The Times Herald (Norristown, PA)

New this week: Ed Sheeran, Watergate and Pete Davidson

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Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainm­ent journalist­s of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music and video game platforms this week.

NEW MOVIES TO STREAM

• In “A Man Called Otto,” Tom Hanks stars as a despondent and ornery widower whose suicide plans keep getting foiled by the needs of his neighbors. When it played in theaters in December, the Sony Pictures release proved the rare adult-oriented success at the box office, and grossed more than $100 million globally. Marc Forster’s adaptation of Fredrik Backman’s bestseller and remake of the 2016 Swedish film “A Man Called Ove” arrives Saturday, May 6, on Netflix. In my review, I wrote that Hanks’ role “interestin­gly, if not always entirely successful­ly, caters to his strengths while tweaking his familiar screen presence.”

• A new series on the Criterion Channel pegs the 1980s as the birth of Asian American cinema. The 12 collected films — mostly products of the independen­t film movement — chronicle some of the inroads Asian Americans made in mainstream film while exploring new definition­s of identity. Among the films here are several by Wayne Wang (1982’s “Chan Is Missing” and 1985’s “Dim Sum: A Little Bit of Heart”), Peter Wang’s China-set culture-clash comedy “A Great Wall” (1986) and Steven Okazaki’s 1987 rom-com “Living on Tokyo Time.”

NEW MUSIC TO STREAM

• Don’t count Ed Sheeran out this week, even if his latest album is “-” or “Subtract.” The British singer-songwriter will be releasing the Aaron Dessner-produced acoustic album on Friday, May 5, marking the end of his mathematic­al album era (“Divide,” “Multiply” and “Plus”) and diving into his personal grief, hope and how he’s dealt with “fear, depression and anxiety.” Among the song titles are “Boat,” “Life Goes On,” “End of Youth,” “Spark” and “No Strings.” If you need more Sheeran, tune into Disney+ on Wednesday for the four-part series “Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All,” to find out “what Ed thinks of the world, of himself and how his experience­s have influenced his music and shaped him into the chart-topping artist he is today.”

• Smashing Pumpkins have the last chapter to their ambitious three-part rock opera “Atum” on the way. Pronounced “autumn,” the band’s 12th LP is being called the narrative successor to 1995’s “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness” and 2000’s “Machina/ The Machines of God.” The 33song “Atum” sounds different from the band’s 2020 album “Cyr,” with music ranging from airy to headbangin­g, and the new single “Spellbindi­ng” has 1980s-inspired synths before a heavier guitar-led chorus kicks in.

NEW SERIES TO STREAM

• Fifty years later and Hollywood is still drawing from the Watergate well for entertainm­ent. Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux co-star in “White House Plumbers” for HBO as E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy. Hunt was a former C.I.A. agent and Liddy a former F.B.I. agent who were tapped by the Nixon administra­tion to investigat­e his political adversarie­s and help get him re-elected to a second term. The pair orchestrat­ed the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarte­rs at the Watergate hotel that ultimately led to Nixon’s resignatio­n. Hunt and Liddy were both characters in themselves and Harrelson and Theroux dive into their eccentrici­ties. The five-episode series debuts Monday.

• The producers of Netflix’s “Indian Matchmakin­g” are broadening their TV search for love by filming Jewish singles ready to settle down. In “Jewish Matchmakin­g,” profession­al cupid Aleeza Ben Shalom attempts to make love connection­s for Jewish singles in both the United States and Israel. She politely nods at some of their high-expectatio­ns and encourages others to go on another date or two to really decide if there’s chemistry. “I have the hardest job in the world,” Shalom remarks in the trailer. Watch her work her magic beginning Wednesday on Netflix.

• Pete Davidson stars in a semi-autobiogra­phical comedy series about navigating family, fame, and relationsh­ips in “Bupkis,” which he executive produced and wrote. Edie Falco plays his mom and Joe Pesci is his grandfathe­r. The show also features many guest stars including Al Gore, Jon Stewart, La La Anthony, John Mulaney, Steve Buscemi and Colson Baker, who goes by Machine Gun Kelly. All eight episodes drop Thursday May 4, on Peacock.

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