TV picks for April 23-27: 'The Handmaid's Tale,' 'Girlboss,' 'Mary Kills People'

April 22, 2017 at 5:48AM
Caroline Dhavernas stars in Lifetimeís all-new scripted series Mary Kills People premiering, Sunday, April 23 at 10pm ET/PT on Lifetime.
Photo by Christos Kalohoridis, Lifetime
Caroline Dhavernas in “Mary Kills People.” (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Death becomes her

In "Mary Kills People," a doctor (Caroline Dhavernas) spends her off-duty hours helping the terminally ill find a quicker path to the afterlife. This angel of mercy soon discovers that the devil is in the details with one improbable threat after another. The character is kind of stupid — she has sex with a patient and seems not to have considered putting a lock on her illegal stash — but the unique premise and Dhavernas' underplayed performance have us hoping for an extended killing spree.

9 p.m. Sun., Lifetime

That girl

Some of my favorite sitcoms of the past five years revolve around women behaving badly. "Girlboss" instantly joins the ranks of "Broad City" and "Fleabag" thanks to former "30 Rock" writer Kay Cannon's scathingly funny scripts and Britt Robertson's 20-something heroine, whose shortcomings include laziness, self-centeredness and bad hygiene. The fact that she's also brutally honest makes her more likable than any of the soul searchers on "Girls." This new character may not be the voice of her generation, but she just may be the voice of super-smart TV comedy. Good enough.

Now streaming on Netflix

Talk to the hand

Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" is a doozy of a novel to adapt for the screen, and I can't imagine anyone doing a more admirable job than showrunner Bruce Miller and actress Elisabeth Moss, who brings humanity and wit to the title role.

Begins streaming Wed. on Hulu

Neal Justin

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