The Show Must Go On: Must-watch March TV including The Irregulars, Smother, and more

The Nevers (Sky Atlantic, April TBA)
Irish thesps Ann Skelly and Laura Donnelly go big budget is this daft but highly watchable HBO yarn about a gang of Victorian women with fantastical powers and a long list of enemies. Original showrunner Joss Whedon stepped down in November after saying the physical rigours of making such a massive show were too much for him. Since then he’s been the subject of allegations by actors who worked under him on Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel and Justice League.

Smother (RTÉ One, Sunday at 9.30pm)
The national broadcaster’s attempts to produce an Irish Noir worthy of the billing finally bear fruit with this tale of a Lahinch matriarch determined to protect her three daughters from some dark family secrets. Written by Kate O’Riordan of Mr. Selfridge and The Bay renown, its fine ensemble cast includes Dervla Kirwan, Niamh Walsh, Seána Kerslake, Gemma Leah Devereux and Hilary Rose, AKA The Young Offenders’ Mairéad MacSweeney who also turns out to be a very fine dramatic actor.

Amsterdam Vice (Walter Presents/Channel4.com, now)
Several trillion times grittier than its Miami counterpart, this beautifully constructed crime drama rewinds to a 1980s Amsterdam where the cops are just as bad as the robbers. Based on real-ish events, Detective Judd Cox and his new partner Montijn get embroiled in a plot to disrupt the coronation of Princess Beatrice. It also has the best soundtrack – The Clash, The Datsuns, New Order, Black Sabbath, Iggy Pop, Sex Pistols, Blondie, The Specials – of any cop show you’ll see this year.

The Flight Attendant (Sky One, March 19)
If you think you’re having a bad day, consider what it’s like to wake up in the wrong hotel bed with a dead man. This is the fate befalling Cassie, the titular airline employee who can’t remember anything about the night before. Based on the Chris Bohjalian bestseller of the name, the plot twists outrageously before we get to know for sure whether she’s a murderer or not. The cast includes the magnificently named Nolan Gerard Funk whose career has somehow managed to survive him appearing alongside Lindsey Lohan in The Canyons.

The Irregulars (Netflix, March 26)
An interesting riff on the Sherlock Holmes story, this eight-parter finds a sinister Doctor Watson coercing a group of teenage delinquents into helping them solve crimes. Things take on a supernatural edge as a dark power emerges and, no, it’s not Moriarty.

Renegades: Born In The USA (Spotify, now)
Love, friendship, fatherhood, race, religion, politics and, natch, music were among the topics discussed last year when Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen met up regularly in The Boss’ New Jersey studio. The resulting six-part podcast is a balm for the soul and guaranteed to royally – or should that be presidentially? – piss off the MAGA brigade.

“Bruce and I have been on parallel journeys,” Barack reflects. “We still share a fundamental belief in the American ideal. Not as an airbrushed, cheap fiction or an act of nostalgia that ignores all the ways that we’ve fallen short of that ideal. But as a compass for the hard work that lies before each of us as citizens.”