What to Watch This Week: May 9 to 14

From brooding true crime tales to classic basketball comedies, we round up the top 10 shows to watch this week

1. American Idol – Sunday, May 9, 5 p.m., ABC; 8 p.m., City & ABC

You may or may not be able to celebrate Mom’s big day in-person, but if she’s a fan of TV sing-offs, why not spend the evening enjoying a virtual watch party of Idol‘s very special, holiday-specific episode? Details are still under wraps, but it’s fair to expect celebrity cameos and mothering-themed tunes.

2. The Long Island Serial Killer: A Mother’s Hunt for Justice – Sunday, May 9, 5 p.m. & 9 p.m., Lifetime

Kim Delaney (NYPD Blue) stars in this fact-based TV movie as Mari Gilbert, a Long Island mother who becomes concerned when her daughter, Shannan—played by Vancouver’s Katharine Isabelle—doesn’t return home from a night out. When the bodies of several young women are discovered, she fears her child has become the latest victim of a serial killer. Frustrated by police inaction to hunt down what she believes is a murderer on the loose, Mari undertakes her own investigation, giving her daughter and the other victims a voice as she fights to keep the case alive and capture the killer.

3. The Real Housewives of Atlanta – Sunday, May 9, 5 p.m., Slice

What other reality franchise is so jam-packed with drama that they need a full three reunion specials at the end of every year? In the third and final dish-fest of season 13, host Andy Cohen once again fans the flames of Cynthia and her pals, hoping to stoke a full-blown inferno.

4. Bob’s Burgers – Sunday, May 9, 9 p.m., Fox; 10 p.m., City

A magazine is swiped from the waiting room of Dr. Yap (recurring guest star Ken Jeong), which sets off a game of cat and mouse between the Belcher kids and their dentist. While that’s all playing out, Linda, Bob and Teddy try (and fail) to clean some bird poop off the restaurant window.

5. Antiques Roadshow – Monday, May 10, 5 p.m., WTVS; 8 p.m., KCTS

A series that’s marking its 25th anniversary deserves a special celebration. Celebrity editions of PBS’s Antiques Roadshow are now running weekly on Mondays through most of this month; the May 10th episode has author Marc Brown, chef Carla Hall, humourist John Hodgman and musicians Rubén Blades and Luba Mason having their personal treasures evaluated. Though the program often shows many people milling about, these episodes have a more intimate feel, recorded as they were under pandemic protocols. Later in the month, television’s Jay Leno, Olympian Nancy Kerrigan, journalist Soledad O’Brien, fashion designer Christian Siriano and TV personality Carson Kressley appear.

6. Money, Explained – Tuesday, May 11, Netflix | Series Premiere

The latest entry in Netflix’s Explained series focuses on consumers’ often-complicated relationship with money, breaking down the weaknesses we all share when it comes to cash, the devious ways those weaknesses are being exploited and the best strategies out there to navigate it all.

7. White Men Can’t Jump – Tuesday, May 11, 8 p.m., Starz2

Billy Hoyle (Woody Harrelson) has a good hustle going, convincing Black players he’s no good at B-ball, only to destroy them on the court. After pulling a fast one on Sidney (Wesley Snipes), the two pool their talents to double their profits.

8. The Hills: New Beginnings – Wednesday, May 12, 6 p.m. & 10 p.m., MTV Canada | Season Premiere

When the original cast of this iconic reality series returned for a reunion series last year, one thing was clear: their paths ahead are just as “unwritten” as they were back when they first graced our screens all those years ago. This time around though, the crew may look a little worse for wear. How else would you describe morale after a year of lockdowns and lost time, not to mention a highly publicized divorce, addiction and financial strains? Season two promises to dig into all that and more.

The big news: the cast welcomes Kristin Cavallari (fresh off her split with Jay Cutler), who sat out season one of the reboot. Meanwhile, Brody Jenner and Kaitlynn Carter come to terms onscreen with their own oh-so-public uncoupling. (Audrina Patridge revealing she and Brody made out probably won’t help things.) Then there’s Bobby, who is considering settling down, and Spencer and Heidi Pratt, who do a little bit of family planning.

Beyond that, in general, expect these California luminaries to continue grappling with the new normal, including trying to rebuild their businesses in a marketplace that’s still on very shaky ground amidst COVID.

9. Love, Death and Robots – Friday, May 14, Netflix | Season Premiere

Described as “a blast of the future with its roots deep in the past,” this adult animation series from Deadpool director Tim Miller is back with eight new animated shorts, with a third instalment coming in 2022. The series came about when Miller teamed up with director David Fincher (Mank) after years of wanting to make adult animated features and short films at his animation house, Blur Studio. “We couldn’t have been happier at the response to the show,” recalled Miller of the excitement that surrounded the first season.

10. The Woman in the Window – Friday, May 14, Netflix

When this Amy Adams thriller was first announced, fans thought it might just be the movie to finally nab the leading lady her Oscar (she’s been nominated six times, after all). Alas, then came production delays, reshoots and a confusing plot that didn’t sit so well with test audiences, not to mention the onset of a certain global health crisis, and well… it’s been a journey. But at last, the film arrives… not in theatres as planned, but on Netflix.

Directed by Atonement‘s Joe Wright off a script from Tony-winner Tracy Letts (August: Osage County), the slow-burning drama revolves around an agoraphobic woman in New York who becomes obsessed with the lives of her neighbours—even more so after she seemingly witnesses a crime. Anthony Mackie, Gary Oldman and Julianne Moore also star.