Debonair David Oyelowo (“Selma”) stars in the latest Apple TV+ original, “Government Cheese,” premiering Wednesday. His character, Hampton Chambers, exits prison in 1969 with great expectations. However, the patriarch’s family reunion in California’s San Fernando Valley immediately goes pear-shaped. The comedy takes its title from a processed cheese food originally given to welfare recipients and others on the dole from WWII through the early 1980s. Following a SXSW premiere, the surreal show about a Black family and second chances is anything but cheesy.
What else clicks this week?
1. ”The Carters: Hurts to Love You” Tuesday on Paramount+: With a title taken from Backstreet Boys’ Nick Carter’s 2023 same-named pop song, the new bio miniseries is a tale of two famous brothers, Nick and Aaron, one living, one dead. In 2022, at age 34, one-time child star Aaron drowned, his system flooded with drugs, in a death the coroner deemed accidental. What happened? How did early fame alter their trajectories? Through home movies, music videos, interviews, and the lens of their sister Angel, the docuseries strives to understand the diverging paths of two talented siblings from the same home who found their time in the spotlight. Directed by “Punky Brewster” star Soleil Moon Frye.
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2. "Agatha Christie’s Towards Zero” Wednesday on Britbox: The Agatha Christie classic, first published in 1944, gets a glossy BBC makeover. The arch three-part miniseries, set in the 1930s, stars Hollywood royalty Anjelica Huston as the bedridden widow Lady Camilla Tressilian. The aristocratic owner of an English seaside estate hosts a coterie of strange and suspicious characters. Upon the discovery of a corpse, Inspector Leach (“Perry Mason”’s Matthew Rhys) arrives to exhume secrets and unravel the mystery. Christie’s adeptness at plot and keeping audiences guessing never grows old.
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3. “The Diamond Heist” Wednesday on Netflix: Producer Guy Ritchie puts his stamp on true crime in a heist docuseries with an “Ocean’s 11” flair. In 2000, a gang of English jewel thieves set their sights on the Millennium Star, then valued at 200 million pounds. The flawless 203.04-karat diamond was the centerpiece of a DeBeers exhibit at London’s newly-built Millennium Dome. The caper was intricately planned, but even before the first mask was donned and truck engine keyed, Scotland Yard was onto the culprits. The three-part series reveals what might have been the greatest jewel heist in history, from the perspectives of law and larceny.
4. “Ransom Canyon” Thursday on Netflix: The new contemporary ranch drama joins the field of neo-westerns like “Longmire,” “Yellowstone,” and “Dark Winds.” The series pits three ranching families against each other to control the land and their birthrights in Texas hill country, even as outside forces erode their rural way of life. Lust, greed, and theft have a way of smashing the best-laid plans, with rodeo, football, and natural disasters raising the stakes. Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly lead a cast that also includes Lizzy Greene, Tatanka Means, and Texan Garrett Wareing.
5. “Secrets of the Penguins” Sunday on National Geographic at 8 p.m., then migrating to streaming on Disney+ and Hulu: It’s amazing penguins still have secrets after the recent movie “The Penguin Lessons” and the 2006 Oscar winner “March of the Penguins.” Still, who doesn’t love those flightless birds, even though it’s a fallacy that they mate for life. Blake Lively narrates National Geographic’s three-part docuseries just in time for Earth Day on April 22.
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