What I’m watching the week of April 26, 2020

While the coronavirus pandemic has kept us in our homes and given us more time, in theory anyway, to watch TV, the fact remains that there is a glut of programming out there – even with production shut down. Aside from the shows I follow purely for my own entertainment – things like “Killing Eve,” “Outlander” and “Westworld” – I get a constant supply of “screeners” from broadcasters and streaming services, i.e. electronic links to the new shows they’re promoting.

Of course, I can’t watch everything and some of what I preview isn’t to my taste. But I aim here to give you my input on shows you might like, based on what has entertained, amused or intrigued me. So here goes …

We’re Here (HBO and Crave, debuted April 23)

Thanks to RuPaul and his “Drag Race,” drag queens have become mainstream pop culture staples. This series stars three “Drag Race” alumni, Bob the Drag Queen, Shangela and Eureka O’Hara, who visit small American towns spreading the word about the positive power of drag. As you would imagine, the inhabitants of said small towns aren’t all drag- or LGBTQ-friendly. But the queens, who roll in in fabulous custom vans and eye-popping finery, are on a mission: to take a few locals and turn them into drag stars for a one-night-only show. Think “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” meets “Queer Eye.” It’s not all glitter and sparkles (although there are enough of those to satisfy your eye candy cravings); there’s also an earnest message about acceptance. The “drag daughters” in the first episode, for instance, set in Gettysburg, Penn., include a young gay man who’s a target for bullies and a mother who is desperate to reconnect with the daughter she drove away when she rejected her bisexuality. By the time the drag show rolls around you’ll be ready for a catharsis. I had tears rolling down my face through the whole thing.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels (Showtime via Crave, debuted April 26)

I was a latecomer to the original “Penny Dreadful,” but once I’d discovered it I was hooked. This followup from creator John Logan – an entirely unrelated story that shifts the action from Victorian London to 1938 Los Angeles – is harder to latch onto. Its supernatural elements are tied not to literary monsters but to the religious cult of Santa Muerte, the Angel of Death, but there are also plenty of non-supernatural plot threads to sift through. Among them are a gruesome murder that seems tied to the Mexican Day of the Dead; racial tensions related to a plan to build a highway through a Hispanic neighbourhood; a corrupt politician (Michael Gladis) in league with Nazis; a Jewish detective (Nathan Lane) on the trail of said Nazis; a Latino detective (Daniel Zovatto) torn between job and family; a German pediatrician (Rory Kinnear, the unfortunate monster from the first “Penny Dreadful”) with Nazi sympathies and a wandering eye; an Aimee Semple McPherson-like evangelist (Kerry Bishe) who may not be as pure as she seems, and on it goes. The through-line is the character of Magda (Natalie Dormer), a supernatural being with numerous identities whose purpose is to sow destruction and deliver bodies to her sister, Santa Muerte. Taken as a whole, the series has its frustrations but also rewards.

Hollywood (Netflix, May 1)

Quentin Tarantino took his shot at rewriting La La Land history in “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood.” Now it’s Ryan Murphy’s turn. The prolific producer, with his “Glee” and “Screams Queens” collaborator Ian Brennan, takes us back to 1940s Tinseltown in a series that both exposes and subverts the hypocrisy, homophobia and racism underlying the dream machine. This is a Hollywood where an undervalued older woman can become a studio head (the estimable Patti LuPone), a Black actress can headline a major picture with a Black screenwriter and a half-Filipino director, and Rock Hudson can come out of the closet. There are obstacles, to be sure, which are sometimes too tidily disposed of. Somehow people end up doing the right thing while not entirely sacrificing their self-interest, even the beast of an agent played by Jim Parsons. But the series is sumptuously shot, full of beautiful sets, beautiful costumes and beautiful people, with a cast that includes David Corenswet, Jeremy Pope, Laura Harrier, Samara Weaving, Jake Picking and Darren Criss. The show is pure fantasy and some of the fantasies it fulfils are sexual ones, with Dylan McDermott playing the owner of a gas station that services its clients’ desires as well as their cars.

Prop Culture (Disney Plus, May 1)

If you’re a fan of Disney movies, moviemaking or just pop culture in general, you might enjoy this look at the props seen onscreen in everything from “Tron” to “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” to “The Muppet Movie.” Collector Dan Lanigan is our host as he travels around the U.S. in search of objects, costumes and people that helped make movie magic. The first episode was the most special for me as it deals with the original 1964 version of “Mary Poppins,” starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. Watching Lanigan unearth such items as Mary’s “Feed the Birds” snow globe, the carousel horses that Andrews and Van Dyke rode, and costumes worn by her and actress Karen Dotrice, who played little Jane Banks, was like a warm nostalgia bath. And how about original songwriter Richard Sherman playing the familiar tunes on Walt Disney’s piano? There are eight episodes in total, each dealing with a different film.