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This week’s What to Watch recs include Jake Gyllenhaal’s new Road House remake, the premiere of sci-fi epic 3 Body Problem, new Kristen Wiig series Palm Royale, retro superhero series X-Men ’97, and March Madness basketball action. Spring into some new TV this week!
What’s new on TV this week
Road House | Prime Video | Action, drama
Movie premiere, Thursday, March 21: Remember the Point Break remake of 2015? Of course not, because we already had a perfectly good Point Break from 1991. The same caveat could be applied to Prime VIdeo’s new Road House because of the 1989 original—but Doug Liman’s (The Bourne Identity) new take already has some positive buzz. Ex-MMA fighter Dalton (Jake Gyllenhaal in Patrick Swayze’s role) is a bouncer at a Florida Keys bar, where he throws down with the sketchy Knox (sketchy Conor McGregor). Give Jake a chance.
NCAA Tournament | Multiple channels | Sports, basketball
Coverage begins Tuesday, March 19: With over 130 men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament games being played through March and April, you’ll need a roadmap to March Madness. That’s why we’ve put together the ultimate How to Watch the NCAA Basketball Tournament guide. It gives you the entire NCAA schedule, all the channels you’ll need to watch, and the best TV providers for your March Madness buck (hint: you can watch most of the games for free on CBS with an antenna).
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What to watch on Netflix this week
3 Body Problem | Netflix | Drama, sci-fi
Series premiere, Thursday, March 21: Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss join up with The Terror writer Alexander Woo to adapt the sprawling Remembrance of Earth’s Past sci-fi novel series—quite an undertaking. After making first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence in the 1960s, scientists soon realize that they’ve put all of mankind at risk. 3 Body Problem stars Rosalind Chao, Benedict Wong, John Bradley, and Eiza González, and all eight episodes stream on March 21.
Shirley | Netflix | Drama
Movie premiere, Friday, March 22: Think this year’s presidential campaign is fraught? Flashback to 1972, when Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, ran for the highest office. Biopic Shirley tells that trailblazing story and more, with Regina King (Watchmen) in the title role and John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) tackling the script. Shirley also stars Lucas Hedges, Christina Jackson, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Terrence Howard, Andre Holland, and the late Lance Reddick.
What to watch on Apple TV+ this week
Palm Royale | Apple TV+ | Comedy
Series premiere, Wednesday, March 20: In 1969 Palm Beach, Maxine Simmons (Kristen Wiig), a middle-class outsider without an ounce of blue blood, fights to break into local high society at any cost. Based on the book Mr. and Mrs. American Pie by Juliet McDaniel, Palm Royale is a comic underdog tale with a killer cast: Besides Wiig, Laura Dern, Allison Janney, Ricky Martin, Leslie Bibb, Mindy Cohn, Julia Duffy, Kaia Gerber, Bruce Dern, and Carol Burnett also star. Three of 10 episodes stream on March 20.
Manhunt | Apple TV+ | Drama
New miniseries, now streaming: This true-crime biopic series goes all the way back to 1865, with Edwin Stanton (Tobias Menzies, Outlander) tracking down the killer of Abraham Lincoln (Hamish Linklater). The seven-part Manhunt, based on the book by James Swanson, also stars Lili Taylor as Mary Todd Lincoln, Anthony Boyle as John Wilkes Booth, Matt Walsh as Booth co-conspirator Dr. Samuel Mudd, and Patton Oswalt as a detective working with Stanton—yes, that Patton Oswalt, standup comic extraordinaire.
More of what to watch on streaming this week
Stormy | Peacock | Documentary
Movie premiere, Monday, March 18: The Peacock documentary Stormy “takes the audience behind the curtain as Stormy Daniels navigates being a mother, an artist, and an advocate working hard to reinvent herself while still grappling with the bombshell that went off in her life five years earlier,” says Peacock PR. The former adult film star has plenty to talk about besides her unfortunate encounter with former president/current defendant Donald Trump, but we know what everybody will be tuning in for.
X-Men ’97 | Disney+ | Animation, drama
Series premiere, Wednesday, March 20: X-Men: The Animated Series (1992–1997) isn’t the likeliest series for Disney+ to reboot … or is it? The show was a ratings, ahem, juggernaut, back in its Saturday morning heyday; and, good news, Gen-Xers, it picks up right where the original left off, animation aesthetics and all. Spoiler: Professor X has just died, leaving the X-Men adrift. If you somehow missed X-Men: The Animated Series the first time around, all five seasons are also available on Disney+.
New movie releases available to rent/buy on VOD this week
- Asleep In My Palm (March 19)
- Bardejov (March 19)
- French Girl (March 19)
- Land of Bad (March 19)
- Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (March 19)
- Room 0 (March 19)
- Late Night With the Devil (March 22)
- Dad & Step-Dad (March 22)
- The Fox (March 22)
- Yuni (March 22)
