5 things you have to watch this weekend
Barry returns, a Netflix coming-of-ager premiers, and more
TV Features Rick Famuyiwa
Welcome to the weekend edition of What’s On. Here are the five big things happening on TV from Friday, April 22 to Sunday, April 24. All times are Eastern.
1. Barry returns after three years
Barry (Sunday, HBO, 9 p.m., season three premiere): It took three long years, but our favorite hitman-turned-wannabe actor finally returns to the screen. The show will pick up after Barry Berkman’s (Bill Hader) cold-blooded killings in the monastery, and Gene Cousineau’s (Henry Winkler) realization that his student isn’t who he claims to be. To celebrate, The A.V. Club is hosting its own “Barry Week” this week. Check out interviews with Hader and Winkler, as well as our catch-up guide. Keep an eye out for more coverage as well as weekly recaps.
2. A buzzy coming-of-age series hits Netflix
Heartstopper (Netflix, Friday, 3:01 a.m.): This British coming-of-age series is based on Alice Oseman’s graphic novel and webcomic of the same name. It follows teens Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and Nick Nelson (Kit Connor) as they attempt to figure out their identities and a potential romantic relationship. The eight episodes will be a quick binge, we promise. Check back on Monday for a review of the show on the site.
3. Oprah chats with Viola Davis
Oprah + Viola (Netflix, Friday, 3:01 a.m.): In this special, the legendary Oprah Winfrey sits down with Viola Davis, who currently stars in Showtime’s The First Lady as Michelle Obama. Expect the actor to dish about her personal life and thriving career. Davis’ memoir, Finding Me, releases on April 26.
4. Magic Johnson tells all
They Call Me Magic (Apple TV+, Friday, 12:01 a.m.): Rick Famuyiwa directs this four-part limited series about the illuminating career of athlete Earvin “Magic” Johnson. The docuseries offers a rare glimpse into his incredible real-life story of Johnson, from his journey as the face of the L.A. Lakers to how he changed the conversation around HIV by being open about his diagnosis.
5. Another man falls to earth on Showtime
The Man Who Fell To Earth (Showtime, Sunday, 10 p.m., series premiere): Based on Walter Tevis’ 1963 novel of the same name, this sci-fi drama centers on an alien named Faraday (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who arrives on Earth at a pivotal moment in history. The show’s ensemble includes Naomie Harris, Jimmi Simpson, Rob Delaney, Martha Plimpton, Bill Nighy. Season one consists of 10 episodes. Look for The A.V. Club’s interview with Ejiofor on Monday.
[Note: The weekly What’s On will now publish on Sundays.]
9 Comments
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I guess the best shoe this year was too much work for the AV Club..
It’s not really a footwear site.
It’s barely a pop-culture site.
The Man Who Fell To Earth … Bill Nighy, reprising his role from the 1976 film
I really wish I knew why my post from last night isn’t showing up. Is it just the magic of Kinja, or has it been suppressed? The post itself wasn’t significant, but what it’s disappearance says about this site might be.(That’s the tl;dr version. Obsessive detail that may be of interest to no one but me follows.)The original version of this article included a reference to Bill Nighy “reprising his role” from the 1976 film adaptation of The Man Who Fell to Earth. Now I would not necessarily expect someone to know that Nighy was basically unknown in 1976, or that he is playing Thomas Jerome Newton, or that the role was originated by one David Bowie (who was widely acclaimed for his otherworldly performance, and who would use stills from the movie for the covers of two of his best albums, and among whose final works are songs written specifically for a theatrical sequel to… but I am a fan and I digress). It would be nice if someone writing about the TV version of The Man Who Fell to Earth on a site by and for “pop culture obsessives” knew at least a couple of those things, but not mandatory.It did puzzle me, though, that someone actually typed and published the phrase “reprising his role” in this context. Where did that even come from, and why wasn’t it prevented with a few seconds of research (Googling)?So, as has been established, I am a somewhat obsessive fan and my first impulse was to leave a rather scathing comment. But then I thought about the times I have made embarrassing mistakes in public, and they have been legion, so I just reposted the offending phrase with this picture of Bowie/Newton looking tired and reproachful (his default setting):Fairly inoffensive, I think. So I’m back on the site and I open up the article and I go to the comments and I go through the rigamarole of clicking “Pending” and then “Show Pending” (what’s that all about anyway?) because even we grays live in hope that we might be seen and… David has left the building.Meanwhile, the error in the original article has been removed. As is typical, there is no acknowledgment that any change has been made from what was originally published. Whatever. Of course none of this really matters in the sense of things that really matter, and it could be that other people can see my original post and I can’t through some Kinja quirk, but it has me seriously questioning my relationship to this place. I might seem to be a newcomer, but this burner account follows a few with lost keys, which followed years of lurking, which followed my surprise at finding a semi-serious review section in a copy of The Onion that I picked up from a campus newsstand almost 30 years ago. In the course of three decades The AV Club came to be the first and sometimes last place I would go to for pop culture reviews and think pieces by some of the most knowledgeable, talented, and snarky writers in the field. In the last few years, though, I found myself more often reading the comments first because I was more likely to find actual knowledge and wit there than in the articles themselves, which are largely aggregated from other sources with new, unforced errors introduced. Now it seems that the comment sections themselves have largely dried up. At the time I started this screed there were three “approved” comments, one of which reads, in its entirety, “..”. Is it simply that everyone has moved on, or is Kinja making it more difficult to post and be seen, or are writers/editors deliberately deleting or hiding posts they don’t like? Whatever it is, it’s making this site less fun than it used be.All of which is an incredibly wordy way of saying I don’t know what I’m here for anymore. Now some people may look at the length of this post and respond “go outside,” “get a life,” etc. to which I say… fair… but if you’d look at my posting history you’ll see that I’m usually fairly brief in my comments. Maybe I’m just really trying to convince myself it’s time to give up something that I’ve enjoyed in one form or another since the ’90s.
I hope this & the weekly edition will have fresh comments section each installment. The alternative was not user friendly.If I watch Barry through HBO Max, does the premiere also go up at 9 PM Eastern or is there a streaming delay?
Legends Of Tomorrow has not been renewed yet & is in danger of being axed on a big cliffhanger. Support #renewLegendsOfTomorrow!
Here’s a list of people who need to watch anything involving Oprah:
So, is the A.V. Club not covering the new Doctor Who special at all or is it just extremely postponed?