The Rundown: The Good Shows Are Coming Back So Soon

The Rundown is a weekly column that highlights some of the biggest, weirdest, and most notable events of the week in entertainment. The number of items could vary, as could the subject matter. It will not always make a ton of sense. Some items might not even be about entertainment, to be honest, or from this week. The important thing is that it’s Friday, and we are here to have some fun.

I have terrific news: The good shows are coming back. So many of them, so soon, all over the course of about three weeks. I’m going to lay it all out for you in a second, at least to the extent “posting trailers and stupid jokes about shows I like” counts as laying it all out, but know this much going in: This is a mixed blessing. Again, it’s mostly good because the shows are good and we like good things, but also… it’s a lot. And some of these shows have been off the air for multiple years. There are going to be some gaps in your memory. Do you remember everything that happened in the most recent season of Barry I do not. And this is my job. It’s not ideal.

But. This is a problem for another day. Tomorrow, maybe. And it’s kind of the point of this whole endeavor. I’m trying to give you a few weeks of a heads up so you can barrel through a rewatch or a quick Wiki refresher before you dive in again. There are worse ways to spend a rainy weekend in April, you know Let’s start with the most pressing…

Better Call Saul is back for its final season on April 18. The season is actually split into two parts, with the first chunk coming now and the next chunk in July, but still. It’s almost here. The show has been so good. Almost unreasonably good, given the legacy it had to live up to as a prequel to Breaking Bad. I’ve actually enjoyed this one more than the original, as blasphemous as some might consider that statement. Breaking Bad did not have Lalo Salamanca. This is important. To me.

One other thing to keep an eye on: This season is set in 2004, which means noted Philly native Mike Ehrmantraut could be distracted by the Super Bowl run by the McNabb/T.O. Philadelphia Eagles and their eventual loss to the New England Patriots. I mean, it probably won’t happen. But it could. Worth considering.

Barry is back on April 24. The first two seasons were some of my favorite television in years. There was murder and drama and goofs and Henry Winkler and my beloved NoHo Hank, all of which was just a delight. NoHo Hank, especially. What an incredible character, just the sweetest man alive packaged into the body of a terrifying Chechen monster, sometimes one that dances on a roof. You definitely have time to rewatch this. You should. There are not many opportunities in life to watch Henry Winkler and Stephen Root in the same show.

The Flight Attendant! Holy crap! The first season of this show blew me away, all twisty murder mystery and dinky-bonk piano music and Kaley Cuoco as a drunken party girl with issues that run deeper than an ocean. Rosie Perez was selling secrets to mysterious Asian businessmen. Some terrifying woman was running around with a butterfly knife. What more could anyone ask for out of a season of television Nothing! Do not be greedy.

The second season drops on HBO Max on April 21, and I insist you watch the first go-round before then if you have not already. It was a blast. You deserve to have fun. You’ll have the theme music in your head for weeks, which is not at all a complaint. I like to listen to it and pretend I’m going on little missions. It’s all very normal and fine.

Hmm. Is there anything more cosmically perfect than Russian Doll — the trippy, Groundhog Day-esque series about Natasha Lyonne getting stuck in a time loop — returning for a second season on April 20 I’ll answer that for you: There is not. Remember how much you liked Russian Doll Remember Natasha Lyonne running around New York in a trenchcoat Remember this paragraph, which actually just appeared in a New Yorker article this week

Lyonne has a distinctive way of moving through the city: clomping, springy, coat collar popped high. Season 2 of “Russian Doll” opens with one of many shots of Nadia perambulating, her black boots tapping in rhythm with Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus.” Lyonne is currently working, with the director Rian Johnson, on a “Columbo”-style crime show for Peacock, and it’s not hard to picture Lyonne, an avid Peter Falk fan, as the hardboiled detective, stalking the streets with a cigarette between her fingers and a wry expression on her face.

All good news. Great news, even. Hey, speaking of things that are great…