Showmax is making our lives very difficult in April… as it’s hard to cherry pick from its selection of major drawcard series and movies, plus hidden gems. We’ve done our best to single out what we think will appeal to our readers, while Showmax’s full streaming line-up for the month of Easter can be found here.

Series

April is a big month for returning series, including the likes of The Handmaid’s Tale S6 (Wednesdays from 9 April), Sylvester Stallone’s Tulsa King S2 (Friday, 4 April), and British police drama The Responder S2 (Tuesday, 22 April) starring Martin Freeman.

However, the headline maker of the lot is The Last of Us Season 2, with episodes coming express to Showmax every Monday from 14 April. Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey star in this Emmy-winning video game adaptation, based on Naughty Dog’s dystopian survival drama. In The Last of Us’s sophomore set of episodes, Joel and Ellie find their new lives in Jackson upended by the appearance of Abby (Kaitlyn Dever), a figure who brings with her conflict and retribution. New cast additions include Jeffrey Wright, Catherine O’Hara, Danny Ramirez, and Isabela Merced.

Keeping things emotionally intense and creepy is Teacup. This mystery horror series is inspired by the bestselling novel Stinger and has Saw and The Conjuring’s James Wan executive producing. As strange events unfold around them, a set of neighbours find themselves trapped on a farm in rural Georgia. They must set aside their differences to contend with a deadly threat, represented by an omimous figure in a gas mask. Yvonne Strahovski, Scott Speedman and Kathy Baker head up the cast.

Teacup wasn’t renewed for a second season but you can watch it in its S1 entirety from Tuesday, 1 April.  

On the South African series front, two DSTV shows are migrating to the streamer this month after making their broadcast debut last year. They include gritty teacher-centred drama Juffrou X (Binge from Wednesday, 30 April), and ethics-minded thriller Killer Front Page.

In Killer Front Page, Shaka iLembe star Lemogang Tsipa plays a journalist under pressure to produce an attention-grabbing story. So he makes one up, earning him fame and professional respect. However, his fabrication turns out to be too close to the truth for some, entangling him in a world of crime at the same time his relationships, values and lies spiral out of control. Binge all 13 episodes of Killer Front Page Season 1 from Monday, 7 April.

Finally, crime thriller Reyka is back, once more powered by Kim Engelbrecht’s International Emmy-nominated performance as criminal profiler Reyka Gama. This time around, Reyka is investigating a series of attacks on couples at the docks in Durban Harbour, Africa’s largest port, which exposes her to the dark side of the sex trade. In a casting score, Iain Glen returns as Reyka’s childhood abductor, the chilling Angus Speelman, who continues to torment our heroine as she attempts to solve the case.

Binge all eight episodes of Reyka Season 2 from Tuesday, 8 April.

Film

Showmax has lined up a surprising number of South African movies in April, a few of them Showmax Originals that competed at the Joburg Film Festival earlier in March. These include urban crime tale Kites (Stream from Friday, 25 April) and topical farm school drama Adam (Friday, 4 April). Not a Showmax Original, but definitely a homegrown biggie is last year’s quirky action blockbuster Boys Kills World (Thursday, 3 April).

Still, if we had to make movie recommendations in April, we’re leaning animated, starting with the massively acclaimed, Annie Award-winning The Wild Robot. From How to Train Your Dragon makers DreamWorks Animation and that film’s co-director and writer, this touching adventure is based on Peter Brown’s beloved bestseller. Robot Roz (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o) is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island, and in the course of surviving, becomes the adoptive parent of an orphaned gosling. Other stars lending their voices include Pedro Pascal, Ving Rhames, Mark Hamill, Catherine O’Hara, and Matt Berry.

Watch The Wild Robot from Sunday, 13 April – just in time for the Easter break.

From highs like Bumblebee to lows like The Last Knight, the Transformers movie franchise has enjoyed mixed critical fortunes. One of the best entries in the series, though, is last year’s CGI-animated Transformers One (our review). This prequel tells the untold origin story of how Optimus Prime (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) and Megatron (Brian Tyree Henry) went from best friends to sworn enemies as they changed the fate of the Transformers home world of Cybertron. Scarlett Johansson, Keegan-Michael Key, Steve Buscemi, Laurence Fishburne and Jon Hamm voice characters as well.

Watch Transformers One from Sunday, 20 April.

Witness her! Dystopian actioner Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga returns audiences to the parched world of Mad Max, delving into the events that led up to Fury Road. George Miller is once more behind the camera, while Anya Taylor-Joy steps up to play the title character (made famous by Charlize Theron), a young woman caught up the power struggles of desert warlords Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and Immortan Joe. In her bid to return to the Green Place of Many Mothers, Furiosa will do whatever it takes. Here’s our review if you’d like to know a bit more about this high octane epic.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga comes to Showmax from Thursday, 24 April.

Documentaries

For people who love to peek behind the curtain of the entertainment industry, SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night is a four-part deep dive into one of the most iconic sketch comedy shows of all time. Separate episodes explore different topics such as the audition and writing processes, classic segments and series ups and downs. Naturally, it’s a star-packed documentary, with the likes of Amy Poehler, Andy Samberg, Ayo Edibiri, Jimmy Fallin, Larry David, Tina Fey, Tom Hanks, Tracy Morgan and Will Ferrell all appearing.

Watch all episodes of SNL50 from Wednesday, 9 April.

Look, it’s more a reality show than a documentary, but a special shout out has to go to Paris & Nicole: The Encore, due to Noughties nostalgia! In this three-part miniseries, heiresses and media personalities Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie reunite 20 years after The Simple Life to… stage an opera based on their old sing-song catchphrase “Sanasa.” Nothing about that sentence is made up, we promise.

Binge Paris & Nicole: The Encore from Thursday, 10 April.