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?
THIS IS A GARDENING SHOW (series premieres Wednesday, April 22, on Netflix) A new non-fiction series might just have something for both aspiring gardeners and off-beat comedy fans. Host and producer Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover) is being his best absurd self in this half-serious, half-loopy gardening show. Will “Zach Gaspa Fadasky,” as he refers to himself here, provide actual gardening advice? Possibly? It will help to be a fan of his high-low comedy. It will also help to watch the kids he occasionally interviews react so enthusiastically to his artful silliness.
HALF MAN (series premieres Thursday, April 23, on Crave/HBO) Richard Gadd has been working more than red carpets and talk shows to maintain the momentum created by his disturbing and gorgeous 2024 series Baby Reindeer (Netflix). He has again found the time to write and star in a new series, starring opposite Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) as brothers Ruben and Niall. They are not blood brothers but as good as family in the best and worst ways. With the narrative action set in motion by a burst of violence, Half Man aspires to be a ferociously uncomfortable examination of what is, and what could or should be, the proper way to become a man.
STRANGER THINGS; TALES FROM ‘85 (animated spinoff premieres all 10 episodes Thursday, April 23, on Netflix) The mother series’ showrunner Eric Robles and creator/producers the Duffer Brothers have teamed up again to expand the teen horror franchise into animation. They are taking viewers back to the town of Hawkins but, this time, without Millie Bobby Brown and the other actors fans have come to know and love. With new actors voicing the main characters Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas and Max, the story starts in the winter of 1985 just after the events of the main series as the gang is reclaiming their lives of D&D and snowball fights. Only there’s something under the ice.
WIDOW’S BAY (series premieres Wednesday, April 29, on Apple TV) I get a little twitchy when press releases self-describe a new series as “genre-bending.” There are cases where a series has indeed redefined the accepted formulas. The island-plane-crash series Lost (2004-10, Disney+) mostly successfully, often brilliantly blended elements of drama, thriller, supernatural and soap opera. Mob-drama The Sopranos (1999-2007, Crave) helped establish a new kind of anti-hero. Twin Peaks (1990-91) just plain stretched viewers’ brains. But those assessments were earned. Even so, I’m trying to keep an open mind about the “genre-bending” horror comedy Widow’s Bay. Matthew Rhys (The Beast in Me, Netflix) plays Tom Loftis, mayor of a New England town desperate to prove that it is not cursed. But just as tourism begins to pick up, weirdo stuff starts at least appearing to prove the creepy stories true. “Aawoo!”
LORD OF THE FLIES (four-episode miniseries premieres Monday, May 4, on Netflix) William Golding eventually made quite the splash with his debut novel, which was rejected by many publishing houses before it was printed in 1954. The story of boys stranded on an island without adults came to be shorthand for ruthless domination and what is now called toxic masculinity. Adapted for TV by some of the creatives behind such streaming hits as Adolescence, His Dark Materials, Enola Holmes and Sex Education, the miniseries distills the story into four episodes each named for and carrying the perspective of the main characters, organizer Ralph, intellectual Piggy, gentle Simon and hunter Jack. Let the games begin.
Dates are subject to change. Questions, comments and suggestions gratefully accepted at d2calm@gmail.com.