Every month, all the major streaming services add a host of newly acquired (or just plain new) shows, movies, and documentaries into their ever-rotating libraries. So what’s a dedicated reader to watch? Well, whatever you want, of course, but the name of this website is Literary Hub, so we sort of have an angle. To that end, here’s a selection of the best (and most enjoyably bad) literary film and TV coming to streaming services this month. Have fun.
NEW:
Small Things Like These (streaming debut)
Hulu, April 8
Literary bona fides: based on Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan (2021)
Cillian Murphy produces and stars as Irish coalman Bill Furlong in this adaptation of Keegan’s bestselling novel about the Magdalene Laundries, Roman Catholic institutions that took in and abused unwed mothers for over 75 years. As interior and devastating as the book.
The Handmaid’s Tale (Season 6)
Hulu, April 8
Literary bona fides: based, albeit now distantly, on The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1985)
The sixth and final season of Bruce Miller’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale (which premiered a lifetime ago in 2017) concerns the long-awaited full rebellion of the oppressed people of Gilead. Is this a portent?
Your Friends and Neighbors
Apple TV+, April 11
Literary bona fides: not an adaptation, but created by the novelist Jonathan Tropper
John Hamm stars as a rich guy who, having lost his job, decides to make ends meet by burgling from his neighbors. It’s not an adaptation, but comes out of bestselling novelist Tropper’s overall deal with Apple TV+, which counts in my book. Plus, “The Swimmer” vibes have not gone unnoticed. Amanda Peet and Olivia Munn also star.
Ransom Canyon
Netflix, April 17
Literary bona fides: based on Jodi Thomas’s Ransom Canyon series (2015-2017)
Attention bored Millennials who still rewatch Friday Night Lights every few years: Minka Kelly and Josh Duhamel are leading a romantic Western drama series that looks like a shiny soap opera with big hats. “Love. Land. Legacy,” you say? Why not?
You (Season 5)
Netflix, April 24
Literary bona fides: based on Carolyn Kepnes’ Joe Goldberg series (2014-2023)
Your favorite book-reading psychopath is back in New York for the series’ fifth and final season. Sera Gamble is out as showrunner, which doesn’t exactly bode well, but Dan Humphrey is looking as terrifying as ever, and for those looking to tie up loose ends, it will have to do.
Asterix & Obelix: The Big Fight
Netflix, April 30
Literary bona fides: based on Asterix and the Big Fight (1966)
Are Americans finally warming to Asterix & Obelix? And if not…is this bizarre Mario-style animation going to make it happen? One can only hope.
Carême
Apple TV+, April 30
Literary bona fides: based on Cooking for Kings: The Life of Antonin Carême, The First Celebrity Chef by Ian Kelly (2003)
Honestly, what could be more French than a pastry chef who is also a lothario who is also a writer who is also a spy? Based on the real life of Antonin Carême, who rose from poverty to become one of the greatest chefs of the Napoleonic era, called “the king of chefs and the chef of kings,” this French-language series stars Benjamin Voisin as the titular Marie-Antoine Carême and is directed by Martin Bourboulon.
THROWBACK:
The Exorcist (1973)
Peacock, April 1
Literary bona fides: based on The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty (1971)
A bestselling book that became an iconic film; all these years later they’re both still very, very scary.
Jumanji (1995)
Hulu, April 1
Literary bona fides: based on Jumanji by Chris Van Allsburg (1981)
The strange black-and-white Van Allsburg classic from the ’80s was adapted into a big, blustering Robin Williams movie (also starring Kirsten Dunst, David Alan Grier, Bonnie Hunt, Jonathan Hyde, and Bebe Neuwirth). The mood is wildly different, but it’s fun anyway. (I’m still waiting for the Steven Zaillian version. Anyone?)
Trainspotting (1996)
Peacock, April 1
Literary bona fides: based on Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (1993)
Danny Boyle’s hysterical, manic, terrifying adaptation of Welsh’s hysterical, manic, terrifying book. Both are cult classics for a reason.
Gone Girl (2014)
Hulu, April 1
Literary bona fides: based on Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (2012)
David Fincher’s adaptation of Flynn’s mega hit was one of our best literary film adaptations of the last decade. Now that it’s over a decade old, and we’ve all fully internalized the Cool Girl speech, will it hold up? It might be a good time to rewatch and find out.
Arrival (2016)
Hulu, April 1
Literary bona fides: based on “Story of Your Life” by Ted Chiang (1998)
Yet another of our best literary film adaptations of the last decade is a big blockbuster about aliens, but only technically; our critic calls it “a moving, and often anxiety-inducing, investigation of language, empathy, and miscommunication.”
Oppenheimer (2023)
Peacock, April 16
Literary bona fides: based on American Prometheus by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin (2005)
One of our best literary adaptations of 2023 is now officially in the “throwback” section. Time marches on. Our critic writes, “Oppenheimer is a biopic that should not work as well as it does—it’s never really a good idea for biopics to attempt to do what biographies do (and this movie is based on a doozy of a biography) . . . The point of Oppenheimer (and the realization that Oppenheimer has) is about the impossibility of keeping things at the level of the theoretical. Oppenheimer oversubscribed to theory as a methodology, and by the time he realizes that there’s no such thing, it’s too late.”
