Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week.
MOVIES
— Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas play a picture-perfect couple prone to playing mind games in “Deep Water,” an adaptation of a Patricia Highsmith novel directed by Adrian Lyne. The film has been a subject of much intrigue and anticipation thanks in part to its stars' short-lived relationship that was feverishly covered in the tabloids as well as its rocky release plans. Originally intended as a theatrical release, “Deep Water” starts streaming on Hulu on Friday, March. 18. But beyond the off-screen gossip, a film directed by the man behind “Fatal Attraction” and “Unfaithful” that’s based on a story from the author of “The Talented Mr. Ripley” and “Strangers on a Train” at a time when the so-called “erotic thriller” has all but disappeared from mainstream movies is not a hard sell.
— Before Regina Hall takes to the Oscars stage at the end of the month as one of the three co-hosts, she has a new film, “Master,’ coming to Amazon Prime Video on Friday, March 18. Hall’s character is the head of students at an elite New England school built on a Salem-era lot. She and two other women, a Black professor and student, start experiencing visions of its haunted past. “Master” is the directorial debut of Mariama Diallo, who also wrote the script, and explores topics like race at a supposedly enlightened liberal arts school within a genre construct.
— Jason Segel plays a desperate man who breaks into the supposedly empty vacation house of a tech billionaire in the new Netflix film “Windfall,” coming to the streamer on Friday, March 18. But he gets a surprise when the owners, played by Jesse Plemons and Lily Collins, appear at the house and he has no choice but to kidnap them. The film is directed by Charlie McDowell, the son of Mary Steenburgen and Malcolm McDowell, who made a name for himself as a director with the 2014 relationship mind-bender “The One I Love.” Offscreen he’s also married to Collins.
— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr
MUSIC
— Few artists precede their album drops by portraying a singing and keytar-wielding meatball lodged in a human's armpit, but few artists are Charli XCX, who turned out to be a good sport in a gross-out “Saturday Night Live” skit the other week. On Friday, March 18, pop’s avant-garde princess drops her new album, "Crash." Charli XCX, born Charlotte Aitchison, has already made unstoppable music with “Boom Clap” and “Fancy” and she will add to that with the banger “Baby” from the new album. Charli XCX has said she's ready for her “main pop-girl moment.”
— Rosalía offers a special sonic mix of reggaeton, flamenco, bachata, rap-rave and pop on her third album, “Motomami.” She says it's split in two, with “Moto” being the “aggressive side of a woman” and “Mami” being “more connected with nature.” The album, which has gotten an assist by Frank Ocean, is the follow-up to Rosalía’s 2018 Grammy winning record “El Mal Querer.” Three singles offer a glimpse: “Chicken Teriyaki” is the latest, following "La Fama" featuring The Weeknd and "Saoko." The album comes out Friday, March 18, but the day before Rosalía will be performing a live concert on TikTok.
— AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy
TELEVISION
— The great Julia Child has inspired movies, books, a classic “Saturday Night Live” sketch — and now a TV competition series. “The Julia Child Challenge” gives eight home cooks and fans of the late cookbook author and TV host the chance to prove their skills. They’ll work in a kitchen that replicates Child’s, with the addition of an oversized TV screen showing clips of her in action. Rotating judges including Dorie Greenspan, Francis Lam and Jacques Pepin will decide who gets a trip to France to study at Le Cordon Bleu. The series debuts Monday on Food Network and streams on discovery+.
— Sure, you can get your mockumentary series fix by watching reruns of “The Office” or “Parks and Recreation.” But how about giving “Welcome to Flatch” a try? The series, debuting Thursday on Fox, has the right pedigree, produced by Jenny Bicks (“Sex and the City”) and Paul Feig (“The Office”). The premise: A film crew intent on digging into the lives of young, small-town Americans lands in Flatch, where eccentricity is the norm. That includes cousins Kelly (newcomer Holmes) and Shrub Mallet (Sam Straley). Seann William Scott co-stars as Father Joe, who’s looking for love.
— Series about high-flying businesses that fail to sustain their promise are all the rage (Hulu’s “The Dropout” among them), and here comes another. Apple TV+'s “WeCrashed,” starring Jared Leto and Anne Hathaway, is based on the podcast “WeCrashed: The Rise and Fall of WeWork,” which promoted the concept of shared workspaces. The company grew into a multibillion-dollar global sensation over a decade, with a love story to boot, until, suddenly, its value plunged. Kyle Marvin, America Ferrera and O-T Fagbenle also star in the eight-episode series, with the first three episodes out Friday, March 18, and the rest arriving weekly.
— AP Television Writer Lynn Elber
