Pick of the weekWidow\u2019s Bay<\/p>\n
Could island town Widow\u2019s Bay be the next Martha\u2019s Vineyard? Despite the non-existent wifi, the pervasive atmosphere of gloom and his teenage son\u2019s brutal verdict (\u201clike a prison\u201d), Matthew Rhys\u2019s mayor Tom Loftis thinks so. But there\u2019s another problem: the island is so full of sinister myths, it risks being the new Salem instead. Is there a supernatural element to its frequent fogs? An absurd suggestion, but Tom\u2019s attempts to turn Widow\u2019s Bay into a tourist destination do seem cursed. Created by Parks & Recreation co-writer Katie Dippold, Widow\u2019s Bay sustains an unusual tone. It\u2019s comedic but not wacky: crucially, the horror elements retain just enough genuine creepiness to raise the stakes. Phil Harrison
Apple TV, from Wednesday 29 April<\/p>\n
Should I Marry a Murderer?Dead end \u2026 Caroline Muirhead tells her agonising story in Should I Marry a Murderer? Photograph: Courtesy of Netflix \u00a9 2025<\/p>\n
When Dr Caroline Muirhead said she was driving to the Scottish Highlands for a hill-walking date with a man she\u2019d met online, her friends were cautious. \u201cWhat if he turned out to be a murderer?\u201d said one. Sometimes, it doesn\u2019t pay to joke about such things. Muirhead fell in love with Alexander McKellar, who was charismatic and, as she discovered once she\u2019d agreed to marry him, responsible for the killing of cyclist Tony Parsons in 2017. This grimly compelling documentary series is rendered still more visceral by the extensive mobile phone footage of the couple\u2019s relationship and by Muirhead\u2019s anguished reflections. PH
Netflix, from Wednesday 29 April<\/p>\n
Songs in Sign LanguageLovely \u2026 Songs in Sign Language. Photograph: Disney<\/p>\n
A lovely project to help ensure everyone can enjoy Disney magic: director Hyrum Osmond has led a team of 20 animators to recreate three beloved songs from recent hit features with the characters using American Sign Language. They have worked with experts to make engaging videos for The Next Right Thing (from Frozen 2), We Don\u2019t Talk About Bruno (Encanto) and Beyond (Moana 2). And a short behind-the-scenes film explains exactly how they did it. Here\u2019s hoping they give some more Disney bangers the same treatment. Hollie Richardson
Disney+, from Monday 27 April<\/p>\n
Straight to HellExtraordinary \u2026 Straight to Hell. Photograph: Kimu\/Netflix<\/p>\n
One of the wilder lives of the 20th century gets a fictionalised treatment in this Japanese drama, which explores the vertiginous ups and terrifying downs of Kazuko Hosoki. She grew up during the second world war (enduring poverty so extreme she was forced to subsist on a diet of worms) before becoming a nightclub host, falling into debt to organised crime gangs and, once again, losing everything. At which point, she reinvented herself as a fortune teller and hoodwinked the vulnerable. Glossy and melodramatic, but still a remarkable story. PH
Netflix, from Monday 27 April<\/p>\n
The House of the SpiritsAll in the past \u2026 The House of the Spirits. Photograph: Amazon MGM Studios<\/p>\n
Doing justice to the sheer scope of Isabel Allende\u2019s magical realist masterpiece in a TV series is an ambitious undertaking. This adaptation (executive produced by Eva Longoria) boasts the approval of the author and offers a faithful, lavishly realised version of the source material. It focuses on four generations of a Chilean family, most notably Clara (Dolores Fonzi), a woman with apparent clairvoyant abilities. Via the family\u2019s struggles and triumphs a larger story is told: that of Chile itself as, across the 20th century, its people fought for social and political freedom. PH
Prime Video, from Wednesday 29 April<\/p>\n
Man on FireMan-mountain \u2026 Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in Man on Fire. Photograph: Juan Rosas\/Netflix<\/p>\n
The fearsome special forces soldier gone to seed and struggling with civilian life is a familiar set-up. The latest man-mountain to reveal his vulnerable side is John Creasy (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). John is a washed-up mercenary, struggling with PTSD and generally regarded as a spent force. But are his struggles to move on connected to his need for revenge in the wake of a mission that continues to haunt him? His need to confront his past takes him to Rio, where a mixture of dark professional obligations and even darker pleasures begins to unfold. PH
Netflix, from Thursday 30 April<\/p>\n
Taskmaster NZNew zeal \u2026 Jeremy Wells and Paul Williams host Taskmaster NZ. Photograph: Channel 4<\/p>\n
There\u2019s something utterly singular about Taskmaster; the comic chemistry between Greg Davies and Alex Horne and the atmosphere it produces is incredibly difficult to replicate. That hasn\u2019t stopped other countries from borrowing the format though. If you can\u2019t get enough ridiculous parlour games, grotesque prize tasks and peculiar presentational power dynamics, seasons one to three of Taskmaster New Zealand are available now. Jeremy Wells and Paul Williams are your Greg and Alex surrogates and, while it\u2019s little more reserved, it\u2019s still full of cheer. PH
Channel 4, from Friday 1 May<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pick of the weekWidow\u2019s Bay Could island town Widow\u2019s Bay be the next Martha\u2019s Vineyard? Despite the non-existent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408301,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":["post-408300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408300","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}