The best TV shows to stream in July

Hello! A confession:I have a wanton,wandering eye. Every month as a television critic I struggle to keep up with the slew of streaming shows debuting,yet at some point I invariably start obsessively exploring the tiles of whatever service I have open looking for older shows. Whether it’s one I missed back in the day,or a series worth a rewatch,my viewing schedule gets derailed. Lately it’s been a random episode of the 1980s sitcomCheers (Paramount+),or a deep (space) dive into the two decades old science-fiction ofBattlestar Galactica (Binge).

The advantage – or so I tell myself – is that getting reacquainted with television’s past provides a better perspective on the present. And there’s certainly a great deal happening in the present. July is another hectic month of new titles and returning successes. As consolidation looms,streaming services are trying to give audiences more of what they want,even as they continue to further the creative boundaries in a bid to find that next must-see sensation. It’s a push and pull that keeps us guessing with every new show.

As ever,don’t forget to please let usknow what programs you’ve found that got by us. And please also let us know what vintage shows you’ve rediscovered on a streaming platform. Chances are I can persuade myself to check it out.

Netflix

My top Netflix recommendation isThe Lincoln Lawyer (July 6).

The first season of this legal drama grew on me,to the point where I’m now keen for new episodes. Author Michael Connelly’s savvy but wayward Los Angeles criminal attorney Mickey Haller,whose penchant for doing business in his chauffeured car inspires the title,was previously played by Matthew McConaughey in a 2011 film of the same name. In David E Kelley’s streaming reboot,Manuel Garcia-Rulfo’s Haller has shakier foundations – he’s rebuilding his practice after a rehab stint – and frayed ethics. The new season finds Haller defending a chef accused of murdering a real estate developer,with the returning supporting cast including Neve Campbell as Haller’s former wife and Australian Angus Sampson as his unconventional private investigator. Fans of courtroom twists will be well satisfied.

Also on Netflix: Delivered with some of the same comic verve and self-affirmation as Netflix’s recent Australian farceWellmania,Survival of the Thickest (July 13) is a making-it-happen comedy about Mavis Beaumont (Michelle Buteau),a struggling New York stylist who has to begin again after discovering her partner’s infidelity. Her career takes off when she starts dressing curvy clients to shine,while returning to the dating game. It’s a showcase for Buteau,a stand-up comic,actor and podcast host,whose memoir of the same name inspired the show’s fictionalised outlook.

Delivering an updated dose of 1970s Blaxploitation,They Cloned Tyrone (July 27) is a science fiction comedy about a trio of black inner-city hustlers – dope runner Fontaine (John Boyega),sex worker Yo-Yo (Teyonah Parris),and pimp Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx) – who discover that the white establishment is running nefarious experiments in the hood. Director Juel Taylor previously co-wroteCreed II,and hopefully he can make the absurd dynamic between the leads elevate this original feature. AShaft-worthy theme song would help,too.

June highlights: Season three ofThe Witcher gave fantasy acolytes their final episodes with Henry Cavill,Chris Hemsworth launched anaction movie franchise with Extraction 2,and Kim Cattrall went full fashion queen inGlamorous.

Binge

My top Binge recommendation isFull Circle(July 13).

The restless creative gaze of filmmaker Steven Soderbergh has often alighted on television over the past decade,most notably with his acclaimed period medical dramaThe Knick,which ran for two seasons starting in 2014. He returns with this contemporary crime thriller,set in New York City,where the kidnapping of a wealthy family’s child reveals threads of a far-reaching conspiracy. Soderbergh directed all six episodes,with a cast that includes Claire Danes as the victim’s mother,Dennis Quaid as the family’s shady patriarch,andAtlanta’s Zazie Beetz as the lead detective. The plot’s tentacles cross cultural and political borders,recalling the strands that Soderbergh wove together in his 2000 narcotics sagaTraffic.

Also on Binge: Some comedies get in such a succinct,satisfying groove that you just want them to run and run.What We Do in the Shadows (July 14) is one of those shows. Spun off from the 2014 New Zealand movie of the same name,the after-dark adventures of a group of vampire housemates on New York’s Staten Island enters its fifth season,and it’s become one of the most reliably funny comedies as the centuries-old undead deal with the modern world. Matt Berry’s Laszlo remains the MVP of the series,but the petty house rules,absurd twists,and unlikely supernatural interactions allow the entire cast to shine.

June highlights: Carrie Bradshaw’s perplexing second act continued with the return ofAnd Just Like That…,the true crime podcast industry gotthe black comedy it deserved with Based on a True Story,and everyone rightfullyhated The Idol.

Stan*

My top Stan recommendation isTwisted Metal (July 27).

Here’s one for veteran PlayStation owners. TheTwisted Metal franchise spawned multiple games on the console between 1995 and 2012,with players taking part in a post-apocalyptic demolition derby where their modified cars,loaded up with weapons,blasted away at opponents. A long-mooted film adaptation is now a series,with Marvel star Anthony Mackie playing John Doe,the ace driver tasked with delivering a package across an America now in the hands of mechanised marauders.Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s sardonic Stephanie Beatriz draws passenger seat duties,while the game’s signature character,the monstrous,masked Sweet Tooth,requires professional wrestler Samoa Joe’s body and the voice of Will Arnett. The humour needs to be mordant,and the motorised mayhemMad Max-worthy.

Also on Stan: It’s a big month for post-apocalyptic mayhem. The latest season of the anthology comedy seriesMiracle Workers (July 11) is also set in a dystopian wasteland,albeit one whereHarry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe can play a bloody barbarian looking to settle down. Whether it’s heaven or the wild west,each season of the show – which also stars Steve Buscemi and Geraldine Viswanathan – matches deadpan humour to an unhinged setting. There’s more than a touch of Mel Brooks to the always preposterous circumstances.

Fans ofMinx (July 21) were right to be worried when this delightful but sharp-edged comedy was cancelled by its American network just as the second season wrapped shooting earlier this year. But the show swiftly found a new US home and thankfully Stan still gets to add new episodes to the first season,which explored the education of Joyce Prigger (Ophelia Lovibond),a 1970s feminist whose lofty magazine ambitions found an unlikely home with soft-core pornographer Doug Renetti (Jake Johnson);she got to run her serious articles,he got to add a nude male centrefold. The leads have a winning chemistry,and the series provides telling commentary on the era as Joyce’s Ivy League theories encounter everyday realities.

June highlights:Year Of proved to be a welcome new Australian high school drama,reality got bent out of shape in thehybrid documentary Paul T Goldman,and an undead franchise got a dose of fresh blood viaThe Walking Dead:Dead City.

Amazon Prime

My top Amazon Prime recommendation isGood Omens (July 28).

David Tennant and Michael Sheen know they’re on to a good thing. After multiple seasons of their lockdown farceStaged,the two leading British actors return to for a second season of their zesty fantasy comedyGood Omens,where Tennant’s demon Crowley and Sheen’s angel Aziraphale navigate life on Earth via a friendship on the lowdown. Adapted from Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s 1990 novel,the show has a very English take on the otherworldly that is as likely to be eccentric as macabre. Having averted the senior management’s push for the apocalypse last time out,this season finds the duo forced into another collaboration when the Archangel Gabriel (Jon Hamm) turns up lost and without his memories. It’s doubtful that events will be,as Aziraphale likes to say,“absolutely tickety-boo”.

Also on Amazon Prime: The first wave of podcast adaptations were primarily true crime,but there’s also been a sub-set of fictional scripted podcasts coming to streaming;thinkLimetown or the terrific Julia Roberts thrillerHomecoming. Next up isThe Horror of Dolores Roach (July 7),where the just-out-of-jail Dolores (Justina Machado) returns to her former – and now gentrifying – New York neighbourhood of Washington Heights and tries to make ends meet running a massage business in the basement of the empanada shop run by her old friend,Luis (Alejandro Hernandez). When a session goes very wrong the duo has to improvise,steering the story into a bloody,Hispanic-toned version ofSweeney Todd.

June highlights: It was a month for inventive new shows that defied genre parameters asDeadloch added a vibrant comic pulse to the murder mystery,whileI’m a Virgo proved size matters with an absurd superhero tale about a four-metre-tall teenage boy meeting the world.

Apple TV+

My top Apple TV+ recommendation isThe Afterparty (July 12).

A sleeper success that’s easier to watch than explain,this comedy series from Christopher Miller,co-writer and co-director of21 Jump Street andThe Lego Movie,is a murder mystery where each episode is told not just from a different character’s perspective but also via a distinctly different genre. Episodes of the first seasons,which took place at a high school reunion,were in turn a teen drama,psychological thriller,and an off the wall animation. The second season,set at a wedding,brings back Sam Richardson’s straight man and Tiffany Haddish’s detective,with the likes of Ken Jeong and John Cho added to the cross-section of eccentrics. Based on the trailer,film noir and Wes Anderson movies are on Miller’s hitlist.

Also on Apple TV+: If I’m seeing this correctly,The Beanie Bubble (July 28) is a comicalWolf of Wall Street,but with stuffed toys instead of stock fraud. Based on real life events,the film stars (an almost unrecognisable) Zach Galifianakis as Ty Warner,the American businessman who became a billionaire in the 1990s when his range of Beanie Babies plushies became a hot toy line subject to price-hiking scarcity and early internet obsession. Elizabeth Banks plays the business partner who backed Warner,Succession‘s Sarah Snook his wife. Madcap business biopics are in vogue right now – see Disney+‘sFlamin’ Hot – and Kristin Gore and Damian Kulash’s film certainly fits the ($100) bill.

June highlights: Idris Elba headlinedthe white-knuckle airborne thriller Hijack,while Tom Holland shed hisSpider-Man costume forthe fractured 1970s drama The Crowded Room.

Disney+

My top Disney+ recommendation isJustified:City Primeval (July 19).

A cult hit in the cable era,Justified ran for six seasons starting from 2010,giving Timothy Olyphant the role of his eclectic career as the screen version of crime novelist Elmore Leonard’s laconic Kentucky lawman Raylan Givens. The show started as a case of the week crime drama,but quickly acquired a pungent sense of place and heightened stakes. With streaming services searching for recognisable intellectual property,this limited-series successor is a no-brainer. It gives Raylan the fish-out-of-water treatment,despatching the U.S. Marshal and his cowboy hat to Detroit,whereLogan’s Boyd Holbrook plays his new adversary. It’s a welcome comeback for fans of this modern western,but also a test of how a sometimes shoot-first lawman might play to 2023 audience perceptions. P.S. Need to catch up onJustified? Disney+,Stan,and Amazon Prime each have every episode.

Also on Disney+:Futurama (July 24) is back. A decade after it finished a lengthy run,Matt Groening’s animated science-fiction sitcom about Fry (Billy West),a 1999 slacker who comes out of cryogenic preservation in a zany 2999,returns with 20 new episodes. Expect the show to stay true to its philosophy of rapid-fire gags and wildly askew galactic misadventures,with devotees getting a reunited cast as Fry’s pals Leela (Katey Segal) and the misfit robot Bender (John DiMaggio) also return.

My June preview had TBC status for the new season ofThe Bear (July 19),but we now have a confirmed date for the sophomore edition of one of 2022’s best-reviewed shows. Christopher Storer’s bittersweet symphony about a fine dining chef,‘Carmy’ Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White),who comes home to Chicago to take over his late brother’s sandwich joint put both its protagonist and audience through the wringer,ending on the promise of a rebirth as a bespoke restaurant. The new season explores that transformation,from renovating the space to retraining the veteran kitchen hands. It’s a month late,but still a must-see.

June highlights: Samuel L Jackson and Ben Mendelsohn resurrected their Marvel characters forthe superhero espionage series Secret Invasion,whileClass of ’09 was an A.I. crime drama that unfolded over three eras of law enforcement.

Paramount+

My top Paramount+ recommendation isSpecial Ops:Lioness (July 23).

Does Taylor Sheridan sleep? The screenwriter turnedYellowstone honcho is already overseeing multiple shows about the Dutton family,including1883 and1923,but he’s still found time to create this contemporary spy drama about a CIA covert team that uses young female operatives to befriend the wives or daughters of their targets and set up kill missions. Fresh fromGuardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,Zoe Saldana plays the envelope-pushing field commander running the mission,with Laysla De Oliveira as the young Marine she recruits as an undercover operative. The subject matter is familiar ground for Sheridan,who made his breakthrough penningSicario,and his reputational pull ensures a star-studded supporting cast that includes Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman.

Also on Paramount+: A British thriller with an Australian angle,No Escape (July 9) turns the tropical allure of yacht life into a Pacific Ocean crime mystery. The narrative is unravelled from both the start,when a pair of British best friends,Lana (Abigail Lawrie) and Kitty (Rhianne Barreto),hitch a ride on a luxury boat leaving the Philippines,and the end,when a pair of Australian police detectives (Susie Porter and Josh McConville),try to discover why the same craft was discovered abandoned after sending a distress call. Shades ofThe Beach,but at sea and from a female perspective.

June highlights:The Betoota Advocate Presents provided a fresh perspective on noteworthy events in Australia’s recent history,plusThe Sheikh was a European crime drama about a conman who nearly crashed the Swiss economy.

ABC iview

My top ABC iview recommendation isGold Diggers (July 5).

Australia’s colonial history gets an irreverent do-over in this comedy about a pair of impoverished sisters who come to the gold fields of 1853 seeking “rich dumb husbands”. Claire Lovering plays the ambitious Gert Brewer,Danielle Walker her naïve sister Marigold. Period accuracy rubs up against contemporary slang in creator Jack Yabsley’s revisionist farce,which boasts tacky schemes,determined minorities,and some worrying law enforcement. The supporting cast includes Eddie Perfect as the settlement’s barman and Lincoln Younes as a bushranger. Hopefully this does for corset drama whatGet Krack!n did for breakfast television.

June highlights: Catherine Tate made a comical case for Australia as a republic inQueen of Oz,while there was a second Canberra seasonof the enjoyable tween comic-thriller The PM’s Daughter.

SBS On Demand

My top SBS on Demand recommendation isFirebite (July 6).

Originally commissioned for the American streaming service AMC+ in 2021,this Indigenous vampire thriller from filmmakers Warwick Thornton (The New Boy) and Brendan Fletcher (Mad Bastards) finds a welcome second home via SBS. Shot through – or is that staked? – with evocative outback pulp,it’s the story of Tyson (Rob Collins) and his adopted teenage daughter,Shanika (Shantae Barnes-Cowan),who protect the local Aboriginal communities from the literal vampires who arrived on the First Fleet. A B-movie blast,the show has bloody fight scenes,nocturnal chills,and a modern twist on Aboriginal tradition. “How do you kill ’em?” a neophyte asks. “Boomerang to the heart,” is the reply.

June highlights: Based on real life events – so it’s extra grim –Congregation is a Swedish crime drama framed by murder and faith,while the documentary seriesThe Kingdom found host Marc Fennell examining the rise of Pentecostal megachurches.

Other streamers

My top recommendation for the other streaming services is BritBox’sSix Four (July 1).

Not every police drama can reinvent what is now a very well-rounded wheel,but it’s still possible to renew the genre. This tense four-part British drama does that with a knotty plot that touches on personal regret and political conspiracies as a Glasgow police detective (Trainspotting’s Kevin McKidd) whose daughter has gone missing becomes obsessed with a cold case from years prior that has similar outlines. Transposed from the Japan of Hideo Yokoyama’s acclaimed crime novel of the same name to Scotland,the four episodes swiftly connect a slew of menacing storylines. As a viewer it doesn’t take long to get invested.

Also: A police procedural with a welcome difference,AMC+’sDark Winds (July 27) is set on Navajo tribal land in America’s southwest in the 1970s. Zahn McClarnon (Reservation Dogs) is outstanding as police officer Joe Leaphorn,who moves between the official demands of his job and the cruel realities facing the native community. The first season set up Leaphorn and his new partner,Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon),with the new season chipping further away at the approximately 20 novels the late author Tony Hillerman wrote about the pair. It’s a good thriller,but a great character study.

June highlights: BritBox’sD.I. Ray continued a recent trend in British crime drama – the police force is part of the problem – plus a stand-out documentary in DocPlay’sAll the Beauty and the Bloodshed,a biography of acclaimed photographer and activist Nan Goldin.

* Nine is the owner of Stan,9Now and this masthead.

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