May is mostly a dead zone of season finales and reruns as TV gears up for the summer (there's no off-season anymore, get used to it). But! Remember all those shows I've told you to watch harder in this very column? All readily available in various on-demand forms? Now's the time to catch up! Here are 12 to start with:
Wynonna Earp [Syfy] Wynonna Earp (Melanie Scrofano) is a modern-day descendent of Old West gunslinger Wyatt Earp, who was also a supernatural demon hunter (just roll with it), and she's back in town to re-smite evil souls (or revenants). It's all true enough to the comic-book source, and Scrofano is a likeable combo of badass and goofball.
Orphan Black [BBC America] In Season 4 of this tense clone-soap, Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) investigates Beth, the deceased sister-clone whose identity she stole at the beginning of the series, and the origins of the clone conspiracy. Also, more clones, upping Maslany's character load for the season to eight (and still no Emmy).
Hap & Leonard [Sundance] Hap & Leonard is a six-episode tale about '80s Texans Hap (James Purefoy) and Leonard (Michael K. Williams), a pair of luckless laborers dragged into a get-rich-suspiciously easy scheme by Hap's ex-wife (Christina Hendricks). The plan soon spirals into a cacophony of conflicting agendas and colorful characters, with Fargo-like comic-to-violent jolts.
Idiotsitter [Comedy Central] An unemployed Ivy Leaguer (Charlotte Newhouse) takes a babysitting job—but the "baby" turns out to be an adult wild-child heiress (Jillian Bell) under house arrest. As the series progresses (or regresses), it's clear that Bell and Newhouse can do stoopid repartee almost as well as the Broad City ladies. All this, and a Channing Tatum cameo!
Baskets [FX] Chip Baskets (Zach Galifianakis), having flunked out of a prestigious French clown academy, returns to uncultured 'Merica to be a rodeo clown—and then it gets weird (Chip's mom is Louie Anderson in drag, for just one example). Baskets is a funny-to-sad-to-funnier-to-sadder commentary on artistic failure and Western decline, but don't be afraid.
Better Call Saul [AMC] Better Call Saul continues to be a minor-miracle follow-up to, and expansion on, Breaking Bad in a flawless second season, further transforming small-time lawyer Slippin' Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) into medium-time legal shark Saul Goodman. Even better, Rhea Seehorn, Michael McKean and Jonathan Banks get equal time to shine.
Banshee [Cinemax] Season 4 will be the last for this gritty slice of Amish-country crime noir, so there's hope for eventually catching up on Banshee. The twisted tale of an ex-con/thief (Antony Starr) who assumes the identity of Sheriff Lucas Hood in the small town of Banshee, Pa., has taken many a bizarre turn, but the outcome is always the same (and bloody).
Vinyl [HBO] Vinyl is as excessive and beautiful as you'd expect a collaboration between Martin Scorsese, Terence Winter and Mick Jagger to be, mixing Almost Famous' music-saves earnestness with Velvet Goldmine's visceral glam bombast and Boogie Nights' druggy chaos, and cranking it to 11 in 1974 New York City. It's not perfect, but neither is rock 'n' roll.
The Detour [TBS] Jason Jones (The Daily Show) and Natalie Zea (Justified) star as harried parents on a family road-trip where everything that could possibly go wrong does, spectacularly. Sound like National Lampoon's Vacation? It is, but far funnier than last year's limp Vacation reboot—and usually dramatic Zea is a comedic revelation.
Billions [Showtime] Damian Lewis (as a charismatic hedge fund billionaire) and Paul Giamatti (as a troubled U.S. Attorney) churn bluster and testosterone Acting! against each other, but they're not Billions' most interesting players: Maggie Siff, as a psychiatrist-turned-performance-coach with an invisible, spooky command, could lead this series on her own.
Teachers [TV Land] Teachers is a part of TV Land's makeover from reheated sitcom repository to smart comedy destination, and six-woman improv troupe The Katydids (their first names are all variations on "Katherine") gender-flip Super Troopers into an elementary school, dosed with Broad City's fearless, vanity-free pursuit of so-wrong laughs.
Not Safe With Nikki Glaser [Comedy Central] Comic Nikki Glaser gets right down to topics like "losing your virginity, masturbation and putting stuff in your butt!" Not Safe is a sex-and-relationships talk show with fellow-comedian gab and pre-taped bits—it's been done before, but Glaser has the smarts and presence to rise to the level of Amy Schumer.
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