Welcome to On the Radar, your monthly reminder of what’s coming down the pike in the world of entertainment.
We’ve got the latest TV shows, movies, books and more — all coming out in March.
Take a look and see what’s up this month.
TV
Big Brother Canada (Global)
Premiere date: Wednesday, March 6 at 7 p.m. ET/PT
On Wednesday, the 14 new house guests were revealed after weeks of anticipation. They’re set to enter the sleek Big Brother Canada (BBCAN) house very soon, with Season 7 premiering on Global on March 6 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
Watch as a new group of Canuck contestants move into an overhauled Big Brother Canada house outfitted wall-to-wall with cameras and microphones capturing their every move. Each week, the house guests do battle in a series of challenges that give them power or punishment, voting each other out until the fate of the final two is decided by a jury of fellow house guests.
Queer Eye (Netflix)
Release date: Friday, March 15
An all-new “Fab Five” advise men on fashion, grooming, food, culture and design in this modern reboot of the Emmy Award-winning reality series. Join Bobby Berk, Karamo Brown, Tan France, Antoni Porowski and Jonathan Van Ness in Season 3 of Queer Eye.
Happy! (Showcase)
Premiere date: Thursday, March 28 at 10 p.m. ET/PT
Happy! is based on the graphic novel of the same name by New York Times bestselling authors Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson. The series follows Nick Sax (Christopher Meloni, Law & Order: SVU) — an intoxicated, corrupt ex-cop-turned-hitman — who is adrift in a world of casual murder, soulless sex and betrayal. After a hit gone wrong, his inebriated life is forever changed by a tiny, relentlessly positive, imaginary blue-winged horse named Happy (Patton Oswalt, The King of Queens).
Season 2 begins with Easter on the horizon — a season of hideous pastels, dye-stained fingertips and a general “who-really-gives-a-f**k” attitude. A newly sober-ish Sax finds himself struggling with the demands of family and fatherhood. He has sworn to do right by his ex-wife, Amanda, and his daughter, Hailey, which means no booze, sex, drugs or killing. Happy, meanwhile, is resigned to keeping his partner on the straight and narrow while coping with the fact that a maturing Hailey can no longer see him. Sax’s fresh start will be tested by a familiar enemy: Sonny Shine, who is on a mission to Make Easter Great Again (MEGA) with the help of his demented Easter Bunny henchman.
Jane the Virgin (Netflix)
Release date: Thursday, March 28
Jane the Virgin is coming back for its fifth and final season. Season 4 saw Jane Villanueva (Gina Rodriguez) falling back in love with her baby-by-accidental-insemination-daddy, Rafael Solano (Justin Baldoni). Jane published her first book, but it didn’t fly off the shelves like she wanted it to. At the end of Season 4, Jane knocked on Rafael’s door and thought she’d find him on one knee ready to propose to her. Instead, she found Rafael with Michael Cordero, her husband back from the dead. Did he fake his death? This is a telenovela, after all.
Santa Clarita Diet (Netflix)
Release date: Friday, March 29
Joel and Sheila are husband-and-wife realtors leading vaguely discontented lives in the L.A. suburb of Santa Clarita with their teenage daughter, Abby, until Sheila goes through a dramatic change, sending their lives down a road of death and destruction…but in a good way.
Santa Clarita Diet stars Drew Barrymore as Sheila Hammond, Timothy Olyphant as Joel Hammond, Liv Hewson as Abby Hammond and Skyler Gisondo as Eric Bemis.
Movies
Captain Marvel
Release date: Friday, March 8
Comic book fans are getting ready for Marvel Comics’ next big superhero with the release of Captain Marvel. Set in the ’90s, Oscar winner Brie Larson stars as Captain Marvel, with a digitally de-aged Samuel L. Jackson returning as a much younger Nick Fury.
When the movie opens on March 8, Captain Marvel will be Marvel Studios’ first female-led film, something critics say was long overdue. Captain Marvel is directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. It also stars Djimon Hounsou, Lee Pace, Clark Gregg, Lashana Lynch, Gemma Chan, Rune Temte, Mckenna Grace, Robert Kazinsky, Annette Bening, Vik Sahay, Colin Ford and Chuku Modu.
Turn Up Charlie (Netflix)
Release date: Friday, March 15
(Warning: This trailer contains explicit language.)
Turn Up Charlie, starring Idris Elba, follows a down-and-out DJ who plots to rebuild his music career while working as a nanny for his famous best friend’s wild 11-year-old daughter in this Netflix original comedy series.
Us
Release date: Friday, March 22
Academy Award-winning director Jordan Peele’s latest film is set in the present day along the Northern California coastline. Us stars Lupita Nyong’o as Adelaide Wilson, a woman returning to her beachside childhood home with her husband, Gabe (Winston Duke), and their two children (Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex) for an idyllic summer getaway.
Haunted by an unexplainable and unresolved trauma from her past that is compounded by a string of eerie coincidences, Adelaide feels her paranoia elevate to high alert as she grows increasingly certain that something bad is going to befall her family. After spending a tense beach day with their friends, the Tylers (Elisabeth Moss, Tim Heidecker, Cali Sheldon, Noelle Sheldon), Adelaide and her family return to their vacation home. When darkness falls, the Wilsons discover the silhouette of four figures holding hands as they stand in the driveway. Us pits an endearing American family against a terrifying and uncanny opponent: doppelgängers of themselves.
Hotel Mumbai
Release date: Friday, March 29
Hotel Mumbai is based on the 2009 documentary Surviving Mumbai about the 2008 attacks at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in Mumbai, India. The movie stars Dev Patel, Armie Hammer, Nazanin Boniadi, Anupam Kher, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Jason Isaacs, Suhail Nayyar and Natasha Liu Bordizzo.
Dumbo
Release date: Friday, March 29
More than 75 years after the original animated Dumbo was released by Disney, eccentric director Tim Burton has given audiences a glimpse of his take on the sad story. For those unaware of the plot, Dumbo follows the story of a circus elephant born with excessively large ears. At first, he’s derided and viewed as an outcast, but slowly the other animals and the circus owner himself realize those huge ears may be a gift rather than a curse.
The side-plot involves Dumbo being separated from his mother (which we get a look at briefly in the trailer) and the young elephant trying to make it on his own. Along the way, in true Disney fashion, we meet the other animals of the circus, who all try to support Dumbo in their own ways. The film stars Colin Farrell, Danny DeVito, Eva Green and Michael Keaton, plus newcomers Finley Hobbins and Nico Parker.
Books
Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith
Available Tuesday, March 5
Having just been dumped by his girlfriend, British-born Hugo is still determined to take his last-hurrah-before-college train trip across the United States. One snag: the companion ticket is already booked under the name of his ex, Margaret Campbell. Nontransferable, no exceptions.
Enter the new Margaret C. (Mae for short), an aspiring filmmaker with big dreams. After finding Hugo’s spare ticket offer online, she’s convinced it’s the perfect opportunity to expand her horizons.
When the two meet, the attraction is undeniable, and both find more than they bargained for. As Mae pushes Hugo to explore his dreams for the future, he’ll encourage her to channel a new, vulnerable side of her art. But when life off the train threatens the bubble they’ve created for themselves, will they manage to keep their love on track?
Barely Missing Everything by Matt Mendez
Available Tuesday, March 5
In the tradition of Jason Reynolds and Matt de la Peña, this heartbreaking, no-holds-barred debut novel, told from three points of view, explores how difficult it is to make it in life when you — your life, brown lives — don’t matter.
Juan has plans. He’s going to get out of El Paso, Texas, on a basketball scholarship and make something of himself — or at least find something better than his mom Fabi’s cruddy apartment, her string of loser boyfriends and a dead dad. Basketball is going to be his ticket out, his ticket up. He just needs to make it happen. His best friend J.D. has plans, too. He’s going to be a filmmaker one day, like Quentin Tarantino or Guillermo del Toro. He’s got a camera and he’s got passion — what else could he need?
Fabi doesn’t have a plan anymore. When you get pregnant at 16 and have been stuck bartending to make ends meet for the past 17 years, you realize plans don’t always pan out and that there are some things you just can’t plan for…
Like Juan’s run-in with the police, a sprained ankle and a tanking math grade that will likely ruin his chance at a scholarship. Like J.D. causing the implosion of his family. Like letters from a man named Mando on death row. Like finding out this man could be the father your mother said was dead. Soon, Juan and J.D. are embarking on a Thelma and Louise-like road trip to visit Mando. Juan will finally meet his dad, J.D. has a perfect subject for his documentary and Fabi is desperate to stop them. But, as we already know, there are some things you just can’t plan for.
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Global News, Global TV and Showcase are properties of Corus Entertainment.
—With files from Chris Jancelewicz
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