Everything That’s Streaming in April 2023

As a new fiscal quarter blooms in April, streaming platforms are cultivating a garden of new titles, reimagined classics, and old favorites to bathe the eyeballs and soak the synapses. Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead) clashes with Ali Wong (Always Be My Maybe) in the dark comedy Beef coming to Netflix, an ancient demon stalks a family mortuary in Hulu’s The Offering, and Rachel Weisz (The Mummy) plays an unsettling pair of twins in the gender-swapped remake of David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers on Amazon Prime. Bill Hader’s award-winning hitman comedy Barry is unveiling its final season on HBO Max, while Disney+ offers a visually rich, modern reimagining of the timeless classic Peter Pan & Wendy. Bob Odenkirk’s new show Lucky Hank continues to roll out a remarkable freshman season on AMC+, and Showtime presents a jaw-dropping documentary about UFC fighter turned record-breaking bank robber “Lightning” Lee Murray. Check out Book & Film Globe’s new expanded list of streaming services, find your subscribed platforms, and meet the newest must-watch titles:

Netflix:

Beef Season 1 (April 6) – A road rage incident leads to a head-to-head feud between struggling contractor Danny Cho (Steven Yeun) and Instagram-perfect entrepreneur Amy Lau (Ali Wong) in the surprisingly big-hearted dark comedy created by Lee Sung Jin (Dave, Undone). The stresses of their increasingly high stakes at-daggers unravel their lives and relationships, exposing existential pains and deeper truths with disarming empathy; Jin stirs a wild psychological storm filled with twists and sharp, salty storylines that strip away the sands of Danny’s and Amy’s surface lives and reveal the bedrock of their most basic fears and desires.

Hunger (April 8) – “To be a chef, you need a drive stronger than love.” So begins the trailer for the sizzling Thai drama about a young, talented street-food cook pushed to her limit after being taken under the wing of a famous and ruthless chef. Aoy (Aokbab Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying) runs her family’s noodle restaurant in Bangkok until one day she receives an invitation to join Hunger, Thailand’s hottest luxury cuisine experience led by the ingenious and infamously nasty Chef Paul (Peter Nopachai Chaiyanam). The film is a meditation on the brutal precision of gourmet cuisine as sacrifice-for-art, along with the deeper social paradigms and dysfunctions it feeds. Themes of passion, power and control permeate gorgeous kitchen scenes as tension and chaos balance on a knife blade: “The poor eat to end their hunger,” says one character, “but when you have more than enough to eat, your hunger never ends.”

The Diplomat Season 1 (April 20) – Keri Russell (Cocaine Bear) is Kate Wyler, a career diplomat who lands a high-profile job she doesn’t want and doesn’t feel qualified for, but that’s government for you. She’s thrust into the responsibilities of U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom in the midst of an international crisis, a role that will have far-reaching consequences for her marriage and political career. Russell (The Americans) and showrunner Debora Cahn (Homeland, The West Wing), no strangers to snappy political drama, capably plumb the dynamics of political and personal relationships in a changing world. Cahn puts it less diplomatically: “It’s a show about a bunch of good people doing their best to keep their global and personal partnerships intact without killing each other.”

Also playing:

John Mulaney: Baby J (April 25)

The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die (April 14)

My Name is Mo’Nique (April 4)

War Sailor (April 2)

Visit Netflix for a full list of releases.

Hulu

Tiny Beautiful Things Season 1 (April 7) – Kathryn Hahn (Glass Onion) reinvents the hot mess breakthrough parable with a marrow-deep interpretation of Cheryl Strayed’s book collection by the same name. Clare’s personal and professional life is stalled out when she reluctantly takes on an advice column under the name “Dear Sugar,” keenly aware that she’s not exactly in a position to dole out guidance. As she finds herself an unwilling agony aunt to a flood of anonymous seekers blowing up her inbox, Clare begins to revisit watershed memories from her past to explore the deeper connections of life and find new ways to resolve her own unhealed wounds.

Dave: Season 3 premiere (April 6) – The surreal comedy about a comfortably middle-class man’s quest to prove he’s the greatest rapper of all time is hitting the road for a third trippy season. Dave (stage name Lil Dicky) is headlining his first cross-country tour and hoping to find love as he continues his climb to stardom, rubbing elbows with famous musicians and exploring America’s cultural diversity along the way. But the pitfalls and pressures of fame will test Dave’s relationships and emotional stability as he battles his own neuroses and worst impulses. The award-winning series based on the life of creator and star Dave Burd will also feature appearances by Killer Mike, Travis Barker, Demi Lovato, Usher, Doja Cat, Don Cheadle and Rick Ross.

The Offering (April 14) – An expectant couple (Nick Blood and Emma Wiseman) visit the family’s Hasidic funeral home in Brooklyn and accidentally unleash an ancient shapeshifting demon from Orthodox Jewish lore that specializes in taking children, twisting minds and feeding on the suffering that results. The dim mortuary where most of the story takes place seems to crowd in upon the leads as they grapple with dybbuk-conjured ghosts of loss, alienation and childhood trauma; the idea of stopping the demon’s evil by confronting and smothering it from within (instead of simply chasing it off) doubles as a psychological skeleton key to resolving the couple’s turmoil

Also playing:

Secrets of the Elephants (April 22)

Broken Lizard’s Quasi (April 20)

Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields (April 3)

Saint X (April 26)

Visit Hulu for a full list of releases.

Amazon Prime

Judy Blume Forever (April 21) – Emmy-winning filmmakers Davina Pardo and Leah Wolchok explore the life of the beloved author whose pioneering books changed the way generations of readers understand themselves, and elevated children’s perspective on their own physical and emotional lives with radical honesty. Blume shares her own coming-of-age story from anxious, inquisitive child to controversial paperback queen to her present role as an anti-censorship crusader. Peppered with interviews with acclaimed writers and artists as well as lifelong fans, Judy Blume Forever celebrates the glorious awkwardness of youth and Blume’s profound impact on American youth culture.

Dead Ringers (April 21) – The gender-swapped take on David Cronenberg’s 1988 thriller starring Jeremy Irons, Dead Ringers stars Rachel Weisz as Elliot and Beverly Mantle, twin gynecologists who bend medical ethics to serve their obsessive ambition of building a fertility center. The twins share lovers and drugs while treading the scalpel’s edge between genius and madness in their quest to modernize women’s healthcare– including performing questionable experiments on infertile women (in Cronenberg’s cultic blood-red surgical scrubs). Graphic, wickedly clever and incisive, Dead Ringers is a campy, bloody dissection of toxic codependency and breaking down institutional barriers at all costs.

Citadel (April 28) – Creative rifts and an engorged budget can’t stop the latest action-packed spy series from Avengers directors Joe and Anthony Russo. Lethal shadow syndicate Manticore has destroyed global spy agency Citadel and its agents are scattered to the winds under new identities, their memories wiped clean. But as Manticore’s evil power grows, the gang must reunite to reconstruct their past and fight back. Renewed for a second season ahead of its six-episode first season debut, the “mothership series” will unfold alongside several international satellite shows, including spinoffs set in Italy, India, Spain and Mexico. Amazon hopes the spy drama will become a tentpole franchise, but the stakes have risen: after the original showrunner and director left amid creative differences, pricey reshoots blew the budget over $200 million, becoming the second-most expensive series since The Rings of Power.

Also playing:

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Season 5 (April 14)

Alex Borstein: Corsets & Clown Suits (April 18)

On a Wing and a Prayer (April 7)

Visit Amazon Prime for a full list of releases.

HBO Max

Barry Season 4 (April 16) – The fourth and final season of Bill Hader’s Emmy-winning black comedy about a hitman-turned-actor who can’t quite leave his past behind will find Barry adjusting to life in the slammer. Season 3 ended with Barry’s arrest after his former acting teacher Gene (Henry Winkler) turned him in. Bill Hader, who wrote seasons 3 and 4 during Covid shutdowns, says he saw a clear ending to Barry’s journey and wanted to end the show on a high note, digging into themes of forgiveness and redemption and promising a “satisfying” resolution to the story. Winkler will also appear in season 4, and fan favorite Anthony Carrigan is returning as Chechen mobster NoHo Hank.

Love & Death (April 27) – Small-town life is murder in David E. Kelley’s retelling of a brutal real-life homicide in the early 80’s Bible Belt. Pat and Candy Montgomery and Allan and Betty Gore are just two couples enjoying the simple family life in Wylie, Texas – until Candy axes Betty to death in her own kitchen. An investigation would reveal a torrid affair between Allan (Jesse Plemons) and Candy (Elizabeth Olsen), who chafed against the social strictures of family, religion and gender until her resentment metastasized into murderous rage. If the story sounds recycled, it is: Jessica Biel played the homicidal housewife in Hulu’s Candy last year. The trailer shoves well-gnawed tropes at the camera like a toddler showing off its tattered blanky, but the art direction and production design are transportive.

Somebody Somewhere Season 2 (April 23) – Fans fell in love with veteran New York performer Bridget Everett (Patti Cake$) as Sam, a worn-down cynic who finds fresh hope in the midst of a midlife crisis in her rural Kansas hometown. Sam builds healing friendships among a community of local misfits as she grieves her sister’s death; season 2 will focus on moving beyond mourning, broadening her emotional spectrum, and finding fresh confidence in being worthy of good things. The series Vanity Fair calls a “gentle hug of a show” built a cult following thanks to its unassuming Midwestern charm and authentic stories that draw depth from the ordinary, earning a spot on the AFI’s 10 best shows of 2022.

Also playing:

Royal Crackers Season 1 (April 3)

Titans Season 4 mid-season premiere (April 13)

Fired on Mars Season 1 premiere (April 20)

Visit HBO Max for a full list of releases.

Disney+

Matildas: The World at Our Feet (April 26) – This is the cheer-worthy story of the Matildas — the Australian women’s national football team working towards the 2023 World Cup on home soil. The six-part docuseries tracks the rise of women’s football, chronicling the highs and lows of the sport as the squad looks to create an unrivalled legacy and inspire the next generation of players and fans. Director Katie Bender Wynn says, “The Matildas have broken through massive barriers for women in sport, yet their story has never properly been told. On its surface, this is a classic tale about a team of women preparing for the greatest tournament of their lives; but at its core, it’s an intimate portrait of a sisterhood that transcends the game.”

Rennervations (April 12) – The feel-good four part series features actor Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye) and friends using their creativity and mechanical chops to benefit communities around the world. Renner travels the globe with an all-star build crew, rebuilding decommissioned government vehicles to provide mobile services for charities and kids in need— including a water filtration system, rec center, and recording studio. As Renner says, “I want to make actionability and thoughtfulness of others cool.” Guests on the series include Anthony Mackie (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier), Vanessa Hudgens (Tick, Tick… Boom!), Sebastián Yatra (Encanto), and Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire).

Peter Pan & Wendy (April 28) – The classic J.M. Barrie adventure is getting a spectacular live-action remake with high drama, top shelf special effects and a big-name cast including Jude Law as Hook, Yara Shahidi (Grown-ish) as Tinkerbell, Molly Parker (House of Cards) as Mrs. Darling and Jim Gaffigan (Luca) as Smee. With modern twists like girls repping in the Lost Boys and POC actors portraying classically white characters, viewers’ opinions are congealing like week-old gravy on Twitter. But while fans may disagree about whether the presentation is empowering or woke, indie filmmaker David Lowery (The Green Knight) wields modern filmmaking and storytelling tools to draw dark beauty from an emotionally complex tale about children’s subconscious fears and hopes.

Also playing:

Going Fur Gold Season 1 (April 26)

The Crossover (April 26)

Mandalorian: Season 3 finale (April 19)

Visit Disney+ for a full list of releases.

Apple TV+

Ghosted (April 21) – The much-hyped romantic action film finds ordinary dude Cole (Chris Evans) falling for mysterious Sadie (Ana de Armas) after a daylight meet-cute and an electric first date. But when she mysteriously ghosts him, Cole goes to London to stalk find her, and stumbles into Sadie’s world of espionage and danger. Their second date turns out to be an international adventure to save the world, slam-loaded with highrise gun battles and fisticuffs on private jets (producer David Ellison worked on Top Gun: Maverick and the Mission Impossible films). Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick bring their signature wit and humor to counterbalance the action: “I swallowed a rock!” Cole yells after tumbling down a mountain to escape semiautomatic gunfire. Adrien Brody, Amy Sedaris, Tim Blake Nelson, Mustafa Shakir, Fahim Fazil and Marisol Correa also appear.

The Afterparty Season 2 (April 28) – The winning whodunit series is back with another mysterious death at a killer party— this time a wedding is wrecked when the groom is murdered and every guest becomes a suspect. Detective Danner (Tiffany Haddish) returns to help Aniq (Sam Richardson) and Zoë (Zoë Chao) by investigating family members, ill-fated lovers and business partners with secrets and grudges. The multilayered show weaves together each suspect’s retelling of the weekend with their own unique perspective and visual style. Elizabeth Perkins, Vivian Wu, John Cho, Ken Jeong, Zach Woods, Paul Walter Hauser, Poppy Liu, Anna Konkle and Jack Whitehall join the cast as the new group of party guests.

Schmigadoon! Season 2 (April 5) – Board-treaders and theater geeks can’t get enough of the hit musical show that reimagines beloved Broadway titles, now back with a second round of elaborate numbers and famous thespians. In season one, Josh (Keegan Michael Key) and Melissa (Cecily Strong) stumble upon the strange musical town of Schmigadoon—and find themselves trapped in the colorful, choreographed nightmare until they work through their issues. After some serious personal growth and appropriately paced character arcs, the couple make it back to the real world. But in season two, Josh and Melissa miss the magical energy of Schmigadoon and in an attempt to return, find themselves in Schmicago — a darker, steamier reimagined world of ’60s and ’70s musicals full of sex and murder. “How are we supposed to make a happy ending here?” Melissa laments. “These musicals don’t have happy endings.”Look for parodies of Sweeney Todd, Hair, and of course, Chicago. Ariana DeBose, Martin Short, Kristin Chenoweth, Alan Cumming, Jane Krakowski and Tituss Burgess will also be featured this season.

Also playing:

Frog and Toad (April 28)

The Last Thing He Told Me (April 14)

Visit Apple TV+ for a full list of releases.

Paramount+

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (April 6) – The bold musical prequel series tells the backstory of the iconic bad-girl group from the hit 1978 musical. Set four years before the events of “Grease,” four fed-up outcasts band together to have fun on their own terms as the Pink Ladies, sparking a moral panic that will change Rydell High forever. Reflecting the social sea changes of the era with greater breadth than the original film, the remake focuses on racial, gender and sexual dynamics while embracing the joy and freedom of youth culture. Showrunner Annabel Oakes describes the new music as “R&B with an amp,” adding “We want to pay tribute to the real people who started rock & roll.”

Fatal Attraction (April 30) – Another retro film gets the modern serial treatment in a very different reimagining of the 1987 blockbuster movie, interrogating partnership and fidelity through reformed views of mental health, women’s agency, and power dynamics. Dan Gallagher (Jeremy Jackson) is a New York lawyer embroiled in a fateful affair with Alex Forrester (Lizzy Caplan), whose increasingly erratic behavior threatens his family after he ends the dalliance. The new series is told from Alex’s point of view, bringing nuance and insight to a formerly one-dimensional monster cemented in pop culture through Glenn Close’s hair-raising performance. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly Caplan said, “In the film, Alex is the villain of the story, and Dan is the hero and there is no gray area. Now, audiences have changed so much, we are no longer primed to believe in this villainous woman story.” The remake will also play on its serial format to spend more time developing the characters, including unpacking Alex’s backstory.

Also playing:

Rugrats Season 2 (April 14)

Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head Season 2 premiere (April 20)

Visit Paramount+ for a full list of releases.

Peacock

Mrs. Davis (April 20) – Holy motherboard! It’s theology versus technology in a wild new series from the creators behind The Big Bang Theory and Watchmen. The most popular algorithm in the world, Mrs. Davis, has amassed billions of users around the globe through its program of gentle affirmations and motherly guidance: all they have to do is stay obediently plugged in to the all-knowing, all-powerful AI. But Sister Simone (Betty Gilpin) believes Mrs. Davis’s real intent is to enslave all of humanity, and she’s teaming up with her ex (Jake McDorman) and an underground resistance movement on a quest of her own: bring down the evil machine intelligence and free humanity from its wifi prison. Gilpin calls the series a “cautionary tale” about omnipresent software that offers the world at our fingertips while supplanting the mysterious intangibles of life. As co-creator Damon Lindelof explained to Vulture, “Where in the Venn diagram do The Sound of Music, Black Mirror, and True Romance overlap? That’s what we were gunning for.”

Carol Burnett: 90 Years of Laughter + Love (April 27) – The legendary comedian is celebrating decades of unforgettable skits and laughs with a career retrospective on her 90^th birthday at the famed Avalon nightclub. Carol’s friends, colleagues and admirers present a night of musical performances and tributes to the toothy humorist, with big-name guests like Steve Carrell, Laura Dern, Lily Tomlin, Kristen Wiig, Lisa Kudrow, Allison Janney, Bill Hader, Kristin Chenoweth, Marisa Tomei, Julie Andrews, Sofía Vergara, Bernadette Peters, Amy Poehler, Jane Lynch and Tracee Ellis Ross.

Leguizamo Does America (April 16) – John Leguizamo (The Menu) invites viewers along on a cross-country road trip to celebrate the history, culture, food and contributions of Latinos shaping America. Leguizamo, a long-time advocate for better Latino representation in entertainment, travels to San Juan, Washington DC, Chicago, and East L.A. to tell stories about Latino artists, activists and cultural figures. He calls it a show about Latin exceptionalism, recently telling a SXSW crowd that “being Latin is a superpower.” The six-episode series includes deep-dive interviews with Miguel Peña, George Lopez and Robert Rodriguez, along with plenty of vibrant music, cuisine and dancing.

Also playing:

The Wall Season 5 (April 11)

A Pinch of Portugal (April 23)

Bel-Air Season 2 episode 10 (April 27)

The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning Season 1 (April 27)

Visit Peacock for a full list of releases.

STARZ

Blindspotting Season 2 (April 14) – Emmy winner Jasmine Cephas Jones stars in the raucous Oakland dramedy that follows a family dealing with the effects of incarceration and explores the city’s social stratification with a witty and critical eye. Season 2 finds Ashley (Cephas Jones) anticipating a family visitation after season one’s prison wedding to Miles (Rafael Casal), while uneasily cohabitating with Miles’ mother (Helen Hunt). Ashley is struggling to raise their son alone while adjusting to her “new normal,” and her erratic behavior and hard partying has everyone worried. Meanwhile in Ashley’s family, frustrations, conflicts and career issues swirl as they strive to build a better future amidst the chaos. The series excavates complex issues like wealth disparity and the challenges of middle-class life without being patronizing or didactic. This season’s guest stars include LeVar Burton, Katlynn Simone Smith, Tamera Tomakili and Tim Chantarangsu, with P-Lo, E-40, and Too $hort appearing as themselves.

Party Down Season 3 marathon (April 1) – Reheat the hors d’oeuvres, the pink-bowtied gang is back! The half-hour comedy series centers around a group of aspiring actors and cynical creatives working at a Los Angeles catering company and hoping to make it in Hollywood. The show was canceled after its debut season in 2009, picked up for a six-episode revival in 2012, and has now morphed, cicada-like, into a reunion story for its 2023 iteration. Ten years after the events of season 2, former employee Kyle Bradway (Ryan Hansen) has just landed his star-making superhero role. He hires Party Down (nearly bankrupt after Covid shutdowns) to cater his career celebration, leading to a surprise reunion as the group find themselves once again tangled up with L.A. weirdos at one oddball event after another. Most of the original cast has returned for season 3, including Adam Scott, Jane Lynch, Ken Marino, Martin Starr and Megan Mullally. New faces include Jennifer Garner (The Adam Project), Tyrel Jackson Williams (Brockmire), Zoë Chao (The Afterparty) and James Marsden (Disenchanted), including guest stars Quinta Brunson (Abbott Elementary), Liv Hewson (Yellowjackets), Ki Hong Lee (Dave), Lyric Lewis (A.P. Bio), Bobby Monihan (Saturday Night Live), Nick Offerman (The Last of Us), and Judy Reyes (Claws).

Also playing:

Minx Season 1 (April 7)

Powerbook II: Ghost season 3 continues (April 7)

Visit STARZ for a full list of releases.

Showtime

Catching Lightning (April 7) – The concussive four-part documentary tells the story of MMA star “Lightning” Lee Murray, who went from a South London street brawler to the bright lights of the UFC—then carried out a brazen robbery resulting in one of the biggest cash heists in history and a 25-year prison sentence. The bold plan involved Murray and his crew donning disguises, strapping on semiautomatic weapons, and making off with $92 million from a bank depot – leaving behind nearly $2.8 billion only because their transport van was too small. Emmy-winning director Pat Kondelis’s style matches the frenetic energy of Murray’s spree with a distinctly Guy Ritchie musk: the trailer hums with sweaty aggression, piles of illicit cash and strip clubs, and armed gangs with cockney accents and nicknames like Mr. Average and Hi-Vis. The doc includes interviews with Murray’s family members and MMA stars Chuck Liddell and Anderson Silva, along with newly revealed details and revelations about the daring high-dollar caper.

Waco: The Aftermath (April 14) – FBI negotiator Gary Noesner (Michael Shannon) picks up the pieces after the infamous 1993 federal standoff with the Branch Davidian cult in Waco, Texas that ended in mass casualties and a deadly inferno. The five-part drama series confronts Waco’s far-reaching effects: the country became polarized over the government’s role in the disaster and the trials of the surviving Branch Davidians. The botched FBI raid, along with Ruby Ridge, galvanized American militia movements and helped radicalize Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols and others. “I feel this undercurrent of rage in America,” intones Noesner. “It’s trying to ignite civil war.” He fights to squash burgeoning homegrown terror groups while building bridges in communities filled with unrest and distrust toward the government. Also starring John Leguizamo and Giovanni Ribisi.

Personality Crisis: One Night Only (April 14) – Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi co-direct a portrait of high-voltage rebel David Johansen, centering on an intimate 2020 performance at Café Carlyle in New York City. Featuring new and archival interviews (including superfan Morrissey), the documentary tracks his 70’s stint in the glam-punk New York Dolls to his reinvented 80’s alter ego, lounge lizard hepcat Buster Poindexter. The charismatic, self-deprecating Johansen takes the Carlyle stage to perform his songbook as Poindexter, grinding out a dynamic career retrospective that pays homage to lost New York and takes an irreverent stumble through his own identity.

Also playing:

2^nd Chance (April 7)

Visit Showtime for a full list of releases.

AMC+

Lucky Hank Season 1 Episode 2 (April 2) – Bob Odenkirk is facing midlife irrelevance as Hank Devereaux, misanthropic English department chair at a mediocre college in rural Pennsylvania. The limited series adaptation of Richard Russo’s 1997 novel Straight Man piles on vicious academic politics, a disappointed father and a stalled-out marriage as Devereaux grumps over the flaccid reception of his only novel and tunes out his students (he’s tenured). No one is safe from his sneering badinage as he antagonizes everyone in reach, including squaring up with an actual goose. Can Hank dig out of his misery and find a balanced way forward before he blows up his life? Also featuring Mireille Enos (The Lie), Cedric Yarbrough (Reno 911!), Oscar Nunez (The Office), and Diedrich Bader (Shazam!).

Chasing the Rains (April 22) – Narrated by award-winning actor Adjoa Andoh (Bridgerton) this epic four-part series takes audiences on a journey into one of the most majestic, unspoiled and rarely filmed areas in Africa. The documentary takes an in-depth look at wildlife that fight to survive through cycles of years-long drought and dramatic rainfall beyond the jagged peaks of Mount Kenya in the great rangelands of the north. Water is the lifeblood of these sprawling lands, and native species must marshal all their resources to hunt down the precious liquid while adapting to harsh conditions that are growing more extreme with climate change. Amidst themes of struggle and scarcity, Andoh’s mellifluous voice, along with gorgeous slow-mo drone shots of yawning predators, lush oases and sandblown deserts, remain a feast for the senses.

Also playing:

From Black (April 23)

A Lot of Nothing (April 7)

Life Upside Down (April 21)

Visit AMC+ for a full list of releases.