens in the U.S. -- see Kyle Logan's review for more -- and in a well-timed drop, "six studios and seven directors adapt the early works of Tatsuki Fujimoto, the mastermind behind Chainsaw Man, into an anime anthology," according to the official synopsis. "Each episode is an anime adaptation of a short story he drew from ages seventeen to twenty-six, including the first manga he ever submitted for competition. Watch as vivid tales of young love, chaos, madness, and the bonds between people unfold in each episode."

I've only watched the first episode, but it definitely is on my priority watch list now: it's a wild melange of alien creatures who invaded Earth and quickly decided they loved the taste of human flesh, leading to the elimination of all mankind, apparently, except for two young people who are hiding out, posing as costumed chickens.

It's wildly funny and wildly bloody, and I can't wait to watch all the episodes.

The Creep Tapes S2
The series is now streaming on Shudder.

Our own Dave Canfield conducteed a video interview earlier this week with creators Mark Duplass and Patrick Brice, and now Season 2 is at hand, with a plethora of found-footage done right, dispensed in 30-minutes or less that will get your blood pumping every times.

As Joe Bob might say: "Check it out."

The Beast in Me
All eight episodes are now streaming on Netflix.

Clare Danes in distress! That's the first discernible image in the series. The first episode revved me up further, when it's revealed that Ms. Danes plays the author of a very successful book about her father who developed writer's block after the "accidental" death of her young son.

She lives in a wealthy enclave in suburban New York, but her money has dried up and she is desperate, living alone in a large house that badly needs repairs. One day, notorious wealthy person Matthew Rhys moves into the mansion next door, and immediately begins exhaling noxious toxic personality odors all over Ms. Danes and her carefully disordered life.

Yeah, this looks like tense fun.

Malice
All six episodes are now streaming on Prime Video.

TBH, I only watched the first 15 minutes before I saw it wasn't for me. But maybe it's for you, if you like watching vapid characters in beautiful locations talking bad about each other? To get a taste of the series' premise, note that a literal snake is found floating in a vacation home's swimming pool.

David Duchovny stars as a wealthy something or other, with Jack Whitehall, aka
the symbolic snake in the swimming pool,' as a new tutor who arrives with a heart bent on revenge.

Palm Royale S2
The first two episodes are now streaming on Apple TV.

Kristen Wiig is a social climber who may be in over her head. I enjoyed the first season, and Season 2 looks to be more of the same dramedy, with an emphasis on comedy.

Officially: "Palm Royale is a true underdog story that follows Maxine Dellacorte (Kristen Wiig) as she endeavors to find her footing in the cutthroat world of Palm Beach high society. As Maxine attempts to cross that impermeable line between the haves and the have-nots, Palm Royale asks the same question that still baffles us today: 'How much of yourself are you willing to sacrifice to get what someone else has?'

"Palm Royale is a testament to every outsider fighting for their chance to truly belong."

Now Streaming celebrates independent and international genre films and television shows that are newly available on legal streaming services.