There are scores of TV shows out there, with dozens of new episodes each week, not to mention everything you can find on Hulu Plus, Netflix streaming, and HBO Go. How’s a viewer to keep up? To help you sort through all that television has to offer, Flavorwire is compiling five best bets for the coming week. This week, a Netflix perennial returns, Hulu releases its latest original drama, and TV Land premieres a promising new comedy from executive producers Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone. Remember to stretch!
Now: Grace and Frankie
What’s left for Grace (Jane Fonda) and Frankie (Lily Tomlin) now that they’ve bonded over the shared revelation that their husbands are gay for each other? Why, get into the sex toy market, of course! In Season 3 of this passable but very watchable sitcom, the title gals team up to start a company selling vibrators to older women, a venture that tests their already tenuous relationship. The 13-episode season is streaming on Netflix as of today.
Tuesday: Rebel
BET’s newest original series, Rebel is a police drama created by Boyz n the Hood writer/director John Singleton and Amani Walker. Danielle Moné Truitt stars as Rebecca “Rebel” Knight, an Oakland police detective and all-around badass who winds up going rogue after her own brother is fatally shot by the police. Breaking Bad‘s Giancarlo Esposito co-stars as Rebel’s lieutenant, and Method Man plays her on-again, off-again boyfriend. The two-hour premiere airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. on BET.
Wednesday: Harlots
This colorful new Hulu original stars Samantha Morton as the owner of a London brothel circa 1763, when one in five women worked in the sex trade. Downton Abbey‘s Jessica Brown Findlay plays Morton’s daughter, a highly sought-after courtesan. The show features plenty of bodice-ripping and bosom-heaving, but the majority female production, writing, and directing staff worked hard to ensure we see things through the eyes of the women and not their clients. Harlots‘ eight-episode first season is streaming on Hulu as of Wednesday.
Wednesday: Imaginary Mary
Jenna Elfman stars in this weird little new ABC sitcom about a happily childless woman who falls for a divorced dad of three (Stephen Schneider of Broad City and You’re the Worst) — and is consequently revisited by her childhood imaginary friend, Mary, voiced by Rachel Dratch. The pilot has its charms, but it mostly just made me depressed that the only way someone was willing to give Rachel Dratch a starring role on a TV show was to disguise her as a furry CGI troll. Imaginary Mary premieres Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. on ABC before moving to its regular timeslot of Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on April 4.
Wednesday: Nobodies
TV Land has already renewed this new comedy with executive producers Melissa McCarthy and Ben Falcone for a second season even before the first has premiered, and having seen the first couple episodes I’d say that optimism was well-warranted. Created by and starring veteran sketch comedians Hugh Davidson, Larry Dorf, and Rachel Ramras, alumni of the Groundlings troupe, Nobodies is a sharp meta-comedy about three friends determined to use their famous acquaintances as leverage to get their screenplay made into a film. The show premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. on TV Land.