With so many picks for the best Roku Channel series and shows in April 2024, it can be hard choosing one that’s right for you. The Roku Channel has a collection of free shows as well as premium ones that require subscriptions, like Billions, Parish, and Outlander. So to make things easier, we’ve made a list of recommendations for what to watch on Roku this month.
What are the best Roku Channel series to watch in April 2024?
The best Roku Channel series to watch this month are generally dramas with a bit of a twist, be it science-fiction, crime, or martial arts. Here’s our selection for what to binge on Roku in April 2024.
Billions
The winner for Best Television Series (Drama) by the Satellite Awards in 2023, Billions has turned financial crime into seven fantastic seasons. The series follows Chuck Roades (Paul Giamatti), who starts the show as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, as he attempts to take down corrupt executives and managers in the world of high finance. This includes Robert Axelrod (Damian Lewis), who seems like a charitable person on the outside but it is actually a ruthless hedge fund manager who will skirt the rules if it means making more money. Many of the characters and seasonal plotlines are inspired by real-life figures and court cases, particular those that involve prosecutions brought forth by Preet Bharara. While you can watch the first episode of Billions for free on Roku Channel, you will need a subscription to Paramount+ to access all seven seasons of the show.
House
Luckily, all eight seasons of the medical drama House is available for free with ads on Roku Channel. Originally airing on Fox starting in 2004, this series stars the titular Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), a medical genius with a sardonic wit, a drug addiction, and a general distrust of his fellow man, as he solves unusual cases that fall outside the norm. It’s effectively a medical procedural where the mystery is about what illness caused a patient’s symptoms, with Dr. House and his team at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital as the investigators and scientists.
The IT Crowd
Making its debut on Channel 4 in 2006, the British sitcom The IT Crowd has a cult following for its nerdy, offbeat humor. The show focuses on the Irish technician Roy Trenneman (Chris O’Dowd) and the socially inept Maurice Moss (Richard Ayoade) as they attempt to solve the mundane technical issues in Reynholm Industries. While their manager Jen Barber (Katherine Parkinson) knows next to nothing about computers, her ability to socialize with normal people becomes an asset to the team. The first episode of this comedy is available on Roku Channel, though you’ll need a subscription to BritBox to watch all four seasons of the show.
Lexx
The sci-fi series Lexx is unusual even for its genre. First airing in 1997 in Canada, the show is centered on the crew of the spaceship Lexx, including the cowardly but heroic Stanley H. Tweedle (Brian Downey), the sex-obsessed Zev Bellringer (Eva Habermann), and the technically undead Kai (Michael McManus). It’s difficult to describe the narrative beats for the show, since the first season is a series of four made-for-TV movies and the fourth season incorporates magic of all things. But in general the show mixes dark comedy and parody with a lot of drama based on deep philosophical subjects like reincarnation and fate. All four seasons of Lexx are available on demand on Roku Channel with ads.
The Long Shadow
The 2023 true crime British drama The Long Shadow, not to be confused with another crime drama with the same name on Paramount+, is a seven-part series where investigators attempt to chase down the Yorkshire Ripper. Based on the book Wicked Beyond Belief by Michael Bilton, the series delves into the five-year manhunt for the killer, though the story focuses more on the female victims than the typical thriller. It also explores why the investigation went wrong so many times and how the attitude against sex workers made the case much harder to close by the police. You will need to have an AMC+ or Sundance Now subscription to access The Long Shadow on Roku Channel past the first episode.
Outlander
If you haven’t watched the historical drama Outlander yet, this is a good time to start. Adapted from the Outlander book series by Diana Gabaldon, the show centers around the former WWII nurse Claire Randall (Caitriona Balfe) as she is sent back in time by way of group of standing stones to 1743 Scotland. There she meets a group of rebel Highlanders, particularly the warrior Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), during the Jacobite rising. Chasing them is the captain of the government troops, Jonathan Randall, who Claire realizes is an ancestor of the husband she left behind. You can watch the first episode of Outlander for free on Roku Channel, though the full series is locked behind a Starz subscription.
Parish
Watching Giancarlo Esposito be a badass in Parish is an easy sell. This American adaptation of the BBC series The Driver premiered on AMC in late March 2024 and is going through its six-episode run this month. The story follows Gray Parish, played by Esposito, who left a life of crime to be a better man for his family and drives a taxi for a living. But then one day he accepts a lucrative job to pick up a gangster from Zimbabwe for money. That decision ultimately results in his son being murdered. On a quest for revenge, Parish is pushed back into his former life and enters the criminal underworld once more. While the first episode of Parish is available for free, you’ll need either an AMC+ or ALLBLK subscription to watch the remainder of the season.
Warrior
If you’re looking for more action, then the martial-arts drama Warrior may be right for you. This show is based on an original concept by Bruce Lee and stars Andrew Koji as the kung-fu expert Ah Sahm, who becomes embroiled in the Tong Wars in San Francisco in the late 1870s. The series ended in 2023, and it’s a bit difficult to access the full series. The first two seasons of Warrior can be found on Roku Channel, though you’ll need a Cinemax subscription to watch past the first episode. The third season of the show can be found on Max.
