Spring is coming! That means plenty of time to lay out with your streaming service of choice and watch new shows to your hearts content. Or if you’re an adult it just means the days are longer and you need a break after work. Either way, here are our top 10 picks for new and new-ish shows to binge this spring.
Honestly, I can’t make up my mind about Powerless yet. For once, I agree with many of the main line TV critics out there in that the concept is great. Vanessa Hudgens plays the wide-eyed Emily, who’s moved from the country to the big city “to make a difference in the world.” She’s the new development executive at Wayne Securities in Charm City. On her first day, she discovers that she has only been hired to make her boss (Alan Tudyk) look good, and that company owner Bruce Wayne is planning to cut the entire staff. Tudyk’s character is a captial-J Jerk (and quotes a certain over-spray-tanned executive more than once). I’m excited to see the Firefly veteran in a villain role, because everything he does is hilarious.
Sneaky Pete is one of Amazon’s best written shows yet. And, with a producing team that helped bring us Justified, House M.D., NYPD Blue, Breaking Bad, and Horrible Bosses, the quality didn’t come as a surprise. The gritty, almost-dramady-but-mostly-drama is headed by Marius (Giovanni Ribisi) and Eddie (Michael Drayer), brothers who owe the wrong man (Bryan Cranston) too much money. Marius is a con man. He gives you confidence, you give him your money. When he gets out of prison, Marius slips almost effortlessly into the life of his prison roommate Pete in order to buy time to pay back the mounting debts. But he finds that Pete wasn’t as forthcoming about the family business as Marius had assumed.
As a kid, I loved the Lemony Snicket books upon which the new Netflix series is based. Well, I loved and hated them. You see, I was scared of the dark until many years after my age would have excused the phobia. The strange world of the 1971 Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory sent me to bed with nightmares of oompa loompas turning me into a blueberry. Dramatic irony was not something my overly-sensitive heart could take if I thought someone was actually going to be literally or figuratively hurt.
With school back in the swing of things, work piling in and the weather cooling down, free movies and shows quickly become our best friends. Need a break from the grind? Looking for a more economical date night? Pull up a sofa, pop some popcorn and check out these recommendations you can stream right now on Netflix and Amazon Prime.
