It’s a big week for TV! By which I mean, to me, there’s a lot of bangers this week.
Kaiju No. 8 is among the most fun I’ve had with a new manga in a little while, and the early glimpses of the anime promise to keep it up. The Sympathizer brings Park Chan-wook back to TV, and the result is a smart, good-looking show about a spy abroad. And Fallout, the long-awaited adaptation of the game series of the same name, is here and legitimately a good time!
All that and Shōgun is still going, Sand Land is airing on Hulu, Sugar is Sugaring (or at least investigating a curious LA case), and Elsbeth is still back!
Here are all the biggest TV premieres and finales this week.
New shows on Netflix
Heartbreak High season 2
Genre: Teen drama
Release date: April 11
Showrunner/creator: Hannah Carroll Chapman
Cast: Ayesha Madon, James Majoos, Chloé Hayden, and more
Heartbreak High is introducing fresh blood for term two: a sports teacher, a mystery assailant, and some hotties to hang with. That should make the race for school captain a bit more complicated, and, yeah, cast off any hopes for a peaceful semester.
New shows on Max
The Sympathizer
Genre: Spy thriller (via dramedy)
Release date: April 14, with one episode
Showrunners/creators: Park Chan-wook and Don McKellar
Cast: Hoa Xuande, Toan Le, Robert Downey Jr., and more
The Captain (Hoa Xuande) didn’t want to flee to America with his general (Toan Le) following the end of the Vietnam War, but he does what he has to as a North Vietnamese plant in the South Vietnam army. Now he’s living within a refugee community and struggling to balance his current connections with his loyalties to the Viet Cong in this new series co-created by legendary filmmaker Park Chan-wook.
New shows on Prime Video
Fallout
Genre: Post-apocalyptic video game adaptation (funny)
Release date: April 12, with all episodes
Showrunners/creators: Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner
Cast: Ella Purnell, Walton Goggins, Aaron Moten, and more
It’s Fallout! From the noted video game series Fallout, and set in the Fallout universe (like, everything that happens here is technically canon, even if we don’t see how it intersects directly with the games).
It’s hard to nail the tone of this world, but Fallout has all that and more tricks up its sleeve. Plus: this Brotherhood of Steel armor! Neat as hell; I’m not over it.
New shows on Apple TV Plus
Franklin
Genre: Historical biopic
Release date: April 12, with three episodes
Showrunner/creator: Tim Van Patten
Cast: Michael Douglas, Assaad Bouab, Noah Jupe, and more
Based on Pulitzer Prize winner Stacy Schiff’s book A Great Improvisation: Franklin, France, and the Birth of America, Franklin depicts one of the major gambles of Benjamin Franklin’s career: a secret mission to France in December 1776 to convince the French monarchy to back America in the mounting war. Should be easy for a guy who specializes in electrical experiments and has no diplomatic training!
New shows on Syfy
Chucky season 3B
Genre: Horror (evil doll)
Release date: April 10
Showrunner/creator: Don Mancini
Cast: Brad Dourif, Zackary Arthur, Jennifer Tilly, and more
Chucky is back!!! The most fun show on television finally makes its return after an interminably long [Ed. note: only about five months] break in the middle of season 3. The killer doll is aging rapidly, all the while trying to undo his curse by killing as many people in the freakin’ White House as possible. But will the Hackensack kids stop Chucky before he kills Devon Sawa yet again? …Probably not, but there’s always next season!
New shows on Crunchyroll
Kaiju No. 8
Genre: Kaiju shonen
Release date: April 13, with one episode
Studio: Production I.G
Kafka is just a regular guy, living in a world where kaiju semi-regularly attack the city. It’s how he earns his livelihood, as part of the cleanup crew sent to clear the kaiju body after the defense team comes in. Which is exactly how he has an unfortunate run-in with a kaiju that fucks his whole shit up — and kicks off one of the most exciting anime adaptations of the year.
Black Butler: Public School Arc
Genre: Fantasy
Release date: April 13, with one episode
Studio: CloverWorks
Weston College: Great Britain’s most prestigious public school and one that’s totally isolated from any intrusion, be it governmental mandates or family contact. Ciel Phantomhive is desperate to know its deal, so he enrolls to get closer — and to try to figure out what happened to the missing students, while also navigating the horrors of the school.
