Captain Phillips

Captain Phillips has quietly become one of the more dependable crime dramas currently available in Australia on Stan, and in the US on fuboTV and Philo. The length is exactly right for the story it is telling — nothing rushed, nothing dragged out. With 7,554 viewer ratings on TMDB, this is not a title flying under the radar. Tom Hanks anchors it, but the writing does the real work. Start it on Stan whenever you need something guaranteed to land.

There is a reason Captain Phillips keeps coming up in conversation. The plotting in Captain Phillips is tight enough that the twists feel earned rather than assembled. The true story of Captain Richard Phillips and the 2009 hijacking by Somali pirates of the US-flagged MV Maersk Alabama, the first American cargo ship to be hijacked in two hundred years. The writing gets a boost from Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi, who sell every scene they're in. It was released in 2013. What distinguishes the best crime dramas from the rest is whether the character work can carry scenes where the mystery takes a breath — Captain Phillips passes that test consistently. The hit rate here is high enough that skipping ahead never feels like an option.

If you cannot walk away from a good mystery, Captain Phillips will keep you hooked. It rewards viewers regardless of what else is in their watch history. Best experienced as a single, sustained watch from start to finish. Tom Hanks's performance is the kind that shows up on best-of lists years later. If you have been looking for something to fill the gap left by a recently finished story, this is a reliable answer.