If you’re like me (which I wouldn’t recommend), you probably watch too many TV shows to keep track of efficiently—especially streaming series that don’t wind up in your DVR cue. Now, I use JustWatch’s Watchlist feature to keep tabs on them for me (Reelgood also has this function). I endorse this solution as the next best thing to quitting TV altogether (which ain’t gonna happen).
This week’s What to Watch recommendations include a new entry in the Star Trek universe, Mike Myers’s return to TV in The Pentaverate, the premiere of true-crime docudrama The Staircase, the returns of Bosch and The Wilds, and Lil Jon jumping from MTV to HGTV. Happy viewing!
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What’s premiering this week
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | Paramount+ | Drama, sci-fi
Series premiere, Thursday, May 5: The original 1965 pilot episode of Star Trek featured a character named Christopher Pike in the captain’s chair of the USS Enterprise, not James T. Kirk (William Shatner). Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery, takes us back to Pike’s (now played by Anson Mount) Enterprise decade, with Spock (Ethan Peck) and Number One (Rebecca Romijin) by his side—following all that? Paramount+’s Star Trek universe is getting crowded, but in a good way.
2022 WNBA Season Opener | NBA TV | Sports, basketball
Coverage begins Friday, May 6, 7 p.m. EST: The Women’s National Basketball Association’s 26th season will be its most jam-packed ever, with 36 games apiece for each of its 12 teams. It all tips off Friday, May 6 with Los Angeles Sparks vs. Chicago Sky, Las Vegas Aces vs. Phoenix Mercury (both games on NBA TV), and Indiana Fever vs. Washington Mystics (on Facebook Watch). The 147 televised games of the 2022 WNBA season will be broadcast on several channels—to keep up, check out our How to Watch the WNBA 2022 guide.
What to watch on Netflix this week
The Pentaverate | Netflix | Comedy
Series premiere, Thursday, May 5: Mike Myers created, wrote, produced, and plays eight different characters in The Pentaverate—it’s an overly ambitious return to TV. In the six-episode series, a journalist (Myers) discovers an Illuminati-esque society of men who’ve been spinning world events since 1347. It sounds like an Austin Powers plot, but The Pentaverate’s roots stretch back to Myers’s conspiracy theory gags in 1993’s So I Married an Axe Murderer. Keegan-Michael Key, Ken Jeong, Jennifer Saunders, and Debi Mazar also star.
Wild Babies | Netflix | Documentary, nature
Series premiere, Thursday, May 5: Get ready for a cuteness overdose as Helena Bonham Carter narrates the clumsy adventures of baby lions, elephants, penguins, pangolins, and more in the wild. The eight-part nature docuseries Wild Babies follows over a dozen animal species and families, delivering fascinating footage that will have you alternately saying “Awww!” and “How did they film this without being mauled by a protective mama?” As Carter observes, “For a baby born wild, the journey toward adulthood will be hard, but most don’t have to struggle alone.”
What to watch on HBO Max this week
The Staircase | HBO Max | Drama
Series premiere, Thursday, May 5: After two decades and one celebrated Netflix docuseries, there’s still no clear answer as to whether novelist Michael Peterson murdered his wife Kathleen by pushing her down a flight of stairs. New true-crime docudrama (yes, another one) The Staircase doesn’t necessarily resolve the confounding case, but it does feature a stellar cast, including Colin Firth (as Michael Peterson), Toni Collette (as Kathleen), Juliette Binoche, Parker Posey, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Sophie Turner.
Chad | HBO Max | Comedy
Now streaming: Season 2 of TBS comedy Chad was scheduled to premiere last month, but it was mysteriously yanked at the last minute and (maybe?) moved to a summer date. But at least the brilliant first season has been added to HBO Max. The series, written by and starring Nasim Pedrad (New Girl, Saturday Night Live) as 14-year-old Persian boy Chad, follows a high school nerd trying way too hard to be popular. Hilariously, Pedrad plays Chad not as sympathetic, but as a complete jerk—like a real teen boy. Catch up before Season 2.
What to watch on Prime Video this week
The Wilds | Prime Video | Drama, thriller
Season 2 premiere, Friday, May 6: The Wilds resembles Yellowjackets on the surface: teen girls stranded in the middle of nowhere after a plane crash, time-shifting story elements, much angst and screaming, etc. But, as was revealed at the end of The Wilds’ first episode (spoiler), this island ordeal was engineered to put the girls through a psychological experiment. Season 2 finds the girls becoming wise to the ruse, and also discovering that there are—ru-roh!—boys on the island, too. The Wilds is, like, wild.
Bosch: Legacy | Amazon Freevee | Drama
Series premiere, Friday, May 6: Prime Video cop drama Bosch may have ended last year after seven seasons, but detective Harry Bosch (Titus Welliver) isn’t going anywhere. Well, he is going to Amazon Freevee, the rebranded (and still ad-supported) IMDb TV, which is part of the Prime Video ecosystem. In Bosch: Legacy, Harry’s now working as a private detective since retiring from the LAPD, where his daughter Maddie (Madison Lintz) is now a cop—hence, Legacy. And don’t worry, Bosch fans: Harry’s dog Coltrane is also back.
W2W wildcards of the week
Lil Jon Wants to Do What? | HGTV | Reality, renovation
Series premiere, Monday, May 2: He’s not the first rapper with a home renovation show (see: The Vanilla Ice Project), but crunk king Lil Jon is easily the loudest. In Lil Jon Wants to Do What?, he teams with designer/builder Anitra Mecadon to help Atlanta homeowners indulge their wild side and go big with their dull houses (within the budget, per Mecadon). Fittingly, every Lil Jon renovation begins with a boozy toast of red Solo cups and a “Yeeeaaah!” Expect at least one “To the window, to the wall” joke per season.
The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch | HISTORY | Reality, paranormal
Season 3 premiere, Tuesday, May 3: Of all of TV’s paranormal shows with little (or no) paranormal activity, The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch at least has great scenery. Skinwalker Ranch (a.k.a. Sherman Ranch) in southeastern Utah has been a UFO hotspot for decades, with reported flying saucer sightings and cattle mutilations in the hundreds. The crew of The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch is now in their third season of searching for proof of an alien presence—who wants to bet they’ll have to extend it into a fourth season?
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