TV
1. Watch The White Lotus Season Three
All right, who dies this time?
HBO, February 16.
The third iteration takes us to a White Lotus resort where the guests include Parker Posey as a wealthy, semi-snotty North Carolina woman who looks down her nose at some of the other guests — oh, that’s all I needed to say to convince you to watch? Okay, cool. —Jen Chaney
Theater
2. See Safe House
Dancing with myself.
St. Ann’s Warehouse, February 15 through March 2.
Irish playwright and director Enda Walsh teams up with composer Anna Mullarkey for a new shape-shifting solo musical about Grace (Kate Gilmore), a young woman in search of safety who turns an outdoor handball court into a vivid kingdom for her own imagination. —Sara Holdren
Music
3. Hear Figure Humaine
Wartime choral works.
St. Paul’s Chapel, February 13.
Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, Trinity Choir reminds us that not even cataclysm can silence music. Melissa Attebury conducts a program of works composed in wartime Europe and concentration camps, including Ilse Weber’s “Wiegala,” Benjamin Britten’s agitprop “Advance Democracy,” and Francis Poulenc’s sublime cantata to liberty, “Figure Humaine.” —Justin Davidson
Art
4. Go to Looking Back / The 15th White Columns Annual
Giving new context to art in the city.
91 Horatio Street, through March 1.
Rather than picking a theme or an idea the way most curators do, guest organizer and artist-writer Elisabeth Kley selected art and artists seen in New York over the previous year. So Kley forgoes a preset idea and lets the art make the meaning — which is what art does! This is a model of what an annual art show can be. —Jerry Saltz
Movies
5. See Compensation
Parallel love and struggle.
Lincoln Center, starting February 21.
Recently restored, this 1999 indie from Zeinabu irene Davis looks at both ends of the 20th century by way of a pair of love stories starring Michelle A. Banks and John Earl Jelks and offers glimpses into the Black and deaf experiences. —Alison Willmore
TV
6. Watch Zero Day
A Y2K nightmare for our time.
Netflix, February 20.
Adding to a mini-trend of shows focused on drama surrounding the presidency (Paradise, The Residence), this limited thriller series stars Robert De Niro as a former president who, after a cyber attack destabilizes the nation’s tech infrastructure, leads the commission tasked with finding who’s responsible. The ensemble cast includes Lizzy Caplan, Angela Bassett, and Jesse Plemons. —Roxana Hadadi
Books
7. Read Theory & Practice
Reading English in Melbourne.
Catapult, February 18.
From Australian author Michelle de Kretser comes a startlingly intelligent and stylish experimental novel about a Sri Lankan immigrant and graduate student reckoning with an unexpected discovery about her favorite writer and subject, Virginia Woolf. De Kretser probes the gulf between theory and practice. —Jasmine Vojdani
Music
8. Listen to Horror
With a fun production assist.
4AD, February 14.
The third full length from Oklahoma singer-songwriter and guitarist Bartees Strange is another showcase for a versatile skill set: The funk-rap workout “Hit It Quit It” pays homage to George Clinton and Sly Stone, then the laconic “Sober” takes on Springsteenian airs. Jack Antonoff co-produces. —Craig Jenkins
Comedy
9. Watch The Mother Lode
The comedic reality of being “with child.”
Netflix, February 18.
Comedian and Saturday Night Live writer Rosebud Baker’s new special is the next in the small but growing collection of comedy specials recorded by comedians during their pregnancies. Baker’s striking innovation is to have taped the special both before and after giving birth. —Kathryn VanArendonk
TV
10. Watch Pantheon Season Two
Questions of cartoon consciousness.
Netflix, February 21.
The first season of the AMC+ series didn’t quite hit with audiences. But the animated sci-fi thriller about a tech company’s forays into uploading human consciousness has been picked up by Netflix for its second go-round. Don’t overlook this cross between Devs and Severance. —R.H.
Podcasts
11. Listen to We Came to the Forest
A spark of violence.
Wondery, Campside, and Tenderfoot TV.
This series looks into the 2023 killing of a protester in Georgia at the hands of law enforcement after an extended conflict between environmental activists and efforts to construct a massive police training facility. Matthew Shaer, of 2021’s true-crime podcast Suspect, leads the project. —Nicholas Quah
Opera
12. Hear Salome
A big show made digestible.
The Space at Irondale, through February 16.
Richard Strauss’s enduringly radical opera blasts through the city twice in the coming months. Before a new production at the Met, the tiny but potent Heartbeat Opera company presents a distilled version with a cast of seven and a pit ensemble of eight clarinetists and two percussionists. —J.D.
Movies
13. See The Brood
Divorce flicks.
Metrograph, February 21 through March 1.
To mark the publication of her new memoir, writer Haley Mlotek has curated a weekend of divorce-centric films, kicking off with David Cronenberg’s 1979 thriller about an abused woman in the midst of an ugly custody battle whose rage manifests in unexpected ways. Catch Mlotek, Hazel Cills, and Doreen St. Félix in conversation before the screening on the 21st. —A.W.
Art
14. See Mark Greenwold
Full disclosure.
Garth Greenan Gallery, 545 West 20th Street; through February 22.
This deeply gnarly exhibition features a portrait of my wife, the critic Roberta Smith, with a great Y-shaped bloody gash on her forehead. Mark Greenwold’s style is an ultratight detailed realism. Gone is the overt autobiography of his previous work. This show gives us small-scale pictures filled with confusions of love, conflict, acts of empathy, hospital-bed scenes, prison bars, and war zones that add up to real poetry. —J.S.
TV
15. Watch SNL50: The Anniversary Special
Half a century of doing it live.
NBC, February 16.
All the documentaries and magazine cover shoots have been leading to this: the official celebration of the most influential sketch comedy in TVhistory, broadcast in prime time. —J.C.
How to Watch
David Lynch
Alison Willmore guides fans and newcomers to the great visionary director’s work through his most essential viewing.
Start with
Lynch’s debut Eraserhead, a parenthood panic dream that shows off a fully formed surreal sensibility.
Move on to
Twin Peaks, the ABC show that piped horror, melodrama, and high strangeness into unsuspecting American households.
Marvel at
Mulholland Drive, which began as a failed pilot and became a singular masterpiece and showbiz nightmare starring Naomi Watts and Laura Harring.
Ponder
The Straight Story, an uncharacteristically direct road-trip movie that Lynch called his “most experimental” work.
Finish with
Inland Empire, a haunting venture into camcorder footage tracking Laura Dern through a phantasmagoric Hollywood odyssey.
Theater
16. See Redwood
Into the woods.
Now playing at the Nederlander Theatre.
As Wicked takes over the world, the Tony-winning original actress behind Elphaba, Idina Menzel, returns to Broadway in a new musical by Kate Diaz and director Tina Landau. Menzel co-conceived the story, which follows a woman driven from her seemingly perfect life into a reckoning in the California wilderness. —S.H.
Music
17. Listen to Plus One
A hearty V-Day batch of songs.
Mercury Nashville, February 14.
Michael Trotter Jr. and his wife, Tonya, known to country and Americana fans as the War and Treaty, release their fourth set with rockers and soulful ballads like the airy “Stealing a Kiss” and the gospel-bluegrass mind-meld and Billy Strings team-up “Drink From Me.” —C.J.
TV
18. Watch Love Is Blind Season Eight
Till death — or looks, age, or race — do part.
Netflix, February 14.
Netflix knows what viewers want on Valentine’s Day, and that is a new batch of hopefuls signing themselves up for a pod-based romance experience. This season is set in Minneapolis, so make yourself some hotdish before you settle in. —K.V.A.
Music
19. Go to Canellakis Conducts Messiaen and La Mer
A female conductor to watch.
David Geffen Hall, February 13 through 18.
Various forces have contributed to Karina Canellakis having a rough time making herself heard at the New York Philharmonic. Now, she returns with a formidable program of Olivier Messiaen, Kaija Saariaho, and Debussy’s La Mer. —J.D.
Movies
20. See Universal Language
Quirky, surreal, and felt.
In theaters February 14.
One of the strangest and most beautiful of last year’s festival circuit films gets a proper theatrical release. Matthew Rankin’s dreamy picture imagines a Winnipeg that’s a hybrid of Canadian and Persian culture — and finds both humor and lyricism in it. —Bilge Ebiri
TV
21. Watch Yellowjackets Season Three
Buzz buzz buzz.
Paramount+ with Showtime, February 14.
The new season of the mystery about a high-school soccer team that survives a plane crash is back to answer many of your questions. Like: Were there weird forces in the wilderness three decades ago that may have possessed them post-wreck? And: What banger of a ’90s song will drop next on the soundtrack? —J.C.
Theater
22. See The Barbarians
How I learned to stop worrying and …
Ellen Stewart Theatre, February 14 through March 2.
Jerry Lieblich’s Mahinerator was a heady, terrifying delight at the Tank last year. Now, they bring their play to La MaMa in a frantic feast of fractured language and whirligig political satire. In a play within a play (within a play?), Madam President Fake President dreams of war while a group of scientists attempt to jam the gears between language and state power. —S.H.
Movies
23. See The Best of Me
Fan, as in fanatic.
Spectacle Theater, February 15 and 22.
In an intimate portrait of obsession and alienation, Heather Landsman chronicles the life and death of Björk stalker Ricardo López through his video diaries as well as crime scene documentation, capturing López’s escalation toward his attempted 1996 assassination of the Icelandic singer. —A.W.
Music
24. Listen to New Dawn
Going solo.
Mexican Summer, February 14.
Marshall Allen, 100-year-old Sun Ra sideman and anchor of the late jazz and synth luminary’s still-vital Arkestra, releases his first-ever solo album. Across six bustling big-band expeditions, follow the seasoned free-jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. —C.J.
TV
25. Watch A Thousand Blows
Somehow not a Guy Ritchie project.
Hulu, February 21.
Steven Knight whiffed with last year’s exhausting The Veil, but he’s more in his bag with this 1880s period piece. It throws together unlikely figures (a Jamaican immigrant, the leader of an all-female crime gang, and an infamous boxer) and tracks their feuds, affairs, and power struggles. Expect lots of slow-motion blood splatter. —R.H.