From Chucky to Pretty Little Liars: Summer School
Plus Raising Kanan S3, The Gilded Age S2, Boiling Point S1, Fires S1, Alex Rider S3, 2024 BAFTA nominee Black Ops & more
WEEK ONE | 1-5 May
CHUCKY S3B
First On Showmax | Wednesdays from 1 May
Chucky has moved in with the most powerful family in the world, America’s First Family, into the White House. How did Chucky wind up here? What on Earth does he want? And how can Jake, Devon, and Lexy possibly get to Chucky inside the world’s most secure house, all while balancing the pressures of romantic relationships and growing up?
Chucky was up for Outstanding Drama Series at this year’s GLAAD Awards, as well as Best Horror Series at the 2024 Saturn Awards, as voted by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. As Jake, Zackary Arthur was also up for a 2024 Saturn Award as Best Younger Performer in a TV Series.
This season, look out for Devon Sawa (Final Destination) as President James Collins, Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) as Evelyn Elliot, and Oscar nominee Brad Dourif, who’s voiced Chucky for 36 years and counting, making a rare appearance on screen too.
Season 3 has a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Slashfilm calling it “The wildest season yet.”
FELLOW TRAVELERS
First On Showmax | Binge from Friday, 3 May
Created by Oscar nominee Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia, Homeland), Fellow Travelers is a thriller that chronicles the risky, volatile and steamy romance of two very different political staffers who meet in McCarthy-era Washington.
Emmy nominee Matt Bomer (David Oppenheim in Maestro) was nominated for Golden Globe, Critics Choice, Screen Actors Guild and People’s Choice awards as Hawkins Fuller, while Jonathan Bailey (Bridgerton, Broadchurch) won the Critics Choice Award as Tim Laughlin.
Based on the novel by Thomas Mallon, Fellow Travelers was nominated for Best Limited Series at the Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards, before winning the category at the recent GLAAD Media Awards. The Showtime series holds an 8.2/10 score on IMDb and 91% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with AV Club saying it’s “as heart-wrenching as it is heartwarming,” and Variety praising Bomer and Bailey’s “electric chemistry.”
The show’s cast also includes Critics Choice nominee Allison Williams (Get Out, Girls, M3gan) and Golden Globe nominee Linus Roache (Homeland).
WEEK TWO | 6-12 May
ALEX RIDER S3
Mondays from 6 May
Trust no one. Question everything.
Based on the best-selling Alex Rider books by Anthony Horowitz, the series stars Otto Farrant as an ordinary teenager enlisted to work on behalf of MI6, where he uses skills he didn’t know he had to become an extraordinary spy.
Kevin McNally (Gibbs in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies) joins the cast for the third and final season, which also brings back Brenock O’Connor (Dickensian) as Tom, British-Nigerian actress Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo (Christopher Robin, Rain Dogs) as Jack, and BAFTA Scotland winner Marli Siu (Everything I Know About Love) as Kyra, not to mention BAFTA winner Vicky McClure (DC Kate Fleming in Line of Duty) and Emmy nominee Stephen Dillane (Game of Thrones’ Stannis Baratheon)
PRETTY LITTLE LIARS: SUMMER SCHOOL
First on Showmax | Express from the US from 10 May
Following the harrowing events of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin, our Pretty Little Liars face a fate worse than death: summer school.
However, Millwood High isn’t the only thing getting in the way of their fun summer jobs and dreamy love interests. A new villain, who may or may not have a connection to A, has come to town and is going to put them all to the test.
Original Pretty Little Liars cast member Annabeth Gish is back as Dr Sullivan in Pretty Little Liars: Summer School.
WEEK THREE | 13-19 May
BLACK OPS S1
First On Showmax | Binge from Monday, 13 May
Who said infiltrating a criminal gang was going to be easy?
Black Ops is set in East London and follows two inept community support officers, Dom and Kay, who join the police in the hope of cleaning up their community but are instead thrust into the murky world of deep-cover infiltration.
As Dom and Kay, Gbemisola Ikumelo (Famalam, Brain In Gear) and Hammed Animashaun (The Wheel of Time, Cunk & Other Humans on 2019, Pls Like) are nominated for 2024 BAFTAs, for Female and Male Performance In a Comedy respectively.
“Can you really make a hilarious comedy about police racism? … The answer – pretty miraculously – is yes,” says The Guardian’s 5/5-star review, calling the show “a pitch-perfect, star-packed joy.”
FIRES S1
Binge from Friday, 17 May
Inspired by the 2019-20 Australian megafires, the anthology series Fires brings to life just some of the stories of those who lived through the Black Summer – stories of heartbreak, loss and survival but also of heroism, humanity, and community amid unimaginable terror.
With Emmy nominee Michael Rymer (Battlestar Galactica, Hannibal) among the directing team, the six-part series won three Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) Awards, including Best Miniseries. At the Australian Logie Awards, Fires similarly won Outstanding Miniseries, with Richard Roxburgh (Elvis, Mission: Impossible II) named Outstanding Actor and Miranda Otto (Eowyn in The Lord of the Rings films) nominated for Outstanding Actress.
The all-star ensemble cast also boasts the likes of Emmy nominee Anna Torv (Tess in The Last of Us), Teen Choice winner Sam Worthington (Jake in the Avatar films), and AACTA Award winners Eliza Scanlen (Beth in Little Women and Amma in Sharp Objects) and Kate Box (Sergeant Dulcie Collins in Deadloch).
WEEK FOUR | 20-26 May
THE GILDED AGE S2
Binge from Monday, 20 May
From Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes, The Gilded Age was up for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series at the 2024 Screen Actors Guild Awards, thanks to the likes of Emmy winners Audra McDonald, Christine Baranski, Cynthia Nixon, and Nathan Lane, not to mention Emmy nominee Carrie Coon, Critics Choice nominee Morgan Spector, and People’s Choice nominee Robert Sean Leonard, who joins the cast this season.
Season 2 of the Emmy-winning HBO drama series kicks off on Easter morning, 1883, with Bertha Russell’s determination to challenge the old system and gain a foothold in society undiminished by the rejection of her bid for a box at the Academy of Music. While George Russell takes on his own battle with a growing union at his steel plant, Marian continues secretly teaching at a girls’ school, and Ada begins an unexpected new courtship. Of course, Agnes approves of none of it.
The opulent period drama has an 8/10 score on IMDb and a 93% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes for Season 2. In addition to myriad nominations for its production design, costume, make-up and hairstyling, the period drama was up for The Hollywood Critics Association award for Best Cable Series, Drama and the 2024 Queerty Award for best TV Drama.
HBO has already ordered a third season.
SHADOWLAND S1
Binge from Monday, 20 May
In Shadowland, multi-award-winner Joe Berlinger sends documentary teams across America to embed with subjects who have rejected mainstream narratives. These include a beloved rural Pennsylvania pizza shop owner facing 20 years in prison for her role in the January 6th riots, an anti-vaccine activist pushing a dangerous fake cure for Covid-19, and a mother divorcing her husband because she fears his beliefs put their children’s lives in danger.
Shadowland was named Best Documentary Series at the 2023 Telly Awards, with Time calling it “terrifying” and Decider hailing it as “fascinating, upsetting, sometimes depressing, sometimes revelatory journalism.”
A documentary filmmaking legend, Berlinger was nominated for an Oscar and Emmy for Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory and won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award for Brother’s Keeper, the SXSW Audience Award for Under African Skies, the True Vision Award at True/False for Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, and the Critics Choice Real TV awards for Conversations with a Killer: The Ted Bundy Tapes and Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich.
BOILING POINT S1
First On Showmax | Binge from Tuesday, 21 May
Following on from the multi-award-winning 2021 film of the same name, the BAFTA-nominated miniseries Boiling Point is set in a high-pressure restaurant kitchen. Picking up eight months after their mentor Andy Jones suffered a heart attack, the BBC miniseries follows head chef Carly and her team as the stresses of keeping the restaurant running bear down on them.
Boiling Point has already won the 2024 Casting Directors’ Guild Award for Best Casting in a TV Drama Series, thanks to a powerful ensemble led by Vinette Robinson (Sherlock), who won Best Supporting Actress at the 2021 British Independent Film Awards for her role in the movie. Also look out for the likes of eight-time BAFTA nominee Stephen Graham (Time), who returns as Andy; Izuka Hoyle (Mary Queen of Scots, Persuasion), who won a BAFTA Scotland Award as Camille in the movie; Ray Panthaki (Gangs of London), whose role as Freeman in the film earned him a nom at the British Independent Film Awards; and Hannah Walters (Time, Malpractice), who Times (UK) says is “stealing the show”.
British-Nigerian actor Stephen Odubola (The Sandman) joins the cast for the miniseries, along with the likes of BAFTA nominee Steven Ogg (The Walking Dead, Westworld) and BAFTA winner Cathy Tyson (Help, Bank of Dave).
Boiling Point has a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Daily Telegraph (UK) calling it “a Michelin-starred TV drama” and “highly stressful TV” in their 5/5 review.
KINGS FROM QUEENS: THE RUN DMC STORY
First on Showmax | Binge from Thursday, 23 May
Three guys from Hollis, Queens. Two turntables. And a microphone.
Kings From Queens: The RUN DMC Story is the never-been-told story of the most influential rap group in the history of music, who recorded the first platinum rap album. Their influence on culture shattered racial barriers, making them international stars and fashion leaders of the 80s.
After a series of life-changing events and challenges, including the murder of their beloved DJ, Jam Master Jay, Rev Run and DMC reunite to tell their story and celebrate the genre of music they mainstreamed.
Kings From Queens: The RUN DMC Story has a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Collider calling it “an emotionally satisfying trip down memory lane.”
POWER BOOK III: RAISING KANAN S3
Binge from Friday, 24 May
A prequel to the hit crime drama Power, Raising Kanan stars Mekai Curtis as the young Kanan Stark (played in the original series by Emmy and Grammy winner Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson).
Season 3 sees Raq make a life-changing decision in the aftermath of the Mafia’s ambush, but is it too little, too late for Kanan, as he looks to pave his own path free of his mother’s lies?
As Raq, Tony winner Patina Miller (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Madam Secretary) picked up her second Black Reel Award nomination earlier this year.
Black Reel winner Wendell Pierce (Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Wire) joins the cast this season, with Teen Choice nominee Omar Epps (House M.D.), Grammy nominee Hailey Kilgore (Respect), and Emmy nominee Tony Danza (Who’s the Boss) all returning.
Raising Kanan has already been renewed for a fourth and fifth season.
WEEK FIVE | 27-31 May
THE CLEANING LADY S3
First on Showmax | Binge from Monday, 27 May
Winner of four international awards, The Cleaning Lady centres on former surgeon Thony De La Rosa (Elodie Yung – Elektra in Daredevil and The Defenders), who travels to America for medical treatment to save her son but encounters a system rigged against her, forcing her to become a cleaning lady for the mob.
In Season 3, the stakes are higher than ever as Thony has to go it alone, risking dangerous new alliances as Fiona (Martha Millan) faces deportation to the Philippines.
Following the tragic passing of series co-star Adan Canto, Season 3 sees award-winners Clayton Cardenas (Mayans M.C.) and Kate del Castillo (Bad Boys for Life) join the cast, along with Santiago Cabrera (Big Little Lies, Star Trek: Picard).
QUANTUM LEAP S2
First on Showmax | Binge from Tuesday, 28 May
One leap can change everything as Dr Ben Song (Raymond Lee from Top Gun: Maverick) continues his thrilling journey through time in the action-packed second season of Quantum Leap.
Quantum Leap was nominated for three 2024 Saturn Awards from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, including Best Action/Thriller Television Series and Best Supporting Actor for Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters). It was also up for a 2024 GLAAD Media Award for Outstanding Drama Series.
Peter Gadiot (One Piece, Yellowjackets) and multiple Teen Choice Award nominee Eliza Taylor (The 100’s Clarke Griffin) join the cast this season.
Collider praises, “Lee’s charming performance, [the] stellar writing, and remarkable direction,” saying, “Season 2 thrives on the chemistry of its cast… taking bigger chances and aiming for bigger payoffs.”
AWARDS UPDATE
The Last of Us dominates Critics Choice Super Awards
At the Critics Choice Super Awards in April, The Last of Us was the standout TV winner, taking home trophies in all seven of its nominated categories, including Best Superhero and Best Horror Series, Limited Series or Made-For-TV Movie. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey were named Best Actor and Actress respectively in both the Superhero and Horror categories, while Melanie Lynskey also took home Best Villain.
Succession, The Sixth Commandment up for BAFTAs
The BAFTA TV Awards, Britain’s most prestigious awards, is taking place on 12 May 2024.
