The current streamer-sphere buzz surrounds Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, which debuted last week. Subsequent episodes will debut on Wednesdays until all 10 are available.
The series, starring Elisabeth Moss as a reproductive surrogate in an infertile dystopian future, is just the latest binge-worthy offering from the brave new world of streaming services.
The big three providers remain Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime. An outstanding place to find what series are available is tvguide.com. Here's a handy roundup of some shows waiting for you to stream and binge to your heart's content.
The Americans: Seasons 1-3 of the outstanding spy drama are available on Amazon Prime; Season 4 is on the FX Now app; and Season 5 is currently airing on FX.
Big Little Lies: The drama starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley is available on HBO Go.
BoJack Horseman: All three seasons of this witty animated series are currently on Netflix.
Game of Thrones: If you can't wait until summer for new episodes, watch all the previous seasons on HBO Go or HBO Now.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Season 1 of the wry, quirky, romantic comedy/drama starring Rachel Bloom is available on Netflix.
Twin Peaks: Watch the decidedly bizarre 1990 original ahead of the May 21 Showtime reboot. The series can be found on CBS All Access and Showtime Anytime.
Veep: One of the best political satires in the history of television. Julia Louis-Dreyfus has won the Emmy for Best Female Performance in a Comedy for an astonishing five consecutive years. Catch up on HBO Go.
Transparent: Jeffrey Tambor is brilliant as a transgender who comes out late in life. Amazon ordered a fourth season even before the third debuted.
Friday Night Lights: It's high school football in Texas. It's Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton. It's "clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose," and it's on Netflix.
Freaks and Geeks: One of the best ever period comedy/dramas about teen angst. Of course it died too soon. The 1999 series starred Linda Cardellini, John Francis Daley, Samm Levine, Martin Starr, Joe Flaherty, Busy Phillips, Seth Rogen, James Franco and Jason Segel. It's on Netflix.
My So-Called Life: Right up there with Freaks and Geeks is this one-season (1994) cult classic that ran on ABC and starred Claire Danes and Jared Leto. See for yourself how stupid ABC was to kill it by watching on Hulu.
Mad Men: Widely hailed as one of the best TV series of all times, all six seasons are on Netflix.
Rectify: From Ray McKinnon and originally airing on Sundance, this is a tale of wrongful conviction and moral ambiguity. All four seasons can be found on Netflix.
Felicity: If you enjoy Keri Russell in The Americans, check out her post-Mickey Mouse Club 1998-2002 teen drama from J.J. Abrams on Hulu. All four seasons are available and chronicle Felicity's college years.
Fargo: The first two seasons of the dark comedy anthology are available on Hulu. Stars include Kirsten Dunst, Colin Hanks, Billy Bob Thornton, Ted Danson and Martin Freeman.
Battlestar Galactica: This is the 2003-2009 Sci-Fi Channel reboot and is worth re-watching just to figure out what the heck is going on. It's on Hulu.
Breaking Bad: Netflix has one of the most critically acclaimed series of all time. It stars Bryan Cranston as Walter White, a high school chemistry teacher who becomes a drug kingpin.
Arrested Development: If dysfunctional family comedy is your favorite, then this should be at the top of the list. It was critically praised, but suffered low ratings and Fox cut it loose after three seasons.
Netflix rescued the show and even ordered another season. All four seasons are available and a fifth is a possibility.
FINALES
• Blue Bloods airs its Season 7 finale at 9 p.m. Friday on CBS. This may seem like an early out to some, but 22 episodes is a full season these days. If it did not have a long break in the middle of the season, a series might end in early May instead of later in the month.
In the episode, "The Thin Blue Line," a Mexican drug cartel targets Danny (Donnie Wahlberg); Jamie (Will Estes) goes after a serial killer; and Mayor Poole (David Ramsey) confides in Frank (Tom Selleck) that he plans to retire.
Here are a few more shows whose season will end in the next week.
Monday: Kevin Can Wait, 7 p.m. CBS; Superior Donuts, 8 p.m. CBS.
Wednesday: Criminal Minds, 8 p.m. CBS; Black-ish, 8:30 p.m. ABC.
May 11: The Big Bang Theory, 7 p.m. CBS; The Great Indoors, 7:30 p.m. CBS; Mom, 8 p.m. CBS; Riverdale, 8 p.m. The CW; Life in Pieces, 8:30 p.m. CBS; The Catch, 9 p.m. ABC.
The TV Column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Email:
mstorey@arkansasonline.com
Weekend on 05/04/2017