Welcome back to Tune In: our weekly newsletter offering a guide to the best of the week’s TV.
Each week, Variety’s TV team combs through the week’s schedule, selecting our picks of what to watch and when/how to watch them. This week, “The New Pope” returns on HBO, and “Sex Education” season 2 drops on Netflix.
“The New Pope,” HBO, Monday, 9 p.m.
The Paolo Sorrentino-created series returns for season 2, picking up where season 1 left off with Jude Law’s Lenny Belardo, known as Pope Pius XIII, in a coma. John Malkovich joins the cast as a charming and sophisticated moderate English aristocrat.
“Grace & Frankie,” Netflix, Wednesday
The sixth and penultimate season of “Grace & Frankie” drops this week on Netflix. The series star Jane Fonda (Grace) and Lily Tomlin (Frankie) as two women whose lives are turned upside down when their husbands reveal they are gay and leave them for each other.
“Sex Education,” Netflix, Friday
Otis Milburn (Asa Butterfield), a socially awkward high school student, and his overbearing sex therapist mother (Gillian Anderson) return for more high school fun in season 2. In the show’s sophomore outing, Otis must master his newly discovered sexual urges in order to progress with his girlfriend Ola (Patricia Allison) whilst also dealing with his now strained relationship with Maeve.
“Avenue 5,” HBO, Sunday, 10 p.m.
Set 40 years in the future, this new Armando Iannucci series stars Hugh Laurie as Ryan Clark, the confident and suave captain of “Avenue 5,” a swanky space cruise ship which suddenly encounters technical difficulties, causing the passengers on board to lose control.