June will officially bring us summertime, and you know what that means. The great outdoors will sound fantastic until humidity and buggy conditions begin to reign supreme, at which point you might be longing for your couch. The good news? There will always be too much TV for the taking. This can be an overwhelming prospect, so we have rounded up ten options worth putting in your queues, so hopefully, at least a few of them will work for you.
Succession and Barry will be over in June, this is true, but HBO will fill those spots with The Idol and And Just Like That…. Disney+ will also have another show to tie together various parts of the MCU, and Netflix will finish what NBC started with Manifest. As well, AMC will launch the first of its new The Walking Dead spinoffs with the unlikely team-up of Maggie and Negan. There’s plenty more on tap too, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention that The Bear will be back to stress you the hell out, and you’ll thank those Chefs for the pleasure. Here are the must see shows for June 2023.
Manifest: Season 4 Part II (Netflix series streaming on 6/2)
This proud mess of a sci-fi soap opera is preparing to descend for Flight 828’s final landing on Netflix, years after NBC cancelled the show. Of course, that means that creator Jeff Rake’s original six-season vision turned into four seasons, which means that he’s got a whole lot of loose ends to tie up with the final episodes. Will anyone ever expect this show to make much sense while explaining why five years passed in the blink of an eye for passengers while the world went on living while they were supposedly missing? In the aftermath, we’ve seen cult nonsense and people spurting water for no reason and talk of Death Dates, and now, we’re going to see some Ghost Zeke, which will probably make no one mad, so there.
The Idol: Season 1 (HBO series premiering on 6/4)
Surely, you’ve heard at least some of the controversy surrounding this show from Euphoria creator Sam Levinson and Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye. The latter stars as a cult leader who literally and figuratively seduces Jocelyn, an it-girl pop star portrayed by Lily-Rose Depp. The critics are absolutely not into this series following the first two episodes premiering at Cannes, but no one ever expected subtlety from Sam Levinson. Let’s hope that a bit of substance will eventually emerge from within the style, but people will certainly be watching, at least to begin.
The Lazarus Project: Season 1 (TNT series streaming on 6/4)
I May Destroy You fan favorite Paapa Essiedu heads into sci-fi territory in this U.K.-borne series about a protagonist, George, who wakes up one day to discover that he’s six months in the past. No one in his life seems to notice this discrepancy that might turn out to be apocalyptic in nature, and then George gets sucked into a shadowy organization called (you guessed it) The Lazarus Project. Expect plenty of action as a side dish to the main course of intrigue, so this should perform well.
Based On A True Story: Season 1 (Peacock series streaming on 6/8)
Kaley Cuoco has already proven that audiences and critics underestimated her sheer level of talent, and not only that, but she’s been working her butt off ever since the Big Bang Theory wrapped up. With The Flight Attendant and Harley Quinn success under her belt, Cuoco has turned to the true crime realm to portray a wife who’s obsessed with the genre to such a degree that she finds a local serial killer’s proximity to be “exciting.” Chris Messina is also on board as Cuoco’s partner in sniffing out crime. This series arrives from producers of The Boys and Ozark, if that tells you anything about how darkly comedic things will soon get for this show.
The Crowded Room: Season 1 (Apple TV+ series streaming on 6/9)
Back in 2015, Leonardo DiCaprio was reportedly set to star in a much earlier (and different) version of this story in which he would have played a defendant who invoked a legal defense that had never been successfully used before. The crimes in question (tied to a real-life case) included a 1970s robbery and more. Apple TV+ has now adapted this story as a fictionalized, inspired-by-real-life series created by Akiva Goldsman (Oscar winner for A Beautiful Mind screenplay). Tom Holland now portrays “Danny Sullivan,” who is arrested in connection with a late 1970s shooting, and the trailer lays out the story’s mysterious ways. It looks to be a gripping performance and certainly takes Holland out of the Marvel mindset. Co-stars include Amanda Seyfried, Emmy Rossum, Sasha Lane, and Lior Raz.
The Walking Dead: Dead City: Season 1 (AMC series debuting on 6/18)
Yes, Fear The Walking Dead is still reinventing itself (one more time) for its eighth and final season, but around midseason, the franchise’s new spinoffs will begin to bust through the walker-plagued walls. In this Manhattan-bound misadventure, Maggie will recruit Negan to help her rescue Hershel Rhees, son of Glenn and Maggie, obviously. Perhaps this will be a way for Negan to finally, fully redeem himself in Maggie’s eyes, but I won’t hold my breath for too long. Showrunner has promised some extra “disgusting” and “terrifying” walkers, and the trailer makes it look like there might be a variant that runs. Uh oh.
Secret Invasion: Season 1 (Disney+ series streaming on 6/21)
Nick Fury is having a not-so-great time with the “one last job” trope as he heads back into MCU hijinks for what might be his “one last fight.” We do live in unusual Hollywood times, and with Captain Marvel, the Skrulls somehow became the good guys, so we’ll see how Talos fares in this standalone series. Not only are Samuel L. Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn onboard, but Emilia Clarke and Olivia Colman also formally enter the MCU with this show, and we will apparently see some Rhodey on this “crossover event series,” too. Only enough, there’s some eye-patch-less Fury in the mix, so I hope we get some more Goose to add even more context.
The Bear (FX series premiering on 6/22)
Yes, Chef! Jeremy Allen White’s career soared to stratospheric (and A24-bound) heights after the first season of this sleeper series. Shameless fans are thrilled to finally see White hit his full (and intense) potential as a result, and
White’s career volleyed into the stratosphere after The Bear‘s first season showcased his intensity for the masses. Seriously, the resulting sex tweets were great fun for all, but this show also brought addictive substance to the table. This season, we’ll see Carmy attempt to reinvent The Beef into a slightly fancier restaurant with the help of sous chef Sydney, who I hope will stab Richie again. He deserves as much, and ideally, we’ll find out if Carmy gets busy in Season 2. An old flame will be on the scene, so it’s definitely possible. Let’s hope that if that happens, he doesn’t lose his drive in the kitchen.
And Just Like That…: Season 2 (HBO Max series streaming on 6/22)
Che Diaz is back, baby. Yet they are only one of several reasons why Season 1 of this revival turned out to be a horror show (with Death By Peloton) worth watching. I’m still not convinced that any of the other new characters resonated much due to the surface-level writing, but Che struck a chord, and the remaining central trio — Carrie, Samantha, and Charlotte — still managed to engross Sex And The City‘s audience who enjoy checking in every now and then to see things “fall spectacularly to pieces.” This revival wasn’t meant to be taken too seriously, and frothy delights are worth the indulgence, too.
The Witcher: Season 3 Vol. 1 (Netflix series streaming on 6/29)
Henry Cavill has one foot out the door of this franchise, which is unfortunate, but we’ll see what Liam Hemsworth brings to the table in the future. Further, this season will apparently bring us (from the looks of the above teaser) plenty of banger-filled Jaskier with newfound eyeliner. Ideally, this means that the show will go ahead and declare Jaskier canonically bisexual because they’ve been dancing around the issue long enough. And god only knows that the Netflix franchise has tweaked Andrzej Sapkowski books and the video games enough over the years already, so what’s one more time?
Black Mirror: Season 6 (Netflix series streaming TBA)
Four years after Charlie Brooker’s brainchild gave us the endless permutations of Bandersnatch, a full season will soon arrive because we simply don’t have enough technologically-fueled existential crises in our own world right now. At the very least, this series always happens to feel prescient, but fortunately, each season has managed to contain standout episodes. This year, we’ll see appearances from Salma Hayek, Aaron Paul, Annie Murphy, Josh Hartnett, Michael Cera, Paapa Essiedu, Rob Delaney, Rory Culkin, Zazie Beetz, and many more. Get ready to feel anxious for them.