April TV preview: Beef, Mrs. Davis, Barry's final season, and 16 more must-see shows

Kwame Alexander’s novel of the same name gets a TV adaptation in The Crossover. The YA drama follows the coming-of-age stories of brothers Josh (Jalyn Hall) and Jordan Bell (Amir O’Neil), and it’s narrated by an older version of Josh, played by Himie Freeman. The brothers were considered basketball phenoms as kids, and The Crossover centers on their journeys on and off the court. The cast is rounded out by Derek Luke, Sabrina Revelle, and Deja Monique Cruz. [Saloni Gajjar]

Steven Yeun and Ali Wong have a serious beef in their new show called, yes, Beef. Created by Lee Sung Jin, the dark comedy follows Danny and Amy once their lives collide after a road-rage incident. The accident implodes everything for them in the following days, weeks, and months. It’s a reunion of sort for the two actors, who voiced a couple in the Netflix-turned-Adult Swim animated comedy Tuca & Bertie. Beef co-stars Ashley Park, Justin H. Min, David Choe, and Young Mazino. [Saloni Gajjar]

Grease is still the word, at least according to Paramount+. The streamer’s musical prequel Grease: Rise Of The Pink Ladies takes us back to Rydell High four years before John Travoltra’s Danny met Olivia Newton-John’s Sandy. The show acts as an origin story the four misfits who founded the girl gang Pink Ladies, known for their chic matching jackets and the motto “think pink.” [Cindy White]

If recent years have taught us anything, it’s that casting Kathryn Hahn in a limited series is always a good choice. (See: Mrs. Fletcher, WandaVision, The Shrink Next Door.) The actor now leads Tiny Beautiful Things, based on Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 novel of the same name about her time as the anonymous advice column, “Dear Sugar.” In the eight-episode drama, Hahn plays Clare, who reluctantly becomes the popular columnist while going through turmoil in her personal life. Flashbacks will depict a younger Clare’s (Sarah Pidgeon) coming-of-age journey. Quentin Plair, Michaela Watkins, and Merrit Wever co-star. [Saloni Gajjar]

Unorthodox creator Anna Winger returns to Netflix with the seven-part limited drama Transatlantic, led by Cory Michael Smith, Gillian Jacobs, and Corey Stoll. Smith plays journalist Varian Fry, who arrives in France in the 1940s and creates the Emergency Rescue Committee to help artists and writers flee the Nazis. He teams up with American heiress Mary Jayne Gold (Jacobs) to lead the rescue efforts, but they’re met with opposition from Stoll’s Patterson, who sees the refugees as a threat. [Saloni Gajjar]

Twenty years ago, Spike TV broke down the walls between reality and television with The Joe Schmo Show, a fake reality series where all the “contestants” were actors except for one guy. Now, Freevee is doing that kind of thing again with Jury Duty. Ostensibly a documentary series about a quirky court case, everyone in the series is actually an actor—including James Marsden, playing himself—except for the dude who thinks it’s all real. [Sam Barsanti]

No, Netflix’s Florida Man doesn’t bring to life the popular meme of the same name. It’s actually a crime dramedy about an ex-cop, Mike Valentine (Édgar Ramírez), who returns to his titular home state. He gets a shady new gig to transport a Philly mobster’s runaway girlfriend that spirals into buried family secrets and an increasingly futile attempt to do the right thing. The cast includes Anthony LaPaglia, Clark Gregg, Abbey Lee, and Lex Scott Davis. [Saloni Gajjar]

Jennifer Garner is back on our TV screens, baby. The Alias star leads Apple TV+’s gritty new show after starring primarily in small-screen comedies like Camping and Party Down in recent years. In The Last Thing He Told Me, Garner plays Hannah, whose husband Owen (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) unexpectedly disappears. She teams up and forms a surprising bond with her stepdaughter, Bailey (Angourie Rice), in an attempt to figure out what happened. Garner will reunite with her Alias co-star Victor Garber, and the cast also includes Geoff Stults, Augusto Aguilera, and Aisha Tyler. [Saloni Gajjar]

The fifth and final season of quick-witted comedy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel from Amy Sherman-Palladino will finally complete stand-up comic Midge Maisel’s (Rachel Brosnahan) arc from devoted housewife to household name. The new episodes pick up after Midge regrouped and polished her arc in season four, but now she’ll have to pay her dues in late-night TV first. Expect more boisterous family hijinks, exquisite fashions, messy relationships, and surprising detours. Prime Video releases the first three episodes at once, then the following six episodes weekly. [Cindy White]

Succession isn’t the only acclaimed HBO series we must worry about saying goodbye to this spring. Bill Hader’s Barry will also end with its eight-episode season four. (Hey, at least it’s going out on its own terms, which feels like a win in today’s TV landscape.) The new outings will follow up with Barry after he was arrested for Janice’s murder, and he’ll reunite with Fuches (Stephen Root) in prison. Meanwhile, Sally (Sarah Goldberg) and Noho Hank (Anthony Carrigan) committed their first kills in season three, so there will be some emotional fallout. Henry Winkler, D’Arcy Carden, James Hiroyuki Liao, and Sarah Burns will reprise their roles, while Patrick Fischler has joined the cast. [Saloni Gajjar]

Pop culture will never stop mining from the tragedy in Waco, Texas. Showtime’s 2018 drama, Waco, examined the 51-day standoff between the FBI and cult leader David Koresh in 1993. Now, the five-episode sequel, Waco: Aftermath, does exactly what the series title suggests. Michael Shannon, Shea Wigham, John Leguizamo, and Annika Marks reprise their roles from the original as the show unpacks how the event affected them and the surviving cult members. J. Smith Cameron, David Costabile, Abbey Lee, and Sasheer Zamata also star. [Saloni Gajjar]

Five years after The Americans, Keri Russell is plotting her next big political TV drama. She leads Netflix’s The Diplomat, created by Deborah Cahn, as Kate Wyler, the new ambassador to the U.K. who is supposed to go to Afghanistan as war brews. Kate has to deal with international crises, forge strategic alliances, and adjust to the spotlight—all while, of course, struggling in her marriage to fellow career diplomat and political star Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell). David Gyasi, Ali Ahn, Rory Kinnear, Ato Essandoh, and Michael McKean round out the ensemble. [Saloni Gajjar]

Damon Lindelof and Tara Hernandez are taking on artificial intelligence in their new Peacock drama, Mrs. Davis, which premiered at SXSW this year. The titular AI was created with noble purposes until it went rogue, as it does in all sci-fi TV shows. Betty Gilpin plays a nun, Sister Simone, who is against AI and believes it will brainwash and destroy humanity. To stop its invasion, Simone goes on a “Quest for the Holy Grail”—whatever that means—and reunites with her ex, Wiley (Jake McDorman), in the process. The impressive cast also boasts Margo Martindale, Elizabeth Marvel, Katja Herbers, and David Arquette. [Saloni Gajjar]

Directed by Allen Hughes, Dear Mama is a five-part series centering on the relationship between revolutionary Afeni and her son, Tupac Shakur, one of the most influential hip-hop artists of all time. The docuseries will feature never-before-seen audio and video, and it premieres with two episodes, with the remaining three airing weekly. [Saloni Gajjar]

Based on David Cronenberg’s 1988 film, Dead Ringers is a psychological thriller that blesses us with a double dose of Rachel Weisz. She’ll play twin gynecologists Elliot and Beverly Mantle in a gender-flipped take on the movie. Identical from head to toe, they’re both on a mission to change how women give birth. That includes experimenting with drugs and pioneering but illegal medical research. In this six-part thriller, Weisz is joined by Britne Oldford, Poppy Liu, Michael Chernus, and Jennifer Ehle. [Saloni Gajjar]

Brace yourselves for a timely thriller that is told via—what else?—multiple timelines. (Linear storytelling has taken a hit, huh?) Saint X is based on Alexis Schaitkin’s 2020 novel of the same name, which explores race and privilege regarding missing women. The past narrative follows a young woman’s mysterious death during a family vacation in the Caribbean. In the present, her younger sister Emily (Alycia Debnam-Carey) conducts an obsessive search for answers years later. The cast also includes Betsy Brandt, Josh Bonzie, West Duchovny, and Jayden Elijah. [Saloni Gajjar]

We can’t have a whole month go by without a true-crime drama, right? For April, HBO Max is bringing back the story of Candy Montgomery (Elizabeth Olsen) with Love & Death, which follows the housewife who was accused of murdering her friend, Betty Gore (Lily Rabe), with an axe in 1980, and also had an affair with Betty’s husband, Allan (Jesse Plemons). (In case you were wondering, yes, this exact story was covered in Hulu’s Candy last year [starring Jessica Biel and Melanie Lynskey], so let’s see how Love & Death differs or manages to justify its existence.) Patrick Fugit co-stars as Candy’s husband, and Elizabeth Marvel, Krysten Ritter, and Tom Pelphrey round out the cast. [Saloni Gajjar]

Potentially the Ultimate TV Show, Citadel is a mega-budget action epic about a global network of spies that comes from the Russo brothers (of Avengers: Endgame fame). It stars Richard Madden, Stanley Tucci, and Priyanka Chopra Jonas as quippy, well-equipped secret agents. The trailer promises some visual panache, but the real gimmick is that Citadel is pre-built for international spin-offs that may all—in theory—tie together for eventual big crossover events. [Sam Barsanti]

Paramount+’s Fatal Attraction, based on the 1987 film, wants us to fall for Joshua Jackson’s horrible hairstyle. For the sake of the premise, let’s do just that. He plays married lawyer Dan Gallagher, who has an affair with coworker Alex Forrest (Lizzy Caplan) that he hopes will end as quietly as it began. However, once Alex starts getting involved in Dan’s personal life—including by befriending his wife, Beth (Amanda Peet)—there’s no telling what she can do next. The show’s creators and cast promise to address Alex’s mental health issues and how society ostracizes women in a way the film didn’t. We’ll see if they deliver there. [Saloni Gajjar]

Dave season three (FXX, April 5)

Slasher season five (Shudder, April 6)

Schmigadoon! season two (Apple TV+, April 7)

Single Drunk Female season two (Freeform, April 12)

Blindspotting season two (Starz, April 14)

Titans season four, part two (HBO Max, April 14)

A Black Lady Sketch Show season four (HBO Max, April 14)

Indian Matchmaking season three (Netflix, April 21)

Somebody Somewhere season two (HBO, April 23)

From season two (MGM+, April 23)

Firefly Lane season two, part two (Netflix, April 23)

Sweet Tooth season two (Netflix, April 27)

Couples Therapy season three (Showtime, April 28)