As summer begins, there are so many new TV shows to look forward to.
We may not love it, but that doesn’t mean we won’t be watching And Just Like That when it returns, complete with a Kim Cattrall cameo, for a second season June 22nd on Max. There’s also the stressful second season of The Bear coming to Hulu on the same day. Things heat up when Freeform’s Cruel Summer returns with a new set of characters on June 5th. The long-awaited new season of Black Mirror arrives on Netflix on June 15th. The first half of Henry Cavill’s final season of The Witcher debuts on Netflix on June 29th. But while we’ll have plenty of coverage on all of that, as always we want to point out some under-the-radar picks as well.
I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that the reason that we have all these shows to look forward to is because of the writers. Without their scripts, there would be no lines for actors to say and nothing for directors to direct. The WGA (Writers Guild of America) is striking to get their fair share in this golden age of peak TV. Without writers, this column wouldn’t even exist.
Thanks to the writers, here are the 5 new shows you can’t miss this month.
Deadloch
Stars: Kate Box, Madeleine Sami, Nina Oyama, Tom Ballard, Alicia Gardiner, and Susie Youssef
Premiere Date: June 2 on Prime Video this Friday June 2, with a new episode available weekly, leading up to the finale on July 7
This Australian crime comedy comes from writers and showrunners Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan who are collectively known as “the Kates.” Deadloch sergeant Dulcie Collins (Kate Box) has promised her wife Cath (Alicia Gardiner) that she will no longer do detective work. But when the naked body of a local man washes up on the shore and Eddie Redcliffe (Madeleine Sami), a brash and perhaps reckless detective from another town is brought in to investigate the case, Dulcie has a hard time not getting involved. The eight episode series deftly threads the needle of being both a hilarious comedy and a compelling murder mystery.
The Lazarus Project
Stars: Paapa Essiedu, Anjli Mohindra, Tom Burke, Caroline Quentin, Rudi Dharmalingam, and Charly Clive
Premiere Date: June 4 at 9 p.m. ET on TNT
George (Paapa Essiedu) wakes up one morning, goes to the bank for a business loan for an app he’s developing, and learns that his girlfriend Sarah (Charly Clive) is pregnant. But then, six months later, he wakes up again to the exact same date. George is invited to be part of The Lazarus Project, a secret organization that, when it’s absolutely the only way to save humanity, can reset the timeline. But when tragedy strikes, George realizes he cannot use the ability to go back in time to save someone he loves. The eight episode series premiered in England last June and has already been picked up for a second season.
Stars on Mars
Stars: William Shatner, Lance Armstrong, Natasha Leggero, Marshawn Lynch, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Adam Rippon, Ronda Rousey, Tom Schwartz, Richard Sherman, Tinashe, Porsha Williams Guobadia, Tallulah Willis and Ariel Winter
Premiere Date: June 5 at 8 p.m. ET on FOX
Survivor but with an intergalactic twist. (A sure sign of summer is the premiere of even wackier reality shows.) From the network that brought you The Masked Singer comes Stars on Mars, which is just like it sounds, kind of. No, FOX hasn’t figured out a way to colonize Mars. But that’s not stopping them from sending celebrities like Lance Armstrong and Ariel Winter into a Mars-like simulation and seeing how they survive not just the red planet’s environment but also their fellow stars. William Shatner, who knows a thing or two about science fiction shows, hosts.
The Full Monty
Stars: Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, Lesley Sharp, Hugo Speer, Paul Barber, Steve Huison, Wim Snape , Tom Wilkinson and Talitha Wing
Premiere Date: All eight episodes premiere June 14 on Hulu
The intellectual property that keeps on giving. Set 25 years after the movie of the same name and 23 years after the movie was turned into a Broadway musical, the boys are back. But they are no longer stripping to raise money. Instead we get to drop in on the six pals to see what their lives have been like since they bared it all. Things are still economically tough in Sheffield. Joining the series are Talitha Wing as Gaz’s (Robert Carlyle) adolescent daughter Destiny, who gets herself into quite a bit of trouble in the series premiere kicking off a whole new set of shenanigans for the friends to get embroiled in.
Average Joe
Stars: Deon Cole, Tammy Townsend, Michael Trucco, Cynthia Kaye McWilliams, Malcolm Barrett, Ashley Olivia Fisher, and Pasha Lychnikoff
Premiere Date: The first two episodes premiere June 26 on BET+ followed by new episodes every Thursday until the season finale on August 10
Many of us may know Deon Cole for playing the outrageous Charlie on Black-ish and Grown-ish. The comedian takes a dramatic turn as the title character in this new 10 episode series, though. Cole stars as Joe Washington, a plumber whose biggest problem is deciding who is going to get his late father’s season tickets to the Pittsburgh Steelers. When Joe discovers his father had a life he knew nothing about and was involved with some very dangerous men, Joe’s problems become much more complicated and life-threatening. Malcolm Barrett and Michael Trucco co-star as Joe’s best friends who suddenly find themselves caught up in Joe’s troubles.
Amy Amatangelo, the TV Gal®, is a Boston-based freelance writer and a member of the Television Critics Association. She wasn’t allowed to watch much TV as a child and now her parents have to live with this as her career. You can follow her on Twitter (@AmyTVGal).
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