From the long-awaited return of The Last of Us to surreal new comedy Government Cheese, we round up our top 10 shows to watch watch this week
1. Doctor Who – Saturday, April 12, Disney+ | Season Premiere
Having first debuted way back in 1963, this British romp about a clever, do-gooding alien time traveller has proven to be nothing if not timeless.
No regenerations on the horizon, as Ncuti Gatwa returns for his second season helming the TARDIS, but we will have a new Companion. Andor alum Varada Sethu joins the cast as Belinda Chandra, a young woman who crosses paths with the Doctor under most unusual, otherworldly circumstances. Our two-hearted hero tries to get Belinda back home to Earth but, darn the luck, “a mysterious force is stopping their return, and the time-travelling TARDIS team must face great dangers, bigger enemies and wilder terrors than ever before.”
That team will at least occasionally include last year’s Companion, Ruby Sunday, as actress Millie Gibson is confirmed to be in the mix — even after the finale seemed to indicate her days of intergalactic derring-do were at an end. (Though it appears her role will be limited.)
On the guest-star front, The Good Wife’s Alan Cumming will guest as Mr. Ring-a-Ding, a 1950s cartoon who claws his way out into the real world. Click here to watch trailer.
2. Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny – Sunday, April 13, History | Series Premiere
The truth is out there, and who better than X-Files alum David Duchovny to find it? That’s the premise of this 10-episode docuseries, in which the erstwhile Fox Mulder reveals the latest evidence behind “the government’s most secretive, strange and mind-blowing activities that have been declassified throughout history.” Each episode will feature Duchovny focusing on a different topic, speaking with various experts. “I’ve always been drawn to explorations of the more complicated aspects of our lives, leaning into conversations that dig below the surface and unlock a more interesting story,” Duchovny said in a statement. “I’m thrilled to be executive producing and hosting a new History Channel series that’s not afraid to go there. We’re telling the incredible stories of government secrets that have only recently come to light. This series proves that secrets can be uncovered, and mysteries can still be unraveled.”
3. The Last of Us – Sunday, April 12, HBO Canada | Season Premiere
One of the biggest TV hits of the past five years, The Last of Us returns for its feverishly anticipated second chapter.
Based on a groundbreaking video game of the same name, season one plunged audiences into a dystopian post-apocalypse wherein the world has been overrun by a strain of fungus that turns infected human beings into rampaging monstrosities.
Far from a superficial creature feature, the true appeal here was in the profound, tragic humanity at the heart of the story, as a grizzled smuggler named Joel (Pedro Pascal) fought to get a feisty kid named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) across the country in hopes that her unique immunity to the spores that had felled humanity could hold the key to a vaccine.
Along the way, Joel, haunted by the death of his own little girl, begrudgingly came to see Ellie as family. And upon learning that the paramilitary rebels who’d tasked him with keeping the kid safe to begin with now planned to kill her so they could extract a cure, Joel’s long-dormant fatherly instincts took over, as he single-handedly slaughtered them all to avoid the unbearable horror of losing another daughter.
Throughout it all, Ellie was unconscious. When she woke up wondering what happened, Joel lied, saying there was simply no cure to be found. The look on her face in the season-one finale’s closing moments said she didn’t quite believe him — which could be as fatal to their relationship as any fungus monster.
That brings us to season two — which moved production from Alberta to right here in beautiful B.C. It starts up five years after Joel and Ellie made their way back to his brother Tommy’s fortified town in Wyoming. This time, per HBO’s cryptic teaser, the duo “are drawn into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind.” Click here to watch trailer.
4. Rock the Block – Monday, April 14, HGTV | Season Premiere
Season six pits more HGTV stars against one another to glam up identical properties on the same budget. New recruits include Chelsea and Cole DeBoer from Down Home Fab, and Kamohai and Tristyn Kalama from Renovation Aloha.
5. The Carters: Hurts to Love You – Tuesday, April 15, Paramount+ | Series Premiere
Siblings Nick and Aaron Carter were wildly popular teen idols. Yet behind it all was a family dealing with mental health struggles, drug addiction and heartbreaking neglect. In this two-part documentary, their sister, Angel, unpacks the complicated family dynamics that led to the untimely deaths of three of the original five Carter kids, as well as their father. She discusses the pain, fame, expectations, addiction, assumptions and, at the heart of it all, critical mental health issues faced by the family, with the hope to honour their journey and transform their past into a message of hope and purpose for others. Click here to watch trailer.
6. The Stolen Girl – Wednesday, April 16, Disney+ | Series Premiere
Yet another U.K. thriller follows Elisa (Denise Gough), who agrees to let her daughter Lucia sleep over at her new best friend Josie’s house, under the watchful eye of Josie’s charming mum Rebecca (C.B. Strike’s Holliday Grainger). But when Elisa arrives to collect Lucia the next morning, everyone has vanished. Click here to watch trailer.
7. The Valley – Wednesday, April 16, Hayu | Season Premiere
This never-less-than-salacious Vanderpump Rules spinoff is back for season two, as our array of volatile L.A. couples continue their bumpy path to personal and professional maturity (or, as they call it, “adulting”).
The big story for this year continues to be Jax and Brittany’s epic breakup after a decade of marriage. Still very much reeling from that lost love, Jax decides it’s time to confront his demons — checking himself in to a facility and consulting with mental health experts to get a handle on his anger.
On the other end of this romantic equation, Brittany tries to figure out who she is outside of the couplehood that’s defined her for so very long. Of course, her history with Jax is not so easily shed, and she’s tempted to forgive him . . . against her better judgment. Seeking to strengthen not only herself, but her bond with the rest of the Valley crew, Brit also finds several friendships put to the test.
In other news, Jesse and Michelle try to navigate their own messy divorce, made all the more painful by an illness in the extended family. Plus, Danny and Nia, already juggling three kids under the age of three years old, are on the verge of adding a fourth little bundle of chaos to the mix — while also searching for a new home and fending off some hurtful accusations about their own “seemingly perfect marriage.”
8. Government Cheese – Wednesday, April 16, Apple TV+ | Series Premiere
Following his turn in the Yellowstone-verse as the title character in Lawmen: Bass Reeves, movie star David Oyelowo sticks around on the small screen with this “surrealist comedy.”
He plays Hampton Chambers, a convicted burglar who gets out of prison and tries to start over as a most peculiar inventor in California’s San Fernando Valley, circa 1969. It’s not an easy transition, as beyond the usual hurdles facing ex-cons on the outside, his wife Nina (Luke Cage alum Simone Missick) and two sons have adjusted to life without him — forging an “unconventional family unit” in which there may no longer be a place for dear old dad.
All told, the show is described as being about “a quirky family pursuing lofty and seemingly impossible dreams, beautifully unfettered by the realities of the world.” Click here to watch trailer.
9. #1 Happy Family USA – Thursday, April 17, Prime Video | Series Premiere
Ramy Youssef has proven to be one of the comedy world’s fastest-rising stars over the past decade, filling theatres with his standup act and earning raves for his semi-autobiographical TV show, Ramy. The latter picked up a Golden Globe and a Peabody in 2020 for its incisive exploration of life as a Muslim in modern America.
Expect Youssef to mine similar territory with this new cartoon, all eight episodes of which hit Prime Video on Thursday.
Per the official synopsis, #1 Happy Family USA centres on “the maniacally upbeat Husseins — the most patriotic, most peaceful and most definitely-not-suspicious Muslim family in post-9/11 ‘Amreeka.’ With satire and absurdity, it redefines finding humour in hardship as they navigate the early 2000s under the watchful eyes of their terrified neighbours.”
Introducing the series at the SXSW fest, Youssef told the crowd (via Variety): “There’s a representation warning in the beginning of every episode that tells you not to use this show as representation. I have had a very torn relationship with representation and the idea of what it should do or what it is. This is a show about capitalism . . . it is certainly not representative of Arabs or Muslims — many of which will, I think, see things that they really appreciate and other things where they’ll be like, ‘What the f***, Ramy. Why do you do this stuff?’ ” Click here to watch trailer.
10. The Narrow Road to the Deep North – Friday, April 18, Prime Video | Series Premiere
This five-episode drama charts the life of Dorrigo Evans (played by Jacob Elordi as a young man, and then Ciarán Hinds), through his passionate affair with Amy Mulvaney (Odessa Young), his captivity in a POW camp and his later years as a revered surgeon and reluctant war hero. Click here to watch trailer.