Short attention span theater lives on: anthology series Cinema Toast will premiere next week.

According to Variety, the series is described as a “post-modernist reinvention of older movies that turns pre-existing imagery from the public domain on its head to tell new unique stories.” The 10 episodes series will premiere on Showtime’s on-demand streaming and partner platforms on Tuesday, April 20th.

Episode directors include series creators Jeff Baena and Jay Duplass, as well as Mel Eslyn, Alex Ross Perry, Marta Cunningham, Aubrey Plaza, Numa Perrier, Jordan Firstman, Kris Rey and David Lowery. The episodes will be voiced by actors including Alison Brie, Nick Offerman, Fred Armisen, John Early, Christina Ricci, Megan Mullally, Chloe Fineman and Christopher Meloni. The other Duplass brother, Mark co-produces along with Baena and Jay Duplass.

Cinema Toast features stories spanning genres including drama, horror and comedy, according to Showtime’s description. Plaza’s psychological thriller “Quiet Illness” is composed of footage of Loretta Young to create a portrait of an emotionally tortured modern woman, while Cunningham’s “Attack of the Karens” reworks the classic Night of the Living Dead to comment on modern-day America. In “After the End,” Eslyn injects the beloved monster movie Beast from Haunted Cave with a mumblecore comedy sensibility. And with “Report on the Canine Auto-Mechanical Soviet Threat,” Perry creates a surreal journey from rare Soviet films about a young boy who is immersed in a new reality inhabited by talking cars and telepathic dogs.

“When the pandemic first hit and all paths to traditional production seemed unlikely at best, I racked my brain to find a way to still create,” said Baena. “That’s when the idea hit me to re-dub and re-shape old material into something transcendent that extends beyond just a comedic curio.”

Anthology series are perfect for viewers who don’t have the mental energy to commit to a continuing storyline. Classic series like The Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents added a distinct element of horror and suspense, but anthology series come in all genres. Here are some series you can binge (intermittently) while you wait for the premiere of Cinema Toast.

NETFLIX
Black Mirror, Love Death + Robots
Black Mirror (2011) is probably the first anthology series that comes to mind. Famous for dark yet satisfying twist endings, the series explores disparate elements of a twisted, high-tech multiverse where humanity’s greatest innovations and darkest instincts collide. Love Death + Robots (2019) takes the form of short episodic stories that span a multitude of genres and animation styles, including science-fiction, fantasy, horror, and comedy. The variety in animation styles in Love, Death & Robots makes each episode fresh and visually exciting.

HULU
Monsterland, Dimension 404
Monsterland (2020) is series that features encounters with Gothic beasts, including fallen angels and werewolves, broken people are driven to desperate acts in an attempt to repair their lives, ultimately showing there is a thin line between man and beast. Dimension 404 (2017) is a science fiction anthology narrated by Mark Hamill and dives into the wonders, and terrors, of the digital age, exploring tales that range from outrageous horror-comedy to action-adventures that bend the mind.

AMAZON PRIME
An Horror Anthology
An Horror Anthology (2020) lives up to its title with stories based on a giallo, an haunted house tale and spooky road trips gone wrong, featuring creepy elements like monsters, demons, psycho killers and more.

HBO MAX
Room 104
Also created by the Duplass Brothers, Room 104 (2017) is an anthology series where every story is set in room 104 of a seemingly average American motel, with each episode a tale about one of the assorted guests who pass through, ranging from funny and fantastical to dramatic and horrifying.