April 2024 TV preview: Ripley, The Sympathizer, Fallout, and 26 other shows to watch

Spring TV is in full bloom this April, with plenty of promising debuts, talent, and returning shows. Over at HBO, the Robert Downey Jr. vehicle The Sympathizer fills in for The Regime’s Sunday-night slot. Meanwhile, Prime Video gets in on the video-game-adaptation craze with its take on Fallout, and Apple TV+ drops multiple star-studded shows, from Colin Farrell’s noir Sugar to a Benjamin Franklin biopic. And let’s not forget Lily Gladstone’s first post-Oscars gig in a new Hulu true-crime series. Here is everything you need to put on your TV radar for April.

Loot season 2 (Apple TV+, April 3)

Loot, a workplace comedy about a wealthy woman’s struggle to deal with her piles and piles of cash, is back for another round. In season one, Molly Wells (Maya Rudolph) divorces her annoying, cheating husband and earns her freedom along with $87 billion. With no idea how to cope, she begins working at the charity foundation she launched and finds a way to connect with her coworkers. In this second season, Molly has finally settled into her job and sworn off men. (Benjamin Bratt has joined the cast this time around so expect sparks to fly.) Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Joel Kim Booster, Nat Faxon, and Ron Funches co-star. [Saloni Gajjar]

Ripley (Netflix, April 4)

Andrew Scott is set to offer up his take on one of literature’s great sociopaths with Ripley, Netflix’s monochromatic interpretation of Patricia Highsmith’s classic novels. And while it’ll be interesting to see what creator Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List, The Night Of) does with the high-class look and feel of Highsmith’s claustrophobic 1955 thriller The Talented Mr. Ripley (and its various sequels), the real burden of proof will fall almost entirely on Scott, as he tackles a man capable of being anyone and anything—except satisfied with the prospect of having less than anybody else. [William Hughes]

Mary & George (Starz, April 5)

Mary & George takes up the mantle of stellar historical-ish comedies like The Great and Dickinson that are rooted in the past but have a very 21st-century sensibility. Julianne Moore plays Mary Villiers here, essentially pimping her son (Nicholas Galitzine) to King James (Tony Curran) so they can climb the seventeenth-century social ladder. With the steam of The Tudors and the politicking of Game Of Thrones, Mary & George reminds us how cruel the past could be—and is downright gleeful every time it twists the knife. [Drew Gillis]

Sugar (Apple TV+, April 5)

Colin Farrell as a downer private detective in sunny Los Angeles, wearing a cool suit, riding around in a retro convertible, and kicking lots of ass? Yes, please. Sugar, created by Mark Protosevich (Spike Lee’s Oldboy adaptation) and directed by Fernando Meirelles (City Of God), follows the actor/executive producer’s John Sugar, and its cast is rounded out by the likes of Barry’s Kirby Howell-Baptiste and The Wire’s Amy Ryan. [Tim Lowery]

Chucky season 3, part 2 (Peacock, April 10)

Peacock’s brilliant slasher series returns, with Brad Dourif back doing his thing as Charles Lee Ray, the serial killer who inhabits (and voices) the Good Guy Doll. In season three’s remaining four episodes, Chucky tries everything to survive while turning the White House into a bloody crime scene. Meanwhile, Lexie (Alyvia Alyn Lind) searches for her sister, and Tiffany Valentine tries to possess the body of Jennifer Tilly. [Saloni Gajjar]

Fallout (Prime Video, April 12)

One of gaming’s classic brands gets an incredibly unlikely TV adaptation, courtesy of creators Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner and director/producer Jonathan Nolan. We’re not worried about Fallout nailing the sci-fi aspects of the post-apocalyptic gaming classics, as Westworld and Person Of Interest mastermind Nolan has the bona fides there. But it remains to be seen how the series will handle the games’ subversive, satirical take on Americana, as it pits Ella Purnell’s sheltered Vault Dweller Lucy against the big bad Wasteland. Casting Walton Goggins as a radiation-scarred, noseless ghoul does raise our hopes, though. [William Hughes]

Franklin (Apple TV+, April 12)

Michael Douglas suits up to play Benjamin Franklin in Apple TV+’s latest limited series. Set over eight years of his life, the project follows his efforts for American independence, namely through his secret mission to France. Noah Jupe, Thibault de Montalembert, and Ludivine Sagnier co-star. [Saloni Gajjar]

Good Times (Netflix, April 12)

The animated series Good Times counts Seth MacFarlane, Stephen Curry, and the late, great Norman Lear as producers. Set in a Chicago housing project, the show, an edgy reimagining of Lear’s ’70s sitcom of the same, chronicles the day-to-day lives of the Evans family, and features vocal talent like Jay Pharoah, Yvette Nicole Brown, J.B. Smoove, Marsai Martin, and Gerald “Slink” Johnson. [Saloni Gajjar]

The Sympathizer (HBO, April 14)

Though he’s not the star of the show, it’s going to be difficult to talk about The Sympathizer (based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer-winning novel) without talking about newly crowned Oscar-winner Robert Downey Jr., who plays multiple characters in the black comedy/spy thriller. It’s unnerving, probably intentionally so, adding more twistiness to the twisty story of Hoa Xuande’s “the Captain” and his mission to spy for the Viet Cong—first against the South Vietnam army and then against the United States. The series also features Toan Le and Sandra Oh and was co-created by Oldboy’s Park Chan-wook. [Sam Barsanti]

Under The Bridge (Hulu, April 17)

This true-crime drama boasts a pretty terrific cast, including Lily Gladstone, Riley Keough, and Archie Panjabi. The show tells the horrific 1997 tale of 14-year-old Indian Canadian teen Reena Virk, who went to a party and never returned home. The investigation into her death points the finger, surprisingly, at seven teenage girls and a boy from her class. [Saloni Gajjar]

Conan O’Brien Must Go (Max, April 18)

The beloved host hits the road (again) in Max’s newbie Conan O’Brien Must Go, jetting to snowy Norway, the jungle in Thailand, and other far-flung locales to visit his fans and soak up their cultures. The guy is quite good at TV travel diaries, with an ability to warmly make himself the butt of jokes on the fly, so here’s hoping this one lands. [Tim Lowery]

Dinner With The Parents (Freevee, April 18)

After Jury Duty’s success, there’s no telling which Freevee original might become the next big thing. Could it be the sitcom Dinner With The Parents? Led by Michaela Watkins, Dan Bakkedahl, Jon Glaser, and Carole Kane, the comedy centers on a family’s attempt to do weekly get-togethers that always result in chaos, pranks, unwelcome neighbors, and betrayals. [Saloni Gajjar]

The Spiderwick Chronicles (Roku, April 19)

Roku adds to its roster with The Spiderwick Chronicles, a YA sci-fi drama about the Grace Family, who move from New York to Maine to take over their ancestral home dubbed Spiderwick Estate. Of course, upon arrival, they realize the mansion harbors secrets, specifically a fantastical world to explore. Christian Slater, Jack Dylan Grazer, Joy Bryant, Noah Cottrell, and Lyon Daniels star. [Saloni Gajjar]

Dead Boy Detectives (Netflix, April 25)

It’s apparently Neil Gaiman’s world over at Netflix, huh? After The Sandman, his comic book series Dead Boy Detectives gets a live-action treatment. The horror YA drama focuses on Edwin Payne (George Rexstrew) and Charles Rowland (Jayden Revri), two deceased teens who turn to crime-solving on Earth to escape the afterlife in Hell. With the help of a clairvoyant, they attempt to unravel bizarre supernatural cases. Briana Cuoco, Ruth Connell, Jenn Lyon, Yuyu Kitamura, Lukas Gage, and Lindsey Gort co-star. [Saloni Gajjar]

Them: The Scare (Prime Video, April 25)

Little Marvin and Lena Waithe’s anthology horror series Them is back for a second season subtitledThe Scare. Deborah Ayorinde is the only cast member to return from the first batch—she’s joined here by Pam Grier, Luke James, and Jeremy Bobb. Ayorinde plays Detective Dawn Reeves, an LAPD officer on a mission to solve the murder of a foster mother. [Saloni Gajjar]

Knuckles (Paramount+, April 26)

If you went back in time to the ’90s and told a Sega kid that Knuckles would be getting his own TV spin-off from the live-action Sonic The Hedgehog movies, they would say: “Yes, of course, that sounds awesome.” And it does! The two Sonic movies were more fun than they had any right to be, and since this show is all about Sonic’s coolest friend (played by Idris Elba) with some backup from the reliably funny Adam Pally, it stands to reason that this might also be better than it has any right to be. [Sam Barsanti]

The Veil (FX, April 30)

Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight has a new thriller for us, this one starring Elisabeth Moss and her British accent. In the spy drama, she plays Imogene Salter, a former MI6 agent who travels from Istanbul to Paris to London with another woman, Adilah (Yumna Marwan). Imogene’s job is to extract a dangerous secret that threatens the world while keeping herself alive. Josh Charles, Dali Benssalah, Haluk Bilginer, and James Purefoy co-star. [Saloni Gajjar]

Other TV shows returning in April 2024

All American season six (The CW, April 1)

Lopez Vs. Lopez season 2 (NBC, April 2)

American Horror Story season 12, part 2 (FOX, April 3)

Walker season four (The CW, April 3)

Star Trek: Discovery season five (Paramount+, April 4)

Alex Rider season three (Freevee, April 5)

Beacon 23 season two (MGM+, April 7)

Heartbreak High season two (April 11)

The Upshaws season five (Netflix, April 18)

Welcome To Wrexham season three (FX on Hulu, April 18)

The Big Door Prize season two (Apple TV+, April 24)

We’re Here season four (HBO, April 26)