There’s also the stoner comedy “Pizza Movie” (April 3), starring Gaten Matarazzo of “Stranger Things” fame, and the standup comedy special “Nikki Glaser: Good Girl” (April 24).

OK, now for the not-fun stuff. If “The Handmaid’s Tale” didn’t bum you out enough, here comes its sequel, “The Testaments” (April 8), following a new generation of young women in Gilead, and set at a finishing school for future wives. Chase Infiniti (“One Battle After Another”) and Lucy Halliday star, along with Ann Dowd, whose Aunt Lydia is the school’s headmistress. Like its predecessor, it looks unrelentingly bleak.

There’s also the documentary “#SKYKING” (April 14), about the airport worker who stole a plane and crashed it on an island in Puget Sound in 2018, while also delving into mental-health issues among the working class.

Catch up: The post-apocalyptic drama “Paradise” just ended its second season with another wild twist that should leave viewers eager for the third and final season next year. While not as good as Season 1, it’s still bingeable, ridiculous fun, basically TV’s version of a beach read. Meanwhile, “Sunny Nights” had almost no advance press, but turned out to be surprisingly watchable. Will Forte and D’Arcy Carden star in the black comedy/crime thriller set in Australia as co-dependent siblings willing to do anything to get their spray-tan business off the ground. It deftly balances legit laughs with shocking violence, with shades of the terrible decision-making of “Ozark” and the gritty Sydney underworld of “Mr. Inbetween.”

Hulu also has new episodes of “Scrubs” (season finale April 15) and other ABC and Fox shows like “RJ Decker,” “High Potential” (season finale April 7), “Best Medicine” (season finale April 7) and “Bob’s Burgers.”

Play, pause or stop? Pause. It’s not worth a subscription just for “Malcolm in the Middle,” but when you add “Paradise,” “Scrubs” and “Sunny Nights,” there’s a convincing argument. Bonus: Hulu also now has the Oscar-nominated international movies “The Secret Agent,” “It Was Just an Accident” and “Sentimental Value.”

Disney+ ($11.99 a month with ads, $18.99 with no ads)

Darth Maul has had a pretty good career since getting killed off (almost) in “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” more than 25 years ago. The fan-favorite Sith lord is finally getting his own 10-episode animated series, with “Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord” (April 6), which will see the villain plotting to rebuild his criminal empire following the events of “The Clone Wars.” If it’s anywhere near as good as “The Clone Wars” was, it’ll be worth a watch. Well, for “Star Wars” fans at least.

Disney+ will also have weekly episodes of “Daredevil: Born Again,” which had gotten mixed reviews for its second season; the “Inside Out Classic” (April 5), an animated real-time version of an NHL game between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers, featuring the Pixar characters skating alongside players; and an assortment of ABC, Hulu and ESPN programming, including live episodes of “American Idol,” Savannah Bananas baseball and more.

A surprise second act: In an unexpected move, Disney (DIS) has renewed Marvel’s “Wonder Man” – the comedy starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Ben Kingsley – for a second season. That’s a rarity at Disney+, where Marvel shows have mostly been one-and-done. But it’s good news for an entertaining, low-stakes show that was more Hollywood satire than superhero blockbuster.

Play, pause or stop? Pause. “Wonder Man” is worth catching up on, “Daredevil” is watchable, and “Maul” should be cool.

Netflix ($8.99 a month for standard with ads, $19.99 standard with no ads, $26.99 premium with no ads)

Netflix (NFLX) is jacking up prices by $1 to $2 a month, with the ad-supported tier now $8.99 a month, and the most popular plan – standard with no ads – now $19.99. Netflix last hiked prices in January 2025, and current subscribers should see the change on their next bill. If it makes you feel any better, prices certainly would have risen anyway if Netflix had been successful in its bid to acquire Warner Bros. (WBD). Still, ugh.

Read more: Netflix’s second price hike in just over a year came sooner than expected, but don’t expect subscribers to jump ship

Meanwhile, there’s a lot coming in April, but not much of it is very impressive.

The one to watch may be Season 2 of Emmy winner “Beef” (April 16). Going the anthology route with a whole new cast, this season involves a pair of country-club employees (Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny) who film a nasty fight between their boss and his wife (Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan), igniting a self-destructive blackmail war.

There’s also Season 3 of the “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” teen-romance spinoff “XO, Kitty” (April 2), which will include a guest appearance by “To All the Boys” star Lara Condor; “Big Mistakes” (April 9) a comedy series about disorganized siblings who get caught up in organized crime, starring Daniel Levy, Taylor Ortega and Laurie Metcalf; “Unchosen” (April 21), about a young mother (Molly Windsor) in a cult with a domineering husband (Asa Butterfield) who starts an affair with a mysterious stranger (Fra Fee); Season 2 of the basketball comedy “Running Point” (April 23), starring Kate Hudson; “Stranger Things: Tales from ’85” (April 23), an animated anthology spinoff of the hit sci-fi drama; and “Man on Fire” (April 30), a series adaptation of the movie and novels about a haunted former Special Forces soldier (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) on his violent road to redemption in Rio de Janeiro.

On the reality side, there’s Season 4 of “Love on the Spectrum” (April 1); “Untold: Chess Mates” (April 7), a documentary about a bizarre scandal among chess grandmasters; Season 2 of “Temptation Island” (April 10); a fight between Tyson Fury vs Arslanbek Makhmudov (April 11), live from London; Season 2 of the “Traitors”-like reality competition “Million-Dollar Secret” (April 15); the standup-comedy competition “Funny AF with Kevin Hart” (April 20); and “This Is a Gardening Show” (April 22), a light and whimsical and oddly sincere show about, well, gardening, with Zach Galifianakis.

And in movies, Netflix has the hurricane-plus-sharks survival thriller “Thrash” (April 10), basically inspired by a meme (and hey, every generation needs its own “Sharknado”); “Roommates” (April 17), a college comedy about a passive-aggressive war between dorm roommates, starring Sadie Sandler and Chloe East; and “Apex” (April 24), starring Charlize Theron as a kayaker fighting for her life in the Australian wilderness as she’s hunted by a maniac (Taron Egarton).

Also of note, the wedding horror thriller “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen,” which dropped in late March and is co-produced by the Duffer Brothers (“Stranger Things”), is getting very good buzz.

Netflix is also adding the first seasons of the NBC comedies “Happy’s Place” and “St. Denis Medical” (both April 1), and will say goodbye to its collection of 20 James Bond movies (all leaving April 21).

Play, pause or stop? Stop. “Beef” looks good, but everything else is extremely meh. Factor in the price hike, and it’s a good month to drop Netflix without missing much.

Peacock ($10.99 a month with ads, or $16.99 with no ads)

It’s been a while since we’ve had a decent “Honey, I Shrank the ___” comedy. “The Miniature Wife” (April 9), based on the short story by Manuel Gonzalez, may or may not scratch that tiny itch, as it’s being hyped as more of a dramedy, and an allegory about the power imbalances between spouses. Matthew Macfadyen plays a scientist who – oops! – accidentally shrinks his author wife, played by Elizabeth Banks, to a few inches tall, and has to figure out a way to get her back to the right size. All 10 episodes will drop at once.

Comcast’s (CMCSA) Peacock’s also got the streaming premiere of the horror/comedy movie “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” (April 3); the domestic thriller “If I Can’t Have You” (April 10); and “Love Island: Beyond the Villa” (April 15), following favorite Season 7 cast members after the show’s conclusion.

There are also new episodes of network and cable shows including the consistently silly sitcom “The Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins” (season finale April 13), Bravo’s venerable “Top Chef,” “Chicago Fire,” “Below Deck,” “Jeopardy,” “Real Housewives” and “Saturday Night Live.”

On the sports side, there’s a full slate of MLB, NHL and NBA games, including the NBA playoffs (starting April 19), Premier League soccer, PGA golf and the Kentucky Derby (April 4).

Play, pause or stop? Stop. The lineup actually isn’t bad, but nothing rises to the top either.

Paramount+ ($8.99 a month with ads, $13.99 a month Premium with no ads)

It’s an extremely light schedule for Paramount (PSKY) this month, with not a whole lot new, aside from live sports and sports docuseries.

That’ll be capped by CBS’s traditional coverage of The Masters, live from Augusta, Ga. (April 9-12), the golf tournament that’s so telegenic that it convinced my grandfather to buy a color TV back in the day (true story).

And while CBS doesn’t have the men’s Final Four this year, Paramount will have “Made for March” (April 4), a four-part, behind-the-scenes docuseries tracking the Kansas and Michigan men’s basketball programs throughout the season and NCAA tournament. There’s also the soccer docuseries “You Don’t Know Where I’m From, Dawg” (April 14), about former U.S. star Clint Dempsey’s rise from a Texas trailer park to the World Cup.

The live-sports lineup includes EFL Championship matches (aka Wrexham games), UEFA Champions League quarterfinals and semifinals, Serie A, NWSL and PGA golf.

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04-01-26 2049ET

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