What to Watch on Paramount+ April 2024

CBS hit Ghosts runs deeper than the premise would suggest: When New Yorkers Samantha (Rose McIver) and her husband Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) inherit a rundown country estate, they set about turning it into a bed and breakfast. But when Samantha momentarily dies after an accident, she can suddenly see and hear the ghosts that inhabit the estate, a centuries-spanning group of spirits who haven’t moved on. Jay not being able to see them is only part of the comedy of Ghosts, which is also a surprisingly touching series.

If you’re a Trekkie—a rabid fan of Gene Roddenberry’s culty sci-fi franchise (est. 1966)—Paramount+ might be your most important streaming TV subscription. The service has everything Trek: the legendary original series, the animated series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, Discovery, Picard, Strange New Worlds, Short Treks, and Lower Decks. Paramount+ also has the three movies in Star Trek’s Kelvin timeline (aka the modern ones) but, unfortunately, the first 10 Trek films are on Max™. Either way, live long—so you’ll have time to take in so much Star Trek—and prosper.

Paul Feig’s coming-of-age high school dramedy set in 1979–80 attracted a passionate following, but NBC canceled it with only a handful of episodes remaining in its first season. Petitions circulated but were unsuccessful in their bid to revive the series. That’s a tragedy ’cause Freaks and Geeks is truly exceptional—hilarious and loaded with heart, relatable themes (that resonate 40+ years beyond the show’s setting) even today), and a bangin’ soundtrack of classic rock, punk, and new wave slappers.

Thankfully, we at least have this single, golden season with this incredible ensemble cast of then-unknowns: Seth Rogen (America’s stoner), Linda Cardellini (Grandma’s Boy), Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother), Martin Starr (Party Down), Samm Levine (Inglourious Basterds), John Francis Daley (Bones), Busy Phillipps (Girls5eva), and James Franco (The Disaster Artist). In addition to their parenthetical credits, most of these actors also appear in films by Freaks and Geeks executive producer Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin). Do yourself a favor: Watch—and re-watch—this show.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, switches it up as a Los Angeles arson investigator looking into the connection between recent forest wildfires and good-looking local teens suddenly being turned into good-looking werewolves. Like the 2004 Edo van Bekom YA novel it’s based on, Wolf Pack is a throwback to ’00s fare like Twilight and MTV’s Teen Wolf, but with a darker edge and more foreboding frights—and, of course, SMG.

Women (like men) kill out of greed, jealousy, self-preservation, and other good reasons. With Why Women Kill, series creator Marc Cherry (Desperate Housewives) tells three murderous tales per season and, as with all good soap-y series, the melodrama, suspense, and twists are set to stun. Paramount+ has both seasons of Why Women Kill, but if you haven’t already heard, the previously approved third season isn’t gonna happen. Oh, well. It’s not like Cherry won’t find another way to tell his addictive, sensual stories.

Cable phenomenon Yellowstone is so popular that a spinoff show was inevitable—but few expected showrunner Taylor Sheridan to take it all the way back to the 19th century. Paramount+ original 1883 tracks the gritty origin story of the hard-ranchin’ Dutton family as they travel across the Great Plains to settle in Montana. Faith Hill, Tim McGraw, and Sam Elliott star in the 10-episode limited series, which was followed up with another Yellowstone prequel, 1932, and even more to come after that.

Speakin’ of women who kill: Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer positively slayed through five seasons of their hit Comedy Central series Broad City. Based on the women’s IRL friendship, the show followed exaggerated versions of the women-children as they hilariously navigate NYC life. We defy you not to fall in at least platonic love with Abbi and Ilana while following their marijuana-fueled sexcapades, workplace antics, and psilocybin fantasy sequences. And try not to be too sad when, after five strong seasons, you run out of Broad City episodes to binge-watch. The women wanted to end on a high note—we can’t begrudge them that, nor can we resist rewatching the entire series.

Sexy Beast is a prequel series based on Jonathan Glazer’s acclaimed 2000 crime drama of the same name. The show follows London crooks Gal Dove (Mare of Easttown’s James McArdle) and Don Logan (The Rig’s Emun Elliott) in the events leading up to the film. McArdle and Elliott have big shoes to fill since Ray Winstone (Black Widow) and Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) originated the roles. The same goes for Stephen Moyer as Teddy Bass—the character played by Deadwood’s Ian McShane in the original film. Since original scribes David Scinto and Louis Mellis only executive produce, let’s hope the Sexy Beast series’ writing team can conjure the original film’s black humor, intensity, and quotability.

Bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee fronted the Canadian prog-rock trio Rush for 50 years—but he’s still all about that bass. Lee’s love letter to the low end, Geddy Lee’s Big Beautiful Book of Bass (Harper, 2018) featured 250 instruments from Lee’s collection, plus interviews with noteworthy bass makers and players. Doing those interviews inspired Lee to do this show, which aims to reveal these rockers as regular people. Profiled in the four-part series are Melisa Auf der Mar (Hole, Smashing Pumpkins), Les Claypool (Primus), Krist Novoselic (Nirvana), and Rob Trujillo (Metallica).

If, lately, you feel every day is potentially a new episode of Rod Serling’s sci-fi/horror The Twilight Zone—binge-watch the show. That way, you’ll see the difference between our weird world and fake ones. Or maybe you won’t see it, and you’re actually in the TZ. We’re sorry; that wasn’t helpful. For what it’s worth, you’re still in the bathroom scrolling CableTV.com. Life can’t get more authentic than that. Or can it? Anyway, for a series over six decades old, The Twilight Zone can still hang with Black Mirror (streaming on Netflix) and Creepshow (Shudder and AMC+).

This Australian romantic comedy series might’ve benefitted from the writer’s strike—but Paramount+ probably picked it up because of its three Logie Awards (Most Outstanding Actress, Most Outstanding Actor, and Most Outstanding Comedy Program). The series stars IRL couple Harriet Dyer (American Auto) and Patrick Brammall (Glitch), who met while working on the original Australian version of the cop comedy No Activity. In the show, the pair meet after Gordon (Brammall), distracted by Ashley (Dyer) hits a stray dog with his car—and the two fall for each other and the dog, whom they call Colin. Awwwwww!

Right around the time Jeremy Renner was making a splash with Marvel series Hawkeye in 2021, his Paramount+ original Mayor of Kingstown also premiered. Renner’s no superhero here, but rather a scrappy crime boss nicknamed “mayor” of Kingstown, Michigan. The down-and-dirty drama takes an uneasy look at the prison system, corruption, racism, and human trafficking, but Mayor of Kingstown also has its lighter moments (like when Renner fumbles with a bow and arrow, Hawkeye’s signature weapon).

• Criminal Minds
• Corporate
• Evil
• The Good Wife
• The Good Fight

• The Stand
• Star Trek: Discovery
• Twin Peaks
• Why Women Kill
• Young Sheldon

You’ve likely heard about Everything Everywhere All at Once, but if you haven’t seen it, prepare yourself—the title says it all. A middle-aged laundromat owner’s (Michelle Yeoh) dull life gets turned upside down and every other direction when she’s pulled into the multiverse to stop a villain bent on crushing all the realities. What follows is the most exhilarating and imagination-exploding 140 minutes ever filmed, with Emmy and Golden Globe winner Yeoh (mostly) in control.

Before she wowed the world in Wednesday as, well, Wednesday, Jenna Ortega co-starred in this A24 horror movie about an adult film shoot gone all the way wrong in 1979 Texas. Director Ti West (The House of the Devil) simultaneously pays tribute to classic slasher flicks and upends the whole genre with amped-up gore, sex, and terror—all set to a chilly soundtrack by goth rocker Chelsea Wolfe. X is the first entry of a trilogy that includes the prequel Pearl (2022) and MaXXXine (to be released in 2024).

Chevy Chase goofily immortalized journalist Irwin M. “Fletch” Fletcher in 1985’s Fletch (not so much in 1989’s Fletch Lives), but Jon Hamm takes the character in a slicker direction in Confess, Fletch. He’s still a wisecracking troublemaker with few social filters, but Hamm’s Fletch is a competent investigator—who happens to become a murder suspect while tracking down a stolen art collection. Confess, Fletch is a fun, twisty mystery-comedy that sticks the landing.

Huh-huh . . . sequels suck. But not this one, ‘cause Mike Judge’s iconic Beavis and Butt-Head have lost none of their mouthbreathing, nacho-eating, desperately horny appeal. And this time, they’re horny in space.

Yes, as far as these two dillholes are concerned, the titular “Do” refers to doing “it.” So, like in their 1996 big-screen debut, Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, the pair believes they’re on an adventure to “score.” Really, a juvenile court judge sent them to space camp, where they’ll accidentally travel from 1998 to 2022—and watching Beavis and Butt-Head navigate space camp, not to mention a very different future America, is heh-heh-mm-heh, pretty cool.

Working all day for low wages and lower recognition is a tale as old as time—but it’s gotten more interesting since Kevin Smith debuted his low-budget ($27,000 from pre-production to premiere), black-and-white, indie-slacker film in 1994.

In Clerks, 20-something best friends Dante (Brian Halloran) and Randal (Jeff Anderson) face stagnation in their lives. Convenience store clerk Dante has no direction but loads of existential angst, while the likewise aimless video-store employee Randal seems content with his station in life. Of course, the plot forces both men to grow up through a series of wacky interactions with clueless customers, spaced-out acquaintances, and lost loves.

Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger, may I take your order? It’s been a quarter-century since the original Good Burger came out, and Kel Mitchell and Kenan Thompson are back as Ed and Dexter. Ed, of course, is a Good Burger lifer; Dexter wasn’t. So when Dex hits hard times, Ed hires him back at Good Burger—but Dex invites interest from corporate droogs (Jillian Bell and Lil Rel Howery), who swoop in and ruin a good thing. Phil Traill directs from a script written by original Good Burger writers Kevin Kopelow and Heath Seifert (but not Dan Schneider).

It may have bombed in theaters, but Babylon is still an extravagant sight to behold. It’s also a long one: At slightly over three hours, it’s probably better experienced at home. Babylon follows the highs and lows of several Hollywood characters (played by Brad Pitt, Margo Robbie, Jean Smart, and dozens of others) during the golden age of cinema, beginning in 1926 with the transition from silent films to sound. If the title Everything Everywhere All at Once hadn’t already been taken, it would have fit the excessive Babylon, a hedonistic rollercoaster of sex, drugs, and snake-fighting (yes, really) that you have to see to believe.

No big deal, just one of the most famed and beloved movies of all time—you’ll have a hard time finding anyone who doesn’t treasure 1981 George Lucas/Stephen Spielberg classic Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark. Subsequent Indiana Jones sequels are also available on Paramount+ (including 1984’s underrated Temple of Doom), but Raiders of the Lost Ark remains the best and most breathtaking of the franchise over 40 years later. Star Wars’ Han Solo was cool, but Indy is Harrison Ford’s definitive role.

• A Quiet Place
• Almost Famous
• Anchorman
• Arrival
• Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe
• Clerks
• The Disaster Artist
• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Forrest Gump

• Interstellar
• Mean Girls
• Pearl
• Rockula
• Ski School
• There Will Be Blood
• The Wolf of Wall Street
• X

• 1883
• 1923
• Behind the Music
• Big Nate
• Bosé
• The Challenge: All Stars
• The Challenge: World Championship
• Criminal Minds: Evolution
• Evil
• Fatal Attraction
• The Followers
• Halo
• iCarly (2021)

• Joe Pickett
• Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years
• Mike Judge’s Beavis & Butt-Head
• Queen of the Universe
• Rabbit Hole
• Rugrats (2021)
• RuPaul’s Drag Race Allstars (and Allstars Untucked)
• Sometimes When We Touch
• Special Ops: Lioness
• Star Trek: Discovery
• Star Trek: Lower Decks
• Star Trek: Short Treks

• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
• Star Trek: Picard
• Strange Angel
• Texas 6
• Thalia’s Mixtape: El Soundtrack de mi Vida†
• Transformers: EarthSpark
• Tulsa King
• Why Women Kill
• Wolf Pack
• Yo! MTV Raps (2022)
• Yonder

• The Addams Family
• Addams Family Values
• Bad News Bears
• Beavis and Butt-head
• Better Off Dead
• Beverly Hills Cop trilogy
• Cheers
• Daria
• Detroiters

• Frasier
• Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
• Milk Money
• Reno 911!
• Strangers with Candy
• Tropic Thunder
• Workaholics
• Young Adults

• Almost Famous
• Boyhood
• Breakfast at Tiffany’s
• Cinema Paradiso
• The Doors
• The Equalizer
• Freaks and Geeks
• The Lovely Bones*

• The Machinist
• Madam Secretary
• Only Lovers Left Alive
• Scorpion
• Titanic
• The Terminal
• The Wolf of Wall Street

• AFC Champions League
• Big 3 Basketball
• Combate Global Mixed Martial Arts
• The Masters
• National Women’s Soccer League

• NCAA March Madness
• NFL on CBS
• Scottish Professional Football League
• SEC on CBS
• UEFA Champions League

• America in Color
• America’s Secret Space Heroes
• Anita
• Behind the Music
• Catching Killers

• Disasters at Sea
• Drinks, Crime and Prohibition
• I Am Richard Pryor
• MLK: The Assassination Tapes
• True Life

• Annihilation
• Event Horizon
• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Extant
• Infinite

• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
• Star Trek: Into Darkness
• Star Trek: Voyager
• Time Traveling Bong
• Under the Dome

• Aeon Flux
• Beverly Hills Cop (franchise)
• Bumblebee
• Commando (original and director’s cut)
• FBI
• Land of Doom

• Mission: Impossible franchise
• Teen Wolf
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick
• The Warriors

• A Quiet Place (1 and 2)
• Bodies Bodies Bodies
• Carnival of Souls
• Carrie
• Friday the 13th*
• From Beyond
• Killer Klowns from Outer Space

• Paranormal Activity franchise
• Pearl
• The Ring
• Saint Maud
• Scream franchise
• Smile
• X

• Blue’s Clues
• The Fairly OddParents
• Hey Arnold!
• iCarly
• The Loud House

• Paw Patrol
• Peppa Pig
• Rugrats
• Rumble
• SpongeBob SquarePants