Thank goodness for the TV gods, and I don’t say that lightly. Not only do we have a fictional god coming out way this month on the small screen, but quality shows have kept us as sane as possible during the past fifteen-or-so months. The schedule’s starting to roar toward full capacity again, which (fortunately) means that there’s more than enough shows out there to browse. The problem there, of course, is that it’s difficult to know where to begin, so we sifted through new June TV shows for the must-sees for you to fire up in your home theater.
There’s a trickster, a gentleman thief, skater ladies, zombies, a hybrid deer-boy and more. In other words, Disney+ will launch their third Marvel Cinematic Universe show, Netflix will unleash Omar Sy’s heisting ways again, HBO’s Betty ladies will give us more authentic summer vibes, and the perfect housewives will either kill their husbands or aerobicize the world. Also, Robert Downey Jr.’s adapting a DC Comic, and so far, I’ve only mentioned about half of the offerings on the below list. HBO Max, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime, Peacock, Netflix, AMC, and Adult Swim all represent here.
Here are the biggest shows worth noticing in June:
We Are Lady Parts: Season 1 (Peacock series streaming on 6/3)
A Muslim female post-punk band called Lady Parts looks for a lead guitarist in this subversive series, which follows the ups and downs of the group as they seek a real gig. A geeky, hard-sciences Ph.D. recruit named Amina Hussain ends up being the unlikely lucky lady to pick up the ax, and she’s soon swept up into the group’s anarchic energy. Naturally, Amina’s caught between two worlds, that of her conservative friends and the irresistible lure of the band’s joyful spirit. Together, they’re fearless, rowdy, and sexual and every ultra-religious family’s nightmare. As a show, it’s silly and irreverent and inspiring; for sure, you’ve never seen women like quite this on your TV screen.
Sweet Tooth: Season 1 (Netflix series streaming on 6/4)
Team Downey (Robert Jr. and Susan) brings us this awe-inspiring story based upon a comic-book (that ran under DC’s Vertigo imprint) by creator Jeff Lemire, who whipped up a post-apocalyptic fairytale about what happens when a great sickness (which is poorly dealt with by humans) ends with a miracle. In this case, this would be the appearance of “hybrids,” babies who are born half-human and half-animal, and we’ll meet a young deer-boy, Gus, (Christian Convery), who teams up with a reluctant protector, Tommy Jepperd (Nonso Anozie), for a cross-country quest. The comic has been described as “Mad Max Meets Bambi,” and Will Forte also plays a pivotal role. You’re in for a real (sweet) treat if you surrender to this adventure.
Dom: Season 1 (Amazon Prime series streaming on 6/4)
This crime drama hails from Brazil with subtitles, but there’s a lot of Ozark and Sons of Anarchy vibes on display to make a non-dubbed effort worth the watch. Dom revolves around a middle-class Rio de Janeiro boy, Pedro, who falls into the lucrative realm of cocaine and eventually rises toward the top (or sinks toward the bottom, depending on one’s perspective) of the criminal underworld. It’s all based on a true story of the gang-related exploits that dominated the country’s aughts tabloids, given the juicy reality of Pedro’s father working for police intelligence, and yes, one should expect the lines of morality to go grey here. Dom‘s also a high-adrenaline adventure, so don’t watch this one while hoping to relax.
Loki: Season 1 (Disney+ series streaming on 6/9)
Tom Hiddleston has an absolute blast playing the mercurial trickster of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and we shall reap the benefits while he helps (or hinders) the Time Variance Authority during the process of cleaning up the timeline. Yep, Loki’s gotta atone after snatching the Tesseract in Avengers Endgame, and we can expect plenty of theatrics (including a possible D.B. Cooper-type incarnation) from the God of Mischief. Loki’s chronically looking out for Number One, but Hiddleston did provide a catch-up course to refresh fans, although we still don’t know Loki’s true essence here — is he the somewhat reformed version of himself, or nah? Finding out will be part of the fun.
Fresh, Fried & Crispy: Season 1 (Netflix series streaming on 6/9)
You might gain 10 pounds while watching this show, which would fit right in with Guy Fieri’s adventures. The so-called Grandfather of Food Reviews on YouTube, Daym Drops, takes a cross-country trip across the United States to find the most decadent fried foods possible. There’s deep-fried Oreos (in San Diego), extra-crispy pork chops (in Birmingham), and more on the menu, and not only does he pop into actual restaurants, but home kitchens and food trucks are also part of the hunt. Get your appetites ready.
Lupin: Part 2 (Netflix series streaming 6/11)
This (the fancy French heist show starring Omar Sy) turned out to be a smash hit for Netflix in January. The overwhelming reaction even led the streamer to hustle fast to release Part 2, so that everyone could see how the beloved gentleman burglar would take revenge (against Hubert Pelligrini) for the abduction of his son, and by the way, we could probably use a lot more heisting as well? Give it to us. Of course, after that train station switcheroo in last season’s finale, we can expect police to redouble their efforts. So, Assane reenters as the most wanted man in France, and of course, he’ll tempt fate while executing a new plan that puts himself at risk. Along the way, black tie events, high-speed car chases, speeding motorboats, thrown punches, and a trip to the catacombs are in the cards. Everyone will eventually learn that they should never underestimate our protagonist because, my god, he never runs out of energy or ingenuity. “Nothing but magic,” as we hear Omar Sy say at the end of the trailer.
Betty: Season 2 (HBO series streaming on 6/11)
Like a breath of the most refreshing, free-wheeling air possible, HBO’s Betty will soon glide back into our lives. It’s what we really need to heal our pandemic-addled minds, and somehow, director Crystal Moselle managed to gather the Skate Kitchen crew back up for a second season and film on the streets of New York City. The main players are all back — Rachelle Vinberg as Camille, Ajani Russell as Indigo, Dede Lovelace as Janay, Moonbear as Honeybear, and Nina Moran as Kirt — and they’re still making the act of soaring through the streets look like the coolest thing on Earth. In their defense, Betty really is the coolest show on TV these days, and we could all stand to live vicariously right about now. Yes, they are very much gathering in these highlighted scenes, yet they’re even making masks look effortlessly hope. They’ll probably still even mop up the blood when you fall of your own skateboard.
Flack: Season 2 (Amazon Prime series streaming on 6/11)
This series began on Pop TV, and Amazon picked it up for a second season for good reason. This is some damn fine guilty-pleasure escapism, even if it feels like an amalgamation of many shows and movies (includingThe Devil Wears Prada, Scandal, Sex and the City) that you’ve seen before. Anna Paquin, who portrays Robyn, who’s part of a PR agency that’s ridiculously good at hiding the most outrageous celebrity scandals imaginable. The show’s dark but breezy, and this season will see more collisions between work and home life, and as always, there will be love affairs and shady dealings and drug-induced benders and, yes, almost much everyone on this show is a terrible person, but oh, the comeuppance is a blast to watch.
DAVE: Season 2 (FX series streaming on 6/16)
One of the most absurd shows on TV is back, and rapper and comedian Dave Burd, a.k.a. Lil Dicky (based upon his own life), has got an anteater in tow. Let’s hope the taco truck is just fine, but of course, expect Dave to keep shooting for rap superstardom while recording his debut album. He might have to give up everything that’s truly important to him (love, friendship, his sense of self) up in the process. Obviously, nothing is ever simple for Dave, so expect plenty of mayhem and dancing and general bizarreness to take over the most mundane-seeming tasks of his life. Last season brought Justin Bieber in as a guest star, so let’s see if the show can up the ante.
Black Summer: Season 2 (Netflix series streaming 6/17)
This zombie series’ sophomore season may as well be titled Black Winter, but that’s alright. The first season was a sleeper and ended up being the show that Fear The Walking Dead fans would have preferred before the AMC spinoff series improved dramatically this year. With that said, this is a quick-and-dirty crowd-pleaser of a series, which includes the obligatory “guy who tries to hide his flesh wound” moment while attempting to flee to safety within a crowd of survivors. How that’s handled is necessarily brutal, as is the rest of the series, and expect a new batch of episodes full of cold-blooded fresh challenges while violent militias get down with their bad selves.
Physical: Season 1 (Apple TV+ series streaming on 6/18)
Pull out the leg warmers, the Jane Fonda exercise videos, and the Rave hairspray, or maybe just turn on some Olivia Newton-John songs to get into the proper mood for this dramedy, which stars the always side-splittingly funny Rose Byrne. She portrays a 1980s California housewife, Shiela, who’s pushing toward empowerment and success while excising personal demons in the process. Her transformation’s inspired by aerobics, and soon, Shiela’s building an exercise empire. The pilot’s directed by Craig Gillespie (I, Tonya) and the rest of the season’s helmed by Liza Johnson (Dead To Me) and Stephanie Laing (Love Life), so expect the comedy to be of the biting variety.
Kevin Can Go F**k Himself: Season 1 (AMC+ series debuting on 6/20)
The title alone will reel people into sampling this series, at the very least, and also the fact that it rips apart a certain sitcom starring Kevin James and Leah Remini. Really, though, this show parodies all of those comedies with schlubby, burp-happy husbands and their often stunningly gorgeous wives who put up too many shenanigans. Annie Murphy (Schitt’s Creek) stars as a woman who realizes that she wasted a decade on being the perfect housewife in an awful marriage, and, well, she decides to get out of it by attempting to murder her husband. You definitely won’t be bored by this one, and here’s a heads up: this series will start the AMC+ early-streaming process on June 13
Rick and Morty: Season 5 (Adult Swim series streaming on 6/20)
The Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland-led project returns at long last (although the wait between seasons is growing shorter) with the show’s customary (and excessive) sci-fi strangeness as the title characters continue their intergalactic escapades. This season will bring some mech-parody elements and a Voltron-esque theme, and some “horny ocean man” appears to be involved while the genres will bend everywhere again. Don’t worry, the show’s habit of plentiful puns hasn’t dissipated one bit, and the episode titles indicate that there’s gonna be some dragging of the self-serious “mulitiverse” concept that’s so damn popular in comic-book worlds these days. Oh boy.
I’ll Be Gone In The Dark: Special Episode (HBO series streaming on 6/21)
The one-year anniversary of Joseph James DeAngelo’s guilty plea as the Golden State Killer fast approaches. To mark the occasion, HBO’s revisiting the dogged investigating efforts of true-crime blogger Michelle McNamara after the revolutionary docuseries of 2020. Original series director Liz Garbus will be back to produce alongside Patton Oswalt (McNamara’s husband at the time of her death) and true-crime writers Paul Haynes and Billy Jensen (who helped piece together McNamara’s research into the book) for a special episode, which contains revelations about another case that informed McNamara’s true-crime obsession. That would be the 1984 death of Kathleen Lombardo in Oak Park, Illinois. The case sparked McNamara’s initial interest (at age 14) in investigating murders; Lombardo’s murder remains unsolved to this day, and the episode highlights how important citizen sleuths are while continuing to pursue the truth.
Bosch: Season 7 (Amazon Prime series streaming on 6/25)
Everyone’s favorite loose-cannon detective (portrayed by Titus Welliver) who doesn’t shy away from extralegal tactics is back for one final lap, and hopefully, he’ll be weirdly eating pancakes again at some point before this show ends. Please let us see more crooked law enforcement members get their comeuppance, and maybe some mercenaries and drug rings here and there, and Bosch going further than he safely should to achieve justice in every instance. Oh, and after this season ends, there will (at some point) be a spinoff that will pretty much be more Bosch on the way. Welliver, Madison Lintz, and Mimi Rogers will all be on board, and Bosch will move onto some as-yet-detailed new phase of his career. Weird, right? Fans won’t be complaining.