Prepare your eye holes for Hulu's ambitious April release schedule. The streaming platform's spring slate includes everything from a new Vanderpump-based reality series to the triumphant return of Elisabeth Moss in espionage-heavy drama The Veil. There's a new season of Welcome to Wrexham to enjoy, and documentaries about hip-hop and politics, malfeasance in horse racing, and the sordid secrets of Miss America, too. Below are the best shows and movies coming to Hulu this month.
The Veil
Elisabeth Moss, star of incendiary and awesome The Handmaid’s Tale, returns with a new series that explores the shadowy world of international espionage. The Veil follows a pair of secret agents locked in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse that takes them from Istanbul to Paris to London and everywhere in between. Thousands of lives hang in the balance as agents of the CIA and the French DGSE work together to learn a deadly secret from a mutual enemy. If you’re in the mood for a stylish, fast-paced, whip-smart spy thriller, The Veil is your jam.
Starts streaming April 30
Welcome to Wrexham, Season 3
The third season of Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney's reality sports series about two American actors who buy a broken down Welsh soccer team sees the Wrexham football club having been promoted to the coveted English Football League. But entering soccer’s big league means the competition will be serious; are Wrexham's players, coaches, and owners ready to rise to a new slate of challenges?
Starts streaming April 19
American Horror Story: Delicate: Part 2
Ryan Murphy’s long-running horror series returns to finish its Delicate storyline with four new episodes. Starring Emma Roberts and Kim Kardashian, Delicate is a horror tale about pregnancy, a la Rosemary’s Baby, in which ambitious actress Anna Victoria (played by Roberts) goes to extreme lengths in pursuit of motherhood. Kardashian plays her cutthroat publicist, Siobhan Corbyn, and the series never miss a chance to skewer Hollywood excess along with the pre-natal horror.
Starts streaming April 3
Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story
This four-part documentary series takes viewers deep inside the world of New Jersey’s favorite sons, pop metal hair rockers Bon Jovi. Through never-before-seen personal videos and photos, concert footage, and interviews with the Bon Jovis themselves, Thank You, Goodnight details the band’s 40-year career of rocking and/or rolling. If you’re in the mood for old duffers telling “we came from nothing” stories and wistfully discussing their days of rock star excess, this is the series for you. Includes unreleased demos from Bon Jovi and interviews with Bruce Springsteen, John Shanks, Obie O’Brien, and more.
Starts streaming April 26
Vanderpump Villa
Famous reality TV magnate Lisa Vanderpump bought a palatial villa in the French countryside, and in this reality show, her staff of charismatic event coordinators, chefs, mixologists, and servers are tasked with arranging extravagant, Vanderpump-curated experiences for elite guests, all while Lisa evaluates whether this is the right crew to staff the newest venture in the extended Vanderpump financial universe. Vanderpump Villa promises heartfelt and heated moments from both the staff and the guests, insanely opulent experiences in exotic French locales, and is absolutely free of guillotines. In season one.
Under the Bridge
Based on author Rebecca Godfrey’s account of a real-life crime, Under the Bridge tells the story of 14-year-old Reena Virk (played by Vritika Gupta) who went out to hang with her friends one night in 1997 and never returned home. Riley Keough plays Godfrey, whose research for her book takes her inside the hidden, menacing world of the teenagers of British Columbia and finds her teaming up with a local police officer who is also investigating Virk’s murder.
Starts streaming April 17
The Greatest Hits
The Greatest Hits is a different kind of time travel movie. It doesn’t concern itself with the paradoxes of temporal dislocation or the science behind time machines. Instead, it’s a magical realist take on the genre, in which time travel is used to explore memory, grief, and redemption. Lucy Boynton plays Harriet, who is able to travel backwards in time when she hears music that played when her boyfriend was alive, but she can only stay in the past for the length of the song. Romantic time travel movies are always amazing and Greatest Hits is a worthy addition to the tiny cinematic sub-genre.
Starts streaming April 12
Dinosaur, Season 1
This British comedy/drama series follows Nina, a woman with autism who’s very happy with her day-to-day existence. She lives with her beloved neurotypical sister Evie and works at her dream job as a paleontologist. But when Evie suddenly decides to get engaged, Nina is forced to come to terms with a huge change in the all-important routine she relies upon. Nina is played by series’ co-creator Ashley Storrie, who has autism, promising non-cliche insights into the show’s subject matter.
Starts streaming April 5
The Interrogation Tapes
Mainstream TV has finally noticed the popularity of interrogation videos on YouTube. Made by the producers of ABC’s 20/20, this true crime series is based on the verbal cat-and-mouse game that ensues after a suspect is read their Miranda rights. Through examinations of notorious murder cases, The Interrogation Tapes explores both heinous crimes and the tricks and techniques interrogators use when they’re trying to finagle confessions from accused criminals.
Starts streaming April 2
Dark Marvels, Season 1
When we talk about groundbreaking inventions and technological leaps forward, we tend to focus on the positive progress brought by things like the cotton gin or the space shuttle. Dark Marvels walks the lefthand path instead and digs into the evil engineering behind deadly weapons, sinister spy tools, torture devices, and other diabolical human innovations. Dark Marvels attacks its subject with glee through expert interviews, evocative recreations, archival footage, and state-of-the-art 3D graphics.
Secrets of Miss America, Season 1
The Miss America Pageant is a deeply weird and creepy American institution, and it's long overdo for a deep dive into its troubling and sleazy history and culture. Made by the people who brought us Secrets of Playboy, this docuseries features interviews with former Miss Americas (and just-missed Americas) who dish out the secrets the nation's best woman hides inside her huge hairdo and shiny, white teeth.
Starts streaming April 18
Hip-Hop and The White House
When president Obama strode into the White House Correspondent's Dinner in 2013 to DJ Khaled's "All I Do Is Win,” it marked a seismic cultural shift, for both hip-hop and American politics. Narrated by Jeezy, This documentary series goes beyond Obama’s power move to explore the history of hip-hop’s relationship to the nation’s power structures, charting hip hop’s evolution from a disreputable musical form politicians derided for cheap political points, to a cultural force that helps move elections.
Starts streaming April 22
Secrets of the Octopus
Whether it’s submarines or sunken ocean liners, director James Cameron loves crap that’s underwater. With the help of National Geographic, Cameron adds octopuses to his list of soggy documentary subjects, exploring the unique lives and minds of these mysterious under-the-ocean aliens who can change colors, squeeze into spaces the size of their eyeballs, and might be more intelligent than we can even understand.
Starts streaming April 22
The New York Times Presents: Broken Horses
If you think race horses spend their downtime lounging around on grassy meadows, chewing cud and preparing for the next big race, get ready for a rude awakening. This New York Times-produced documentary series digs into the dark side of horse racing and uncovers a shady underworld full of sleazy trainers, reprobate veterinarians, rampant horse doping, and other questionable practices.
Starts streaming April 27
Last month's picks
Freaknik: The Wildest Party Never Told
This documentary tells the story of Freaknik, an iconic street party/festival that took over Atlanta every year in the '80s and '90s. More than just a good time, Freaknik became a celebration of Black life and culture. Told through archival footage, interviews with 21 Savage, Killer Mike, CeeLo Green, and many more who were there, Freaknik examines the growth of the festival and its eventual demise.
Starts streaming March 21.
We Were the Lucky Ones, Season 1
There are more than enough accounts of World War II from soldiers' perspectives, but We Were the Lucky Ones charts an ordinary family's nightmarish experience of the war. Based on a true story, this historical drama follows the Kurcs, a Jewish family in Poland that's torn apart by the rise of Third Reich. Split up by historical circumstances and personal choices, the Kurcs struggle to survive and reunite in a world gone mad.
Starts streaming on March 28.
SPERMWORLD
With the recent legislation affecting IVF in Alabama, SPERMWORLD is a timely documentary about the world of underground sperm donation. Donors and would-be parents connect on message boards, meet at strip malls or coffee shops, and create life, all outside of the gaze of the medical establishment. Directed by Lance Oppenheim and produced by The New York Times and FX, SPERMWORLD details not just an underground medical movement, but a new kind of family relationship.
Starts streaming March 30.
Photographers
This National Geographic documentary series turns the lens around and tells the stories of the people who create iconic, powerful imagery. Photographers covers all aspect of modern photography; subjects include nature photographer Cristina Mittermeier, fashion photographer Campbell Addy, and photojournalist Muhammed Muheisen.
Starts streaming March 19.
Queens
The patriarchy slides its tentacles around every aspect of life—even our understanding of the animal kingdom. Queens aims to set the record straight. Through nature footage shot all over the world, from the tundra, to the rainforest, to the sea, and with powerful narration by Angela Bassett, this National Geographic documentary details the badass queens of the animal kingdom.
Starts streaming March 5.
Poor Things (2023)
Director Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things is a dizzying mash-up of horror, romance, science-fiction, comedy, and sex. Emma Stone turns in a fascinating, utterly all-in performance as Bella Baxter, a young woman who has the brain of a baby implanted in her head by a mad doctor (played by Willem Dafoe). Set in a steampunk/fairytale version of Victorian Europe, Poor Things is endlessly visually fascinating, intellectually stimulating, and funny as shit. It's a must-watch (catch it before the March 10 Oscar ceremony, where it is nominated for 11 awards).
Starts streaming March 7.
Dune (2021)
With the sequel in theaters, it's the perfect time to rewatch 2021's Dune. Director Denis Villeneuve hit a home run with this adaptation of Frank Herbert's seminal science fiction novel. Crafting the difficult, complex source material into a film that both audiences and critics loved—even those audience and critics that are like, "I'm not into science fiction." Dune features standout performances from Timothée Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson, who manage to be as interesting as the bigger-than-huge visuals.
Starts streaming on March 1.
Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) (2014)
In Birdman, Michael Keaton plays Riggan Thomson, an actor who had been household-name famous for his portrayal of movie superhero Birdman. But that was year ago, and now, the specter of Birdman literally haunts him as he tries to make a comeback by starring in a Broadway adaptation of a Raymond Carver story. Seemingly (but not actually) shot in one take, Birdman is a frantic, fascinating portrait of an artist tortured by irrelevance and descending into madness. It's not like any other movie you've ever seen, I promise. (And it's still a wonder that a movie this weird managed to win the Best Picture Oscar.)
Starts streaming on March 1.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019)
Tom Hanks stars as the most reassuring man in television history, Mr. Rogers, the kid's TV show host who rose to fame by taking children seriously. Using filmic techniques made famous on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, director Marielle Heller tells Rogers' story through the eyes Lloyd Vogel, a jaded, emotionally damaged writer assigned to pen a puff piece on Rogers. A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is about the conflict between cynicism and sincerity, and in the face of Mr. Rogers' "cardigan sweaters and light piano jazz" worldview, cynicism doesn't stand a chance.
Starts streaming March 5.
The Stones and Brian Jones (2023)
This critically lauded documentary from director Nick Broomfield examines the troubled personal life and career of The Rolling Stones' Brian Jones. After forming the band, Jones was gradually pushed from the spotlight by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, until he was sacked from the band and ended up dead in his swimming pool a few weeks later. If you're into rock and roll mythology, The Stones and Brian Jones offers a huge helping of a research, remembrances, and archival footage from the days when rock and roll actually mattered.
Starts streaming March 14.