Robert Downey Jr leads prestige TV efforts this weekend. But here's what you should watch.

This is a funny time. Roughly around now is when you will see a bunch of prestige shows that streamers are hoping will become Emmy award contenders. Shows that debut up to the end of May are eligible. Release a show now and there’s the possibility that the show may generate some heat around a performance.

There’s a reason why you will almost always see Elisabeth Moss in a TV show released around April/May.

But this year is weird. The strikes last year limited the volume of production, meaning there are fewer shows ready for release. Despite that drought, two shows hoping for a bit of awards attention have debuted this week.

Worthy of the attention is Park Chan-wook’s HBO series The Synpathizer. This is a slick, well-made, and very watchable drama about politically connected refugees (one of them a spy) leaving Vietnam for the US. The show looks great and has some wonderful performances by the entire cast, but notably series star Hoa Xuande and Robert Downey Jr (who plays multiple roles in the show).

Less worth-your-time is the seen-it-before true-crime drama Under The Bridge. The show has understandably gotten attention for its main cast which includes Riley Keough and Lily Gladstone. But it’s a perfectly okay re-tread of nasty true crime gloomy business.

Obviously I’m keen on The Sympathizer. But, if I were you… here’s how I would spend my screen watching time over the weekend and into next week…

Get out to the movies. There are two really good films playing right now in the form of Civil War and Challengers.

Civil War is a loud, bombastic, and surprisingly small in focus film about a group of journalists making their way from New York to DC in a distant future United States which is in the grip of a civil war. The film doesn’t take a red state/blue state stance, but rather serves as a tourist excursion through a divided country. Kirsten Dunst and Wagner Moura (you know him Pablo Escobar from Narcos) are especially good in it.

Challengers is the Zendaya adult drama that is being sold on the basis of… I don’t know how to pronounce it… I believe it’s ménage à trois… But real talk… there’s actually no sex depicted in the film. Everything you see is in the trailer, which is mostly some fooling around on a bed.

That said, the film is great entertainment. Zendaya is the drawcard for the film, but the breakout star will be Josh O’Connor who you may remember as Prince Charles in The Crown. Challengers is a good, grown-up relationship drama about success, passion, and playing tennis. I can’t imagine there will be many people leaving this film disappointed (except maybe over the lack of any actual sex or its runtime, which is a smidge too long at 130-ish minutes).

But if you are hell-bent on staying home, now is the perfect time to press play on the TV show Evil. The show returns for its fourth and final season on May 23, which means you have a month to blitz through the previous three seasons.

Evil is delightfully dark and twisted. It’s The X-Files meets The Exorcist with a bit of The Good Wife thrown in for good measure. Seriously… what a combination. It is probably my favourite show on these days and may become yours too.

But here - press play in this trailer and give it a go (the show also has a wicked sense of very dark humour, which isn’t captured at all by the trailer).