Staying Fit
What’s on this week? Whether it’s what’s on cable, streaming on Prime Video or Netflix, or opening at the movie theater, we’ve got your must-watch list. Start with TV and scroll down for movies. It’s all right here.
Don’t miss this: 50 Things That Changed the World: Events, Movies, Shows, Books and Tunes That Turn 50 in 2024, on AARP Members Only Access
AARP Membership— $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal
Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine.
On TV this week …
Conan O’Brien Must Go (Max)
In the funniest travel show on TV, the ex-late-night host visits fans and others in Thailand, Argentina, Ireland and Norway – where he visits a Viking village, a rap group, a knitting club and a sex therapist.
Watch it: Conan O’Brien Must Go, April 18 on Max
The Jinx – Part Two (Max)
The 2015 documentary The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst was an astounding account of an eccentric zillionaire accused of murdering his wife, his oldest friend and a neighbor after he went on the run from authorities and disguised himself as a hearing-impaired, mute elderly woman. In the new six-episode follow-up from the same filmmaker, we delve deeper into the murders and meet the D.A.s and defense attorneys, plus experts and witnesses who’ve not come forward before.
Watch it: The Jinx – Part Two, April 21, 10 p.m. ET on Max
Your Netflix Watch of the Week is here!
The Upshaws, Season 5
It’s rare for any Netflix original to last for five seasons — so count your blessings that this sitcom about an Indiana mechanic (Mike Epps, 53) and his family is back, and that a sixth season has already been greenlit. While Epps and Kim Fields, 54, have great rapport as a married couple who could be straight out of any classic network sitcom, the show gets a sardonic boost from Wanda Sykes, 60, as Fields’ wisecracking sister.
Watch it: The Upshaws on Netflix
Don’t miss this: The 12 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now
And don’t miss this: The 12 Best Things Coming to Netflix in April
Your Prime Video Watch of the Week is here!
Dinner With the Parents, Season 1
Henry Hall (son of Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 63) stars in this Freevee comedy series based on a British hit about a close-knit family with grownup children who gather every Friday for a communal meal — which regularly devolves into chaos, thanks to pranks, misunderstandings and surprise visitors (including nosy neighbors and old childhood crushes). The secret weapon might be Carol Kane, 71, as the daffy, heavily accented grandma.
Watch it: Dinner With the Parents on Prime Video Freevee
Don’t miss this: The 11 Best Things Coming to Prime Video in April
And don’t miss this: Kyle MacLachlan Reveals How Prime Video’s ‘Fallout’ Blends Drama With Dark Humor, on AARP Members Only Access
What’s new at the movies …
⭐⭐⭐☆☆ The Absence of Eden, R
The wonderful Zoe Saldaña plays Esmee, a Mexican migrant desperately trying to escape the tentacles of human and drug trafficking on both sides of the border. In one critical scene, she’s the blistering, articulate voice of the dispossessed, yelling through a glass door at the crooked front-desk clerk she’s locked out of his own motel. Meanwhile, ICE agent Shipp (the arresting Garrett Hedlund) is torn between his humanity and his duty: chasing and arresting illegal immigrants. “They’re not our problem,” says his ICE partner (Chris Coy). But seeing young, abused girls he rescued being shipped back south to a country that can’t protect them, he’s disillusioned and profoundly moved. The clunky script explains the film’s low rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes (27 percent), but the acting perhaps explains why audiences liked it about three times as much (75 percent). —Thelma M. Adams (T.M.A.)
Watch it: The Absence of Eden, in theaters
⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Blood for Dust, R
This modest, character-driven modern noir centers on Cliff (a perfectly cast Scoot McNairy), a churchgoing traveling salesman, husband and father of a cancer-stricken child. To preserve his family, the schlub drives into the dingiest Midwestern wastelands where sales are few and temptation arrives in the form of former colleague Ricky (a skanky, American-accented Kit Harington, pushing against his Game of Thrones royal type). Desperate Cliff throws his family’s future in with the wily Ricky, who thinks Cliff’s an ideal drug-and-cash mule. Enter Josh Lucas, 52, as a drug boss enjoying the opportunity to wet his hands with blood. The climax is like Fargo without the insane laughs. —T.M.A.
Watch it: Blood for Dust, April 19 in theaters
⭐⭐⭐⭐☆ Hard Miles, PG-13
Handsome Matthew Modine, 65, is an underrated star. Since his pivotal role in 1987’s Full Metal Jacket, the son of a California drive-in theater manager has consistently delivered performances with integrity, sly humor and self-awareness. As prison social worker Greg Townsend, convinced of the healing power of vigorous work and teamwork, he leads a motley group of teen convicts on a 1,000-mile cycling trip to the Grand Canyon. Based on the real story of Townsend and the Ridge View Academy team he launched, the tautly scripted sports rescue drama also features a genial Sean Astin, 53, as a bike vendor and part-time sponsor. Despite some sappy moments and predictable uphill-mountain struggles, Hard Miles is an inspiring movie that pushes away the soot and trauma of our overtaxed corrections system to find the inherent good in its young denizens, one pedal, one hard mile, at a time. —T.M.A.
Watch it: Hard Miles, April 19 in theaters
More From AARP
Summer Movie Preview: The 16 Films We Can’t Wait to See
From rom-coms to thrillers, here are the films you’ll want to check out
Actor Tony Goldwyn: ‘The Older I Get, Honestly, The Happier I Get’
‘Law & Order’ star talks filming in NYC and directing Robert De Niro and Whoopi Goldberg in new movie
Summer TV Preview: 15 Shows You Won’t Want to Miss
Watch the very best of the crop, from the networks to Netflix
Recommended for You