What to watch this weekend May 3, 2024: TV awards contenders

Break out Tom Cruise’s famous coconut cake, the wait is finally over. “Hacks,” TV’s funniest comedy about comedy, is back after a lengthy hiatus. The third season picks up a year after the events of Season 2, which saw Deborah (Emmy winner Jean Smart) fire her writing partner, Ava (Emmy nominee Hannah Einbinder), following the successful release of her comedy special so Ava could finally begin developing her own career. 

The new season, the first two episodes of which are now streaming on Max, is as sharp and funny as ever as the two friends find their way back to one another when Deborah decides to have another go at hosting a late-night show. The enviable list of guest stars for the nine-episode season includes J. Smith-Cameron, Helen Hunt, Christina Hendricks and Christopher Lloyd. But it’s the chemistry between Smart and Einbinder — easily one of TV’s best duos — in conjunction with the brilliant writing from its Emmy-winning creative team, that makes “Hacks” the awards contender to watch this weekend.

SEE Experts slugfest: ‘Hacks’ is back in the Emmy race with its best season yet

But lest you think that’s all there is, other contenders include:

• “John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in LA”: It’s safe to say you’ve never seen anything like this. Streaming live as part of the annual Netflix Is a Joke festival, the six-episode series features Emmy-winning comedian John Mulaney exploring the city of Los Angeles with a number of special guests, many of whom are in town for the event. It’s a list that includes everyone from David Letterman and Bill Hader to Beck and seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones (on the off chance there is an earthquake during the live event, you’ll be happy she’s around). The first episode premieres Friday at 10pm ET/7pm PT on Netflix. New episodes stream nightly through May 10. 
• “Welcome to Wrexham”: FX’s Emmy-winning docuseries about two actors (Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney) buying the third-oldest professional football club in existence and giving it the Hollywood treatment is back for Season 3 after being pushed from its original April premiere date. The stakes are now sky high for the Red Dragons, who have been promoted to the English Football League after 15 long seasons in the National League. But while the Welsh team’s visibility is greater than ever, not much has changed for the show, which remains one of the most heartwarming series on TV. The first two episodes are now streaming on Hulu.
• “Sugar”: You may have heard there is a major twist that occurs in this stylish, LA-set noir that stars Colin Farrell as a movie-loving private investigator. Well, this is the week it all goes down. Which is to say that you really don’t want to be the last of your friends to watch “Go Home,” which is now streaming on Apple TV+.

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