Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments hits the screen – here’s what to watch this week

April 8

The Testaments, Apple TV

A sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, and based on Margaret Atwood’s 2019 novel, the story unfolds along two strands. One follows Aunt Lydia – the only major returning character, played by Ann Dowd, whose calm menace defined the original series – as she writes a memoir about the harrowing experiences that led to her complicity in patriarchal, authoritarian Gilead. The main plot focuses on the school years of Agnes (played by Chase Infiniti), who is in fact Hannah, the daughter June and Luke spent the entirety of The Handmaid’s Tale trying to reclaim after Gilead took her. Now, a young woman being groomed as a future wife for a commander, Agnes, meets Daisy (Lucy Halliday), a new student from free Canada, determined to undermine Gilead from within and who enlists Agnes’s help in her dangerous mission.

The Boys, Prime Video

The epic conclusion of The Boys is finally here. Homelander (Anthony Starr) has tightened his grip on the world, turning “Supes” from supposed heroes into untouchable tyrants, while anyone who dares oppose him ends up in the dreaded Freedom Camp. Enter Butcher (Karl Urban) and his unconventional crew, returning with a dangerous weapon: an anti-Supe virus that could change everything. But taking down the planet’s most powerful and unpredictable superhuman won’t be easy and if Homelander succeeds in his own dark scheme, he could achieve ultimate power and immortality.

April 9

Big Mistakes, Netflix

Schitt’s Creek’s Dan Levy creates and stars in this crime comedy as Nicky, a New Jersey pastor. He is joined by Taylor Ortega as his sister, Morgan, and Laurie Metcalf as their mother. When Morgan impulsively steals a necklace from a jewellery store as a gift for their dying grandmother, the store’s mob-connected manager blackmails the siblings into working for his crime organisation, a job for which they are spectacularly unprepared.

The Miniature Wife, Sky Atlantic

Based on a short story by Manuel Gonzales, The Miniature Wife stars Matthew Macfadyen as Les, an inventor who creates a device capable of miniaturising matter, while Elizabeth Banks plays his more successful wife, Lindy, a prize-winning writer. When Les accidentally shrinks Lindy, he must prove he can reverse the process and restore her to full size or risk losing the patent for his invention.

April 10

Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, Disney+

Malcolm in the Middle returns with Malcolm in the Middle: Life’s Still Unfair, a limited series that revisits the beloved 2000s sitcom. Now living a content and settled life with his daughter, Leah and his girlfriend, Tristan, Malcolm has long kept his distance from his birth family. That peace is disrupted when his parents, Hal and Lois (played once again by Bryan Cranston and Jane Kaczmareck) insist he return home for their 40th wedding anniversary celebration, pulling him back into the chaos he thought he’d left behind. Forced to reconnect with the family he’s avoided for over a decade, Malcolm soon finds that the same dysfunction is waiting for him.

Outcome, Apple TV

Beloved Hollywood star Reef Hawk (Keanu Reeves) becomes the target of an extortion plot when he receives a mysterious video that’s sure to shatter his image and end his career. Hoping to identify the blackmailer, he soon embarks on a soul-searching journey to make amends with anyone he could have possibly wronged.