Week of March 21 – 27

“Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen” is pretty much the mindset of most of us in this hellish timeline. But it’s also the name of a very good Netflix thriller series premiering this week, whose fantastical horrors will distract you from the true-life monstrosities we’re enduring every day. And there’s even more fun to be had this week, with a terrific new time travel movie on Hulu (“Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice”), the return of “For All Mankind” (on Apple TV), a ballerina action movie called “Pretty Lethal” (on Prime Video) and the first British version of “Saturday Night Live” (on Peacock). See, that’s something!

On with the television! 

Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen

Thursday, March 26, Netflix

Source: Netflix

Uh oh. It’s your new streaming obsession. “Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen” hails from executive producers Matt and Ross Duffer, creators of “Stranger Things,” and creator Haley Z. Boston. It stars Camila Morrone as a young woman named Rachel who travels to her fiancé Nicky’s (Adam DiMarco from “The White Lotus”) family cabin in the woods, shortly before their wedding day. As the title suggests, things are ominous from the outset. She is haunted by troubling visions and faces encounters too gloriously strange to reveal here. And that’s before they arrive at the modern masterpiece of a cabin in the woods whose artistic beauty covers up a genuine creepiness.

Morrone and DiMarco are flanked by some genuine legends – Nicky’s parents are played by Jennifer Jason Leigh and Ted Levine. These are actors who, between them, have starred in David Cronenberg’s “eXistenZ,” Jonathan Demme’s “The Silence of the Lambs” and Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight.” (Jeff Wilbusch, Karla Crome, Gus Birney and Zlatko Burić, in a completely different register than his recent turn in “Wonder Man,” also star.) This is the kind of series that demands careful attention and a careful cataloging of details – a brief sequence at the beginning of the show holds secrets galore. Be on the lookout. Something very bad is going to happen, after all. [TRAILER]

The Madison

Saturday, March 21, Paramount+

Source: Paramount+

That’s right – “The Madison” is already over. Two weeks, three episodes each. And then it’s done. But if you didn’t tune in last week, “The Madison” is incredibly binge-able. It follows Michelle Pfeiffer’s Manhattan socialite who, following an immense tragedy, travels to rural Montana where her husband (Kurt Russell) had a small cabin. She brings along her two daughters and two granddaughters and together they reconnect with the land and each other. But don’t fret. There’s plenty more where that came from – season 2 has already been filmed and will be streaming on Paramount+ shortly. Because trauma takes time to heal. [INTERVIEW]

Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice

Friday, March 27, Hulu

Source: Hulu

The sophomore feature from BenDavid Grabinski (director of “Happily” and co-creator of Netflix anime series “Scott Pilgrim Takes Off”) is a kinetic time travel romantic comedy action movie. You know. That old chestnut. In “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice,” James Marsden plays Mike, who works for Nick, a gangster played by Vince Vaughn. (The reason there are two Nicks in the title and two Nicks in the movie? You guessed it – time travel shenanigans.) Eiza González is Alice, the woman that both men (or is it three men?) love. To say anything more would be to give away the multitude of surprises that “Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice,” which has its world premiere at the South by Southwest Film Festival on March 14, has in store. But rest assured, it’s one of the coolest, funniest movies of the year. And while it’s a tragedy that you won’t be able to see it in a packed theater, surrounded by like-minded film fanatics, at least you can watch it in your sweatpants. Maybe invite some friends over, order some food and make it a whole thing? You won’t be disappointed. [INTERVIEW]

Standoff: The FBI, Power and Paranoia

Sunday, March 22 at 9 p.m., CNN

Source: CNN

This new documentary series (two episodes air Sunday) “will examine the fragile, high-risk relationship between FBI Directors and the Presidents they serve, spotlighting the moments when that balance is pushed to the brink,” according to the official synopsis. Episodes concern “FBI Director James Comey’s own account of his infamous clash with President Donald Trump,” plus “the long-simmering fracture between J. Edgar Hoover and President Richard Nixon, the strained relationship between President Bill Clinton and FBI Director Louis Freeh, and the post-9/11 alliance between President George W. Bush and FBI Director Robert Mueller.” Sounds like a gripping documentary series and an example of why CNN’s brand of journalism is so vital. [TRAILER]

For All Mankind

Apple TV

Source: Apple TV

“For All Mankind” returns for its fifth season on March 27, and to celebrate, why not revisit the incredible, alternate-history series from creators Ronald D. Moore, Matt Wolpert and Ben Nedivi? If you’ve never seen the show before, it’s really something. The first season is set in the 1960s, during a version of the Space Race where the Russians reach the moon before America. (It’s like a warped version of “The Right Stuff” and occasionally uses real historical figures and characters inspired by actual astronauts.) Each season jumps forward a decade, with a new set of complications introduced. Full of nuanced character work and storytelling bravado, “For All Mankind” is one of the greatest series – sci-fi or otherwise – to emerge from the streaming era. And we can’t wait to see where it’s all headed next, including with the Russia-set spinoff series “Star City,” coming later this year. [WATCH]

"Pretty Lethal" Source: Prime Video

“The Forsytes”