Staying Fit
What’s on this week? Whether it’s what’s on cable, streaming on Prime Video or Netflix, or opening at your local movie theater, we’ve got your must-watch list. Start with TV and scroll down for movies. It’s all right here.
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On TV this week …
Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story (Hulu)
Gather round, Jovi fans. This four-part docuseries takes us behind the spandex for an intimate history of the Jersey hair rock legends who gave us “You Give Love a Bad Name” and “Livin’ on a Prayer,” including candid interviews with the band members. Fellow Jerseyite Bruce Springsteen, 74, weighs in: “Jon’s choruses demand to be sung by 20,000 people in an arena.” As testimonials go, that isn’t too shabby.
Watch it: Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, April 26 on Hulu
Don’t miss this: 9 Things We Learned About Barbara Walters’ Tough, Tumultuous Life, on AARP Members Only Access
The Veil (FX on Hulu)
Steven Knight, 65, is so revered for Eastern Promises, Peaky Blinders and Dirty Pretty Things that his new limited series, The Veil, made IndieWire’s list of the 12 most hotly anticipated shows of 2024. Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men, The Handmaid’s Tale), the most-nominated lead drama actress in Emmy Award history, plays a spy and master of disguise, tracking the truth from Istanbul to Paris to London and struggling to make the U.S. and French intelligence branches cooperate before thousands of lives are lost.
Watch it: The Veil, April 30 on FX on Hulu
Shardlake (Disney+)
In a Tudor whodunit directed by Justin Chadwick, 55 (The Other Boleyn Girl), Thomas Cromwell (Game of Thrones’ Sean Bean, 65) orders Matthew Shardlake (Arthur Hughes), a sheltered lawyer much mocked for his scoliosis, to hunt down a murderer at a remote monastery — or else face Henry VIII’s wrath on top of Cromwell’s.
Watch it: Shardlake, May 1 on Disney+
Your Netflix Watch of the Week is here!
Unlocked: A Jail Experiment, Season 1
In a fascinating, controversial reality show, Sheriff Eric Higgins opened the cell doors of 46 inmates at a prison in Little Rock, Arkansas, and gave them unprecedented freedom to come and go (inside their still-guarded cellblock) and decide how the place should operate. “They stepped up,” says Higgins. “They recognized that they can improve their environment. And the majority of the people in the unit did the right thing from day one.” See what you think.
Watch it: Unlocked: A Jail Experiment 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!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Holdovers (2023, R)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph picked up a well-deserved Oscar for her supporting role in a touching throwback drama by Alexander Payne, 63, set at a snooty New England boarding school in 1970. A lone student, abandoned by his family over the Christmas holiday, remains on campus with his cranky bachelor history teacher (Paul Giamatti, 56) and the school cook (Randolph), who is quietly grieving the loss of her son in Vietnam.
Watch it: The Holdovers, April 29 on Prime Video
Don’t miss this: The 11 Best Things Coming to Prime Video in April
What’s new at the movies …
⭐⭐⭐☆☆ Challengers, R
Three beautiful bodies in search of a heart — that’s Challengers, a glossy tennis love triangle by Luca Guadagnino, 52. Tashi (charismatic Zendaya) was a Stanford tennis prodigy until her knee collapsed. Her career over, she becomes the coach, then wife, to Art (West Side Story breakout Mike Faist). Yet she still feels the burn with Art’s longtime frenemy and competitor Patrick (Josh O’Connor, The Crown). There’s smoke but little fire — an early three-way smooch while on tour plays more manipulative than sexy. But the sinewy trio exposes skin aplenty: boys in the shower or sauna, removing sweaty shirts and gripping tennis balls, and Zendaya’s gazellelike legs shined to a high gloss. Meanwhile, the script oscillates in time, from past to present and everything in between, whipsawing the audience as if watching a tennis match. While clever, that exhausting narrative strategy, shot with the stunning shallowness of a Nike ad, bounces along yet never quite lands. —Thelma M. Adams (T.M.A.)
Watch it: Challengers, April 26 in theaters
Macbeth (Unrated)
The bad news is that you can forget about getting a ticket to the monster hit Washington, D.C., stage production of Shakespeare’s scariest tragedy, starring Ralph Fiennes, 61. The good news is, you can watch it on film! But more bad news: It’s screening for only two days in select theaters, so hop online to check for times near you and plan ahead.
Watch it: Macbeth, May 2 and May 5 at select theaters
Also catch up with …
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 on Max
Don’t miss this: What You Need to Know Before Watching ‘The Jinx — Part Two’
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