The Most Anticipated TV Shows of April 2023

As we head into the thick of Emmy season, we can expect networks and streamers to start pulling out all the stops, debuting their most exciting new and returning series throughout the spring. In April alone, we'll see the return of Barry, which, like March tentpole Succession, is entering its final season, as well as the premiere of the Netflix two-hander Beef. Peacock is also letting Mrs. Davis loose upon the world, as Rachel Weisz stars in a Dead Ringers adaptation and Paramount+ tracks the Rise of the Pink Ladies. We can also look forward to the sophomore seasons of Schmigadoon!, Somebody Somewhere, and Blindspotting. 

Beef (Netflix)

Premieres April 6

Steven Yeun and Ali Wong face off in a wild, revenge-filled frenzy. Created by Silicon Valley writer Lee Sung Jin, Beef is a black comedy that explores the all-consuming feud between strangers Danny Cho (Yeun) and Amy Lau (Wong), whose lives converge after a road rage incident gone wrong. Danny is a failing contractor trying to move his parents from Korea to the U.S., while Amy is a successful entrepreneur struggling with the inner workings of her marriage. As their conflict escalates, the duo find themselves in a thrilling game of cat and mouse, with both characters swapping places as they push each other past the brink of their anger. — Dianna Shen

Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies (Paramount+)

Premieres April 6

As entertaining as Grease will always be, there’s no denying the sexism in both the stage show and the film. (Just consider Sandy’s “triumphant” transformation into a sexpot during “You’re the One That I Want.”) So even though it’s set several years before the original story, Paramount+’s prequel series Grease: The Rise of the Pink Ladies promises a more femme-friendly spin on the action at Rydell High. This is the origin story of the iconic all-girl crew, revealing how they banded together to be just as cool, bad, and fearless as they wanted to be. In proper Grease style, the show musical, with elaborate song and dance numbers to enhance that rambunctious Pink Lady spirit. — Mark Blankenship

Jury Duty (Amazon Freevee)

Premieres April 7

Jury Duty is a little bit Borat and a little bit The Truman Show, but it pushes its concept far enough to find its own audacious voice. The Amazon Freevee comedy stages an entire jury trial, in which everyone is an actor except for Ronald Gladden, a solar panel contractor who believes the whole thing is real. As the proceedings get increasingly chaotic, the comic tension builds. Will Ronald keep accepting what he’s seeing? Will he vote to convict the so-called criminal in the room? Will he ever stop asking James Marsden, who just happens to be on the jury, about Sonic the Hedgehog? The answers might reveal something profound about the strength of one man’s ethics, or they might just prove it’s always funny to see someone act naturally while everything around him goes berserk. — Mark Blankenship

Tiny Beautiful Things (Hulu)

Premieres April 7

Hulu’s new limited series is practically bursting at the seams with talent. Based on Cheryl Strayed’s collection of essays of the same name, Tiny Beautiful Things stars Kathryn Hahn as Clare, a writer who reluctantly accepts a job writing advice columns. Between her listless marriage to Danny (Quentin Plair, recently seen in Welcome to Chippendales), her tense relationship with her teenage daughter (Tanzyn Crawford), and her stagnant career, Clare doesn’t think she’s in a place to be giving anyone advice, but she comes to see the job as an opportunity to unpack the unhealed wounds of her past, which unfolds via flashbacks featuring Sarah Pidgeon and Merritt Wever. As if Hahn weren’t enough of a draw, Tiny Beautiful Things also boasts the combined powers of Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern, who executive produce, and Liz Tigelaar as creator and writer. Tigelaar previously collaborated with Witherspoon, her Hello Sunshine production company, and Hulu on the Emmy-nominated limited series Little Fires Everywhere. — Claire Spellberg Lustig

Single Drunk Female Season 2 (Freeform)

Premieres April 12

Samantha Fink (Sofia Black-D’Elia) learned the hard way that the path to sobriety really does happen one day at a time. In Season 1, we saw her slowly come around to the teachings of AA while struggling to figure out how to navigate the world without being blackout drunk. The series so far has managed to detail the ups and downs of recovery without ever getting too depressingly dark or too sickly sweet, poking fun at the cliches that come with the process without completely dismissing their worth. In Season 2, Sam has to work even harder to keep things under control a year and half into sobriety, and the effects of her life change continue to ripple out to her friends and family. The ensemble cast — Ally Sheedy, Sasha Compère, Lily May Harrington, Rebecca Henderson, Garrick Bernard, Jojo Brown, and Ian Gomez — are half the fun of this charming series, and Season 2 adds Busy Philipps and Molly Ringwald into the mix. — Brianna Wellen

Blindspotting Season 2 (Starz)

Premieres April 14

Just before Will Graham and Abbi Jacobson knocked it out of the park with their reimagining of A League of Their Own, Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal made the case for film-to-TV adaptations with 2021’s Blindspotting. Their exceptionally stylish series centers Ashley (Jasmine Cephas Jones), Miles’ (Casal) long-suffering partner who’s left to pick up the pieces, including raising their son Sean (Atticus Woodward), after he’s arrested. But if Season 1 was a balancing act for Ashley, who struggled to keep it together in the face of daily microaggressions and a gentrifying Oakland, Season 2 looks poised to explore what happens when she’s allowed to let go and let her own imagination run wild. The trailer teases all sorts of flights of fancy along with more grounded and poignant moments, but mostly, we can’t wait to see Ashley and Trish (Jaylen Barron) face off again. — Danette Chavez

Barry Season 4 (HBO)

Premieres April 16

HBO’s Barry is set to go out with a dark, dramatic bang. After being given up by Gene Cousineau (Henry Winkler), Barry (Bill Hader) is now in jail, and by the looks of the Season 4 trailer, he’s spent a lot of time in there building up rage toward someone, threatening their life over the phone. Whether it’s Gene, Sally (Sarah Goldberg), NoHo Hank (Anthony Carrigan), Fuches (Stephen Root), or someone else entirely remains to be seen. Even Barry’s most carefully laid plans have been known to hit hiccups of huge proportions, so following through on that threat will likely lead down a winding and unexpected path. And Hader, who’s directing all eight episodes, promises that at the end of that path is a “satisfying” series conclusion. — Brianna Wellen

Mrs. Davis (Peacock)

Premieres April 20

The mere fact that we’re getting a new Betty Gilpin-led show in 2023 seems like a miracle, especially one this piquant and bizarre. Created by Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof, Mrs. Davis traffics in the divine and the profane, if the profane were an omniscient A.I. named after someone's housekeeper or elderly neighbor. Gilpin leads the series as Sister Simone, a nun who wages war against the seemingly all-powerful Mrs. Davis. Simone teams up with Wiley (Jake McDorman, at his Jake McDormanest), her mustachioed ex-lover who has since become an important figure in the Luddite resistance. That synopsis seems downright straightforward compared to the reality of Mrs. Davis, a high-concept sci-fi thriller with plenty of cutting humor. It's the kind of thing that has to be seen to be believed. — Danette Chavez

Dead Ringers (Prime Video)

Premieres April 21

David Cronenberg's 1988 psychosexual thriller Dead Ringers was a tremendous showcase for Jeremy Irons in the role of twin gynecologists. Now, Prime Video and Annapurna Television team up for this reimagining, which sees Rachel Weisz step into the lead roles. Weisz plays the twin OBGYNs who share everything: drugs, lovers, and even a willingness to test the boundaries of medical ethics in order to revolutionize health care for women. Such a premise — and the gender-swapped casting of the lead roles — has a ton of potential to comment on current events surrounding the precariousness of women's health care. Though, given the show's source material, you should also expect plenty of psychological intensity and even some nods to Cronenbergian body horror. — Joe Reid

Somebody Somewhere (HBO)

Premieres April 23

HBO's lowkey best comedy comes back for its second season this month, as Sam (Bridget Everett) and Joel (Jeff Hiller) continue to find their voices and the spaces where they belong in their Kansas town. Somebody Somewhere joins Succession in HBO’s Sunday night lineup, which should make for a fascinating contrast in styles, but might also help one of TV's best under-the-radar shows get some more attention. Everett and Hiller are giving two of TV's most empathetic and naturally funny performances, and they're surrounded by a richly drawn ensemble of characters. Mike Hagerty, who played Sam's father in the first season, passed away in May, so we can likely expect the show to address that in some way. — Joe Reid

Saint X (Hulu)

Premieres April 26

Hulu’s month of book-to-TV adaptations continues with Saint X, an eight-episode series based on Alexis Schaitkin’s novel. The title is appropriately mysterious, as the psychological drama centers on a young woman’s (West Duchovny) sudden death during an idyllic Caribbean vacation and her surviving sister’s (Alycia Debnam-Carey) dangerous pursuit of the truth. But this is anything but a straightforward girl-gone-missing tale: Saint X unfolds across multiple timelines, offering different perspectives on the tragedy, which sends shockwaves through this upper-middle-class family, and Emily’s subsequent search for answers. To effectively bring the book’s intrigue to the screen, Hulu has tapped Leila Gerstein (The Handmaid’s Tale) as writer and executive producer, while Dee Rees, the first Black woman nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar (for Mudbound), directs. — Claire Spellberg Lustig

Frog and Toad (Apple TV+)

Premieres April 28

All appears to be right in the world, as the beloved Frog and Toad are getting their very own animated series adaptation. Based on Arnold Lobel’s delightful children’s books, Frog and Toad will follow the silly escapades of the two amphibian best friends as they celebrate the beauty of what makes each of them special. Nat Faxon (Disenchanted) and Kevin Michael Richardson (The Simpsons) will voice the two titular characters, respectively. Additional members of the voice cast are rounded out by Ron Funches (Harley Quinn), Fortune Feimster (The Mindy Project), Aparna Nancherla (Mythic Quest), Yvette Nicole Brown (Community), Margaret Cho (Fire Island), and Tom Kenny (Spongebob Squarepants). —Dianna Shen

More April TV Premieres

My Name Is Mo'Nique (Netflix): Comedy special premiere, April 4
Schmigadoon! (Apple TV+): Season 2 premiere, April 5
Dave (FXX): Season 3 premiere, April 5
Transatlantic (Netflix): Series premiere, April 7
Am I Being Unreasonable? (Hulu): Series premiere, April 11
Florida Man (Netflix): Series premiere, April 13
The Last Thing He Told Me (Apple TV+): Series premiere, April 14
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (Prime Video): Fifth and final season premiere, April 14
A Black Lady Sketch Show (HBO): Season 4 premiere, April 14
Waco: The Aftermath (Showtime): Series premiere, April 16
Alex Borstein: Corsets and Clown Suits (Prime Video): Comedy special premiere, April 18
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Once & Always (Netflix): Film premiere, April 19
The Diplomat (Netflix): Series premiere, April 20
Dear Mama (FX): Docuseries premiere, April 21
Slip (Roku Channel): Series premiere, April 21
John Mulaney: Baby J (Netflix): Comedy special premiere, April 25
Love & Death (HBO Max): Series premiere, April 27
Firefly Lane (Netflix): Third and final season premiere, April 27
Citadel (Prime Video): Series premiere, April 28
Fatal Attraction (Paramount+): Series premiere, April 30
Tom Jones (PBS): Series premiere, April 30