Netflix is opening the floodgates and unleashing a torrent of interesting and notable original movies and TV shows for April, including Ripley, a series based on the novel The Talented Mr. Ripley; The Scargiver, the second film in Zack Snyder’s epic space opera Rebel Moon; and Scoop, a look behind the BBC interview that took down a prince. There’s also a reboot of Good Times, Dead Boy Detectives, and more, more, more.
Ripley
Based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mr. Ripley, this series stars Dakota Fanning, Johnny Flynn, and Andrew Scott in the title role as Tom Ripley, a grifter and conman with too much charm and not enough morality. Director Steven Zaillian’s moody black-and-white visuals set the tone of Ripley’s chilling but glamorous life. After being hired by a wealthy industrialist to retrieve his wayward son from Italy, the ever-scheming Mr. Ripley sees an opportunity, and inserts himself into Dickie’s life, leading to a dark spiral of psychological abuse, mayhem, and murder. If you like plot twists and stylish wickedness, you’ll be very into Ripley.
Starts streaming April 4.
Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver
The climax of Zack Snyder’s epic science fiction story promises a breakneck pace, larger-than-a-galaxy action sequences, and heroic characters battling impossible odds with everything on the line. Rebel Moon — Part Two: The Scargiver continues the story of Kora and her surviving allies as they face off against Admiral Atticus Noble and the Imperium legion. With the collective force of the Realm gathered to destroy them, this rag-tag band of rebels mounts a last stand to free the villagers of Veldt. In other words, it’s rip-roaring space adventure.
Starts streaming April 19
Scoop
This ripped-from-the-headlines films tells the story of how BBC’s Newsnight secured the TV interview with Prince Andrew that led to his downfall. Based on the account of Newsnight’s booker Sam McAlister, Scoop takes us behind the scenes of the scoop of the century, detailing how McAlister (played by Billie Piper) secured an “un-gettable” interview with Prince Andrew (Rufus Sewell), and how journalist Emily Maitlis (Gillian Anderson) grilled the prince on air about his connection to Jeffery Epstein, leading to his withdrawal from official royal duties.
Starts streaming April 5
Dead Boy Detectives
The ghosts at the center of Dead Boy Detectives don’t spend time haunting people; they solve crimes instead. Based on the comic from Neil Gaiman and Matt Wagner, and set in Gaiman’s Sandman universe, Dead Boy Detectives follows Edwin and Charles (George Rexstrew and Charles Rowland), best dead friends spending their afterlives solving supernatural crimes. With the help of their clairvoyant pal Crystal (Kassius Nelson), the Dead Boys will face off against witches, monsters, and other supernatural enemies to solve the earthly realms most baffling mysteries.
Starts streaming April 25
Good Times
With the help of executive producer Seth MacFarlane, Netflix has revived Norman Lear’s seminal 1970s sitcom Good Times and re-imagined it as an R-rated animated series. Featuring the voices of J.B. Smoove, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jay Pharoah, and more, Good Times tells the story of the latest generation of the Evans family who are scratching and surviving, hanging and jiving, in a Chicago housing project. The details have been modernized, but the theme of togetherness in the face of hard times remains the same.
Starts streaming April 12
Unlocked: A Jail Experiment
This documentary tells the fascinating story of a radical experiment conducted in an Arkansas jail. Faced with deteriorating conditions, mistreatment of prisoners, and a high recidivism rate, Sheriff Eric Higgins ordered all the cell doors opened and gave the prisoners the authority to make decisions about how the jail should be run. The goal was to see whether autonomy would result in a greater sense of community, a more humane lock-up, and fewer accused criminals returning to the clink. Check out Unlocked: A Jail Experiment to see how well it worked.
Starts streaming April 10
Baby Reindeer
This dark comedy series illustrates the adage “no good deed goes unpunished.” Written, directed, and starring comedian Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer is a fictionalized version of real events in his life. Gadd plays bartender Donny Dunn, who shows kindness to a troubled customer named Martha. Dunn’s innocent altruism leads to Martha becoming obsessed and throwing both of their lives into chaos. Baby Reindeer consciously avoids the typical tropes of stories about stalkers, choosing to focus on the reality of what it’s like to be the center of an unhinged person’s world.
Starts streaming April 11
Files of the Unexplained
If you’re in the right mood, a docuseries about eerie encounters, unexplained disappearances, haunted houses, and UFOs hits the spot. Files of the Unexplained features eight episodes, with each exploring a different perplexing mystery including alien abduction, a spate of human feet washing up on beaches, and people seemingly vanishing into thin air. There’s probably a rational explanation for these events, but what if there isn’t?
Starts streaming April 3
Fern Brady: Autistic Bikini Queen
If you like stand-up comedy but you’re sick of the same old shizz, check out Fern Brady: Autistic Bikini Queen. The Scottish standup, podcaster, and writer’s unique life story, personality, and neurodivergence guarantees unique and screamingly funny takes on sex, drinking, autism, feminism, and everything else.
Starts streaming April 22
What Jennifer Did
When a Vietnamese immigrant couple is brutally slain in their home, police are baffled. The sole survivor of the crime, the couple’s daughter Jennifer, lays the blame on masked intruders on a rampage, but there’s something suspicious about her account. What Jennifer Did digs deeply into this shocking crime through interrogation footage of Jennifer and interviews with the people involved, revealing a story with unexpected twists, baffling motives, and a most unlikely perpetrator.
Starts streaming April 10
The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem
This Netflix documentary pulls open the metaphorical cabinet of 4Chan so we can watch the online roaches scurry. As told by The Antisocial Network: Memes to Mayhem, 4chan started as an online hangout for creative homebound miscreants but devolved into a hive of scum and villainy that pierced the veil between the online and real worlds, turning our entire culture into a message board flame war in the process.
Starts streaming April 5
Our Living World
Cate Blanchett narrates this family-friendly nature documentary that travels the world to explore the interconnectedness of nature. Our Living World’s stunning wildlife photography, breathtaking locations, and timely and trenchant observations about the beauty and fragility of the natural world probably won’t slow mankind’s destruction of the planet by a single second, but you never know, and we might as well look at it while it’s here.
Starts streaming April 17
Last month’s picks
3 Body Problem
Created by Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and based on the novels of Chinese writer Cixin Liu, the Netflix series 3 Body Problem is science fiction on a massive scale. Over its eight episodes, this series details an extraterrestrial invasion of Earth unfolding in slow motion. It begins with a spate of prominent scientists disappearing and continues through the upheaval the imminent occupation brings to earth when humanity divides into people who want to stop the occupation and those who welcome humanity’s new overlords.
Starts streaming on March 21
Shirley
This Netflix original biopic casts Oscar-winner Regina King as Shirley Chisholm, the first Black congresswoman, and details her groundbreaking run for president in 1972. Written and directed by John Ridley (12 Years a Slave, American Crime, Needle in a Timestack) and based on extensive interviews with Chisholm’s family and friends, Shirley gives viewers a you-are-there look at Chisholm’s courageous run.
Starts streaming on March 22
Spaceman
Adam Sandler is best known for his wacky comedies, but he’s a great actor when he feels like it. Netflix original Spaceman shows off Sandler’s deeper side, casting him as Jakub, an astronaut adrift in both outer space and his personal life. Six months into a solitary research mission on the fringes of the solar system, Jakub realizes his earthbound marriage is crumbling, and finds solace and advice from an unlikely source: Hanuš, an ancient, spider-like alien hiding in his ship. The film comes from director Johan Renck, who won an Emmy for HBO’s Chernobyl, and co-stars Carey Mulligan.
Starts streaming on March 1
The Gentlemen
There are tons of TV shows and movies that glamorize the golden age of the British aristocracy, but inheriting a title and an estate is a new kind of nightmare in The Gentlemen. When Eddie moves into his family’s ancestral mansion, he finds it a crumbling money pit with a drug dealing gang squatting on the crumbling estate. With no serfs to burn to keep warm, Eddie turns to crime to get by. Netflix advertises this series as “Old money meets drug money,” and that’s good enough for a click from me, but the show was created and directed by Guy “Two Smoking Barrels” Ritchie, so I might even click it twice.
Starts streaming on March 7.
Damsel
Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown plays Elodie in Damsel, a fantasy movie that turns fairytale tropes upside down. After her betrothal to a prince, Elodie learns that her fate isn’t to live happily ever after, but to be sacrificed to a dragon. To survive (and bring down the evil royal family who cast her into the dragon cave) Elodie will have to face the fire-breathing beast herself. No knight in shining armor is coming to save the day.
Starts streaming on March 8.
Irish Wish
To contrast the science fiction and fantasy, Netflix is dropping an old-fashioned romantic comedy, Irish Wish, just in time for Saint Patrick’s Day. Lindsay Lohan plays Maddie Kelly, a shy, lonely book editor and perpetual bridesmaid pining for her best friend’s fiancé. At her friend’s destination wedding in Ireland, Maddie makes a wish that magically comes true, and wakes up in an alternative reality where she’s the one set to walk down the aisle. As you might guess, Maddie soon learns the true meaning of the old adage “be careful what you wish for.”
Starts streaming March 15.
The Netflix Slam
Netflix is launching its live coverage of tennis with a blockbuster exhibition match that might go down in sports history. Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal, two Spanish athletes with a history and a classic rivalry, will face off in Las Vegas. Nadal is a veteran champion; his rival Alcaraz is a fiery young upstart looking to take the crown. Classic drama played out on the court.
The Netflix Slam airs live at at 12:30pm PST on March 3.
The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping
This unsettling documentary details the scary world of the “troubled teen” industry, where children are kidnapped and forced to live in horrendous conditions in often abusive institutions, all with the blessing of their parents. Through interviews with traumatized survivors, The Program: Cons, Cults and Kidnapping digs up copious dirt on The Academy at Ivy Ridge in Ogdensburg, NJ, a “disciplinary boarding school” that was rocked with accusations of abuse and torture before being shuttered in 2009.
Starts streaming on March 6.
Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda
Award-winning comedian Hannah Gadsby hosts some of earth’s funniest genderqueer comics at London’s Alexandra Palace Theatre in Hannah Gadsby’s Gender Agenda. The program includes sets from ALOK, Chloe Petts, DeAnne Smith, Ashley Ward, Jes Tom, Mx. Dahlia Belle, and Krishna Istha. Reading all the negative comments on the YouTube trailer made this into a must-see for me; if these jerks are being triggered, Netflix must be doing something right.
Starts streaming March 5.
Full Swing, Season 2
I’m morally and professionally opposed to golf and all things golf-related, but I’m willing to change my mind. A lot of people enjoy the sport, and this docuseries following a diverse group of professional golfers competing at the sport’s biggest events might be enough to change my opinion. To add to the drama: This is a Ryder Cup year, and the PGA is in a state of flux after its agreement to partner with the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, backers of LIV Golf.
Starts streaming March 6.
Supersex
Supersex is a Netflix original bio-series detailing the life of porn star Rocco Siffredi, who rose from humble roots in a small Italian village to the heights of a unique kind of fame as an iconic, international sex celebrity. The series was created and written by Francesca Manieri, whose previous show, We are Who We Are, was as inclusive, woke, and feminist as anything, so this should be a very interesting take on Siffredi’s life and profession.
Starts streaming on March 6.
Chicken Nugget
In this straight-from-Korea Netflix comedy, a father accidentally transforms his daughter into a chicken nugget. I didn’t make that up; that’s really what happens in Chicken Nugget. I haven’t seen it yet, but I feel confident proclaiming Chicken Nugget the greatest movie ever made.
Starts streaming March 15.
Is it Cake?, Season 3
Sometimes you want to watch a TV show about whether or not various things are cake, and Is it Cake?is by far the best series ever made based on that concept. Incredibly skilled bakers from around the country compete for cash prizes by creating realistic-but-edible versions of everyday objects in hopes of fooling a panel of guest judges. Saturday Night Live’s Mikey Day returns as host, and guest judges include Jay Pharoah, Lauren Lapkus, London Hughes, Oscar Nuñez, and many others.
Starts streaming March 29.
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