4 TV shows you need to see in April

Each month, we recap the must-see TV shows coming out in the coming weeks. Scroll down to learn more. 

1. Chewing Gum (April 4, Netflix)

Michaela Coel returns with the sophomore season of her breakout British comedy which sees her character, Tracey Gordon, awkwardly adjusting from her religious childhood to asserting her adulthood, replete with humorous misadventures about her sexual awakening and relationship to her family.

— Del Cowie

2. The Get Down (April 7, Netflix)

Acclaimed Australian film director Baz Luhrmann certainly divided opinions with the first season of his big budget take on 1970s New York reimagined as the backdrop for a gritty but colourful and lush hip-hop musical. Partially based in reality but weaving in the fantastical the way only Luhrmann can, this fictional take on the dawn of hip-hop may have had purists rolling their eyes at the dramatic license taken with history. But last month's teaser trailer for Season 2 suggests fans should be happy with the continued saga of the teen protagonists from Uptown striving to chase their dreams.

— Ian Steaman

3. Dear White People (April 28, Netflix)

The 2014 film version of Dear White People, essentially an update of John Singleton's Higher Learning, raised plenty of eyebrows and stirred up controversy for its exploration of race, class and sexuality on the campus of a fictional elite American college. In the racially-charged "Make America Great Again / America First" era of Trump, the new Netflix TV series based on the film, also helmed by film creator Justin Simien, is sure to generate interest and spark even more debate. Already the subject of online chatter for the blackface-themed opening episodes previewed at SXSW last month, this should be timely viewing. — IS

4. The Handmaid's Tale (April 30, Bravo)

Following the election of U.S. president Donald Trump, sales of classic dystopian fiction surged: namely, George Orwell's 1984 and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Atwood's high school curriculum standard was already made into a movie in 1990, but Hulu has rebooted the story for a 10-episode series premiering this month and starring Elisabeth Moss and Joseph Fiennes. Bravo will air the series in Canada, and Atwood herself has come on as consulting producer. Following an ominous publicity roll-out, including an army of "handmaids" set loose at SXSW, Atwood's story is sure to make it out of the classroom and into the public conscious once and for all.

— Jesse Kinos-Goodin