Even with the arrival or spring, the lure of the television remains strong. Not only will Amazon finish an Invincible season, but the streamer will start churning towards The Boys‘ return. This month, however, a different crop of show are preparing to thrill and chill viewers from several angles.
Gamers will receive starring turns from both Walton Goggins and Idris Elba. True crime addicts will see more of the Robert Durst downfall and a series that will also appeal to fans of the most recent True Detective season. Then there are grifters and spies, a new sci-fi adventure, and an interlude from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman universe. Here are the must-see shows for April.
Ripley (Netflix series streaming 4/4)
Everyone remembers Matt Damon in The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Andrew Scott is fully shaking off his “Hot Priest” days to don Tom Ripley’s grifter duds. This limited series is, of course, based upon Patricia Highsmith’s series of novels, and Scott’s incarnation of the character takes a job in the 1960s that sets him on the deceit-filled path to murder.
Parasyte: The Grey: Season 1 (Netflix series streaming 4/5)
Netflix has cranked up their South Korean production following the Squid Game phenomenon, and this live-action manga adaptation — which differs starkly from its source material although it appears to remain loyal to the same universe — pulls out the sci-fi stops as well. The series follows mysterious parasites who begin falling from the sky to inhabit hosts and start rampantly committing murder, yet the potentially greater threat to humanity is whether they can come together to react.
Sugar: Season 1 (Apple TV+ series streaming 4/5)
Colin Farrell is gearing up to appear in Max’s Penguin series, but for the moment, he’s starring as private detective John Sugar, who must track the disappearance of a powerful Hollywood producer’s granddaughter. In the process, Sugar also digs up family secrets that were buried for major reasons.
Fallout: Season 1 (Amazon Prime Video series streaming 4/11)
Walton Goggins portrays The Ghoul in this series that he was very excited to join until he learned about the no-nose thing. Still, he persisted in this live-action adaptation of the wildly successful video game series that takes place two centuries following the apocalypse, in which coming home doesn’t exactly happen as expected for the wealthy who have been hanging out in their shelters. The entire season will drop at once, for the binging.
Franklin: Season 1 (Apple TV+ series streaming 4/12)
Apple TV+ continues hitting the history books hard (after Masters of the Air and Manhunt), and here, Michael Douglas puts on the duds to portray Ben Franklin. In this series, however, the focus isn’t upon Franklin’s legacy as the father of electricity but in his journey to France on a secret mission. The show adapts A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, the Pulitzer Prize winning book from Stacy Schiff.
Under the Bridge: Season 1 (FX on Hulu series streaming 4/17)
Lily Gladstone is following up her arresting Killers of the Flower Moon performance in this true-crime series adaptation of the late Rebecca Godfrey’s same-named book that dives tail first into 14-year-old Reena Virk’s murder after it flipped a Canadian town on its head. The story carries some Sharp Objects flavor with True Detective vibes alongside its real-life origins. Riley Keough portrays Godfrey, and Gladstone suits up as a cop as the two women take different approaches to the pursuit of justice.
Conan O’Brien Must Go: Season 1 (Max series streaming 4/18)
If you adore Conan O’Brien — and who doesn’t? — and especially if you enjoy his Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, you’ll want to fall in-like all over again as Conan visit those friends. What follows will be a globetrotting extravaganza, surely of the self-deprecating variety.
The Jinx — Part Two (HBO series streaming on Max 4/21)
Robert Durst didn’t know what hit him, but it was always (surprise) Robert Durst hitting himself. He hot-mic’d his way into a followup investigation following 2015’s first season finale, in which he confessed (to himself but inadvertently to the world), “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.” At that point, a long wait for a followup season began, and Durst ended in behind bars after an extended run of dodging prosecution for repeated murder allegations due to insufficient evidence. Finally HBO the Max will take us behind the scenes as director Andrew Jarecki continued digging into the most bizarre of cases with interviews from witnesses who didn’t come forward until after that Durst slip-up.
Dead Boy Detectives (Netflix series streaming 4/25)
Welcome to another side of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman Universe, in which two young detectives discover each other while dead after being born decades apart. They’re BFF ghosts who also happen to have a knock for solving mysteries, particularly when something paranormal is afoot. That’s precisely what they encounter, including witches and the depths of Hell while aiming to help the mortal realm find closure through their investigations.
Knuckles: Season 1 (Paramount+ series streaming 4/26)
In the midst of runaway successful Sonic The Hedgehog movies, Jim Carrey and James Marsden’s voices are taking a break and yielding to Idris Elba, who stars here in the live-action series where his character fashions Adam Palley’s Wade into his protégé because someone needs to continue in the fine tradition of being an Echidna warrior. The film fills some gaps before the third Sonic movie, and the biggest attraction is (of course) the voice of Elba as an incorrigible grump.
The Veil: Season 1 (FX on Hulu series streaming 4/30)
Because there’s no such thing as too many spy series, Elisabeth Moss stars in this thriller series that brings two women together in an intricate game while they leap across Europe to save thousands of innocents from perishing. Secrets, lies, and ass-kicking moves swirl with international agencies coming together, possibly begrudgingly, to ward off mayhem.