Clockwise from bottom left: Julianne Moore in Lisey’s Story (Photo: Apple TV+); Tom Hiddleston in Loki (Photo: Marvel Studios/Disney+), Annie Murphy in Kevin Can F**K Himself (Photo: JoJo Whilden/AMC), Jasmine Cephas-Jones in Blindspotting (Photo: Starz) Graphic: Natalie Peeples
Summer’s nearly here, beckoning even the most ardent TV viewers to finally tear their eyes away from their various screens and head back out into the wider world (fully vaccinated, we hope). But June’s TV lineup will have you setting down the sunscreen and picking up the remote/tablet again. If you’re looking for a great new comedy, Peacock’s We Are Lady Parts is equally riotous and moving, while Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs’ Blindspotting spin-off brims with wit and visual flair. Dramas also make a strong showing this month, thanks to Lisey’s Story, the latest Stephen King TV adaptation (and the first to be written by the prolific author). Rose Byrne gets Physical in a new Apple TV+ series, Loki cuts loose for Disney+, and Annie Murphy stages a sitcom wife revolution on Kevin Can F**K Himself. Plus, Tuca & Bertie, Rick & Morty, and Kim’s Convenience return. So grab a seat (again), and don’t worry—the outdoors will still be there next month.
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We Are Lady Parts (Peacock): Premieres June 3
Peacock is expanding its original sitcom queue after Girls5eva and Rutherford Falls with yet another clever show. Created, written, and directed by Nida Manzoor, We Are Lady Parts follows the all-female, Muslim members of a punk band called Lady Parts. Set in London, the show is mostly told from the perspective of the band’s newcomer and lead guitarist, Amina Hussain (Anjana Vasan), a microbiology student with severe stage anxiety. Amina also has to juggle her friendship with her rebellious band members as well as her more traditional best friend, Noor (Aiysha Hart). We Are Lady Parts also features some chaotic and fun punk songs co-written by Manzoor. It’s a solid attempt at dismantling Muslim stereotypes and a lovely showcase for emerging stars like Vasan. [Saloni Gajjar]
Lisey’s Story (Apple TV+): Premieres June 4
Stephen King adaptations continue to flourish on the small screen, and Apple TV+ is jumping on the bandwagon with an adaptation of the author’s 2006 novel Lisey’s Story. The psychological dramastars Julianne Moore as Lisey Landon, the widow of famous novelist Scott Landon (Clive Owen). It’s been two years since Scott’s death, and when Lisey finally sets to clear out his things, a series of unsettling events causes her to face memories of her marriage that she had blocked out. She also becomes the object of a stalker who’s obsessed with Scott’s work. The eight-episode limited series is written by King, directed by Pablo Larraín, and produced by J.J. Abrams. The cast also includes Joan Allen, Dane DeHaan, Sung Kang, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Ron Cephas Jones. Lisey’s Story will premiere with two episodes, with new ones streaming every Friday. [Saloni Gajjar]
Based on Jeff Lemire’s comic book of the same name, Sweet Tooth is a fantasy drama that takes place 10 years after an apocalyptic event known as The Great Crumble, when a virus (ruh-roh) wreaked havoc and led to the emergence of babies who are part human, part animal. The show focuses on a young hybrid deer-boy, Gus (Christian Convery), who has safely lived in a secluded, sheltered forest but ventures out on an adventure with wandering loner Jepperd (Nonso Anozie). Their quest in search of answers about his origins and how these hybrids came to be grows more complex than expected. that the show has a “winning (and occasionally brutal) approach to its darkly fantastical imaginings.” Developed by Hap And Leonard’s Jim Mickle, the series’ cast includes Adeel Akhtar, Will Forte, Dania Ramirez, Neil Sandilands, Stefania LaVie Owen, and Aliza Vellani. [Saloni Gajjar]
Dom (Amazon Prime Video): Premieres June 4
“The first casualty of war is family”—so goes the log line for Amazon Prime Video’s Dom, a Brazilian original series about drug trafficking and the struggle between a father and son. Created and helmed by Breno Silveira (One Against All), this crime drama takes inspiration from the real-life travails of a Rio de Janeiro cop, whose personal life becomes enmeshed with his work. Victor (Flavio Tolezani) tries to raise his son, Pedro (Gabriel Leone), as a straight arrow by taking him on tours of packed prisons. The lessons don’t take, though, or perhaps Pedro just sees through all the propaganda around the so-called “war on drugs” in South America. In any case, father and son soon find themselves on opposite sides, as an anguished Victor watches Pedro rise to prominence in the Brazilian underworld. Dom’s in the spirit of family/crime drama hybrids like and , but set against the sultry backdrop of Rio de Janeiro. [Danette Chavez]
Historical drama shows generally fixate on the powerful men of history (even fictional dramas like Game Of Thrones, which turned out to be a man’s story in the end), but Epix’s Domina is taking an explicitly different approach by telling a story about ancient Rome from the perspective of Livia Drusilla, the politically active wife of Caesar Augustus and empress of Rome. Livia is traditionally depicted as sort of a schemer who manipulated events to keep her and her children in power, but it seems like Domina, a Sky TV import,is taking a more sympathetic or empowering stance by showing her as a groundbreaking player in a field dominated by men. It stars Kasia Smutniak, Isabella Rossellini, Liam Cunningham, and Matthew McNulty. [Sam Barsanti]
Little Birds (Starz): Premieres June 6
Attention, fellow Ted Lasso fans: Before season two of the Apple TV+ comedy arrives in July, Starz is bringing Juno Temple, a.k.a. Keeley Jones, to the small screen via 2020’s British drama, Little Birds. Inspired by Anaïs Nin’s collection of erotic short stories, this six-episode show is set in 1955 Tangier, one of the last outposts of colonial decadence. American debutante Lucy Savage (Temple) arrives in this famous zone, experiencing culture shock in multiple ways as she desires to escape from society’s conventions. Developed by Sophia Al Maria, the show stars Hugh Skinner, Yumna Marwan, Raphael Acloque, Nina Sosanya, Amy Landecker, David Costabile, and Matt Lauria. [Saloni Gajjar]
Loki (Disney+): Premieres June 9
No offense to or , but Disney+’s Loki seems like it’s going to be the first of these Marvel Cinematic Universe tie-in shows about a real superstar from the movies… but not the superstar we know and love from the Thor sequels or the opening scene of. That Loki is dead. The Loki in Loki is specifically the version who stole the Tesseract and snuck away during the time-heist hijinks in, which is why Owen Wilson’s character and his employers at the Time Variance Authority are asking this Loki to help clean up the mess he created when he broke reality. In practice, though, what that means for us viewers is that we get to see more of Tom Hiddleston’s Loki doing what he does best: being a rascal. [Sam Barsanti]
Blindspotting (Starz): Premieres June 12
Blindspotting stars and scribes Rafael Casal and Daveed Diggs produce this spin-off of their 2018 film of the same name. The Starz series is set six months after the events of the movie and centers on Ashley (Jasmine Cephas-Jones reprising the role), whose longtime partner Miles (Casal) is arrested on drug charges within the first 30 seconds of the premiere. She has to move into his childhood home with their young son, Sean (Atticus Woodward), and try to get along with his mother Rainey (Helen Hunt) and wild half-sister Trish (Jaylen Barron). As a 32-year-old single mother, Ashley has a tough time adjusting to her new surroundings, especially since her partner is incarcerated. No word yet on whether Diggs will make an appearance but the show also stars Candace Nicholas-Lippman and Justin Chu Carry. [Saloni Gajjar]
Physical (Apple TV+): Premieres June 18
After the acclaimed , Rose Byrne goes the retro route again in Physical, Annie Weisman’s bleak comedy about a miserable, self-loathing 1980s housewife named Sheila who finds salvation through aerobics dance. As with Mrs. America,the stylization is spot-on, down to the big hair, ugly cars, and dance moves familiar to anyone who’s ever spied an early Jane Fonda routine. Byrne kills it, as per usual, but wading through Sheila’s near-incessant inner dialogue filled with expletive-laden bile for herself as well as everyone around her who falls short of the ’80s body ideal can be a bit tough to swallow. Rory Scovel is almost completely loathsome as Sheila’s skeevy husband, but Dierdre Friel shines as the non-toxic new friend that Sheila sorely needs. [Gwen Ihnat]
Kevin Can F**K Himself (AMC): Premieres June 20
Emmy winner Annie Murphy returns to TV in Kevin Can F**K Himself,the second show this year (after WandaVision) to pull back the curtain on glossy sitcom artifice. KCFH (created by Valerie Armstrong, executive produced by Rashida Jones) brilliantly deconstructs the sitcom trope of the schlubby blue-collar guy married to the laid-back hot wife. In this case, Murphy’s Allison is married to cable installer Kevin (Eric Petersen) in a working-class section of Worcester, Massachusetts, complete with nosy neighbors, snooty bosses, and loads of canned laughter. But when Allison steps off set, the show switches to what her reality looks like outside of it, chronicling her desperate attempts to expand past the constraints of a multi-cam life. It’s a fascinating merging of two worlds, anchored by Murphy’s empathetic portrayal of an increasingly desperate housewife, proving that the success of “A Little Bit Alexis” was no fluke. [Gwen Ihnat]
The Mysterious Benedict Society (Disney+): Premieres June 25
Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society novel has a not-so-peculiar premise involving a group of gifted kids and a school that purports to welcome them (in this case, it’s the the Learning Institute For The Very Enlightened). But this particularly group of plucky kids is actually at odds with the school, which is run by one Ledroptha Curtain. Matt Manfredi and Phil Hay’s adaptation stars Mystic Inscho, Emmy DeOliveira, Seth Carr, and Marta Timofeeva as the young’uns, with Tony Hale (in a dual role), Kristen Schaal, and MaameYaa Boafo rounding out the adult cast. Though not as darkly humorous as , The Mysterious Benedict Society is still a pleasant-enough YA diversion. [Danette Chavez]
