This week’s TV: The American Music Awards, Nicolas Cage in ‘Spider-Noir,’ and more

Arts admin May 25, 2026 0 Comments

This week’s TV: The American Music Awards, Nicolas Cage in ‘Spider-Noir,’ and more

Queen Latifah steps in to host the American Music Awards, airing 8 p.m. Monday on CBS, and streaming on Paramount+. They’re giving Billy Idol, also one of the night’s performers, a lifetime achievement award, while Karol G will be honored with the international artist award of excellence. A long list of familiar faces battle it out for artist of the year (Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber, Kendrick Lamar, etc.), while Sombr, KATSEYE, Ella Langley, Olivia Dean, Leon Thomas, and Alex Warren face off for best new artist of the year.

All of the voice actors for the various Spider-people in the animated “Into the Spider-verse” movies do excellent work; I was particularly charmed by John Mulaney’s weird and slightly off-putting Spider-Ham (his name is Peter Porker!). But there’s no question that Nicolas Cage’s delightfully gruff take on the Spider-Man Noir character was a particular highlight. Now, Cage moves into the live action world for “Spider-Noir,” a new series that will premiere Monday on MGM+, and then the full series drops on Prime Video Wednesday. The show will be available to stream both in color and in black and white, depending on how era-appropriate you want your noir vibes to be.

The hit comedy crime caper “Deli Boys” returns for a second season Thursday on Hulu. As befits a successful show rolling into its second season, they’ve booked some exciting guest stars: Andrew Rannells as an ambitious district attorney who hopes to be mayor, Kumail Nanjiani (who’s in the midst of an enjoyable run on the current season of “Taskmaster”) as a defense attorney, plus Lilly Singh and Robin Thede.

If “Deli Boys” wasn’t enough Andrew Rannells for you, don’t skip “Miss You, Love You,” a streaming movie in which he costars with Allison Janney. Janney is striving to put together a memorial for her recently deceased husband; Rannells is the assistant to her estranged son. The movie was written and directed by Jim Rash, who you might remember as the oddball dean in “Community.” Oh, and he also won an Oscar for writing the screenplay for the 2011 George Clooney movie “The Descendants.”

Much of the early seasons of Apple TV’s alternate history drama “For All Mankind” involve the Americans trying to outwit the Russians in the space race. Now, see the whole thing from the point of view of the Russians in “Star City,” out Friday on Apple TV. The spinoff series zooms back to the earlier days of the show, and depicts events from the other side of the battle. Rhys Ifans stars as the brilliant Chief Designer trying to inspire brilliance among his engineers under the watchful jurisdiction of Soviet-era Russia.