Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of April’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)
New to Amazon Prime Video
‘The Bondsman’ Season 1
Starts streaming: April 3
Kevin Bacon plays the hard-boiled Georgia bounty hunter Hub Halloran in this action-comedy, which has a supernatural twist. Hub dies in the opening scene of the first episode, then gets reincarnated thanks to some satanic intervention. He is then given a new job, hunting demons who have escaped from Hell. Created by Grainger David and produced and written by Erik Oleson for the horror-friendly Blumhouse Television, “The Bondsman” features all the gory splatter one might expect from a show about a heavily armed monster-killer. But the series also explores its undead antihero’s complicated personal life, which involves a an ex-wife, Maryanne (Jennifer Nettles), whose budding country music career is being handled by a highly suspicious creep named Lucky (Damon Herriman).
‘Étoile’ Season 1
Starts streaming: April 24
The writer-producer husband-wife team of Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino — best-known for “Gilmore Girls” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” — are back with a new series, set in the world of dance, just like their short-lived gem “Bunheads.” Luke Kirby plays the leader of a venerable New York ballet company. Charlotte Gainsbourg plays the leader of a venerable Paris ballet company. When their organizations struggle, they decide to generate some public interest by swapping their top stars. “Étoile” generates comedy and drama from the very different theatrical cultures in Europe and America. The supporting cast is filled with professional dancers, so the ballet sequences should be realistic and dynamic — and not just something to fill the space between the creators’ usual fast-paced, witty banter.
Also arriving:
April 1
“America’s Test Kitchen: The Next Generation” Season 2
April 8
“Spy High”
April 10
“G20”
April 17
“#1 Happy Family USA” Season 1
“Leverage Redemption” Season 3
New to Apple TV+
‘Your Friends and Neighbors’ Season 1
Starts streaming: April 11
In this offbeat crime drama, Jon Hamm plays Andrew Cooper, a.k.a. Coop, a swaggering New York money manager who loses everything — including his wife and job — and compensates by becoming a gentleman thief, stealing from his wealthy pals. The show emphasizes the ironic fragility of Coop’s situation, as someone who has lived and socialized with some of the richest people in the United States, yet is suddenly on the verge of going broke. Created by Jonathan Tropper (“Banshee,” “Warrior”), “Your Friends and Neighbors” is about the high-end homes that only some people can access, and about how someone who is trusted enough to be let inside can treat these personal spaces like an A.T.M.
‘Government Cheese’ Season 1
Starts streaming: April 16
This stylish period dramedy stars David Oyelowo as Hampton Chambers, an ex-con who comes up with an innovative idea for a drill bit sharpener, which he hopes will make him millions in the aerospace industry. Set in suburban Los Angeles in the late-1960s, “Government Cheese” is about a man pursuing his version of the American dream, in a time and place where people have a lot of opinions about who he is supposed to be: as a reformed criminal, as a Black man, and as a husband and father. The show’s creators, Paul Hunter and Aeysha Carr, pay homage to sunny ’60s sitcoms and movies, populating the story with quirky characters as they explore the push-and-pull between California’s space-age optimism and the era’s persistent social unrest.
Also arriving:
April 25
“WondLa” Season 2
April 30
“Carême”
New to Disney+
‘Oklahoma City Bombing: One Day in America’
Starts streaming: April 3
On an April morning 30 years ago, a truck-bomb exploded outside of a federal office building in Oklahoma City, killing 167 people and injuring hundreds more. The three-part docuseries “Oklahoma Bombing: One Day in America” combines footage of the bombing’s aftermath with new interviews, featuring survivors of the attack, journalists, investigators, emergency medical workers and the political leaders (including President Bill Clinton) who tried to calm a terrified nation. Other dramatizations of the events have dealt with the perpetrators and the culture that spawned them. This documentary is more concerned with the people who saw their lives turned around in an instant, either because they were victims or because they were involved with cleaning up the mess.
‘Andor’ Season 2
Starts streaming: April 22
This prequel series to the movie “Rogue One” (which was itself a prequel to “Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope”) has been the most impressive product so far from Disney’s “Star Wars” TV universe, just edging out “The Mandalorian.” The series is ostensibly the story of Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), an intergalactic outlaw who finds himself fighting alongside the rebellion against the Empire — first for the money and then for the cause. The “Andor” creator Tony Gilroy uses this story as the foundation for a more serious science-fiction approach to “Star Wars,” closely examining the franchise’s politics and social structures. The show is enormously entertaining and cleverly designed, with the larger saga broken up into shorter multi-episode arcs, each with a different focus.
Also arriving:
April 7
“Not Just a Goof”
April 11
“Pets”
April 12
“Doctor Who” Season 2
“Titanic: The Digital Resurrection”
April 18
“Light & Magic” Season 2
April 21
“Secrets of the Penguins”
April 22
“Guardians of the Galapagos”
“Sea Lions of the Galapagos”
New to Hulu
‘Dying for Sex’
Starts streaming: April 4
Nikki Boyer’s podcast “Dying for Sex” tells the story of Boyer’s friend Molly Kochan, who reacted to a terminal cancer diagnosis by trying to experience the kind of carnal passion she felt was lacking from her life. In the TV mini-series adaptation, Michelle Williams plays Molly, who we first meet in a marriage counseling session with her overly protective husband, Steve (Jay Duplass), complaining about how his physical affection toward her dropped to almost nothing when she got sick. Jenny Slate plays the more liberated Nikki, who becomes a kind of sexual counselor and cheerleader for Molly, helping her dying friend enjoy the wonders of the human body before it’s too late.
‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 6
Starts streaming: April 8
When Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” was first published in 1985, it was hailed in some quarters and criticized in others for its worst-case-scenario depiction of an authoritarian religious state. In the decades since, Atwood’s vision has, to many, looked more prescient than extreme; and as Hulu’s Emmy-winning TV adaptation comes to an end with Season 6, the show has become a cultural touchstone, referred to frequently in political discourse. The story has evolved a lot too since the first episode aired in 2017, becoming less about the grueling experiences of June (Elisabeth Moss) — a reluctant servant to the domineering patriarchy — and more about the growing underground resistance that has kept this saga from being unrelentingly pessimistic.
Also arriving:
April 5
“The World According to Allee Willis”
April 11
“Got to Get Out” Season 1
April 16
“No Man’s Land” Season 2
April 18
“The Order”
April 22
“In a Violent Nature”
April 25
“Jessica Kirson: I’m the Man”
April 29
“Ernest Cole: Lost and Found”
New to Max
‘Hacks’ Season 4
Starts streaming: April 10
This Emmy-winning dramedy has been consistently good, but Season 3 was especially strong, going through a lot of fun twists in telling the story of how the persnickety, larger-than-life Vegas comic Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) realized her lifelong dream by landing a gig as a late-night TV talk show host. The season ended with Deborah’s occasional employee and muse, the comedy writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder), muscling her way into the show’s head writer position, over her boss’s objections. In Season 4, these two comedians — from different generations — will try to find a way to work together again, while taking into account their conflicting personalities and how much they need each other’s friendship.
‘The Last of Us’ Season 2
Starts streaming: April 13
HBO’s hit adaptation of the video game franchise “The Last of Us” had a remarkable Season 1, which reimagined and reinvigorated the postapocalyptic action-horror genre. The TV series’ creators Craig Mazin — in collaboration with the game’s creator, Neil Druckmann — excelled at breaking a sweeping, epic story into gripping individual episodes, filled with smaller moments of tension and tragedy. For Season 2, Pedro Pascal returns as Joel, a psychologically scarred survivor who in Season 1 transported a unique teenager, Ellie (Bella Ramsey), across a United States populated by murderous gangs and rapacious monsters. Joel ultimately chose to save Ellie’s life at the expense of a larger, potentially world-saving mission; and as Season 2 begins, five years later, the pair is still dealing with how his decision has affected both their friendship and their place in this fallen world.
Also arriving:
April 4
“Y2K”
April 6
“Lazarus” Season 1
April 15
“Rock the Block” Season 6
April 19
“Sal Vulcano: Terrified”
April 20
“The Rehearsal” Season 2
April 25
“Babygirl”
