Hulu is the MVP in this week’s streaming race, thanks to the premiere of its new true crime drama Under the Bridge. Not to be outdone, Max has the debut of Conan O’Brien Must Go, in addition to a new episode of Robert Downey Jr.’s wild new miniseries The Sympathizer, which will premiere a fresh episode on Sunday, April 21.
Prime Video may have released every episode of Fallout season 1 last week, but it earned the show a fast renewal. So feel free to catch up on that series, as well as Apple TV+’s Franklin, which is continuing with a new episode this week. And April still has a few more original shows to premiere before we get to May.
Aside from Hulu, Max and Apple TV+, the other major streamers, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+, Peacock, really need to up their game in the realm of original series. Whether it’s the impact of the Hollywood strikes or that budget cuts are catching up with the streamers, there has been a noticeable slowdown in the rollout of new series. It’s hard to justify paying for all of those streaming services at times like these. So if you want to save some money, consider opting for ad-supported tiers, which are worth it if you can sit through a few commercials. In the meantime, here’s our weekly roundup of the best new shows to stream.
When you’re done here, check out the best new movies to stream this week, as well as the best shows on Netflix, best shows on Hulu, best shows on Amazon Prime Video, and best shows on Disney+.
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Under the Bridge2024 -
- The Sympathizer2024
- Fallout2024
- Franklin2024
- Star Trek: Discovery2017
Hulu
Under the Bridge (2024) new
Following her star-making Oscar-nominated turn in Killers of the Flower Moon, Lily Gladstone leads the cast of Under the Bridge alongside Daisy and the Six’s Riley Keough. This true crime drama follows the case of Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta), a teenager who desperately wanted to fit in with her classmates. When Reena is found dead, all indications are that some of her classmates bullied and murdered her.
Keough plays author Rebecca Godfrey, who offers to help the police investigation of Reena’s death, which is led by Cam Bentland (Gladstone). Although Cam is wary of Rebecca’s intentions, she can get the girls accused of murdering Reena to open up. And what these children have to say stuns both Rebecca and Cam.
We Were the Lucky Ones (2024)
Hulu’s We Were the Lucky Ones is a drama that begins during World War II with the Kurc family, all of whom are living in Poland. At first, the Kurcs’ relative wealth and success allows them to shield themselves from the consequences of being Jewish during the Nazi regime. But that protection doesn’t last forever, as some of them escape and others are trapped in concentration camps.
The show follows Halina (Joey King), Addy (Logan Lerman), Genek (Henry Lloyd-Hughes), Jakob (Amit Rahav), Mila (Hadas Yaron), Sol (Lior Ashkenazi), and Nechuma (Robin Weigert) as they try to survive the worst years of World War II and make their way back to one another.
Max (formerly HBO and HBO Max)
Conan O'Brien Must Go (2024) new
Conan O’Brien may be done with late-night comedy, but he’s far from finished with TV. His new series, Conan O’Brien Must Go, is a comedy and travel show that brings O’Brien to Norway, Thailand, Argentina, and Ireland. It’s also partially a sequel to O’Brien’s Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast, as he reconnects with the fans he met on that series.
As always with O’Brien, most of the jokes are at his own expense. But there are occasionally moving moments, including the parts of the fourth episode where O’Brien looks into his own family’s Irish heritage.
The Sympathizer (2024) new
Robert Downey Jr. may not be the star of HBO’s The Sympathizer, but everyone expects him to steal the show since he’s playing several over-the-top American characters. However, the story is about the Captain (Hoa Xuande), a spy for North Vietnam who is embedded with the South Vietnamese army during the Vietnam War.
The Captain’s cover is so deep that he’s unable to avoid being evacuated to the U.S., where he lives among the South Vietnamese refugees. And although the Captain is still spying for his old masters in North Vietnam, he’s feeling more and more conflicted about his actions.
Amazon Prime Video
Fallout (2024) new
The hit Fallout video game franchise is now a live-action series from the creators of HBO’s Westworld. But with these characters and storylines, the show would have been a pretty fun game too. Two-hundred years after the world was ravaged by nuclear war, Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell) leaves her life of safety behind by emerging from an underground vault to find her missing father, Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan).
Life in the wasteland isn’t anything like the way Lucy pictured it, and she’s taken aback by her fellow survivors. She also encounters Maximus (Aaron Moten) and The Ghoul (Walton Goggins), but they aren’t necessarily on the same page as they forge their own paths in this world.
Apple TV+
Franklin (2024) new
If you know your American history, then you should be aware that one of the founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin, spent eight years in France trying to secure backing for the American Revolution. Franklin dramatizes that story with Michael Douglas stepping into the title role just as Franklin arrives in France in 1776 to get the help that his fledgling nation so badly needs.
What Franklin and his grandson, Temple (Noah Jupe), discover is that very few people in power are willing to either acknowledge him as America’s representative or negotiate with him. And if Franklin can’t win the French over to his side, then the revolution may come to a bad end.
Sugar (2024)
If you’ve seen every P.I. movie ever made, then so has John Sugar (The Penguin‘s Colin Farrell). There’s no bigger fan of film noir detectives than the leading character of Sugar, and he’s really obsessed with his cinematic predecessors. John does everything he can to come off like a character who stepped out of the classics and into modern-day Los Angeles.
John also has one heck of a case to sort out when he is hired by film producer Jonathan Siegel (James Cromwell) to find his missing granddaughter, Olivia (Sydney Chandler). Olivia’s father, Bernie (Dennis Boutsikaris), and her half-brother, Davy (Nate Corddry), are suspiciously unconcerned about her disappearance. And even Oliva’s stepmother, Margit (Anna Gunn), seems like she has ulterior motives to hide.
Paramount+
Star Trek: Discovery (2017) new
When Star Trek: Discovery launched in 2017, it was yet another prequel to the original series. But even since the beginning of season 3, Discovery has been set even further into the future. And now as the series begins its final season, Captain Michael Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and her crew on the Discovery have one last adventure with interstellar implications.
An enigmatic power that has been hidden for centuries is on the verge of being found, and if Discovery’s crew can’t find it first, then the entire universe may suffer the consequences.
A Gentleman in Moscow (2024)
Only Showtime subscribers or those with Paramount+ with Showtime are going to be able to watch A Gentleman in Moscow, but it’s the kind of show that might bring in more viewers than normal. Obi-Wan Kenobi‘s Ewan McGregor stars as Count Alexander Rostov, a man who had the unfortunate luck to be of noble blood right when the aftermath of the Bolshevik revolution is playing out in Russia.
Rostov’s life is spared, and he gets a relatively minor punishment of house arrest in a hotel. The only things that help Rostov keep his sanity are his friendships with Anna Urbanova (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and a nine-year-old girl named Nina Kulikova (Alexa Goodall). Through them, his life is changed forever.
Netflix
RIPLEY (2024)
The leading character of Ripley is a lot older than you may remember, but Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott) is still a very talented grifter during the ‘60s. Yet even Ripley is surprised when he’s mistaken as one of the friends of Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) and hired to bring the overgrown rich kid home from his extended stay in Europe.
Ripley quickly inserts himself into Dickie’s inner circle and meets his girlfriend, Marge Sherwood (Dakota Fanning). But once Ripley tastes the good life, he’ll do anything to hang on to it. And Ripley doesn’t take rejection well… especially when Dickie shows him how cruel he can be.
3 Body Problem (2024)
The scientific principles behind an actual three body problem are difficult for any layperson to grasp. But don’t worry, you won’t need to understand all of the science in 3 Body Problem, especially because there’s a more pressing issue at hand. Scientists from all over the world are committing suicide at an alarming rate as five friends begin to grasp a mystery that may change the destiny of humanity forever.
Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss returned to TV for 3 Body Problem, based on Liu Cixin’s novel of the same name. It’s not a spoiler to say that aliens are real in this sci-fi series, but the nature of the threat they represent is something humanity simply can’t handle. And all the time in the world may not be able to change that.
Disney+
Renegade Nell (2024)
The last thing anyone is going to think about while watching Renegade Nell is its fidelity to history. All of that kind of goes out the window as soon as it’s clear that this show lives in a world of magic and superpowers.
Louisa Harland stars as Nell Jackson, a young woman living in England in 1705. When Nell is framed for murder, she and her sisters go on the run. Nell becomes a highwaywoman and robs travelers to support herself and her family. But when Nell discovers a plot against the Queen of England, she realizes that she’s the only one who can save the entire kingdom.
X-Men '97 (2024)
X-Men: The Animated Series made Marvel’s mutant superheroes into TV stars 32 years ago, and arguably paved the way for both the X-Men movies and the MCU itself. Now, X-Men ‘97 is picking up where the original show left off, as the X-Men deal with the fallout of the apparent death of their mentor, Charles Xavier.
A lot has changed since we last saw the team, as Cyclops and Jean Grey prepare to have their first child, and pro-mutant sentiment has never been higher. Even Magneto, the team’s greatest foe, is attempting to follow Xavier’s legacy and create a better world for mutants and humans alike. However, there are storm clouds on the horizon as the X-Men are blindsided by tragedy and by a surprising return that calls the identity of one of their own into question.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021)
There’s a tendency for some fans to overlook the various Star Wars animated series as being inconsequential or kid’s stuff. Nothing could be further from the truth, especially in Star Wars: The Bad Batch. The premiere of the third and final season strikes a somber chord and actually lets the audience empathize with the plight of the youngest clone, Omega (Michelle Ang), as she is forced to serve the Empire at their secret cloning facility.
Omega’s clone brothers — Hunter, Wrecker, and Echo (all of whom are voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) — aren’t willing to abandon her to the Empire. However, the team doesn’t have many allies left, and finding Omega may be one of the last missions that they ever embark on.
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