The Stream: ‘Righteous Gemstones’ makes its final debut

Lady Gaga’s seventh studio album “Mayhem” and a new lifestyle series on Netflix from the Duchess of Sussex called “With Love, Meghan” are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you.

Also among the streaming offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists: Carrie Underwood ascends to a judge on “American Idol,” a new series launches featuring the Marvel hero Daredevil and singer Jennie becomes the latest member of the K-pop group Blackpink to have a solo album.

NEW SHOWS TO STREAM

• Actor Charlie Cox says that “Daredevil: Born Again,” which premiered Tuesday on Disney+, pretty much picks up where the third season on Netflix left off. “You don’t have to have seen all the back catalog to understand it, but essentially it is a continuation,” Cox told the AP at the show’s premiere. Cox plays blind lawyer Matt Murdock, who by night fights for justice as Daredevil. Vincent D’Onofrio reprises his role as Wilson Fisk. Jon Bernthal also returns as The Punisher.
• “With Love, Meghan,” the lifestyle series starring the Duchess of Sussex, was originally scheduled to premiere on Netflix in January but was delayed because of the Los Angeles-area wildfires. It debuted Tuesday, and we’ve recently learned that the streamer has teamed up with Meghan on her new company, As Ever. She made the announcement recently in a video posted to her new Instagram account. “With Love, Meghan,” says Netflix, is not about a quest for perfection but more about finding joy in the little things.
• Two Pakistani American brothers must step up to take over their late-father’s convenience store in “Deli Boys” and discover he used it to hide a criminal enterprise. Poorna Jagannathan of “Never Have I Ever” is a main cast member. Jenni Konner, who was the showrunner of “Girls” with Lena Dunham is an executive producer. “Deli Boys” premieres today on Hulu.
• When Carrie Underwood won the fourth season of “American Idol” in 2005, she had no idea that 20 years later she would be a judge on that very same show. Underwood will sit alongside Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan at the judges’ table, replacing Katy Perry, who departed to focus on her own music career. It will be interesting to see how Underwood interacts with the contestants because she’s been in their shoes. “Idol” premieres Sunday on ABC and also streams on Hulu.
• The fourth and final season of “Righteous Gemstones” debuts Sunday on HBO and Max. Created by and starring Danny McBride, the show follows a family of televangelists who run a successful megachurch. Their private lives are nothing like their public image. John Goodman and Adam DeVine also star.
• Season three of the critically acclaimed noir drama “Dark Winds” returns to AMC on Sunday. Set in the 1970s, the series follows three Navajo Tribal Police officer who patrol the Four Corners region of the Southwest (where the states of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet.) George R. R. Martin and Robert Redford are executive producers. “Dark Winds” is 100% fresh on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and a fourth season has already been ordered. It also streams on AMC+.

— Alicia Rancilio

NEW MOVIES TO STREAM

• Hugh Grant is deliciously deranged in “Heretic,” in which two young, unsuspecting missionaries (Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) have the misfortune of knocking on the door of his Mr. Reed one day. In his review for The Associated Press, critic Mark Kennedy writes, “So beautifully constructed and acted in the first half is ‘Heretic’ that you won’t really notice when it turns into a horror movie. You might be a step ahead of the missionaries, but not by much. Mr. Reed alternates between creepy and funny, well versed in Spider-Man and Voltaire, Radiohead and the Hollies, Wendy’s and Taco Bell. Grant has gloriously weaponized his natural charm.” The A24 film begins streaming Friday on Max.
• There’s no shortage of media projects about the Manson murders, but when a filmmaker like Errol Morris (“The Thin Blue Line,” “The Fog of War”) decides to delve into the killing spree you pay attention. “CHAOS: The Manson Murders,” debuting Friday on Netflix, promises new links between the CIA, LSD and Charles Manson. In speaking to the Netflix publication Tudum, Morris said: “You could encapsulate the mystery in just one question: How is it that Manson managed to convince the people around him that killing was OK?”
• Cate Blanchett, Charles Dance and Alicia Vikander star in “Rumours,” an absurdist satire and genre-hopping apocalypse film about world leaders gathered at the G7 who get lost in the woods. Guy Maddin (“My Winnipeg”) co-directed the film with Evan and Galen Johnson. Jeannette Catsoulis, writing in the New York Times, called it “sporadically ingenious, occasionally chilling and entirely bonkers.” It comes to Paramount+ on Sunday.

— AP film writer Lindsey Bahr

NEW MUSIC

• She hath returned. Lady Gaga — whose theatrical pop once recalled Madonna and now serves as a reminder that big belts are cinema, whisper singers be damned — will release her seventh studio album on Friday. Titled “Mayhem,” and following 2024’s “Joker: Folie à Deux” soundtrack record and 2020’s colorful “Chromatica,” the album suggests a kind of revitalization of big pop. “Abracadabra” is an energetic dance; its Gesaffelstein-sound recalling the mid-2010s.
• Seven years ago, global pop phenomenon Jennie became the first member of the K-pop group Blackpink to go “SOLO.” Her debut single was a product of its time — nostalgic EDM-pop with pitched up whistle effects and simple, declarative lyrics: “I’m goin’ solo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo.” She wasn’t leaving her band, but a lackluster relationship. And she still isn’t: On Friday, Jennie will release her first solo, full-length album, “Ruby.” It’s stacked with ambitious collaborations — Doechii, Childish Gambino, Dua Lipa and Kali Uchis among them — but at the core is Jennie and her message of self-empowerment.
• The Wiggles have gone country. On their latest album, “Wiggle Up, Giddy Up — with Friends!,” the Australian children’s entertainers have collaborated with Dolly Parton, Orville Peck, Lainey Wilson, Dasha and more for a twang-y good time.

• In 2023, London-based Welsh band The Tubs released their debut album, “Dead Meat,” one of the year’s best indie rock releases; a messy mosaic of jangly indiepop and ’80s college rock that’s enough to make a poor bloke feel alive again — until he spends time with the lyrics, where “self-deprecation” only scratches the surface. Friday brings their follow-up, “Cotton Crown,” further cementing their place as one of the great guitar bands of the current moment. The devastation continues, too: The cover features Tubs’ vocalist and principal songwriter Owen “O” Williams as an infant, breastfeeding from his mother in a graveyard. She, the folk singer Charlotte Greig, died by suicide a decade ago last year. Williams’ grief is in a lot of these terrific songs. It is worth your ear.

— AP music writer Maria Sherman

NEW VIDEO GAMES

• Like many gamers, I tend to bounce between fantasy and science fiction when I need to escape. Split Fiction, the latest adventure from Sweden’s Hazelight Studios, asks: Why not have both? It’s the story of two writers, Mio and Zoe, who are drawn into each other’s imaginary creations. In Zoe’s world, you get to cast spells and ride dragons, while Mio’s world has laser swords and flying cars. Like Hazelight’s previous game, the award-winning It Takes Two, Split Fiction is strictly two-player co-op. That means you’ll need to find a partner, either online or on the couch, to get past all its tricky twists and turns. Get ready to snuggle up today on PlayStation 5, Xbox X/S and PC.

— Lou Kesten