Spring TV Watchlist: 'Maisel' Is Back for One Last Laugh, 'Florida Man' Becomes a Netflix Series

The march of incredible TV continues on! 📺 🍿 🎥 Week of April 8 – 14 Spring is here! The flowers are blooming! The temperatures are starting to climb! And the march of incredible TV continues on! This week we’ve got a big new Netflix series, the return of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “A Black Lady Sketch Show” and “Single Drunk Female” and a pair of high-profile music documentaries, including one co-directed by Martin Scorsese! Plus the end of Disney’s witchy “The Owl House,” a new Reese Witherspoon-produced based-on-a-bestseller and a BBC import finally lands stateside. On with the television! Florida Man Thursday, April 13, Netflix Source: Netflix We love a good Florida crime romp, don’t we? The heat, the sweat, the double-crosses, the old folks, the casual abuse of prescription medication. It just adds up to a fun, frothy mix of swampy backwater fun and treachery. Anytime a movie or TV show is set in the Sunshine State, you know there are going to be some shenanigans. And “Florida Man” is no different. In “Florida Man” Édgar Ramírez plays Mike Valentine, a former cop and current low-level goon who is tasked by a Philadelphia mobster to retrieve his flighty girlfriend (Abbey Lee) from Florida. (Mike is also in love with her.) If the promotional materials released thus far are any indication, from there things get very complicated – there are many layers to this particular caper. And “Florida Man” is stocked with colorful character actors including Anthony LaPaglia, Clark Gregg and Paul Schneider (love that guy), which only add to its roughhewn texture. If you are a fan of Netflix crime series that really emphasize the sense of place like “Ozark” (Jason Bateman is an executive producer of “Florida Man”), then this is probably the type of show for you. It’s proof that “Florida Man” is more than a meme – it could be your new streaming obsession. [[TRAILER](] The Owl House Saturday, April 8 at 9:30 p.m., Disney Channel Source: Disney When Dana Terrace’s “The Owl House” debuted in 2020, it already felt like the end of a certain type of Disney animated series, coming on the heels of creator-driven projects like “Gravity Falls,” “Amphibia” and the reimagined “Star vs. the Forces of Evil.” And after a strong first season, the second season was actually approved for additional episodes (a whopping 21 in total), while the show was quietly canceled – instead of getting another suite of episodes, Terrace was permitted three extra-long “specials” to wrap up the show. This is the last of those specials. And it’s such a shame that the show isn’t still going – it was such a sweet amalgamation of YA drama, Miyazaki-influenced surrealism and sometimes genuine horror (perfect for a show about the awkwardness of adolescence). And the show’s LGBTQ+ themes felt genuinely cutting-edge for Disney and helped make the show so special, even if the company’s uneasiness with those themes led to them cutting it short. Whatever Terrace does next, we’ll be there. [[TRAILER](] Personality Crisis: One Night Only Friday, April 14 at 8 p.m., Showtime Source: Showtime This new music documentary, directed by Martin Scorsese and David Tedeschi, hinges around an ingenious, incredibly meta concept: it’s all about the music of David Johansen, member of seminal punk rock band New York Dolls, but Johansen is appearing in the documentary as his persona Buster Poindexter (yes, of “Hot Hot Hot” fame). If we did the math correctly, “Personality Crisis: One Night Only” will be Johansen playing Poindexter, who is performing Johansen songs. Makes perfect sense. We can’t wait to see what Scorsese and Tedeschi do with this concept and how Johansen makes it sing (literally). [[TRAILER](] A Grammy Salute to the Beach Boys Sunday, April 9 at 8 p.m., CBS Source: CBS We’ve been grooving to the summery sounds of the Beach Boys for more than 60 years. Now the surviving members of the group – Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, David Marks and Bruce Johnston – reunite, with performances from Hanson, Jim James and Beck, Pentatonix, John Legend, Foster the People (where have those guys been?), St. Vincent, Fall Out Boy, Weezer and most importantly Michael McDonald. (There are some other performers in there as well.) Also look for appearances by Drew Carey, Tom Hanks, Jimmy Jam, Elton John, Harvey Mason Jr., Bruce Springsteen and sometime Beach Boys touring band member John Stamos, rocking a pretty impressive beard. This sounds like a very fun, momentous night and a chance for one of America’s greatest bands to get the appreciation they deserve. The special will also be streaming on Paramount+ but you’ve got to bring your own dune buggy. [[TRAILER](] BrainDead Paramount+ Source: Paramount+ Given the political circus surrounding the arrest of former President Donald Trump, it’s enough to make you wonder: do some of these people have brain worms? And “BrainDead,” a smart, silly, slyly subversive thriller from “The Good Wife” and “Evil” co-creators Robert and Michelle King, expanded this idea to its literal conclusion. Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays a young documentary filmmaker who finds herself working for her brother, a U.S. Senator, and uncovering a vast conspiracy – alien insects have arrived in Washington, D.C. and started eating the brains of prominent politicians, controlling them from within. It’s a nifty bit of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” updating and everybody is deeply committed to the tonally tricky, horror/comedy vibe (Tony Shalhoub is a standout). CBS put it in a weird time slot over the summer (from June to September) and didn’t promote it correctly; it felt like a show that was slightly ahead of the curve and could have flourished on streaming. Now is your chance to give it a shot. [[WATCH](] Source: Prime Video “Am I Being Unreasonable?” Tuesday, April 11, Hulu Originally aired in England, this BBC co-production stars Daisy May Cooper (who also wrote the series), as a bored British mom whose new friendship (with Selin Hizli) initially seems exciting … until it turns sinister. Reviews for this comedic thriller were stellar when it premiered overseas last fall. Now that it has finally arrived stateside, “Am I Being Unreasonable?” could be a sleeper hit for Hulu. [[TRAILER](] “Single Drunk Female” Wednesday, April 12 at 10 p.m., Freeform Freeform’s edgy (especially by Freeform standards) comedic drama is back for its second season. Sofia Black-D'Elia stars as Samantha, who after a very public meltdown, is forced to confront her alcoholism and move back in with her demanding mother (played by Ally Sheedy). There she starts to gain control of her life and understand the trauma that informed her destructive behavior. But, you know, funny. While the show airs weekly on Freeform, you will have access to all 10 episodes of season 2 starting on April 13 on Hulu. Huzzah! [[TRAILER](] “A Black Lady Sketch Show” Friday, April 14 at 11 p.m., HBO “A Black Lady Sketch Show” returns for its fourth (!) season on HBO, comprised of six new episodes. This season features three new featured players (DaMya Gurley, Tamara Jade, Angel Laketa Moore) and so many incredible guest stars (including Omarion, Bobby Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross, Colman Domingo, Kyla Pratt, Sam Richardson, Yvette Nicole Brown, Jackée Harry, Tank, Jay Ellis and Kel Mitchell). It’s going to be wild. [[TRAILER](] “The Last Thing He Told Me” Friday, April 14, Apple TV+ Another week, another Reese Witherspoon-produced adaptation of a bestselling novel. Originally set to star Julia Roberts, who was later replaced by Jennifer Garner, the series follows a woman who teams with her teenage daughter (Angourie Rice from “Mare of Eastown” and the recent “Spider-Man” movies) to figure out what happened to her husband (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). The novel was adapted by author Laura Dave and screenwriter Josh Singer (who wrote “First Man” and “Spotlight”) and co-stars Aisha Tyler and Geoff Stults. Two episodes stream today with additional episodes streaming weekly. [[TRAILER](] “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” Friday, April 14, Prime Video This marks the beginning of the end for “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” the marquee Prime Video series created by Amy Sherman-Palladino and starring Rachel Brosnahan as a bored mother and housewife in 1950s New York who gets her second wind as a standup comedian. This season bumps Reid Scott, Alfie Fuller and Jason Ralph to series regulars and Kelly Bishop and Milo Ventimiglia return in guest roles. You can watch the first two episodes on Friday, followed by new episodes weekly until the end of May. That’s when you’ll really have to say goodbye to Mrs. Maisel. [[TRAILER](] 2034 Armacost Ave. | Los Angeles, CA 90025 [Unsubscribe](