+ Paris & Nicole: The Encore, SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night & new Tulsa King, Reyka & The Responder
LATE ADDITION TO MARCH
THE CLEANING LADY S4 | First on Showmax | Wednesdays from 26 March
Winner of five international awards, The Cleaning Lady follows a whip-smart Cambodian doctor (Critics Choice winner Elodie Yung), who comes to the US for medical treatment to save her son. When the system fails and pushes her into hiding, she becomes a cleaner for the Mob.
After being a pawn caught between the FBI and the world of organised crime, in Season 4 Thony makes the bold decision to take charge of her own destiny by exchanging her cleaning lady uniform for the scrubs of a surgical intern at a small community hospital. Thony’s return to the medical career she sacrificed for her son opens a new path to citizenship for them both.
But in order to make this happen, she must continue her service to the Sin Cara cartel — not as a cleaning lady, but as the new Mob doctor — bringing her ever closer to Jorge (Santiago Cabrera), the cartel’s brooding new leader.
Emmy nominee Daniel Cerone (Dexter) takes over as showrunner in Season 4.
Watch the trailer:
WEEK ONE: 31 March-6 April
THE REAL HOUSEWIVES OF BEVERLY HILLS S14 | First on Showmax | Binge from 1 April
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (RHOBH) follows the lives of some of the most affluent women in the world as they enjoy the lavish lifestyles only Beverly Hills can provide.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills won the Critics’ Choice TV Award for Best Reality Series for its debut season and has been nominated for three MTV Awards and nine People’s Choice Awards, including Reality Show of the Year in 2024.
Season 14’s stars include former Netflix chief marketing officer Bozoma Saint John, who grew up in Ghana and Kenya, and actresses Garcelle Beauvais (Black Girl Missing, The Other Black Girl, Survival of the Thickest) and Kyle Richards (of Halloween fame), who’ve both picked up multiple People’s Choice nominations for the show.
Also among this season’s line-up are Erika Girardi (aka singer and actress Erika Jayne), fashion designer Dorit Kemsley, and socialite and businesswoman Sutton Stracke. Look out for philanthropist and entrepreneur Kathy Hilton (Kyle Richards’ half-sister and Paris Hilton’s mom) and Oscar nominee Jennifer Tilly (from Chucky and Bound), coming in as friends of the Housewives.
Watch the trailer:
TEACUP S1 | First on Showmax | Binge from Tuesday, 1 April
Trapped on a farm in rural Georgia, a group of neighbours must put aside their differences and unite in the face of a mysterious and deadly threat.
Teacup’s cast includes Emmy nominee Yvonne Strahovski (The Handmaid’s Tale), Teen Choice nominee Scott Speedman (Animal Kingdom, Underworld), BAFTA nominee Chaske Spencer (The English, The Twilight Saga) and Emmy winner Kathy Baker (Picket Fences, Edward Scissorhands).
From horror-movie mastermind James Wan (Saw, The Conjuring), Teacup is inspired by Robert McCammon’s bestselling novel, Stinger.
Teacup was named the fourth best horror series of 2024 by Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus calls it “stylish and genuinely scary.”
The eight-part series was nominated for Best Horror Series at this year’s Saturn Awards, as voted by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.
Watch the trailer, which has nearly three million views:
TULSA KING S2 | Binge from Friday, 4 April
After being released from prison after 25 years, New York mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi is exiled to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Realising that his Mob family may not have his best interests in mind, Dwight sets out to establish a new criminal empire – in a place that might as well be another planet.
In his first TV lead role, Oscar nominee Sylvester Stallone (aka Rocky Balboa) stars as Manfredi – a part that’s already earned him a Critics Choice Super Awards nomination for Best Actor in an Action Series.
Created by Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone), Tulsa King’s first season was nominated for an Emmy for its stunt coordination, as well as Best Action Series at the Critics Choice Super Awards. With a rare 100% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Season 2 was up for Best Action/Thriller Series at the 2025 Saturn Awards, as voted by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films.
Season 2’s first episode became the most-watched global premiere ever on Paramount+, with Tulsa King ranking as a Nielsen Top 10 streaming title throughout its US run.
Frank Grillo (Boss Level, Peacemaker) joins the cast this season as Kansas City Mob boss Bill Bevilaqua. Also look out for Critics Choice nominee Neal McDonough (DC’s Damien Darhk, and Marvel’s Dum Dum Dugan), Emmy winner Dana Delany (Katherine in Desperate Housewives), Emmy nominee Annabella Sciorra (Gloria Trillo in The Sopranos), and Stallone’s daughter, Scarlet Rose Stallone.
Watch the trailer, which has over five million views:
WEEK TWO: 7-13 April
KILLER FRONT PAGE S1 | Binge from Monday, 7 April
Killer Front Page stars Lemogang Tsipa (Shaka in Shaka iLembe) as Sol Mojalefa Phiri, a journalist whose stale career takes an unexpected turn when his desperation for recognition pushes him to fabricate a front-page story. Soon Sol gets entangled in a web of lies, crime, and unexpected romance. As his articles gain him respect and fame, his relationships and values spiral out of control.
SAFTA nominee Emmanuel Gweva (Isithembiso) plays Sol’s colleague and rival Gert, with triple SAFTA winner Linda Sokhulu (Sokhulu & Partners) as the determined Detective Sis Connie.
Produced by Barkers Media (the upcoming Superstore SA adaptation), the Mzansi Magic series is directed by SAFTA nominees Sandile Mdluli (Youngins, Adulting, The River) and Twiggy Matiwana (Unseen).
Watch the trailer:
REYKA S2 | Binge from Tuesday, 8 April
Kim Engelbrecht is back in her International Emmy-nominated role as criminal profiler Reyka Gama, as she investigates a series of attacks on couples at the docks in Durban Harbour, Africa’s largest port.
Nominated for an International Emmy for Best Drama, Season 1 opened the Monte-Carlo Television Festival and went on to sell in over 150 territories. Locally, it was nominated for nine SAFTAs, winning Best Actress in a TV Drama for Engelbrecht, as well as Directing, Cinematography, and Scriptwriting awards.
Screen Actors Guild Award winner Iain Glen (Game of Thrones’ Jorah Mormont) returns as Reyka’s childhood abductor, Angus Speelman, with SAFTA winner Anna-Mart van der Merwe and SAFTA nominees Nokuthula Ledwaba and Gerald Steyn also back in their Season 1 roles.
Co-produced by multi-award winners Quizzical Pictures, Season 2 also features Lemogang Tsipa (Shaka iLembe) and SAFTA winner Pallance Dladla (DAM, Isibaya).
Watch the trailer:
DENISE RICHARDS & HER WILD THINGS S1 | First on Showmax | Stream from Tuesday, 8 April
Step into the glamorous yet chaotic world of Denise Richards as the actress, model and, most importantly, mother navigates the complexities of blended family life with her daughters and new husband, Aaron Phypers. Along the way, Denise gets together with her famous friends and connects with ex-husband Charlie Sheen, for a series of wild and offbeat adventures in Hollywood.
Denise’s vivacious eldest daughter Sami Sheen has carved her own path and made a name for herself posting mature content on OnlyFans. Soft-spoken but determined, middle daughter Lola Sheen finds comfort in her faith and wishes her sister Sami could see things through her eyes. Denise’s sweet-natured youngest daughter, Eloise Richards, brings out the best in her family. As the glue that holds her family together, Eloise’s presence reminds her sisters of what’s important in life.
Richards starred as Bond girl Dr Christmas Jones in The World Is Not Enough, opposite Neve Campbell and Matt Dillon in Wild Things, and in both The Bold and the Beautiful and The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, among other hits.
Watch the trailer:
THE HANDMAID’S TALE S6 | First On Showmax | Wednesdays from 9 April
In the sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale, June’s unyielding spirit and determination pull her back into the fight to take down Gilead.
Elisabeth Moss returns to her Emmy-winning role as June, alongside fellow Emmy winners Ann Dowd, Bradley Whitford, and Samira Wiley, and Emmy nominees Yvonne Strahovski, Max Minghella, O-T Fagbenle, and Madeline Brewer. Emmy nominee Josh Charles (The Good Wife’s Will Gardner) joins the cast this season.
Based on Margaret Atwood’s dystopian classic, The Handmaid’s Tale has been hailed as “more relevant than ever” by MSNBC and is one of the most anticipated TV shows of 2025, according to everyone from Deadline to The Hollywood Reporter, Variety to Vanity Fair.
The first five seasons won 15 Emmys, with an 83% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.4/10 score on IMDb.
Watch the trailer, which has over 11m views:
SNL50: BEYOND SATURDAY NIGHT | First on Showmax | Binge from Wednesday, 9 April
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, creator Lorne Michaels and Oscar winner Morgan Neville exec produce a four part documentary series about the iconic sketch show, which holds the record for the most Emmy wins ever – 101!
Separate episodes explore the audition and writing processes respectively, as well as the classic More Cowbell sketch and the “weird” 11th season, the year that changed everything.
You can look forward to appearances from the likes of Amy Poehler, Andy Samberg, Ayo Edibiri, Bill Hader, Bob Odenkirk, Ego Nwodim, Fred Armisen, Jimmy Fallin, Larry David, Tina Fey, Tom Hanks, Tracy Morgan and Will Ferrell.
Rolling Stone calls the Peacock series “comedy-nerd gold.”
Watch the trailer:
PARIS & NICOLE: THE ENCORE | First on Showmax | Binge from Thursday, 10 April
More than 20 years after OG reality icons Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie first took the world by storm, the life-long friends reunite in Peacock’s three-part special, Paris & Nicole: The Encore.
Follow the dynamic duo as they try to produce a once-in-a-lifetime operatic performance based on their self-coined phrase “Sanasa” – a funny song the girls often sang in their groundbreaking show The Simple Life.
Collider calls the reunion “fun and touching … a necessary and beautiful, if late, conclusion to The Simple Life.”
Watch the trailer:
ACCUSED S2 | Binge from Friday, 11 April
Anthology series Accused returns with eight new stories of ordinary people who find themselves facing criminal charges.
This season’s star-studded cast includes Oscar nominees William H Macy (Fargo, Shameless), Felicity Huffman (Desperate Housewives’ Lynette) and Debra Winger (Terms of Endearment), Emmy winner Michael Chiklis (Detective Vic Mackey in The Shield), and Emmy nominee Taylor Schilling (Piper in Orange is the New Black). Also look out for Critics Choice Super Award-nominees Cobie Smulders (aka Marvel’s Agent Maria Hill), Mike Colter (aka Marvel’s Luke Cage) and Sonequa Martin-Green (Star Trek: Discovery, The Walking Dead), as well as Patrick J. Adams (Mike Ross in Suits).
Accused is developed by Emmy winner Howard Gordon (Homeland, 24), based on the Emmy-winning British series.
Watch the trailer:
WEEK THREE: 14-20 April
THE LAST OF US S2 | Mondays from 14 April
Last year, The Last of Us won seven Critics Choice Super Awards, including Best Horror and Best Superhero, as well as Best Actor (Pedro Pascal), Actress (Bella Ramsey) and Villain (Melanie Lynskey). The post-apocalyptic drama also collected eight Emmys, including Guest Actor and Actress prizes for Murray Bartlett and Storm Reid.
Five years after the events of the first season, Joel and Ellie are drawn into conflict with each other and a world even more dangerous and unpredictable than the one they left behind.
New cast members include Oscar nominee Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction), Emmy winner Catherine O’Hara (Schitt’s Creek), Emmy nominees Kaitlyn Dever (Unbelievable) and Young Mazino (Beef), and Ariela Barer, Danny Ramirez, Isabela Merced and Tati Gabrielle, four of IMDb’s Top Stars to Watch in 2025.
Watch the trailer, which has over 25m views:
INSOMNIA S1 | Binge from 18 April
As Radio Times says, “It’s become a truth universally acknowledged that if Vicky McClure is starring in a show, you’re in for a good and gripping time.”
In Insomnia, the BAFTA-winning Line of Duty star plays career woman Emma. Days before her 40th birthday, Emma stops sleeping – just like her mother did before suffering a violent psychotic breakdown when Emma was five. Emma’s mum always said that she shared the same “bad blood,” and now Emma’s terrified it’s true.
Worse still, Emma can’t help but feel like something else is amiss – her mother is suddenly dead, her estranged sister has resurfaced, and she feels like she’s being watched. As her world begins to unravel, it’s only by investigating the truth of her past that Emma can find the answers she needs to prevent tragedy from striking again.
Insomnia is adapted by Sarah Pinborough from her own bestselling novel of the same name. In their four star review, Daily Mail says, “Vicky McLure’s terrific as a woman on the edge in this ominous thriller.”
Watch the trailer:
WEEK FOUR: 21-27 April
MY BROTHER’S KEEPER S2 | Mondays from 21 April
The final season of My Brother’s Keeper was DStv’s Most Streamed Title of 2024.
From hit-makers Rhythm World Productions (Umkhokha the Curse, Sibongile and the Dlaminis), the Mzansi Magic telenovela tells the story of a family thrown into a deadly succession battle, as Nqubeko, the headstrong and overambitious son of a mistress, breaks the rules of “ukungena” by going after his brother’s widow, Fakazile.
As fan-favourite Donga, Sdumo Mtshali was named Best Actor in a TV Series at last year’s National Film and TV Awards. In addition, My Brother’s Keeper was nominated for four SAFTAs, including Most Popular TV Soap or Telenovela, Best Actor (for Lindani Nkosi as Mshengu, the patriarch we love to hate) and Best Supporting Actress (Hlengiwe Lushaba-Madlala, as the feisty MaMchunu).
The star-studded cast also includes SAFTA winners Wiseman Mncube (Shaka iLembe, The Wife), and Zola Nombona (Lockdown), as well as SAFTA nominee Rosemary Zimu (Savage Beauty) and rising star Mnqobi Kunene (How to Manifest a Man, Outlaws).
Watch the trailer
SMOTHERED S1 | Binge from Monday, 21 April
Smothered follows Sammy and Tom, two strangers – both disillusioned with dating – who meet on a night out at a karaoke bar and strike a deal to have a no-strings-attached fling, then go their separate ways. But when the great sex, pasta in bed and first-names-only arrangement turns into something more, the pair have to deal with the practicalities of falling in love.
Black Reel nominee Danielle Vitalis (Attack the Block, Famalam) and BAFTA nominee Jon Pointing (Sweetpea) co-star, earning Smothered a 2024 BAFTA nomination for its casting. Also look out for BAFTA-winning comedian Aisling Bea, Emmy winner Blair Underwood (Longlegs, L.A. Law), Rebecca Lucy Taylor (AKA musician Self Esteem) and Insta-famous comedian and author Harry Trevaldwyn.
In a 4/5-star review, The Guardian called Smothered, “TV’s most brilliant new romcom… utterly lovely… dry, sweet, well-written and extremely easy to watch in one greedy sitting.”
Smothered was co-created by multi-award winner Monica Heisey, a scriptwriter on Schitt’s Creek and author of The Times’ Best Popular Fiction Novel of 2023: Really Good, Actually.
Watch the trailer:
THE RESPONDER S2 | Binge from Tuesday, 22 April
Martin Freeman (Dr Watson in Sherlock, Bilbo in The Hobbit) won an International Emmy and was nominated for a BAFTA for his lead role in The Responder as Chris Carson, an urgent response officer trying to stay on the straight and narrow.
The Responder was nominated for six BAFTAs, including Best Drama Series and Best Writer for series creator and ex-police officer Tony Schumacher.
Josh Finan and British-Nigerian actress Adelayo Adedayo are back in their BAFTA-nominated roles as Marco and Rachel. New faces this season include BAFTA winner Izuka Hoyle (Boiling Point) and the late Bernard Hill (Lord of the Rings‘ Théoden) in the final role of his career.
The Responder was rated the #9 Best Drama Series of 2022 by Rotten Tomatoes, and Season 2 has once again nabbed a coveted 100% critics’ rating. In their 5/5-star review, The Guardian hails Freeman’s “career-best” performance and calls Season 2 “a triumph… just as riveting and vital as the first.”
Watch the trailer:
CRIME SCENE KITCHEN S2 | Binge from Friday, 25 April
Crime Scene Kitchen is a culinary guessing game in which bakers must decode what type of dessert was made, when all that’s left are a few clues.
With $100 000 up for grabs, each episode of this cooking competition begins at the scene of the crime: a kitchen that was just used to make an amazing, mouthwatering dessert that has since disappeared. Teams of two are challenged to scour the kitchen for clues and ingredients to figure out what was baked. Then they have to replicate the recipe based on their guess, for celebrity judges chef Curtis Stone and cake artist Yolanda Gampp.
Hosted by Joel McHale, Emmy-nominated Community star and host of The Soup, Crime Scene Kitchen’s debut season was nominated for Best Culinary Show at the Critics Choice Real TV Awards.
Watch the trailer:
WEEK FIVE: 28 April
POPPA’S HOUSE S1 | First on Showmax | Binge from Monday, 28 April
Four-time Emmy nominee Damon Wayans stars as happily divorced Poppa, a legendary talk radio host who has his point of view challenged: at work when a new female co-host is hired, and at home where he finds himself still parenting his adult son, a brilliant dreamer who is trying to pursue his passion while being a responsible father and husband.
Critics Choice nominee Damon Wayans Jr co-stars alongside three-time NAACP Image Awards nominee Essence Atkins and Tetona Jackson (Good Trouble).
Poppa’s House has an 86% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Common Sense Media saying, “Immensely watchable, this delightful sitcom harnesses the physical comedy and smarts of two members of a beloved comic family.”
Watch the trailer:
NORTHERN LIGHTS S1 | Binge from Tuesday, 29 April
Northern Lights tells the story of two grieving strangers whose worlds collide when Lloyd notices Áine standing on a bridge over a river. Fearing the worst, he decides to intervene.
Based on the acclaimed play of the same name, the six-episode series was nominated for four Irish Film and Television Awards, including Best TV Drama and Best Script for series writer and star Stephen Jones, and Best Lead Actress – TV Drama for Elva Trill.
Joe.co.uk calls Northern Lights “one of the best Irish shows of recent years.”
Watch the trailer:
JUFFROU X | Binge from Wednesday, 30 April
At a school riddled with problems, a young maths teacher attempts to not only educate her students but also help them create a better future for themselves. After one of her star pupils is murdered, she becomes entangled in a world of vigilante justice.
Juffrou X cast is led by Silwerskerm nominee Trix Vivier (Fraksie, Trackers, Legacy) as Inge, a no-nonsense teacher committed to her work and students.
Afrikaans TV site Terloops named Juffrou X the fourth best South African series of 2024, hailing it as “a story that will keep haunting you.”
Written and directed by SAFTA and Silwerskerm winner Tertius Kapp (Gaia), Juffrou X also features Silwerskerm winner Gershwin Mias (Die Byl), SAFTA winner Brendon Daniels (White Lies), Fleur du Cap nominee Bianca Flanders (Nêrens, Noord-Kaap), SAFTA nominee De Klerk Oelofse (Hotel), Silwerskerm nominee Wilhelm van der Walt (Donkerbos) and Clayton Evertson (Koek).
Watch the trailer: