Last week seemed like something of a lull; there wasn’t an overwhelming amount of terrific new television. That was a fluke. We’re back in full force. This we’ve got a genre-bending new series starring Josh Brolin (it only looks like a western), a documentary about the potential dangers of the beauty industry, and we say goodbye to “Killing Eve” while welcoming back “The Kardashians.” There is a season turn, turn, turn!
On with the television!
“Outer Range”
Friday, April 15, Prime Video
Sure, “Outer Range” looks like a straight up Xerox of Paramount’s rough-and-tumble hit “Yellowstone” (you can practically imagine the board meeting where the edict was forged). But “Outer Range” is considerably weirder and more mysterious. In fact, it might be your new WTF-worthy obsession, along the lines of “Lost” or (more recently) “Severance.” Josh Brolin stars as Royal Abbott, a gruff rancher trying desperately to keep his family together – including his wife (Lily Taylor) and two sons (Tom Pelphrey and Lewis Pullman), while fending off the advances of his psychotic millionaire neighbor (Will Patton, late of “Yellowstone”) who wants his land and keeping an eye on an elusive young camper (Imogen Poots). Oh and there is a mysterious sinkhole that has opened up on his western pasture that could some kind of quantum wormhole. Saying anything more would be downright criminal, but “Outer Range” uses the familiarity of its premise to subvert expectations. If you’re looking for a new show to get utterly entangled by; here it is. New episodes drop two at a time for the next month. How many mysteries will be buttoned up and how many will be left hanging remains to be seen. [TRAILER]
“Killing Eve”
Sunday, April 10 at 8 p.m., BBC America
After its first, peerless, Phoebe Waller-Bridge-supervised season, “Killing Eve” has been fairly wobbly (this final season very much included), but we’ll still miss it. This was, after all, the series that gave a wonderful showcase to Sandra Oh after leaving the much more middle-of-the-road “Gray’s Anatomy,” introduced the world to the unstoppable Jodie Comer and designed an intriguing world of dueling spies and serial killers and the sometimes super-gay ties that bind them. The final two episodes air together tonight, which is an inauspicious finale and might speak to how the show has lost its luster over the past few years. But no matter how far its fallen, “Killing Eve” was always tons of fun and its behind-the-scenes ethos, to promote a different female showrunner every season, should still be applauded. [INTERVIEW]
“Paris, 13th District”
Friday, April 15, VOD
Every new Jacques Audiard movie should be viewed as a major cultural event. Audiard is, after all, the filmmaker behind “A Prophet,” “Rust and Bone” and “Dheepan,” and whose last movie, his first-ever English language project, “The Sisters Brothers” (starring John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix), would have been rightfully hailed as a new classic if anybody had seen it. In other words, “Paris, 13th District” is a big deal. Loosely based on several comic books by American author Adrian Tomine (the screenplay was co-written by “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” filmmaker Céline Sciamma), Audiard’s latest looks at modern love and relationships, transporting the stories’ original setting to Paris’ titular neighborhood (in velvety black-and-white, no less). It’s hard not to swoon. [REVIEW]
“Not So Pretty”
Thursday, April 14, HBO Max
Documentarians Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering are not afraid of hot button topics, having covered rape on college campuses (“The Hunting Ground”) to the extremely dysfunctional, abusive relationship between Mia Farrow and Woody Allen (“Allen v. Farrow”). Their latest is lighter than these earlier documentaries but could prove just as essential. Narrated by Keke Palmer, “Not So Pretty” investigates the harmful side effects of the beauty industry and how what we’re putting on our bodies and in our hair could be killing us. Prepare to look at Sephora sideways the next time you’re visiting the mall. [TRAILER]
“Keeping Up with the Kardashians”
Hulu
With “The Kardashians” premiering later this week (see below), why not look back at the mothership? “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” was groundbreaking in several ways, primarily by being a reality show full of people who found fame by … being famous. And the family really is fascinating, particularly if you follow their arc throughout the years, from sharing a modest home to several huge mansions, and from fame to infamy to back again. (Also, “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” serves as a truly eye-opening catalogue of some of the best and worst fashions of the century.) It’s through the show that the paparazzi photo trappings largely fall away, revealing a bunch of lovable goofballs who really care about each other and occasionally spend their vast wealth being as silly as humanly possible. Talk about aspirational. [WATCH]
“Ice Age: Scrat Tales”
Wednesday, April 13, Disney+
Yes, we just had a new feature-length “Ice Age” adventure earlier this year. But that movie (“The Adventures of Buck Wild”) was different than any other installment in the franchise in an essential way – its animation was handled by an outside vendor since Disney, following its acquisition of Fox, shut down Blue Sky Studios, the Greenwich, Connecticut-based animation house responsible for the series. “Ice Age: Scrat Tales,” which follows the titular squirrel-type creature as he searches for a nut and deals with a young interloper, was the last thing animated at the bygone Blue Sky Studios, making the shorts very worthy of a look. [TRAILER]
“Our Great National Parks”
Wednesday, April 13, Netflix
This five-part documentary looks at the world’s great National Parks and wild spaces, full of beautiful cinematography (look at those drone shots go) capturing crazy indigenous animals and lush foliage that defies belief. But unlike other documentaries like it, this one is narrated and hosted by none other than Barack Obama. How great is that? [TRAILER]
“The Kardashians”
Thursday, April 14, Hulu
Much was made of the Kardashians’ decision to end their long-running (and highly profitable) E! show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.” But reality-show fans had but a moment to mourn; they’re already back, having signed a lucrative new deal with Disney for the follow-up show to appear on Hulu. And now here we are. Since the last show ended, there have been a number of juicy developments, including the complete dissolution of Kim and Ye’s (nee Kanye) marriage (and subsequent only harassment of Kim); Kourtney and Travis Barker’s courtship and engagement; and, I don’t know, Scott Disick said some weird stuff while dating a 20-year-old model. They have been missed! [TRAILER]
“Anatomy of a Scandal”
Friday, April 15, Netflix
David E. Kelly, the superstar show creator behind everything from “Ally McBeal” to “The Undoing,” launches his first show for Netflix (co-created by “House of Cards” veteran Melissa James Gibson). This new show is an anthology series meant to focus on a different storyline each season (should there be more). The first season, adapted from the Sarah Vaughan thriller, details a sexual consent scandal in England and stars Sienna Miller, Rupert Friend, Michelle Dockery and Naomi Scott. (Not too shabby, huh?) S.J. Clarkson, who is working on the “Game of Thrones” prequel series (and at one point in 2019 was tapped for a new “Star Trek” movie), directed all six episodes. Sounds like an open and shut case. [TRAILER]
“Roar”
Friday, April 15, Apple TV+
Apple TV+ has truly become the destination for “Roar”-related content, whether it’s the overuse of the Katy Perry song in “WeCrashed” (which is based on an actual thing!) or this women-centered anthology series, also called “Roar.” This new series (not to be confused with the 1997 fantasy series that launched Heath Ledger’s career), created and largely written by “Glow” masterminds Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch, each centers on a different female character and the subtly surreal predicament she finds herself in – Nicole Kidman plays a woman who eats photos, Alison Brie is a ghost who solves her own murder, Cynthia Erivo is besieged by puzzling bitemarks, Merritt Wever falls in love with a duck. It all seems very charming and offbeat and it has two other things going for it: one, each episode is a brisk 30-minutes; and unlike most Apple series, the entire show is dropping in one binge-able lump. Ready to roar? [TRAILER]
