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From back in the black-and-white days to today’s kaleidoscope of small-screen streaming options, television has offered many pleasures. This new handful of viewing recommendations dances nicely along that spectrum, from a period drama with a much needed modern perspective, a weekend of she-raging, a couple of spy thrillers and golf as a path to true grace (and a few gut-laughs). Onward!
Weird, stupid, funny, intense and historically inaccurate are not the words they recommend using in TV reviewer school, and yet these are all good reasons to check out the latest batch of viewing highlights. Settle in. Probably get a drink. Maybe call your therapist. And then definitely press ‘Play.’
If you are stacking up your beach reads for the summer, here is a list of lightweight TV viewing for when you’re too tired to hold up a book or e-reader. Pour yourself a drink and press play.
Television is working hard to keep you occupied with escapism, supernatural twists and turns, and a good old-fashioned tear-jerker. Get comfortable. Here’s your new batch of small-screen premieres.
Bookended by soft-hearted stories from the lands of Jane Austen, Hollywood and sentient octopi, the rest of this edition of viewing suggestions has more adrenaline than any one episode of The Pitt, which we are all missing except for the gory bits. Well, there are occasional gory bits on tap here as well. Be prepared to look away or to wipe away a tear.
Normally, this would be when I would advise you to get outside and enjoy the spring, and save these recommended series for after sundown. But these will instead help pass the time until, say, summer?
Spring is never really going to take root, so dig in until summer. Fortunately, there are plenty of new viewing options to occupy our new permanent hermit existence.
Don’t you hate it when a death ruins a perfectly good friendship? Or, your son turns out to be a Nazi? These are troubled times in TV land, so grab the popcorn and the remote and possibly something to hold in front of your face when the blood starts flying onscreen. Happy streaming? Elisabeth Moss (from left), Kerry Washington and Kate Mara play best friends in Imperfect Women, which hits Apple TV today. IMPERFECT WOMEN (series premieres with the first two of eight episodes Wednesday, March 18, on Apple TV) “Friendships are built on secrets,” says the trailer of this mystery. Yikes. The next time the girls and I get together for drinks, I will engage in some hard staring. Onscreen here, Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale) and Kerry Washington (Scandal) are both stars and producers in this new mystery series, joined onscreen by a solid supporting cast, including Kate Mara (The Astronaut), Joel Kinnaman (The Killing), Corey Stoll (House of Cards) and Leslie Odom Jr. (Hamilton). Bottom line: a crime shatters lives and assumptions in the decades-long friendship of three women. Despite all that, my spidey sense is twitching, so if this is more sizzle than steak, consider How to Get to Heaven From Belfast (now streaming on Netflix), also about three longtime female friends thrown into chaos by news of a death. It’s darkly hilarious, with some good twisty developments. PEAKY BLINDERS: THE IMMORTAL MAN (movie sequel to the series premieres Friday, March 20, on Netflix) I tried to watch the acclaimed six-season series when it premiered on Netflix in 2013. I had read it was a historically inspired series about post-WWI gangsters in Birmingham, England, and it starred Cillian Murphy, who was impressive even before Oppenheimer launched him to interstellar fame. The series was also surrounded by quite a bit of bluster about the gang sewing razor blades into their wool caps and filling the streets with blood. I took an “ick” pass, but always meant to catch up. Instead, I might just dip into this movie sequel, set in 1940, where Tommy Shelby (Murphy) ends his self-imposed exile when his wayward son (Barry Keoghan of Saltburn fame) takes a shine to Nazism. Tim Roth also joins the cast, which includes the stalwart, everywhere man Stephen Graham (Adolescence, A Thousand Blows). If you are a completist Peaky fan, be advised that this film will be followed by a pair of six-episode sequel series set in the 1950s. BAIT (series premieres all six episodes on Wednesday, March 25, on Prime Video) The actor Riz Ahmed is a seriously good actor, as seen in the serious thriller The Night Of, the serious drama Sound of Metal and Shakespeare’s serious classic Hamlet. Here, he has created and stars in a black comedy about a struggling actor Shah Latif, who defies his family, friends, an ex-lover and the world itself as he dares to audition to be named the next James Bond. Never mind his career: Will Latif himself survive? Among those lending very conditional support are The Gentlemen’s Guz Khan and Yesterday’s Himesh Patel. JO NESBO’S DETECTIVE HOLE (series premieres on Thursday, March 26, on Netflix) In the latest entry in the Nordic noir subgenre, Det. Hole (pronounced Hoo-lay, by the way) is brilliant but tormented not only by his own demons and news of a new serial killer but also by his corrupt longtime colleague Det. Tom Waaler (Joel Kinnaman). Can Hole (Tobias Santelmann) bring both the killer and a bad cop to justice in one nine-episode season? Diligent readers of Jo Nesbo’s novel series will recognize the story from Book 5, The Devil’s Star, and should keep their spoilers to themselves. Subtitled, but you can do it! MIKE & NICK & NICK & ALICE (movie premieres Friday, March 27, on Disney+/Hulu) This final pick was a close horse race between two weird, violent options. I was very much intrigued by Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen (series premieres Thursday, March 26, on Netflix), a wedding-day horror thriller from Stranger Things auteurs the Duffer Brothers. However the trailer — is a dread-laced daisy chain of at least eight “sorrys” that are already giving me nightmares. I’m out. Don’t bother telling me how badly it ends. However, I am totally on board for a time-travelling gangster revenge comedy in which James Marsden (Dead to Me) plays Mike and Eiza Gonzalez (Baby Driver) is Alice opposite not one but two Vince Vaughns (Bad Monkey) playing two Nicks. (Yes, that is a lot of names!) Adding to the fun, Keith David (The Lowdown) also stars. Broadcast times and dates are subject to change. Questions, comments, suggestions all humbly accepted at d2calm@gmail.com. You are unauthorized to view this page.