Adam Gunton
Russian Doll
20 April, Netflix
“Thursday. What a concept!” The excellent Russian Doll is back for a second season. In case you missed the first season, the show follows cynical New York dwelling Nadia (played by the brilliant Natasha Lyonne) who is stuck in a time loop, something akin to Groundhog Day. Nadia keeps dying and returning to a party that’s being thrown in her honour and with every loop her patience gets thinner and thinner. Expect the same sort of dark comedy from the first season as Nadia continues to work out how and why this is happening to her.
Shining Girls
29 April, Apple TV+
Based on the book by South African author Lauren Beukes, the Shining Girls follows Kirby Mazrachi (played by The Handmaid’s Tale Elisabeth Moss) who is a survivor of a brutal attack. Years later, Kirby feels her reality constantly shifting and finds a recent murder is linked to her own assault. She teams up with a reporter to try and find the person responsible for her attack and this murder, but it seems the assailant is always one step ahead and things are more complicated than Kirby could have imagined. It’s going to be a tense thriller that will keep you guessing.
Doctor Who: Legend of the Sea Devils
Easter, BBC
Jodie Whittaker is back for her penultimate outing as the Doctor before she hands over the key to the Tardis to the next incarnation, whomever it may be! After a couple of heavy outings for the Doctor, Yaz (Mandip Gill) and Dan (John Bishop) they find themselves in 19th century China where a village by the sea is under attack from pirates and a monster from the ocean depths (which is probably from space, this is Doctor Who after all). Can the Doctor and her friends stop the pirates and this sea devil and save the village and the planet? Arghh matey! Let’s hope she isn’t made to walk the plank!
Slow Horses
1 April, Apple TV+
What happens to MI5 agents that mess up on missions? They end up in Slough House, an administrative purgatory and become known as slow horses, with little hope of getting back up to Regent’s Park where the action is. Led by Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), the group just pushes paper and nothing more. But a certain event will draw the slow horses back into the race, giving them the chance to prove that they still have what it takes to get the job done. The series also stars Kristin Scott Thomas and Jonathan Pryce and is based on the book of the same name by Mick Herron.
Did you know?
The Sopranos and its logo are iconic today. But when the show was coming together, the producers added a gun to the logo because HBO was feeling worried that viewers would think it was a show about music, not mobsters!