Heading into summer means first closing the book on yet another network TV season, which still follows the fall-spring slot on the calendar. I like that regularity and I think most viewers miss it when it comes to streaming. “The Bear” is an outlier, premiering new episodes each June like clockwork.
This time of year is also when broadcasters announce cancellations and the biggest changes are coming to NBC, where five shows got the ax: the dramas “Found,” “The Irrational” and “Suits: LA” and comedies “Night Court” and “Lopez vs. Lopez.” Some of those decisions were likely a way to make room for NBC’s new deal to carry NBA games.
I’m not seeing anything particularly interesting on the horizon just yet for the broadcast networks next season, with one exception. Fox has ordered a U.S. adaptation of the British series “Doc Martin” called “Best Medicine,” which will star Josh Charles (“The Good Wife”) in an hour-long comedy about a “successful surgeon who abruptly leaves his post in Boston to become a general practitioner in the East Coast fishing village where he spent summers as a kid.”
That’s still a few months off. In the meantime, here’s a look at 15 shows on tap for the summer months, when streaming is your best bet for new and returning series, listed here in chronological order.
Programming note: The 78th Tony Awards will air on CBS on Sunday, June 8.
“The Librarians: The Next Chapter” (May 25 on TNT): It’s been a good while since TNT carried original programming outside of sports, but the network has two series slated for this year, including a miniseries called “High Value Target” about a real-life CIA analyst’s 2003 interrogation of deposed Iraqi president Saddam Hussein (no date announced yet) and this spinoff of TNT’s adventure series “The Librarians,” which last aired new episodes in 2018. The new version centers on a librarian time traveler from 1847 named Vikram who now finds himself stuck in the present. When he returns to his castle in Belgrade, he discovers that it is now a museum, and he “inadvertently releases magic across the continent,” a mess he then has to clean up with a team of eclectic comrades. The first episode premieres Sunday after the NBA playoffs. The next episode premieres the next night on Monday, following NHL playoffs. (The show will then continue with a Monday night schedule.)
“And Just Like That …” (May 29 on HBO Max): Not a fan of this continuation of “Sex and the City,” so much so I didn’t even bother with the second season, nor am I planning to watch its third. So consider this just a heads-up for anyone who feels otherwise and has stuck with the show despite it all.
“Dept. Q” (May 29 on Netflix): A stubborn and sarcastic police detective in Edinburgh (Matthew Goode) is exiled to his department’s basement to work as his own one-man cold case unit. It’s a PR stunt his boss fixes up, mostly to get him out of her hair — nobody can stand the guy; he can barely stand himself — but slowly he builds a small team, who try to find out what happened to a prosecutor who went missing four years prior. The series blends droll humor and well-worn cop show tropes to focus on a grisly case.
“Stick” (June 4 on Apple TV+): Owen Wilson stars in this comedy as a pro golfer who has mediocre personal and professional prospects (“Tin Cup,” anyone?). With nothing else to lose, he decides to back a teenage golf phenom who has problems of his own. Apple is calling it a “heartfelt, feel-good comedy about a found family and their relationships set within the world of golf as it has never been shown before.”
“Art Detectives” (June 9 on Acorn TV): Stephen Moyer (“True Blood”) stars as an art-loving police detective, who works in the Heritage Crime Unit of this UK-set series, where he and his partner tackle murder cases connected to the art and antiquities world, “from Old Master paintings, to Banksy street art, medieval manuscripts and collectible vinyl.” Plot twist: He must contend with the sudden reappearance of his father, who is a notorious art forger. You don’t say! Sounds fun, but it’s all in the execution.
“Grantchester”(June 15 by Masterpiece on PBS): It’s the 1960s in an English village, where a police detective teams up with the local vicar to solve crimes. Sure, there have been three vicars over the show’s many seasons, all young and handsome and somehow each finds himself doing some freelance sleuthing. The show was losing steam there for a while, but then Rishi Nair joined the cast last year as the newest vicar, bringing a charisma to the role that was otherwise absent, and he’s back again for Season 10.
“We Were Liars” (June 18 on Amazon): The series is based on the 2014 novel from E. Lockhart about a group of wealthy teenagers who summer on a private island. Everything about the protagonist’s life is enviable, until she suffers a head injury that affects her memories one summer. What really happened? And why are certain things so different when she next returns?
“Outrageous” (June 18 on BritBox): Based on the true story of the aristocratic Mitford sisters who, according to Wikipedia, “gained widespread attention for their stylish and controversial lives as young people.” Set in the 1930s as a second World War loomed, there were major divisions in the family, some of whom were pro-fascist. The sisters include the British novelist Nancy Freeman-Mitford, who wrote about the upper crust.
“Ironheart” (June 24 on Disney+): Picking up after the events of the 2022 movie “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” the series centers on Riri Williams, the “genius inventor determined to make her mark on the world (returning) to her hometown of Chicago. Her unique take on building iron suits is brilliant, but in pursuit of her ambitions, she finds herself wrapped up with the mysterious yet charming Parker Robbins aka ‘The Hood.’”
“The Bear” (June 25 by FX on Hulu): As with previous seasons, all 10 episodes of Season 4 will be available to stream at once, which I know has been a controversial choice for audiences who prefer a weekly conversation about the show. I think a binge drop is fine in this instance. I had some mild critiques of Seasons 1 and 2, but overall really liked the show. Season 3? Less so. The narrative felt stalled in place and I think there are other characters getting short shrift whose stories are more interesting to explore than yet more Carmy angst. Here’s hoping Season 4 bounces back.
“Smoke” (June 27 on Apple TV+): A crime drama centering an arson investigator (Taron Egerton) and a police detective (Jurnee Smollett) from Dennis Lehane (best known for novels such as “Gone, Baby, Gone” and “Mystic River”) based on true events as the pair track down two serial arsonists.
“Nautilus” (June 29, AMC and streaming on AMC+): A reimagining of Jules Verne’s 1870 science fiction adventure classic “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.” Originally made for Disney+ (which then declined to release the series) AMC has picked it up for U.S. distribution. The title comes from the name of the vessel in Verne’s book, with Shazad Latif starring as Nemo, who “plans to reach the fabled Viking treasure buried at the Pillars of Halvar. But first, he must win the trust of his crew, and keep out of the clutches of the ruthless East India Mercantile Company, who will do whatever it takes to stop him.”
“Too Much” (July 10 on Netflix): The 10-episode series follows a millennial workaholic named Jessica (Megan Stalter, so good on “Hacks”) who, fresh off a breakup, moves from New York to London to start over. From the streamer that brought you “Emily in Paris” comes a show I’m sure they referred to internally as “Jessica in London.” Stalter has a lot of talent and tang, so here’s hoping the series is actually much better than that. Will Sharpe (“White Lotus”) plays the handsome Brit who catches her eye.
“Wednesday” (Aug. 6 on Netflix): I liked the Addams Family spinoff series well enough when it premiered in November 2022. Was it good enough to be one of the more popular offerings from Netflix? Not in my opinion. It’s a teen drama — one with style, though not an especially inventive one; executive producer Tim Burton is recycling old ideas by this point — which works best when it’s simply being funny. The heavy plotting around a mysterious supernatural something or other? Didn’t do anything for me. It’s back for Season 2 and once again, Netflix is weirdly not premiering it around Halloween. This installment will be divided into two chapters, with the second picking up a month later in September.
“Peacemaker” (Aug. 21 on HBO Max): Season 2 of the DC Studios series starring Jon Cena arrives after a three-plus year delay. Well, maybe audiences are inured to these kinds of things by now. I like the first season well enough. It’s a ridiculous show that knows it’s ridiculous, with a fully R-rated Saturday morning cartoon sensibility that refuses to take itself too seriously. I was less interested in the way Peacemaker is presented as a racist and sexist figure who really just needs a hug: A cuddly Cro-Magnon. It’s worth thinking about why, even within a largely comedic endeavor, this type of character has been designed to generate our sympathy.
Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.
