If you’ve noticed an influx of returning favorite television shows onto your streaming platforms in the last few weeks – with more set to be released in early May – you aren’t alone. Thanks to pandemic delays and various other scheduling quirks – including the upcoming cut-off for Emmy Award consideration – we’re experiencing a television onslaught. In fact, there’s so much new television that even your friendly neighborhood television critic can’t keep up with watching it all. So, to help us both out, I’ve put together this handy guide to the returning shows you might not have realized were back for another outing.
Better Call Saul, AMC, Currently Airing
The best show on television is finally back for its last season – delayed both by the pandemic and star Bob Odenkirk’s terrifying heart attack mid-filming last year. Three of the season’s 13 episodes have aired – with new episodes dropping each Monday – and the season will be split into two parts, with seven episodes airing in the first half and the remaining six beginning to air in July (this is an attempt to prolong AMC’s last Emmy-worthy series’ eligibility for the awards, as the second batch of episodes will qualify for the 2023 ceremony). If you haven’t caught up, when we last left Jimmy and Company, Lalo had survived an attempt on his life by Gus (and knew he had been set-up by poor Nacho), Mike was becoming wary of the human cost of being part of Gus’s operation after he was ordered to kill Werner, the German engineer who just wanted a chance to visit his wife, and Kim appeared to be breaking bad at a much faster rate than Jimmy McGill, proposing a scheme to destroy Howard Hamlin’s legal career and force the Sandpiper case to settle and net Jimmy a big payday.
Thus far, the series has been absolutely lights out, providing deep emotional drama, high octane suspense, and even more worrying developments in the evolution of Saul Goodman that have me continually worried about just what might happen to Kim Wexler as the series draws to a close (I have some theories that I think might pan out, but I’ll save those for a mid-season recap article that will post once episode seven has aired). It’s rare that a sequel (which Better Call Saul technically is, despite also being a prequel) surpasses the original series, but I think we can safely say that Saul has at least equaled the brilliance of Breaking Bad, while managing to create emotional stakes that its parent show never fully reached. I’m heartbroken that this is our last chance to watch these wonderfully crafted characters play out their lives for us, but I also cannot wait to see how this one ends.
Russian Doll, Netflix, All Episodes Streaming
When Russian Doll completed its first season back in 2020, I was disheartened to hear it would be back for a second go-round. After all, that final sequence was just about as perfect an ending as you could ask for. But after watching the second season of the series (a shockingly quick binge, as it’s only seven 30-minute episodes long), I take back my disappointment. Does season two always work? No, it absolutely could use more Alan, for one, but I found myself utterly captivated by Nadia’s continued story and the various twists and turns it took. I won’t spoil anything in case you haven’t watched, but if season one was about coming to terms with yourself and accepting who you are in your heart, season two is about accepting your past – warts and all – and realizing that you can’t necessarily change things just because you want to spare yourself and others pain. It’s a heady message and one that resonates extremely well as we watch the story play out over space and time. Natasha Lyonne remains one of our most interesting actors working today, and while I don’t necessarily think we need a third season of Nadia’s life, I absolutely cannot wait to see what Lyonne turns up in next.
The Flight Attendant, HBO Max, Currently Airing
Much like Russian Doll, The Flight Attendant is a high-wire act of a series where it feels like the narrative could fall off track with the smallest gust of wind. After watching the four episodes of its sophomore season currently available, however, things appear to be holding in place as the show piles more and more intrigue onto the shoulders of the world’s worst spy, Cassie Bowden. And like Russian Doll, this is a series that lives or dies on the strengths of its lead, and Kaley Cuoco is more than up for the challenge, turning Cassie into a far more complex character than she has any right to be. The series continues to sport a top-notch supporting cast, led by Zosia Mamet (as Cassie’s Type A best friend Annie) and Rosie Perez (as Cassie’s fellow flight attendant Megan, who is reeling from the reveal she was selling secrets to the North Koreans in season one). There’s plenty of crazy drama and really dark, funny humor throughout the series (episode four was particularly hilarious thanks to a guest appearance from one of season one’s best characters) that make The Flight Attendant one of the most fun shows airing on television. If you were a fan of season one, you’ll love season two. And if you haven’t watched yet – pick this one up. If only to marvel that the writers were able to pull off season one and make it as strong as they did. This is a show that shouldn’t work. But works beautifully.
Barry, HBO Max, Currently Airing
An emotionally resonate and darkly funny series about a hitman-turned-actor shouldn’t work on the levels that Barry does. But boy, does Barry work. When we last left our titular character, he had just committed a massacre in a Buddhist Temple, taking out NoHo Hank’s Chechen gang and the Burmese mob in an attempt to kill Fuches after Fuches framed Gene for the murder of Janice from way back in season one. We all know Barry killed Janice after she got too close to figuring out Barry’s secret – but what only we know is that Fuches told Gene that Barry was responsible right before framing him for the murder. Oh, and Sally was incredibly successful at her acting showcase, but only after betraying the deep true story she wanted to share and instead presenting the image of a strong woman that Hollywood execs ate up.
With only one episode having aired, we now know the basic fallout from those hanging plot threads (which we waited a long three years to get the resolution for), but so many more questions are already flying around in their place that we’re clearly in for a wild ride this season. This was another series where I wasn’t sure there was enough plot to sustain a long run, but after the start to season three, I’m willing to go along for the ride with Bill Hader and Company wherever they want to take us.
Girls5Eva, Peacock, Returns May 5
From the mind of the very funny Meredith Scardino, Girls5eva was a surprise hit for Peacock when it premiered last summer. Surprise in the sense that most people weren’t even aware that Peacock had original programming – and the argument could certainly be made that NBC should have taken the series and put it on its network channel, but that’s a whole other article – but a good surprise nonetheless. The series, which focuses on a late 90s/early 00s girl group reuniting and then discovering that they still wanted to work together and make music (and providing us with some hilarious early 00s bangers in flashbacks), season two will show us what it takes for a washed-up group to strike out again in the music business.
With how delightful season one was, we can almost certainly expect more of the same – along with some fun new songs that will get stuck in our heads for months to come (I still have the title track on my running playlist and don’t plan on getting rid of it any time soon). And, unlike other streaming services, Peacock will release the entire eight-episode season in one drop. So you can binge all weekend long.
Hacks, HBO Max, Returns May 12
Hannah Einbinder, Jean Smart HBO MAX Hacks
Season 1 – Episode 1
The Jean Smart Renaissance continues with the return of Hacks, the series that snagged her another Emmy (along with awards for the series for writing and directing) in 2021. When we left our leading ladies, Deborah and Ava had patched things up following the funeral of Ava’s father – only for Ava to realize that she sent a scathing email to the television producers who tried to poach her for a writing gig that outlined some of Deborah’s most diva level behavior. So, with that ticking time bomb hanging over their newly healed relationship, we’ll get to see how things shake out.
What makes Hacks work is the incredible chemistry between Smart and Hannah Einbinder (Ava, who many folks love to hate, but without Ava, there’s no real conflict for Deborah to bounce up against that doesn’t feel like something someone of her stature could just get past and move beyond). You can feel the links between the two characters growing stronger and stronger as season one builds to its emotionally resonate finale, and you can’t help but want to see the pair succeed together. It’s still disappointingly rare to have a series like this, headlined by two women – and even rarer for it to be a prestige comedy – but this duo act works and pays dividends as Ava and Deborah grow and change both because of and in spite of each other. Whatever’s next for the pair should be a hell of a ride.
