We’ve come to that time of year when the subscription streaming services start showing more of the kind of content that we signed up for in the first place – high quality films and series that either have or will go on to receive awards recognition at the Oscars, Globes, Emmys, and the like.

Streaming is now the most popular form of bringing entertainment into the home, though some of us will continue to augment our treasured DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD collections with new purchases for as long as we can while still enjoying the occasional streamer.

The first notable film to stream this season is The Good Nurse on Netflix. It’s from Charles Graeber’s nonfiction book with a screenplay by Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917, Last Night in Soho), directed by Tobias Lyndholm, the Danish writer of Another Round, for whom this is his first film in English.

Jessica Chastain has the title role as Amy Loughren, a single mother and nurse working night shifts at a New Jersey hospital in 2003 where sudden, unexpected deaths have occurred since the hiring of male nurse Charlie Cullen (Eddie Redmayne) whose most recent job was at a Pennsylvania hospital.

Amy has a heart condition and is qualified to receive a transplant but can’t afford to pay for one until her hospital insurance kicks in in a few months, so she soldiers on past exhaustion. Charlie feels bad for her and helps her, ingratiating himself with her young daughters and their daytime caregiver.

When the police begin to suspect Charlie of murdering patients, they have no proof and ask Amy to help them gather evidence. At first, she is incredulous and refuses to help them, but then another patient dies. A newly energized Amy begins her own investigation, making a surprising discovery that turns her world upside down.

That Charlie would turn out to be a serial killer who murdered as many as 400 patients at 9 different hospitals over his 16-year career does not come as a surprise. What is surprising is in the way in which he is caught and what it says about hospital administrators who, while suspecting something nefarious, turned a blind eye to it and dismissed him for other reasons rather than exposing their hospital to possible lawsuits.

There is Oscar buzz for Eddie Redmayne’s Norman Bates-like portrayal of Charlie bur curiously none for Jessica Chastain’s Karen Silkwood-like portrayal of Amy.

Meryl Streep received an Oscar nomination for playing whistleblower Karen Silkwood in 1983’s Silkwood the year after winning for Sophie’s Choice. Could Chastain, who won last year for The Eyes of Tammy Faye, receive a follow-up nomination for playing whistleblower Amy? Stay tuned.

Sony has now issued three volumes of Columbia Classics 4K Ultra HD Collections for collectors.

The first volume, released in June 2020, is hard to find and only available at exorbitant prices. It featured six remastered Columbia films in 4K plus Blu-ray sets, two of which (Lawrence of Arabia, Dr. Strangelove), have since been released separately. Those that have not are Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Gandhi, A League of Their Own, and Jerry Maguire. I have only seen the separately released Lawrence of Arabia and Dr. Strangelove, both of which hold up to their rave reviews

The second volume, released in October 2021, can still be found at reasonable prices, but may not be available for long. It featured six more, Anatomy of a Murder, Oliver!, Taxi Driver, Stripes, Sense and Sensibility, and The Social Network. I have only viewed the beautifully restored Oliver! from this collection so far. Not only is the color grading for the HD version stunning, but so is the sound which was remastered in Atmos.

The newly released third volume features It Happened One Night, From Here to Eternity, To Sir, with Love, The Last Picture Show (both the theatrical cut and the director’s cut), Annie, and As Good as It Gets. So far, I have only viewed the three which come with bonus films that are also presented in HD.

Included with Frank Capra’s Oscar-winning 1934 film, It Happened One Night, is its 1956 remake, You Can’t Run Away from It, directed by Dick Powell with his wife June Allyson and Jack Lemmon in the roles that won Oscars for Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable in the original.

This was the second of four consecutive films in which Allyson reprised roles originally played in the 1930s by Powell’s contemporaries. First came 1956’s The Opposite Sex, a remake of The Women in which she played Norma Shearer’s role. After You Can’t Run Away from It came two in 1957. First up was Interlude in which she played the role created by Irene Dunne in 1939’s When Tomorrow Comes. Then came the remake of My Man Godfrey in which she reprised Carole Lombard’s Oscar-nominated role. None of Allyson’s versions were as good as the originals, but they are worth seeing out of curiosity.

Included with Fred Zinnemann’s Oscar-winning 1953 film, From Here to Eternity, based on James Jones’ bestseller, is the pilot for the 1979 mini-series of the same name. The entire mini-series is included on a separate Blu-ray disc.

Included with John Huston’s 1982 film version of the 1977 Broadway musical, Annie, is the 1932 film, Little Orphan Annie.

Little Orphan Annie was the name of the cartoon on which the Broadway musical was based. The daily newspaper cartoon, which ran until 2010, began in 1924. The story’s origins were updated to the 1930s for the musical. The 1932 film follows the character as she appeared in the cartoon at the time. It was the height of the Great Depression. Daddy Warbucks is no longer rich and travels the country in search of work and the possible restoration of his wealth. Annie, in the meantime, stays in the little shack he owns, spending her time helping others less fortunate.

In the film, Annie, played by Mitzi Green, helps younger orphan Buster Phelps find someone to adopt him, in this case a wealthy, but cranky, old lady played by the great May Robson the year before she became Apple Annie and a major star at 75 in Capra’s Lady for a Day for which she was nominated for an Oscar. Green, a superb mimic, does Harpo, Chico, and Groucho Marx in that order. She, Phelps, Robson, and Edgar Kennedy, seen briefly as Daddy Warbucks, are a real treat in this one-hour film which is a lot more fun than Huston’s bloated version of the musical, which to be fair, does look and sound better than ever in its 4K restoration.