Pulse
From Thursday, April 3rd, Netflix
It’s time for another frenetic medical drama packed with the usual tropes and cliches, and featuring horny hospital staff giving each other googly eyes over the guts on the operating table. Could Pulse buck the trend and bring something fresh to this ailing genre? Willa Fitzgerald, who played the feisty cop Roscoe Conklin in the first series of Reacher, stars as a feisty Miami medic, Danny Simms, who has to juggle her life-saving duties with her complicated love life – all in the midst of a devastating hurricane that is battering the Florida city. To make things even trickier, her colleague Dr Zander Phillips (Colin Woodell) has been suspended, and Danny has been promoted in his place. As the trauma cases from the hurricane come pouring in, details of Danny’s illicit affair with Phillips start trickling out, making things slightly awkward around the wards.
The Bondsman
From Thursday, April 3rd, Prime Video
Kevin Bacon’s back! We’ve had sporadic sightings of him in various movies and TV series over the past few years, but now we’re just one degree of separation away from the actor as he takes the lead role in this supernatural horror series from Blumhouse Television. Bacon plays Hub Halloran, a country music-lovin’ bounty hunter who has to find himself a new job after being brutally murdered. His new boss? None other than Satan, who sends him back to Earth to hunt down the demons that have escaped from hell and cast them back into the flames. But as Hub begins to repent his past sins, could this resurrection be his final shot at redemption?
Dying for Sex
From Friday, April 4th, Disney+
Michelle Williams stars as Molly in this drama inspired by a podcast that asks what, if you were diagnosed with a terminal illness, you would do with the time you had left. For Molly, who learns that she has stage-four metastatic breast cancer, the answer is obvious: have as much sex as possible in as many ways as possible. To accomplish her f**k-it list she must of course leave her husband and recruit her friend Nikki to join her on her wild sexual adventure. The cast includes Jenny Slate, Jay Duplass, Rob Delaney and Sissy Spacek.
Black Mirror
From Thursday, April 10th, Netflix
Welcome back to the whacked-out, brain-frying world of Charlie Brooker’s satirical sci-fi anthology series, where terror is just a mouse click away and the ghosts have completely taken over the machine. Series seven is “a little bit OG Black Mirror”, says Brooker, going back to its dystopian sci-fi roots, but with plenty of disturbing stuff in the mix to keep our minds churning long after the screen has gone dark. The series features six new stories, two of them feature length, and one of them a sequel to the popular series four opener, USS Callister, in which a socially inept programmer became captain of his own simulated reality starship. Get ready to have your mind ripped apart by these new tales of techno fear and loathing. The star-studded cast includes Awkwafina, Peter Capaldi, Emma Corrin, Paul Giamatti, Rashida Jones, Chris O’Dowd and Issa Rae.
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Your Friends & Neighbors
From Friday, April 11th, Apple TV+
Disgraced hedge-fund manager Andrew Cooper has been canned from his high-powered job, and now no one will touch him with a 10ft cattle prod. Recently divorced, Coop finds himself home alone in his affluent Vermont suburb, but rather than twiddle his thumbs he decides to stay busy by burgling his neighbours’ homes. Soon he’s got a nice operation going cleaning out big houses, but while stuffing his swag bag with Rolexes, Louis Vuitton handbags and Tiffany necklaces he stumbles on something more valuable – and more dangerous – than luxury goods: the dark secrets and hidden affairs of the wealthy homeowners. It’s not long before Coop finds out that what you know can actually kill you. Jon Hamm heads a cast that also features Amanda Peet, Olivia Munn and Hoon Lee.
The Stolen Girl
From Wednesday, April 16th, Disney+
Elisa and Fred’s nine-year-old daughter, Lucia, has been invited for a sleepover with her new best friend, Josie, and she’s very excited. Elisa has no problem with this overnight playdate: Josie seems like a nice kid, her mum, Rebecca, is charming and personable, and their family home is gorgeous. The next morning Elisa goes to collect her daughter, and her whole world collapses. The house was nothing more than a holiday rental, and Rebecca and Josie have vanished – along with Lucia. But as police search Europe for the missing child, Elisa and Fred suddenly find themselves under suspicion, and as more is learned about Rebecca’s motives, Elisa’s perfect family facade begins to crumble. Denise Gough, Holliday Grainger, Ambika Mod and Jim Sturgess star in this British-made psychological thriller adapted from Playdate, Alex Dahl’s bestselling novel.
The Not Very Grand Tour
From Friday, April 18th, Prime Video
Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard Hammond went on their final Grand Tour last year, in a swansong series entitled One for the Road. So what are they doing back behind the wheel? And haven’t we seen some of this footage before? In this new series May and Hammond motor back through the archives to pick some of their favourite moments from previous Grand Tours. It sounds as if Prime Video is trying to squeeze another series out of old car parts, but if you’re a Grand Tour fan you might enjoy this drive down memory motorway. Episode one is a celebration of the combustion engine.
Andor
From Tuesday, April 22nd, Disney+
Disney and Lucasfilm have had mixed fortunes with their Star Wars live-action spin-offs. The Mandalorian was a success, but most of their other efforts failed to light up a galaxy far, far away: Obi-Wan Kenobi crashed and burned; The Book of Boba Fett fell flat. But Andor has turned out to be a dark horse, and series one has become a huge fan favourite, described as Star Wars’ own Sopranos or Breaking Bad. The series, which takes place in the five years leading up to the events in the first Star Wars film, is not your typical lightsabre-and-spacecraft kids’ adventure but something altogether more gritty and grown-up. Diego Luna returns as thief turned rebel Cassian Andor, who is ready to play his role in the birth of the Rebellion. But time is running out, as the empire prepares to unveil its deadliest weapon, the Death Star.
You
From Thursday, April 24th, Netflix
Bookseller and serial killer Joe Goldberg is back for more romance and murder in the fifth and final series of the psychological drama. Joe has returned to New York having terrorised London society, but this time he’s not able to stay under the radar, as new wife Kate is now chief executive of the Lockwood Corporation, and Joe has to get used to being half of a celebrity couple. Now that he has lost his anonymity, Joe finds his past crimes beginning to catch up with him, and when he encounters an all-too familiar face it’s his turn to feel the fear.
Carême
From Wednesday, April 30th, Apple TV+
TV chefs are 10 a penny these days, but who was the first celebrity chef? This sumptuous French series tells the story of the culinary sensation Antonin Carême, who leaves his humble beginnings as a kitchen boy in late-18th-century Paris behind to fire up French high society with his incredible pastry creations and flamboyant style of food presentation. As his fame and reputation grow throughout Europe, he’s the name on everyone’s lips. But Emperor Napoleon isn’t too impressed – until he realises he can use Carême’s skills to expand his influence among the rich and powerful of Paris. And with Europe’s leaders eager to get the chef into their kitchens, the power brokers at home see their chance to recruit him as a spy for France. (That last bit may be fictional.)
