Welcome to What to Watch Right Now, our weekly rundown of the best things to watch right now. The constant stream of shows, videos, and films to watch online can become a sludge to wade through, so here are a few things you can watch courtesy of the Rolling Stone Philippines team. Whether it’s a new show or an underappreciated gem, we hope it can ease the burden of choosing which streaming platform to use or of discovering a new cinematic odyssey.
This week, dating shows like The Boyfriend and Single’s Inferno had us thinking about love, kilig, and the crazy lengths people will go to in order to find their one true love. Thrilling dramas like Sharp Objects and Ponies kept us on our toes, in more ways than one. And finally, livestreams of the 2026 Australian Open had us screaming at our screens, hoping our favorite players could hear us.
‘The Boyfriend’ Season 2
Finding love and friendship in a frozen landscape
The Japanese gay dating show is back with more episodes and a brand new cast who are taking chances to find a romantic partner — or even just a friend. This season, we have a quickly established “love team” (I’m looking at you, William and Izaya), a slow-burning pairing (Huwei and Bomi), a 40-year-old who just got out of a 15-year relationship, and a 20-year-old student who’s reluctant to talk about his sexuality to his father. Many fans have criticized the focus on William and Izaya, who eat up so much of the running time, but this romance has also given us one of my favorite quotes of the season. After a very anxious William opens up about his fears regarding the direction of their relationship, having been hurt by his past partners, Izaya assures him that their future is for both of them to worry about: “I don’t want you to think, worry about it alone, and come to a conclusion on your own. I want to think and worry with you, and help figure things out.” If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is.
Meanwhile, we have the adorable Jobu constantly crashes out because of his devilishly good-looking prospects (“It pisses me off he’s just so handsome!”) and then crashes out some more after being rejected. Way to make us root for the underdog of the season — the cuties who seem like a total package but keep getting sidelined as romantic prospects (e.g. Taehon from the first season). Though there’s one who might be choosing Jobu in the later episodes.
Wintertime in Hokkaido and the gradual waltz into springtime provide an arresting backdrop for these relationships to emerge (or combust). With three more episodes left next week, we’re ready for more twists, turns, and tears come finale time. —Don Jaucian
‘Single’s Inferno’ Season 5
Hot people trying to find their one true love on an island full of other hot people
You’d think that it would be easy for a group of hot, young singles to find love. But sadly, that is not the case for the 15 contenders of this season’s Single’s Inferno, who’ve come to the island in search of a romantic partner just as hot as them. The only problem is that, at least for quite a few of them, they can’t decide who’s the best person to go to Paradise with. For some, like former beauty queen Choi Mina Sue, there are just too many good-looking people to choose from. For others, like Park Hee Sun, there’s only one worth pursuing, but he’s too busy chasing after the other hot women (ahem, Mina Sue) in Inferno. I feel like they’re making their lives more complicated than they have to be, but it does make for good reality TV. —Mel Wang
‘Ponies’ Season 1
A high-stakes Cold War spy caper that has no business being this funny
It’s 1970s Moscow, and both American and Russian spies are at each other’s throats as they try to outsmart each other and make it out of the Cold War alive. But a lot of the show’s moments of espionage and reconnaissance fade into the background to make way for the core of Ponies: Bea (Emilia Clarke) and Twila (Haley Lu Richardson), two American wives turned CIA operatives after their husbands are shot down by the KGB. The duo is woefully out of their depth, and some of the greatest moments of the show’s first season come from their attempts to make contact with skittish Russian moles, plant listening devices on a dangerous KGB officer, and semi-kidnap babies to gain crucial intel. Ponies is definitely a spy thriller, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and both Bea and Twila’s storylines are so compelling that sometimes I just want to see them figure out how to deal with their grief instead of watching them get stuck in a high-speed ambulance chase (although that’s fun, too). —Mel Wang
‘Sharp Objects’
A vicious piece of the girlhood canon
To date, one of Amy Adams’ best performances is in Sharp Objects, the 2018 miniseries based on Gillian Flynn’s debut novel of the same name. In the show, Adams plays Camille Preaker, a troubled journalist who returns to her hometown to cover the murders of two girls. Amid investigations, Camille deals with childhood trauma, grief, alcoholism, and small-town politics. And further complicating the mix are her teenage half-sister, Amma (Eliza Scanlen), and their overbearing socialite mother, Adora (Patricia Clarkson).
While Adams’ performance here earned her Best Actress at the 2019 Critics’ Choice Television Awards and a Golden Globe nod, I think Scanlen’s Amma is transfixing: one moment, the perfect daughter for Adora, and the next, a party girl who bullies half the town on roller skates. And the roller-skating in this Southern gothic thriller is such a vibe that, even if I already know the wild twists and turns the story takes, I find myself coming back to the show just for it. —Pie Gonzaga
Australian Open
Not A-OK: The 2026 tour’s first slam is lowkey using fan service to justify player surveillance
The Australian Open wraps this weekend, and once again, tennis fans are treated to the best of pro tennis, headlined by the two new greats, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner, and on the women’s side, Aryna Sabalenka.
But it took the unravelling of women’s no. 3 Coco Gauff this week to reveal a less-than-desirable side of the Slam: surveillance. Footage of the American no. 1 smashing her racket after losing in the quarterfinals has gone viral. Gauff said she thought she had found a spot free of cameras to vent her frustrations, but apparently, AO has eyes everywhere. And for what? Is this a prison?
The simple answer is that they employ these behind-the-scenes footage for content to upload on their social media pages, which, since the start of the slams early this month, has been filled with videos of players training, goofing around, and finding themselves in the strangest situations (see: World no. 2 Iga Swiatek being refused entry to the gym after she forgot her accreditation card; and American big ace Ben Shelton having a fun little workout session).
While these offer a different view of these often serious-faced individuals, it also has unfettered access to their less-than-professional breakdowns. And often, the female athletes are on the losing end, showing them losing their cool during and after games.
These Slams are doing the most just to rack up views and eyeballs. Apparently, display of greatness does not cut it online anymore. Now they must be subject to reality show edits, too. —Christian San Jose
