What to watch on streaming in April in Australia: Highlights on Netflix, Stan, Disney, Apple, HBO and more

THE TESTAMENTS

Disney+, April 8

Maybe the ending of The Handmaid’s Tale left you wanting more, or maybe you want something related but a little bit different in tone. The Testaments is a sequel series set some years after the Elisabeth Moss-led show, and based off Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel.

It is still the Republic of Gilead, the theocratic autocracy which enslaved women but the story shifts focus to a new generation of characters, young girls coming of age in a prep school run by Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd, reprising her role), being groomed to marry the commanders of the state.

The main character is “Agnes”, who is the daughter of June and Luke, and is played by One Battle After Another breakout Chase Infiniti. The cast also includes Australian actor Mabel Li.

BEEF S2

Netflix, April 16

Remember Beef, the explosive miniseries starring Ali Wong and Steven Yeun as two strangers locked in an escalating feud turned existential crisis after a road rage incident? The acclaimed show is back, but now it’s an anthology series and the story pivots to a new set of characters, while still maintaining the tone.

The battle will be between a workplace beef younger couple (Cailee Spaeny and Charles Melton) against their boss and his wife (Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan), with creator Lee Sung Jin keen to exploit the generational divide between Gen Z and Millennials.

EUPHORIA S3

HBO Max, April 13

It’s been four years since Euphoria’s most recent season, so, in a nod to realism, the show has time-jumped five calendars since the drugged-out, sexed-up high school kids were still, well, matriculating.

But just because they’re older, doesn’t mean they’re wiser, and in the teaser trailer released, we know that Rue (Zendaya), Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), Nate (Jacob Elordi), Jules (Hunter Schaeffer) and co are still getting up to all sorts of trouble – lights, sirens, drugs, internet smut and threats! The more things change, the more they stay the same.

THE AUDACITY

SBS On Demand, April 15

If you hear someone describing tech moguls as “horrible people who have no boundaries, no manners, no integrity”, you instinctively find yourself nodding along in agreement. Like, obviously, right?

We’ve seen all sorts of terrible behaviour from tech peeps on the likes of Silicon Valley, WeCrashed and the rest, and the real-life counterparts are properly giving war criminals and autocrats a run for the status of villains-in-chief.

This comedy series is definitely not going to be an image rehabilitation given the line of dialogue above. It stars Billy Magnussen, Zach Galifianakis, Sarah Goldberg and Simon Helberg as fictional characters in the morality-free billionaire enclave.

MARGOT’S GOT MONEY TROUBLES

Apple TV, April 15

Another collaboration between Nicole Kidman and David E. Kelley (Nine Perfect Strangers, Big Little Lies and The Undoing), but this time, her character is not the focus. That honour goes to Elle Fanning, who plays the titular Margot.

Margot, the daughter of a waitress (Michelle Pfeiffer) and a former wrestler (Nick Offerman) is a young woman who has an affair with her college professor and falls pregnant, and ends up turning to OnlyFans to financially support herself and her kid. The cast also includes Greg Kinnear and Marcia Gay Harden.

MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE: LIFE’S STILL UNFAIR

Disney+, April 10

OK, so if you were sceptical about this revival – because, why – you wouldn’t be alone. But then a weird thing happened. Disney released the trailer and, at least in those two minutes, it was actually kind of funny? Remember what a gifted and goofy physical comedian Bryan Cranston was before he turned all dramatic and scary?

It’s set 20 years after the original series and Malcolm is now estranged from his family, and lives a contented life with his girlfriend and daughter. But when Hal and Lois demand he attend their 40th wedding anniversary, Malcolm has to own up to the fact he not only has a family he’s been hiding, but also their total chaos.

HACKS S5

Stan, April 10

How did we already get here? It seems like only yesterday that Hacks was the hot new thing about a washed-up old comedy legend, but apparently, it’s been five years and we’re facing the final season of the Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder comedy.

Which means it’s legacy time, especially after that previous season cliffhanger in which Deb is mistakenly pronounced by media outlets as dead. She’ll be forced to fight for her reputation, her work and how she wants to be remembered.

OUTCOME

Apple TV, April 10

So, it’s our natural bias but surely a movie starring Keanu Reeves and Cameron Diaz should be released on the big screen? Well, for those hostile to leaving their homes, then the streaming-only debut of Outcome is a win.

The film stars Reeves as a Hollywood star who, after five years of sobriety, is being blackmailed with a video of past misdeeds, which forces him to make an apology tour to those he’d wronged in the past.

There’s likely a meta layer here given Jonah Hill, who co-wrote, directed and stars in Outcome, is himself in semi-exile after allegations of poor treatment from his former romantic partners.

THE BOYS S5

Prime Video, April 8

The cornucopia of graphic violence will culminate in this final season of the anti-superhero series. But don’t worry, because there is already the Gen V spin-off, as well as an upcoming prequel show, Vought Rising, set in the 1950s and will function as an origin story for two characters.

But this final showdown will pick up where the previous season left off, with the unhinged and fascistic Homelander having now taken control of the US government and declared martial law. Will Billy the Butcher finally eliminate his nemesis, and what will be the body count before those final credits roll? High, surely.

HALF MAN

Stan, April 25

There’s a lot of pressure on Richard Gadd. How do you follow up Baby Reindeer, one of the biggest TV sensations of this decade?

The show is Half Man, a six-episode drama filmed in and around Glasgow, and which features him and Jamie Bell playing brothers who aren’t technically related but their bond is thicker than blood.

They were inseparable in their youth, and when Ruben (Gadd) shows up to Niall’s (Bell) wedding, it triggers an explosive event which has its roots through 30 years of their history.

BAD COMPANY

ABC, April 26

Timothee Chalamet didn’t name theatre in his dismissal of ballet and opera, but that doesn’t mean the industry is not facing similar challenges of financial sustainability, which Bad Company is more than ready to mine.

It stars Kitty Flanagan as a straight-laced corporate fixer who is brought in to save the Argyle Theatre, run by its eccentric creative director Margie (Anne Edmonds). It’s art versus commerce, soul versus practicality as egos and ambitions clash.

YOUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBOURS S2

Apple TV, April 3

The first season of this on Jon Hamm-led drama could be summed up as rich upper-class dude steals stuff from his neighbours to hide the fact he lost his job and was broke. It was kinda-boring, kinda-OK, and there was a semi-murder mystery woven in.

The second season is more interested in what constitutes a happy life, while adding a new element of conflict in, an uber-rich new neighbour played by James Marsden. The series is still what it is, but it’s very hard to not watch Hamm and Marsden share a screen, that is just so much charisma in one frame.

THIS IS A GARDENING SHOW

Netflix, April 22

You can never accuse Zach Galifianakis of not warning you exactly what his new series is, it is indeed a show about gardening. But it’s also about the relationship between humans and food, and how much the average person has become distant from how what they eat is produced.

So, Galifianakis is applying his trademark brand of off-kilter humour to exploring how food is grown and giving the audience the confidence to start doing so in their own gardens. He asks important questions such as, “What is a tomato?”.

APEX

Netflix, April 24

The logline is simple: an experienced rock climber finds herself as the prey when she is hunted in the wild by a human predator, and must use all her wits to survive. Two people, one chasing the other, life and death stakes.

The promise in this version of an age-old story is that it stars the formidable Charlize Theron as the target, and no one is more convincing in an action-thriller than Theron, and Taron Egerton as her pursuer. The movie was filmed in Australia.

WIDOW’S BAY

Apple TV, April 29

There’s a really great team behind this spooky comedy horror series that’s taking some tonal cues from Stephen King – you have actor Matthew Rhys, who we love, creator Katie Dippold (Parks and Recreation, The Heat) and director Hiro Murai (Atlanta, Barry and Mr & Mrs Smith).

Rhys stars as the mayor of a small island town off the coast of New England who wants to revitalise its fortunes. He finally gets some tourists to come and check it out but unfortunately, those superstitious locals were correct, the island is cursed. Oops.

RUNNING POINT S2

Netflix, April 23

Hot off the heels of her second Oscar nomination, Kate Hudson returns in the second season of Running Point, the comedy series in which she plays the nepo daughter of a basketball team-owning dynasty.

She spent the first season proving she can do a better job running the joint than her brothers, and now she has to contend with the unexpected re-entry of the sibling who put her in charge just as he was being carted off to rehab. There will be more drama off the court than on.

THE MINIATURE WIFE

Stan, April 9

Lindy and Les are super competitive within their marriage, but the dynamics of their relationship is forever changed when he, a scientist working on miniaturisation technology, accidentally shrinks his wife into a teeny tiny person now forced to live inside a dollhouse while he works to reverse the mistake.

Based on a book by Miguel Gonzales, it stars Elizabeth Banks and Matthew Macfadyen with a supporting cast which includes Zoe Lister-Jones, Sian Clifford and Ronny Chieng, while the series’ set-up director is comedy helmer Greg Mottola (Superbad, Paul).

THRASH

Netflix, April 10

Shark movie! That’s enough of a description, right?

There’s something so primal about shark movies that some – not all – audiences cannot resist. There must be something about the helplessness of being hunted by a predator of the oceans that gets triggers something in people. It’s a mystery.

This film stars Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor as a pregnant woman is trapped in her car during a hurricane which is bringing waves and sharks. Oh dear, that is a bad situation.

ROOMMATES

Netflix, April 17

Are you still trying to fill that Sex Lives of College Girls-shaped hole in your viewing schedule? Roommates could go some way to making that whole.

This college campus comedy stars Sadie Sandler (as in, daughter of Adam) as a shy university freshman who bunks with a roommate with a few boundary issues, as in, she has none. But what was a blossoming ride-or-die friendship turns into a war but a funny one, obviously.

It also stars Nick Kroll and Natasha Lyonne as Sandler’s parents, as well as Chloe Eat, Carol Kane, Sarah Sherman, Francesca Scorsese, Ivy Wolk and Storm Reid.

STRANGER THINGS: TALES FROM 85

Netflix, April 23

The Duffer Brothers contract ends with Netflix this April, so think of Stranger Things: Tales from 85 as their farewell gift as they decamp to rival Paramount.

The animated series is not a do-over or secret chapter of the finale of the sci-fi series, but a prequel-ish collection of stories set between the second and third seasons of the main show. More monsters, more mysteries, but a different voice cast to the live-action counterparts.

MAN ON FIRE

Netflix, April 30

It’s a brave actor who will take on a role that Denzel Washington once played, but if anyone can match the legend in screen presence, it’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. This will actually be the third screen adaptation – Scott Glenn lead one in 1987.

Abdul-Mateen will portray John Creasey, a former special forces soldier turned mercenary now haunted by PTSD. He becomes an ally to Poe, a young girl who is the only witness to a “terrifying event” – which interrupts Creasey’s attempt at a fresh start.