Spring TV Watchlist: Amazon's High-Stakes Spy Series, Disney's Peter Pan Adaptation, and the finale of 'Perry Mason'!

Action-packed new releases to add to your watchlist! Week of April 22 - 28 This week is full of big new releases – Amazon’s action-packed spy series "Citadel," reportedly the second-most-expensive streaming series of all time; an elaborate live-action adaptation of Disney's "Peter Pan" (now called "Peter Pan & Wendy") and a based-on-a-true-story miniseries starring Elizabeth Olsen, Jesse Plemmons and Lily Rabe called "Love & Death" that we're pretty sure you’re going to fall in love with. All that plus the nail-biting finale of "Perry Mason," a new season of "Sweet Tooth" and a Hulu thriller that looks to be the "Rosemary's Baby" for a new generation. On with the television! Citadel Friday, April 28, Prime Video Source: Prime Video Amazon's second-biggest swing after their “Lord of the Rings” series is “Citadel,” an international spy series from producers Joe and Anthony Russo that was nearly as expensive as the splashy extension of J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy universe. (For those keeping score, that makes "Citadel" the second-most-expensive TV show of all time.) “Game of Thrones” heartthrob Richard Madden plays Mason Kane, a spy for a mysterious private agency called Citadel. He's lost his memory after a vicious attack and in the years since he was taken out of the game, the terrorist organization Manticore has systematically destroyed Citadel, using its own technology against it (and unleashing it – for evil – on the rest of the world). Confronted with his past, he's got to stop a new evil plot from taking place, while attempting to reconnect with his ex-partner (in life and in spycraft) Nadia Sinh, played by Priyanka Chopra Jonas. Stanley Tucci plays a Citadel mastermind while Lesley Manville is a big bad. "Citadel" went through a fairly dramatic production, with the original showrunners fired and replaced and a complicated international shoot dragging on forever. But the show itself could be too big to fail: Amazon has localized foreign versions of the show, telling unique parallel stories, with several more series on the way. And "Citadel" is a lot of fun, a kind of weekly “Bourne Identity” and should speak to the guys-with-guns aesthetic that has made other Amazon series so popular ("Jack Reacher," "Jack Ryan," "The Terminal List"). Lock and load, baby. [[TRAILER](] Perry Mason Monday, April 24 at 9 p.m., HBO Source: HBO The long-awaited second season of HBO's "Perry Mason" reboot isn't just as good as the first season (which aired back in 2020) – it's better. That largely has to do with the new showrunners and writers Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, coming off Cinemax’s outstanding "The Knick," who decided to make an even more complicated, enriching and, with this week’s season finale, rewarding mystery -- one that strains not just the moral fortitude of Mason himself (played once again by a stellar Matthew Rhys), but tests his team as well (Juliet Rylance, Chris Chalk and Shea Whigham, all excellent). And yet, for whatever reason (we blame the glut of wonderful programming), it hasn’t been getting as much attention from the network (HBO, which bumped it from a prime Sunday night slot to a less desirable Monday one) and from audiences. Don’t make the same mistake. Binge the earlier episodes and get ready for the finale. It's a doozy. [[INTERVIEW](] Peter Pan & Wendy Disney+ Source: Disney+ The latest in Disney's seemingly never-ending live-action remakes of its beloved animated classics is "Peter Pan & Wendy," based in part on the studio’s 1953 feature. (As great as the original film was, it was also problematic. We don’t think "What Makes the Red Man Red" will make the cut for this new one.) Co-writer/director David Lowery, the daring American filmmaker behind A24's "The Green Knight" and arguably the best Disney remake, 2016’s "Pete's Dragon" (based on the 1977 movie), will undoubtedly make this his own – early trailers suggest an earthier tone and visual aesthetic than the other remakes. This time, Jude Law plays Captain Hook, with Ever Anderson (Milla Jovovich's daughter) playing Wendy Darling and newcomer Alexander Molony playing Peter Pan. There's even more inspired casting in the supporting roles, with Yara Shahidi as Tinker Bell and Jim Gaffigan as Smee. With "The Little Mermaid" coming (theatrically) just a month later, here's hoping "Peter Pan & Wendy" doesn't get abandoned in Neverland like so many lost boys. [[TRAILER](] Chasing the Rains Saturday, April 22 at 8 p.m., BBC America Source: BBC America Looking for some great Earth Day programming, especially with Disneynature sitting this year out? Look no further. This new BBC America documentary follows "three animal matriarchs as they fight protect their families during the worst drought in twenty years" (according to an official synopsis). What animals, you ask? A pack of elephants, wild dogs, and cheetahs, each "struggling to keep their cubs alive in a land of predator." The four-part documentary was filmed in southwest Kenya and west-central Africa, with narration by "Bridgerton" star Adjoa Andoh. And while this nature documentary is primarily about the plight of some very fascinating animals, it is also meant to use the situation with these creatures to dramatize the larger plight of the world’s climate change crisis. Nothing like a riveting nature documentary that makes you think. [[TRAILER](] The Dog House: UK HBO Max Source: HBO Max The first thing you should know is that there are new episodes debuting on HBO Max on April 27. That might not mean much to you if you’ve never seen "The Dog House: UK," but if you have seen even a single episode you know it’s one of the most charming, heartwarming and sneakily powerful shows currently streaming and that even a clip from the series will probably leave you in tears. Originally airing in England on Channel 4, it is set at Wood Green Animal Shelter, a beautiful facility in Godmanchester, Cambridge that originally opened in 1924 when the population of abandoned pets exploded after World War I. Since then, it has become one of the largest animal rehoming facilities in Europe. What makes this documentary series so touching is that it focuses just as much on the adoptees as the dogs themselves. As cheesy as those "Who rescued who?" bumper stickers are, "The Dog House: UK" gives the phrase some validity. Just make sure you’ve got plenty of tissues. [[TRAILER](] Source: Netflix "Saint X" Wednesday, April 26, Hulu If you are still suffering, understandably, from "White Lotus" withdrawals and would love another series that combines social commentary, a tropical location, and a mysterious murder, "Saint X" is the cure to what ails you. Based on the 2020 novel by Alexis Schaitkin (one of the New York Times notable books that year), this new series juggles multiple timelines as it tells the story of an American college girl's death during a family vacation in the Caribbean and the way that crime reverberates today. Developed by Leila Gerstein, a veteran of "The Handmaid's Tale" and "The O.C.," with a first episode directed by the great Dee Rees ("Mudbound"), "Saint X" looks very good and very juicy. You’ll just have to bring your own daiquiris. [[TRAILER](] "Love & Death" Thursday, April 27, HBO Max In "Love & Death," our favorite witch Elizabeth Olsen plays Candy Montgomery, a seemingly benign Texas housewife who in 1980 was accused of the axe murder of her friend Betty Gore (Lily Rabe). If this wickedly bleak true story sounds familiar, that's because it was adapted (last year) as "Candy" on Hulu (Jessica Biel played the Olsen role and Melanie Lynskey was Betty Gore). Sure, true stories this perverse and potentially entertaining are hard to pass up, but it's pretty weird that two adaptations would be mounted so close together. Anyway, this one was developed by David E. Kelley and also stars Jesse Plemons, Patrick Fugit, Elizabeth Marvel, Krysten Ritter and Tom Pelphrey. [[TRAILER](] "The Last Last Late Late Show" Thursday, April 27 at 10 p.m., CBS This one-hour retrospective of James Corden's "The Late Late Show" (which airs its final, really-for-real episode later tonight at 12:37 a.m.), features Tom Cruise and their much-ballyhooed rendition of "The Lion King" stage show. Corden hosted "The Late Late Show" for the past eight years and most famously introduced the "Carpool Karaoke" bit that became its own show for Apple TV+. He also brought the irreverence of British "chat shows" to America, helping to refresh a tired formula. This prime-time special should celebrate all of this and more. Just don't screw up his eggs. [[TRAILER](] "Sweet Tooth" Thursday, April 27, Netflix Sure, "The Last of Us" might currently be the buzziest post-apocalyptic series. But does it feature adorable human/animal hybrid kids? Because “Sweet Tooth” sure does. The second season of the popular series, based on Jeff Lemire's cult comic book, follows Gus aka Sweet Tooth (Christian Convery), a young half-human/half-deer exploring a vast wasteland after "The Great Crumble," a societal breakdown that coincided with the emergence of a deadly virus known as The Sick. Are the hybrids the cause of the devastation? Or the cure? Find out more with eight new episodes, once again overseen by Jim Mickle. [[TRAILER](] "Clock" Friday, April 28, Hulu Back in 2020, a short film of the same name debuted on Hulu. Now writer/director Alexis Jacknow has expanded the concept into a feature film. Pretty cool, no? Dianna Agron plays a young woman who doesn’t really want kids but who feels as though her biological clock is broken. She checks into an experimental facility, run by a malevolently cheery Melora Hardin, in an effort to fix what is wrong. But of course, things become much, much worse. "Clock" seems indebted to horror classics like "Rosemary's Baby" or the more recent "A Cure for Wellness." We might only be halfway to Halloween but it’s never too early to get a little creepy. [[TRAILER](] 2034 Armacost Ave. | Los Angeles, CA 90025 [Unsubscribe](