What to Watch This Week: May 16 to 21

From glam biopics to creepy mysteries, we round up the top 10 shows to watch this week

1. Halston – Netflix

In the wake of The Politician, Hollywood, Ratched and The Prom, producer Ryan Murphy’s $300-million Netflix deal rolls along with this star-studded bio-series. The five-episode event follows iconic fashion designer Halston (played by Ewan McGregor) as he transforms himself and his name into something that became synonymous with luxury, sex and status in the 1970s and ’80s. The series traces his rise to fame, his indelible contributions to the world of fashion and his extracurricular activities at Studio 54, right up until it all came crashing down due to a hostile takeover.

Watch as the man, the myth, the legend is forced to battle for control of his most precious asset: the name Halston itself. The cast also includes Rory Culkin as filmmaker Joel Schumacher, Bill Pullman as corporate power player David Mahoney, Krysta Rodriguez as Liza Minnelli, Gian Franco Rodriguez as Victor Hugo and Vera Farmiga as Adele, among others. Considering Murphy’s success with other fashionable period pieces like The Assassination of Gianni Versace and Pose, there’s every reason to expect another winner here.

2. City on a Hill – Sunday, May 16, 8 p.m., Crave1 | Season Finale

Boston mourns another big loss in the season-two finale, as corrupt fed Jackie’s track record catches up with him and Decourcy chases justice in and out of court. Meanwhile, Jenny confronts her past, and Cathy looks to improve her present.

3. MTV Movie & TV Awards – Sunday & Monday, 6 p.m. & 9 p.m., MTV Canada

The hippest of award galas is back to hand out more golden popcorn statues to the films and series that spoke to America’s young whipper-snappers. And this year’s show is so jam-packed, the powers-that-be decided it needed to be a two-night event, with skits, special honours and surprise celebrity appearances.

Leading the pack of nominees on the TV side is Disney+’s genre-bending comic-book series WandaVision, which earned five total nominations, followed by Emily in Paris, RuPaul’s Drag Race and another edgy superhero drama, The Boys, which were all nominated for three each.

For film, it was Borat Subsequent Moviefilm that stood above the rest with three nods, while other top contenders include Promising Young Woman, Judas and the Black Messiah and Pixar’s Soul.

4. The Wrong Real Estate Agent – Sunday, May 16, 5 p.m. & 9 p.m., Lifetime

In this thriller, a single mother (Vivica A. Fox) looking for a new start decides to rent a charming home for herself and her daughter, thanks to a friendly realtor who lives nearby. After hearing strange noises at night and discovering things missing around the house, she comes to realize that she’s being targeted by an obsessed stalker who’s been lurking in the darkness, watching her every move.

5. Run the World – Sunday, May 16, 12:30 a.m., Starz 2; Crave (Stream) | Series Premiere

Yvette Lee Bowser has a deep history of making us chuckle, having worked on black-ish and Dear White People, among others. So the fact that she’s now serving as showrunner for a new series is an exciting proposition. (It’s just gravy that the show in question was conceived by Leigh Davenport of BET’s Boomerang.)

It revolves around “a group of smart, funny and vibrant 30-something Black women… fiercely loyal best friends who live, work and play in Harlem.”

You’ve got Whitney (Amber Stevens West), a perfectionist who perpetually sticks to the rules; Renee (Bresha Webb), who’s soon to be divorced and may not be as successful as she likes to pretend; Ella (Andrea Bordeaux), a romantic who’s looking for the perfect job and man; and Valor (Corbin Reid), who’s suddenly compelled to reevaluate both her job and her life as a whole.

6. Big Sky – Tuesday, May 18, 10 p.m., CTV & ABC | Season Finale

Few network dramas have the power to really shock us anymore, but this pulse-pounding, twist-heavy thriller has left our jaws on the floor more than once during this first season. Expect another shock or three in tonight’s finale; meanwhile, ABC remains mum on whether Cassie and Jenny will return to tackle another case.

7. The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills – Wednesday, May 19, 6 p.m. & 9 p.m., Slice | Season Premiere

If you’re tired of hearing about Puppygate, alleged threesomes and a certain former Housewife named Brandi Glanville, then season 11 of Beverly Hills is here to make all of your guilty-pleasure dreams come true. That’s because it seems as though the series is finally moving in a new direction this season—no Brandi, Denise Richards or Teddi Mellencamp in sight.

Indeed, a large portion of the theatrics this year will focus on just what the heck has been going on between Erika Girardi and her ex-husband Tom. The pair announced a shocking divorce last year, shortly before allegations of criminal fraud surfaced. Meanwhile, Lisa Rinna suddenly has a direct connection to a Kardashian-adjacent personality now that her daughter Amelia Gray Hamlin is in a relationship with Kourtney’s ex Scott Disick. Naturally, Kyle Richards has no problem telling Lisa just how “too old” 37-year-old Disick is for her 19-year-old daughter. And speaking of Kyle, she has a new ally this year as her sister Kathy Hilton joins the series.

Kathy isn’t the only new arrival, though. While former Friend Sutton Stracke brought enough drama to the table last season to be upgraded to full-time cast member, it’s Crystal Kung Minkoff who seems most likely to bring the pot to a boil this year. Based on the previews, Crystal goes at Sutton in particular pretty hard, promising lots of tears to come.

Also back is Garcelle Beauvais, who appears to be contemplating her romantic future when we return, and Dorit Kemsley, who will undoubtedly be rocking all the hairstyles once again this season.

8. Special – Thursday, May 20, Netflix | Season Premiere

It’s been two years since Special first debuted, but when this second and final season premieres, only two months will have passed for the characters. But don’t quibble about that. Just sit back and enjoy creator/star Ryan O’Connell’s continued fictionalized exploration of his very real life as a gay man with cerebral palsy.

9. Army of the Dead – Friday, May 21, Netflix | Series Premiere

Director Zack Snyder has been in the news recently for his re-edited “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, and this week unveils his latest, an audacious mashup of a zombie apocalypse movie and an Ocean’s Eleven-style heist flick. With Las Vegas in ruins and walled off from the rest of the country following a zombie outbreak, former zombie hunter Scott Ward (WWE wrestler-turned-actor Dave Bautista) leads a group of mercenaries on a covert mission behind the quarantine zone in order to steal $200 million in cash sitting in a casino vault deep beneath the Strip. The clock is ticking, however, with the government about to nuke the entire city in just 32 hours. Meanwhile, they must also contend with a notoriously impenetrable vault and a horde of smarter, faster “Alpha zombies” hungry for human flesh. Also along for the ride are a cynical helicopter pilot (comedian Tig Notaro), an expert zombie killer (Omari Hardwick), an ace mechanic (Ana de la Reguera) and an elite safecracker (Matthias Schweighöfer).

10. Solos – Friday, May 21, Amazon Prime Video | Series Premiere

No matter where you land on the political, economic or philosophical spectrum, the past year has been a tough one for anyone and everyone. Isolation, social upheaval, and the all-round ebbs and flows of life amidst a pandemic has definitely taken its toll on even the most positive Pollys out there, but the thread that keeps us all together is that we’re not alone. That’s the entry point to a new anthology series, which makes its debut on Amazon this week.

The series sets out to explore “the strange, beautiful, heartbreaking, hilarious, wonderous truths of what it means to be human”—the writers naturally honing in on moments when these particular humans are at their most alone, forced to question who they are and where they’re headed.

It’s made up of seven standalone episodes populated by an all-star cast. We’re talking award-magnets like Anne Hathaway, Uzo Aduba, Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman, along with the always-welcome Anthony Mackie, Dan Stevens, Constance Wu and Nicole Beharie.

Each of these character-driven sagas is told from a different perspective and from a different moment in time, but they’re united by the theme that “even in our most seemingly isolated moments, and in the most disparate of circumstances, we are all connected through the human experience.”