The 10 Best TV Shows of April

It seemed impossible for The Circle Season 2 to even come close to recapturing the magic of Season 1, but here we are—three weeks into a wild rollercoaster ride that upended everything we thought we knew about this show. These players came to win $100K, and they are playing for keeps. The alliances are strong, the rivalries are messier, and the chat is :fire emoji. But the alliances are just an added bonus, because the heart of the show remains unchanged. What other show would feature an alliance between a 58-year-old gay author from Texas and an Instagram model from Essex… who’s also fallen for a mom catfishing as her husband? Everything is heightened this season, from the gameplay to our unabashed affection for this social experiment reality show. — Brett White

Stream The Circle on Netflix

The stellar cast of Amazon’s animated superhero show would make it worth a watch alone, featuring — among so many others — Steven Yeun, J.K. Simmons and Sandra Oh. But what made the series so special (the final five episodes all dropped in April) is the unique blend of humor, emotion and over the top violence that were the comic’s hallmark, as well. Leading to a seventh episode that blew the doors off with action, and a finale that went even harder, Invincible proved worthy of its name. — Alex Zalben

Stream Invincible on Prime Video

This Netflix eight-part limited series follows a pair of stylish psychos as they befriend, drug and murder hippies in southeast Asia to fund their decadent lifestyle. Based on the true story of serial killer Charles Sobhraj and his girlfriend Marie-Andree Leclerc, this 1970’s based thriller is as creepy as it is seductive. — Tobey Grumet

Stream The Serpent on Netflix

Owen Dennis’ Cartoon Network show is the case of something too good for this world ending too soon. Set on a never-ending train in an alternate dimension, each season follows a different passenger as they work through how they messed up their lives on Earth. Once they figure that out and the number on their hand reaches zero, they can go back home. It’s an infinitely cool idea that makes great use of its sci-fi premise by creating hundreds of worlds, each cooler than the last. But that’s not what made Infinity Train great. This quiet, underappreciated show stands as one of the most insightful reflections on personal growth. Just like oh-so-many passengers, we have a lot to learn from the train. — Kayla Cobb

Stream Infinity Train on HBO Max

Top Chef is pure comfort food, and there’s nothing I’d rather binge more. This season, the chefs are bringing their culinary talents to Portland, Oregon, where they test their skills with tricky challenges like cooking outdoors at a fruit orchard. Top Chef keeps its formula reliably the same each season, but this year marks the first filmed in a pandemic, a feat they managed to pull off without making it the center of the show while still noting its massive impact on the restaurant industry as a whole. — Greta Bjornson

Where to watch Top Chef

The For All Mankind Season 2 finale is one of those heart-pounding episodes of television that people will be talking about for years to come. After two seasons of carefully introducing us to the astronauts of this alternate timeline, the Apple TV+ series threw them into the crucible of a nuclear missile crisis. With World War III (and way too many personal demons) breathing down our heroes’ necks, everyone managed to meet the moment in different ways. For some, like Danielle Poole (Krys Marshall), it was embracing their own power to do good. For others, like ex-spouses Gordo (Michael Dorman) and Tracy Stevens (Sarah Jones), it meant risking it all to save everyone else. For All Mankind Season 2 was a triumphant sophomore season of television that left fans hungry for what comes next. — Meghan O’Keefe

Stream For All Mankind on Apple TV+

Kate Winslet is riveting in Mare of Easttown, a series I’ll comfortably call the best thing HBO has put out all year — and we’re only in Episode 2. At first glance it looks like any other murder mystery, but Mare of Easttown reveals itself to be much more layered, between its delicate balance in tone, tangled web of characters, and the complicated protagonist at the center of it all. But like any classic whodunnit, anyone in the small Pennsylvania town could be the killer, and Mare of Easttown is sure to have plenty of twists in store. — Greta Bjornson

Where to watch Mare of Easttown

A creepy mystery? Unnerving suspects? The ’90s? Freeform’s latest drama has it all. Told across three timelines and from the perspectives of multiple characters, Cruel Summer pieces together the kidnapping of high school it-girl Kate (Olivia Holt). But what starts as a small town tragedy quickly deteriorates into a saga about uncertain motives and one girl’s intense jealousy. Did Jeanette (Chiara Aurelia) want to be Kate so badly that she would do anything, even let another woman die? We’re on the edge of our seats, waiting to find out. — Kayla Cobb

Where to watch Cruel Summer

Shadow and Bone is the rare fantasy series that captures lightning in a bottle. Jessie Mei Li stars as Alina Starkov, a lowly cartographer who is shocked to discover she might possess the power to save her fictional nation from the horror of the Shadow Fold. While the series hits every beat of a YA Fantasy story with aplomb, Shadow and Bone soars thanks to its rich tapestry of fascinating characters and fabulous storytelling. Netflix’s new fantasy series is the rare show a viewer can get lost in, and that kind of escape is something we all need right now. (Not to mention the fact that the show is horny as sin.) — Meghan O’Keefe

Stream Shadow & Bone on Netflix

HBO Max’s Made For Love is one of the most innovative shows in recent memory. A deft blend of dark comedy and existential melancholy, the series centers on Hazel Green (Cristin Milioti), a woman on the run after her husband, controlling tech billionaire Byron Gogol (Billy Magnussen), implants a monitoring device in her brain. Ah, young love. A sophisticated rumination on romance and technology, the superbly-acted, defiantly unique series is a fun, breezy binge. — Josh Sorokach

Stream Made for Love on HBO Max