What Should Your Kids Be Watching?

The streaming wars are coming for children, which means more minefields—and more excellent television.

- KATHRYN VANARENDONK

WHEN MY DAUGHTER turned 3, I started Googling “best first movies for kids.” Surely, someone must’ve already sorted through exactly which of the hundreds of childaimed movies were most appropriate for a 3-year-old, I figured. Surely, there were lots of lists and suggestions. ¶ There were not. My public library was an undifferentiated shelf of DVDs with Disney logos on the spine. Lists meant for the preschool set seemed to ignore the major developmental differences between a 2-year-old and a 4-year-old. And none of the recommendations broke down titles with the information I really wanted: How scary was it? What was it about, mostly? How complicated was the story? Was it violent? Were there songs? Was it obnoxious in a benign way or obnoxious in a toxic way? ¶ I am a TV critic. I’d spent so long honing my own critical sense of what I thought was good, what I enjoyed, what good could mean. My 3-year-old’s sense of good was very different. Of course, it was! But knowing that didn’t make it any easier for me to predict what she was going to like, much less what she’d like that I was also happy to let her watch.