5 Exciting New Series You May Have Slept on Last Month

April Genre Mashup: A Spotlight on Female Powerhouse Performances

Image: The Cry of the Butterflies, Hulu

Once upon a time, HBO’s Sunday night dramas dominated social media’s watercooler Mondays. 

Game of Thrones (GOT) dethroned The Sopranos, which outpaced The Wire. 

Thanks to a proliferation of content across multiple streaming platforms, there’s no shortage of discussion-worthy stories on the small screen. 

While much buzz surrounds the latest GOT successor, The Last of Us, other new releases prove they can be every bit as satisfying as HBO’s bleak dystopia.

For example, Natasha Lyonne dazzles in Rian Johnson’s stylistic and clever weekly whodunnit murder mystery, Poker Face. 

However, few shows are fortunate enough to become instant hits.

Despite its star-studded cast and a large budget, Extrapolations, a sci-fi epic on Apple TV+, launched with a confusing story and lackluster reviews.

While we truly live in the Golden Age of Television, it's difficult to predict the hidden gems from the time-wasting disappointments.

Are you searching for electrifying, boundary-breaking entertainment but don't have the energy to dig through the infinite streaming wasteland? Then you've come to the right place.

This month's picks feature brilliant stories with fascinating female characters created by talented contemporary storytellers.

Good riddance to the days when sexist studio executives believed women on the screen should only be “likable” or “dateable.” 

Actresses now play messy, complicated, and perpetually flawed three-dimensional human beings. 

From a deranged Black female serial killer to awe-inspiring, history-making Dominican sisters, these binge-able series show that women can be just as fearless as their male counterparts.  

Here are five exciting new shows featuring badass women that may have flown under your radar last month.

Image: Hulu

1. Unprisoned

Starring: Kerry Washington, Delroy Lindo, Marque Richardson

Creator: Tracy McMillan

Synopsis: A woman’s life is upended when her father, newly released from prison, moves in with her and her teenage son.

On Instagram, Paige (Washington), a family therapist, lives what appears to be a picture-perfect life. She spreads her unique brand of self-help while raising her teenage son, Finn (Faly Rakotohavana), who struggles with his bi-racial identity.

Edwin (Lindo), Paige’s father, throws her seemingly impeccable existence off balance when he returns home after spending seventeen years in federal prison.

Mal (Richardson), Edwin’s parole officer, helps Edwin adjust to his reformed life, emphasizing that a family support system helps ex-inmates re-enter society.

McMillan drew inspiration from her own story to write this family sitcom she co-produces with Washington and Lindo.

Washington and Lindo shine in McMillan’s slice-of-life dramedy that changes the conversation about the formerly incarcerated and washes away the negative stereotypes surrounding them.

This isn’t a typical criminal redemption story nor a preachy commentary on mass incarceration. 

Instead, this series concentrates on flawed characters working to transcend their past trauma and tragedy, thus humanizing the transition from prison to life outside. 

“Between 70 million and 100 million—or as many as one in three Americans—have some type of criminal record.” — sentencingproject.org

Washington, Lindo, and McMillan expose the systemic, long-term barriers that make re-entry difficult and often impossible. They show audiences how love and support provide a much-needed safety net for the millions who filter through the criminal justice system.

Their family-based comedy debuted as the Onyx Collective’s most-watched series premiere on Hulu. 

Unprisoned is an authentic portrayal of post-prison life through a sympathetic, heartwarming lens.

Stream Unprisoned on Hulu.

Image: HBO Max

2. Rain Dogs 

Starring: Daisy May Cooper, Jack Farthing, Ronke Adekoluejo

Creator: Cash Carraway

Synopsis: A working-class single mum, her daughter, and her gay bestie form a dysfunctional band of outcasts living on the fringe of society.

Costello (Cooper), a hopeful writer, hustles through London’s underground sex work scene to make ends meet. 

Selby (Farthing), her affluent partner in crime who was recently sprung from jail, struggles to reign in his violent impulses.

The inseparable, unpredictable pair bring out the worst in each other. 

Iris (Fleur Tashjian), Costello's daughter, is the only thing stopping the destructive duo from spiraling out of control.

Carraway writes and produces this gritty British dramedy based on her ground-breaking memoir Skint Estate: A Memoir of Poverty, Motherhood, and Survival. 

She shows the chaos, humor, and heart that can come from the problematic family a person chooses rather than the heartless one they strive to escape.

Through her distinct juxtaposition of impoverishment and turmoil, Carraway brings attention to those struggling to survive and thrive living on the periphery of society.

Costello and Selby are the modern-day, down-on-their-luck, will-do-anything-for-a-quid odd couple who look to one another for solace in a callous, unforgiving world.

Carraway's sharp and unsentimental prose illustrates how desperation leads to terrible decisions that have disastrous, unanticipated repercussions.

Rain Dogs is an absorbing portrait of making do in the gig economy while contending with the fallout of failing more than you succeed.

Stream Rain Dogs on HBO Max.

Image: Prime Video

3. Swarm 

Starring: Dominique Fishback, Chloe Bailey, Billie Eilish

Creators: Donald Glover, Janine Nabers

Synopsis: A fan’s obsession with a global pop star takes a twisted, demented turn.

Dre (Fishback), an awkward, jobless millennial, struggles to cope after receiving devastating news about her sister Marissa (Bailey).

She disassociates herself from reality and goes to great lengths to make their childhood dream of meeting global superstar Ni’Jah (Nirine S. Brown) come true.

Glover and Nabers’ psychological horror series is a high-speed train wreck in slow motion—you can’t look away.

Insane rumors and real-life events surrounding Beyonce’s dedicated fan base, also known as the BeyHive, inspired the talented duo to create and write this wild show.

Swarm’s surreal urban vibe resembles Glover’s critically acclaimed Atlanta universe, but this series operates on an alternate, more bizarre planet. 

Glover and Nabers's provocative meta-commentary on excessive fandom is an audacious, relentless, and macabre character study unlike anything else we’ve seen on screen. 

They question the dangerous effects of toxic stan culture by reflecting on the false intimacy of social media. Glover and Nabers show us the extremes people go to connect or belong.

Their dark satire is a volatile cocktail of trauma, dependency, and mental illness from a Black woman’s perspective.

Fishback nails the role of a crazed serial killer on a vengeful, murderous rampage. 

Her performance is eerie, skin-crawling, and unhinged. She becomes a shape-shifting chameleon dialed into a serial killer’s eccentricities, embodying a spine-chilling decline. 

Fishback flawlessly manifests the dichotomy of pleasure and pain. This is her mic-drop moment as a lead actress and legitimate star. 

Swarm is an addictive enigma that delves into the dark corners of rabid fandom with shocking and deadly consequences.

Stream Swarm on Prime Video.

Image: Hulu

4. The Cry of the Butterflies [Original Title: el Grito de las Mariposas]

Starring: Sandy Hernández, Camilla Issa, Susana Abaitua

Creator: Juan Pablo Buscarini

Synopsis: This film chronicles the end of the vicious Rafael Leónidas Trujillo regime in the 1950s Dominican Republic through Minerva Mirabal, the Dominican Republic’s first female lawyer, her best friend Arantxa Oyamburu, a Spanish immigrant, and Minerva’s two activist sisters.

This ambitious Spanish-Columbian joint production between Gloriamundi and Disney Plus raises the bar on high-quality Latin American streaming content.

Buscarini crafts an engrossing period drama against a contentious political backdrop. 

His fictional family saga is based on the real-life relationship between Minerva (Hernández) and Arantxa (Abaitua). Together, they helped topple Trujillo (Luis Alberto García), one of the bloodiest, most corrupt dictators in Latin American history.

His regime falsely imprisoned opponents, routinely raped women, and executed thousands of Haitians. 

While the series’ twelve-episode season is a major commitment, the Mirabel sisters’ monumental story warrants the lengthy run-time.

Buscarini offers a complete look at who the sisters were, their efforts, and why their activism as Trujillo’s opposition still matters.

The Mirabal sisters, also known as the Butterflies, inspired the United Nations to pass The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, celebrated every year on November 25th.

Their historical contributions in exposing predatory violence toward women were a precursor to the modern-day #MeToo movement and should be remembered in social justice history. 

The Cry of the Butterflies is a captivating thriller that reveals a pivotal moment in promoting women's civil rights across the globe.

Stream The Cry of the Butterflies on Hulu.

Image: Prime Video

5. The Power

Starring: Toni Collette, Toheeb Jimoh, John Leguizamo

Creators: Raelle Tucker, Naomi Alderman, Claire Wilson, Sarah Quintrell

Synopsis: Teenage girls suddenly develop special abilities. By releasing electrical current from their fingertips, they activate the force from within. This results in a permanent shift in the power dynamic for all women.

Alderman, Tucker, Wilson, and Quintrell are the masterminds behind this British science-fiction drama series, which is based on Alderman’s gender-twisting book of the same title.

Imagine a younger and more rebellious version of Margaret Atwood’s A Handmaid’s Tale but with a twist of nature on a global scale. 

The first few episodes are centered on building the characters and the narrative, but it all pays off as the main young cast evolves into a collection of powerful, ambitious, and frightening figures.

Despite a slow start, its intriguing premise, stacked cast, and riveting, action-packed sequences ensure this globetrotting series is worth your time. 

Alderman translates her dystopian feminist tale for the small screen with all of the spunk and snark we’d expect from teenage girls with superhuman capabilities.

She explores captivating themes such as gender dynamics and corruptible power by asking the thought-provoking question, “What if girls ruled the world?”

Colette, Jimoh, and Leguizamo anchor the budding diverse talent that lights up the screen with strong performances.

The jury is still out about whether the first season is a genuine success, but Alderman’s small-screen adaptation excels at illuminating how women, trans, and intersex people can use their otherness to confront adversity.

The Power is a smart, thrilling thought exercise with a genderless take on the wickedness of power that leads to violence.

Stream The Power on Prime Video.

What are your favorite picks this month? Share your suggestions in the comments!

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