11 of the best TV shows to watch this April

From the return of HBO’s zombie apocalypse thriller to Michelle Williams in a provocative new role.

In this droll new series, Kevin Bacon adds demon-chasing bounty-hunter to his long list of horror characters. Hub Halloran was a bounty hunter before his murder, but when he lands on the other side, the devil himself gives him a second chance at redemption, reanimating him and sending him back among the living to track down and return demons who have escaped hell. The catch: if he fails at his job he will be called back into the flames forever. In his downtime from hunting demons – they have piercing yellow pupils, the better to identify them – he tries to reconcile with his estranged family. The Bondsman is produced by Blumhouse, the company behind such hit horror franchises as The Purge, so there’s reason to believe in this show with a cockeyed premise, which manages to throw in country music.  

The Bondsman premieres 3 April on Amazon Prime internationally

Netflix contributes to the apparently endless stream of soapy medical dramas with this series about students and residents at a Miami trauma hospital. At the centre is Danielle (Willa Fitzgerald) who is appointed chief resident when the previous chief – inconveniently her ex, Xander (Colin Woodell) – is suspended. But wait! There’s a hurricane on the way, so Xander doesn’t leave the hospital and together they thrash out their personal issues in between saving lives. Justina Machado (One Day at a Time) plays their boss, the Chair of Emergency Medicine. The terrific Max series The Pitt has proven how well this creaky genre can work, and that show is about to drop its season finale, so Pulse might fill the gap. Just be prepared for evergreen lines like, “He’s going to code!” and, “If you go one millimetre too far, she dies!”

Pulse premieres 3 April on Netflix internationally

One of Michelle Williams’ best performances was as Gwen Verdon in the television series Fosse/Verdon, and here she takes on another rich small-screen role as Molly, a woman diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer, who decides to spend her last months on a no-holds-barred journey to indulge herself sexually while there’s still time. Jenny Slate plays Nikki, her best friend and wingperson. The series is based on the Wondery podcast created by Nikki Boyer about her friend Molly Kochan, the real-life inspiration for the show. Jay Duplass plays Molly’s husband, Sissy Spacek is her mother and Rob Delaney a neighbour in a series that leavens the drama with comedy. Critics have raved about Williams and the show, with the Observer saying “the series’ comedy never strikes a wrong note”, and The Daily Beast calling it “a near perfect amalgamation of absurdity and tragedy”.

Dying for Sex premieres 4 April on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK and internationally

Few shows have had the cultural impact of The Handmaid’s Tale. Women protestors in real life have marched in red cloaks, referencing the handmaids in the series’ misogynistic state of Gilead and symbolising oppression. The show’s plot has long since outrun the Margaret Atwood novel it is based on, and in this sixth and final season June (Elisabeth Moss), having escaped to freedom in Canada, leaves and continues fighting with the resistance. The most chilling characters return, with Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia, Yvonne Strahovski as Serena and Bradley Whitford as Commander Lawrence. This final season will offer “feel-good episodes”, the series showrunner, Yahlin Chang, told TV Insider. In a recent panel conversation the creators also spoke about this season landing in a political climate that has left them “bewildered”: “We need to meet this moment,” said Whitford. “Our women are not Marvel characters, they’re ordinary women who are doing extraordinary things,” executive producer Warren Littlefield added, declaring that the show’s final message is “the war is not over, but the fight continues”.

The Handmaid’s Tale premieres 8 April on Hulu in the US

Jean Smart is beloved by fans for her Emmy-winning role as Deborah Vance, the old-school stand-up comic who has found a career resurgence with the help of her young writer and frenemy, Ava (Hannah Einbinder). As the fourth season starts, Deborah has realised her dream of hosting a late-night talk show, only to have the ruthlessly ambitious Ava blackmail her way into being named head writer. The relationship between Deborah and Ava – sometimes mentor-mentee, sometimes competitors, sometimes loving and always fraught – is the heart of the series, but its success rests largely on Smart’s perfectly acerbic delivery. Julianne Nicholson is among the season’s guest stars in a show that comically and deftly addresses big issues including sexism and aging in the entertainment industry. 

Hacks premieres 10 April on Max

Since Charlie Brooker’s dystopian sci-fi series started in 2011, the real world has increasingly caught up to the show, with the mainstream use of artificial intelligence being just the most conspicuous example. The seventh season of the anthology includes, unusually, a sequel. It returns to USS Callister, the show’s classic Star Trek homage, with Cristin Milioti (The Penguin) as a computer programmer who finds herself cloned inside a video game. “Normally I kill off characters at the end of an episode, [but] I kept some of them alive. I’m growing as a human,” Brooker has said. The other five episodes are crammed with well-known faces, as its zealous fans have come to expect. They include Awkwafina, Paul Giamatti, Emma Corrin, Will Poulter, Peter Capaldi, Issa Rae, Chris O’Dowd, Tracee Ellis Ross and Rashida Jones. Text in the trailer flashes the words, “Lose Your Mind. Lose Your Reality.” Let’s hope those words don’t come back to haunt us in real life, but then Brooker has a way of being just a step ahead.

Black Mirror premieres 10 April on Netflix internationally

Jon Hamm has had some great, attention-getting supporting roles since Mad Men, including the bullying, corrupt sheriff in the most recent season of Fargo and the slick gazillionaire in The Morning Show. But he is once again the main character in this comic drama about Andrew Cooper, known as Coop, a rich hedge-fund manager who loses his job and sees his privileged life and identity slipping away. Struggling to keep up appearances and support his ex-wife and their teenaged children, he resorts to stealing jewels, designer bags and other valuables from his friends. Amanda Peet plays his ex-wife, who left him for one of his best friends, and Olivia Munn is his on-and-off fling. The show was created by novelist and screenwriter Jonathan Tropper (This is Where I Leave You). Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) directed the first two episodes of this vibrant series which, in good news, has already been ordered for a second season.

Your Friends and Neighbors premieres 11 April on Apple TV+ internationally

One of the best, most gripping shows of recent years returns for its second season of people trying to survive a zombie apocalypse. The story picks up five years after the previous season ended, but Joel – Pedro Pascal in his breakthrough role – and Ellie (Bella Ramsey) are now estranged, creating a new dynamic. That’s just one change. There will be a new variant of the infected creatures, smarter and more lethal than the old breed. Kaitlyn Dever (Apple Cider Vinegar) joins the cast as soldier Abby, already causing much online chatter because Dever is physically slighter than the character in the video game the series is based on. And Catherine O’Hara takes on a dramatic role as Joel’s therapist, because who wouldn’t need one after everything he’s been through? Pascal, who gives Joel such fierce energy, told Empire magazine that the new season “further tests our strength against a world we’re already afraid to be in”.

The Last of Us premieres 13 April on HBO in the US and Sky Atlantic in the UK

David Oyelowo, last seen on television as a 19th-Century US Marshal in Lawman: Bass Reeves, heads to the 20th Century in this surreal comedy and redemption story set in 1969 California. He plays Hampton Chambers, recently released from prison where he was serving time for burglary. He is determined to regain the confidence of his wife and two grown sons, and change the family fortunes by inventing a self-sharpening drill called Bit Magician. Those fortunes are floundering if the title is a clue. Government cheese refers to the bricks of processed cheese the US government once distributed to people who qualified for food assistance. Oyelowo was drawn to the show’s most surreal aspect, Hampton’s spiritual quest, telling Variety his character has “this weird interaction with God, where he has a very direct relationship to the point whereby miracles, the likes of which we see in the Bible, are manifesting in his life”.

Government Cheese premieres 16 April on Apple TV+ internationally

The much-anticipated second season of this prequel to the film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) concludes the backstory of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), and his journey from scrappy thief to fighter in the Rebel Alliance, and the heroic figure he is in the film. The many movie spin-off series on Disney+ have been up and down, but there is wide agreement that Andor is one of the best. In a representative view, Vulture‘s headline for its first season review said, “Andor is the Cure for Star Wars Ennui”, and went on to call it “the most challenging and invigorating work in this galaxy in years”. Tony Gilroy, the series’ creator, returns for the final go-round, along with a cast that includes Stellan Skarsgård, Ben Mendelsohn, Forest Whitaker and plenty of Stormtroopers. Disney+ has given the new season a big, confident push by making the first available on Hulu and YouTube.

Andor premieres 22 April in the US and 23 April in the UK on Disney+

Amy Sherman-Palladino has created two wildly popular shows, Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. But her latest echoes her lesser-known, wonderful Bunheads (2012), with Sutton Foster as a Las Vegas showgirl turned small-town ballet teacher. That show only lasted a season, but has since been embraced by a cult of fans. Étoile is a comic drama with a bigger dance-world canvas, as ballet companies in New York and Paris decide to trade their star dancers in an effort to shore up their flagging institutions. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays the head of the Paris company and Luke Kirby (Lenny Bruce in Mrs. Maisel) the head of the New York troupe. The cast also includes Simon Callow and Lou de Laâge, along with dancers from the New York City Ballet and Boston Ballet. As always, a Sherman-Palladino show promises both comic mayhem and sharp dialogue.

Étoile premieres 24 April on Amazon Prime internationally