What To Watch This Week | June 3–9

Breaking: Hacks has been renewed for a fourth season at Max! All (OK, most) is right with the universe.

This week’s What to Watch picks include basketball bio-drama Clipped, the premiere of Glen Powell’s crime comedy Hit Man, Julio Torres’ new surrealist series Fantasmas, the debut of Star Wars saga The Acolyte, and NBA Finals hoops action. Happiness is a warm TV, people!

What’s new on TV this week

Clipped | Hulu | Drama

Series premiere, Tuesday, June 4: True-sports bio-drama Clipped chronicles the downfall of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling (played by Ed O’Neill) circa 2013. Thanks to Clippers coach Doc Rivers (Lawrence Fishburne), the franchise had a shot at its first NBA championship, but the public confluence of Sterling’s mood swings and a power struggle between his personal assistant (Cleopatra Coleman) and his business-partner wife (Jacki Weaver) derailed it spectacularly. Two of six episodes stream on June 4.

NBA Finals | ABC | Sports, basketball

Coverage begins Thursday, June 6, 5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET: Speaking of basketball drama, the 2024 NBA Finals tips off this week with the Boston Celtics taking on the Dallas Mavericks (sorry, Minnesota Timberwolves fans). All four—or seven, if needed—games will be broadcast on ABC and ESPN Deportes.

Jump to your preferred streaming service for more recs

What to watch on Netflix this week

Sweet Tooth | Netflix | Drama, fantasy

Season 3 premiere, Thursday, June 6: Another Netflix favorite comes to an end, as season 3 will be the last for Sweet Tooth. The colorful post-apocalyptic series follows Gus (Christian Convery), a 10-year-old boy who’s half-deer and obsessed with candy (hence the Sweet Tooth title). The final season sees Gus and his crew heading to snowy Alaska in the continuing search for his mother while staying one step ahead of the nefarious characters who are hunting them. All eight final episodes drop on June 6.

Hit Man | Netflix | Action, comedy

Movie premiere, Friday, June 7: Like his 2012 movie Bernie, Richard Linklater’s new Hit Man is also based on a wild-but-true story from journalist Skip Hollandsworth. Working with local police, a straightlaced college professor (Glen Powell, who co-wrote the script with Linklater) pretends to be an assassin for hire to catch people ordering hits. All’s fun in crime-impersonation until he falls for a suspect (Adria Arjona). It’d better be a hit: Netflix paid $20 million for Hit Man at the Venice Film Festival in 2023.

What to watch on Max this week

Am I OK? | Max | Comedy, drama

Movie premiere, Thursday, June 6: First-time directing team Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne scored positive reviews at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year with Am I OK?, and now it’s a Pride Month score for Max. After years of being best friends, Lucy (Dakota Johnson) confesses to Jane (Sonoya Mizuno) that she’s attracted to women and is terrified to come out in her thirties. With Jane’s help, Lucy navigates new dating territory in what Vogue calls “a winning romantic comedy about female friendship.”

Fantasmas | HBO, Max | Comedy

Series premiere, Friday, June 7: Max may have canceled Julio Torres’ series Los Espookys after two delightful seasons, but at least they’re making up for it by streaming his A24 movie Problemista later this month and his new creation Fantasmas now. Creator/director Torres plays a not-too-exaggerated version of himself in an alternate-reality New York City where life is a surreal dream, some people are robots, and he’s allergic to … yellow? Fantasmas will premiere new episodes weekly on HBO and Max.

More of what to watch on streaming this week

The Acolyte | Disney+ | Drama, sci-fi

Series premiere, Tuesday, June 4: Since it’s set 100 years before The Phantom Menace, The Acolyte is in the enviable position of never having had to suffer through The Phantom Menace (not sorry, prequel defenders). The latest live-action Star Wars series centers on a Jedi master (Lee Jung-Jae, Squid Game) and his former padawan (Amandla Stenberg) as they investigate mysterious murders of fellow Jedi and—of course—the connected vast conspiracy. Two of six episodes stream on June 4.

Criminal Minds: Evolution | Paramount+ | Drama

Season 2 premiere, Thursday, June 6: Or season 17, if you prefer. Criminal Minds spinoff Evolution brought back most of the long-running procedural’s favorite team (Joe Mantegna, Paget Brewster, A.J. Cook, Aisha Tyler, Adam Rodriguez, and Kirsten Vangsness) in 2022 for a gnarly FBI case: an organized network of serial killers terrorizing the east coast. Last season ended on a cliffhanger, with Rossi (Mantenga) in the clutches of one of the killers. (Spoiler: he’ll be fine.) Two of 10 episodes stream on June 6.

New movie releases available to rent/buy on VOD this week

Back to Black (2024)

Back to Black, a dramatization of the life and untimely death of British singer Amy Winehouse, was always destined to be a bummer. She became a member of the “27 Club” (a coincidental group of musicians, actors, and artists who all died at the age of 27) in 2011 due to alcohol poisoning—how to put a positive cinematic spin on that? Back to Black celebrates Winehouse empathetically, with Marisa Abela turning in an uncanny portrayal, vocals and all. Hearing these great songs again is justification enough for the movie.

• Back to Black (June 4)
• Exhuma (June 4)
• Insane Like Me? (June 4)
• Kill Craft (June 4)
• Love Kills (June 4)
• The Old Oak (June 4)
• Shadow Land (June 4)
• The Hangman (June 6)
• Edge of Everything (June 7)
• A Hundred Lies (June 7)
• Kill Your Lover (June 7)
• Late Bloomers (June 7)
• Life After Fighting (June 7)
• The Strangers: Chapter 1 (June 7)
• Trim Season (June 7)