Summer TV Preview: 15 New Shows to Watch

1. June 4: “Clipped” (FX)

Ed O’Neill is back on TV, and it’s a doozy. Based on the ESPN 30 for 30 podcast The Sterling Affairs, this limited series will tell the infamous 2014 story of Donald Sterling and the ensuing media and cultural shitstorm following a racist recording being made public.

Per a press release: “Famed coach Doc Rivers (Laurence Fishburne) arrives as coach of the LA Clippers in 2013. With a promising roster of big personalities, Rivers has the building blocks to win the franchise’s first championship. The team’s owner, Donald Sterling (Ed O’Neill), is a well-known problem: he’s cheap, he’s erratic, he’s a bully. But minimizing Sterling’s influence to win a title becomes a personal quest for Doc. Meanwhile, a courtside power struggle escalates between Sterling’s ambitious personal assistant V. Stiviano (Cleopatra Coleman) and his wife and business partner of 60 years, Shelly (Jacki Weaver). FX’s “Clipped” is an Obama-era story of racial reckoning delivered via meme, in which the Sterlings discover who really has the power in the internet age, and which leaves Rivers and his players wondering if the expulsion of one bad apple brings about the transformative change the media wants to celebrate.”

Also starring Kelly AuCoin, J. Alphonse Nicholson, Rich Sommers, and Corbin Bernsen, “Clipped” is created by Gina Welch. —ES

2. June 7: “Queenie” (Hulu)

“Fleabag” fans, this one is for you. Based on the bestselling novel, the eight episodes of “Queenie” follow Queenie Jenkins (Dionne Brown), a 25-year-old Jamaican British woman living in south London straddling two cultures. “After a messy breakup with her long-term boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places and begins to realize she has to face the past head-on before she can rebuild,” per a press release.
Created by author Candice Carty-Williams, who will also serve as showrunner. —ES

3. June 4: “The Acolyte” (Disney+)

Leslye Headland’s Star Wars series takes viewers to an even longer time ago in a galaxy far, far away, set before even the events of “The Phantom Menace.” Lee Jung-jae plays Jedi master Sol, whose investigation into a series of crimes leads him right down the path to his former padawan, Mae (Amandla Stenberg). Also starring Manny Jacinto, Dafne Keen, Charlie Barnett, Jodie Turner-Smith, Rebecca Henderson, Dean-Charles Chapman, Joonas Suotamo, and Carrie-Anne Moss, with Headland, Kogonada, Alex Garcia Lopez, and Hanelle Culpepper directing. —PK

4. June 12: “Presumed Innocent” (Apple TV+)

Anyone old enough to remember Harrison Ford in his prime certainly remembers one of his better performances in “Presumed Innocent,” a 1990 movie directed by Alan J. Pakula and produced by Sydney Pollack. But a lesser-known fact is the film, itself an adaptation of Scott Turow’s 1987 novel, also spawned a TV miniseries, “The Burden of Proof,” in 1992 and a TV movie, “Innocent,” in 2011. Did you know all that? I sure didn’t! Recognizing that 1990’s eighth highest-grossing film (which, my God, can you imagine that happening today?) had such a long tail helps us accept there’s going to be yet another version hitting the small screen this summer: an Apple TV+ limited series starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Written by David E. Kelley and directed by Greg Yaitanes and Anne Sewitsky, the legal thriller follows a Chicago prosecutor who becomes a prime suspect in a murder investigation. Why? Because he was having an affair with the victim. Yikes! The first trailer implies we’ll be guessing whether Gyllenhaal’s Rusty Sabich is innocent or guilty until the very end. Helping to keep us on our toes will be cast members Ruth Negga (as Rusty’s wife, Barbara), Renate Reinsve (as Rusty’s mistress, Carolyn), Peter Sarsgaard, O-T Fagbenle, Lily Rabe, and real-life power couple Bill Camp and Elizabeth Marvel. Whether it can live up to Ford’s version will certainly be a question for many, but at least we know this story has the legs to sustain additional interpretations. Here’s hoping Kelley cooked up a good one. —BT

5. June 16: “Hotel Cocaine” (MGM+)

“I didn’t want to kill people so I could sell drugs,” says Cuban exile-turned-Miami hotel manager Roman Compte (Danny Pino) in the teaser for “Hotel Cocaine”: a snappy crime thriller with a premise that dooms any such reasonable request to end badly. Set in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and executive produced by Chris Brancato (“Narcos”) and Guillermo Navarro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”), the eight-episode period drama for MGM+ captures a bubbling criminal enterprise out of The Mutiny Hotel.

It’s a high-end Florida nightclub and hotel frequented by high-profile clientele as well as drug traffickers and special agents. Michael Chiklis, Mark Feuerstein, Yul Vazquez, Tania Watson, Corina Bradley, Laura Gordon and more actors round out the cast. —AF

6. June 23: “Orphan Black: Echoes” (AMC+)

It was only a matter of time before “Orphan Black” got a spinoff; the universally acclaimed feminist sci-fi epic out of BBC America and Space, a Canadian channel, was about clones after all. Still, it’s been only seven years since the emotional thriller — starring Tatiana Maslany as the multiplying Sarah Manning — closed out its meditation on individuality with a series finale that provided enough closure to keep fans satisfied far longer.

Eager to impress all the same, AMC’s “Orphan Black: Echoes” stars executive producer Krysten Ritter as an amnesiac woman who wakes up from a strange procedure in the year 2052. The sequel series introduces Keeley Hawes as the grown-up Dr. Kira Manning: daughter to the original series’ protagonist. Creator, writer, and showrunner Anna Fishko (“Pieces of Her,” “Fear the Walkign Dead”) executive produces the ten-episodes series with John Fawcett, who co-created “Orphan Black” with Graeme Manson. —AF

7. June 27: “My Lady Jane” (Prime Video)

“The Princess Bride” aficionados, this one for is for you: Based very, very loosely on Lady Jane Grey, this series — adapted from the 2016 YA novels “The Lady Janies” — follows an irreverent Tudor woman who balks at her arranged marriage, only to be happily surprised when it results in a steamy love affair. Oh, and she also has to deal with a heroic mission and saving her people. Starring Emily Bader, the series is created by Gemma Burgess (“Brooklyn Girls Book Series”), with Meredith Glynn (“The Boys”) serving as co-showrunner. —ES

8. June TBA: “Fantasmas” (HBO)

Julio Torres’ first scripted series for HBO, “Los Espookys,” was funny, imaginative, and designed with such distinct style, it should’ve run for as long as its creators’ wanted. But if we must live in a world without Seasons 3 and 15 feat. Andres and Tati, then a new comedy from Torres is the next best thing. “Fantasmas” has exactly the kind of enigmatic logline you’d want from the man behind “My Favorite Shapes” and “SNL’s” “Papyrus” sketch: (per HBO) “Julio Torres tells the tale of when he lost a golden oyster. The people he encounters as he searches for it and the musings he has become points of departure for little films along the way, as Torres navigates weaving in and out of these introspective, often eerie comedic stories.” I mean, what? A golden oyster? Eerie comedic stories? “Little films”?! Sounds perfect. Let’s go! —BT

9. July 10: “SUNNY” (Apple TV+)

With Katie Robbins as showrunner, Rashida Jones stars in “Sunny,” a darkly funny sci-fi miniseries from Apple TV+ and a mystery told in ten parts. When Suzie, an American woman in Japan, loses her partner and son to a shocking plane crash, she is given a robotic companion (voiced by Joanna Sotomura) assigned to live with her in her now empty home in Kyoto.

The strange bid to ease her grief — a perhaps ill-advised gift from her husband’s technology company — soon develops a strange partnership with Suzie and the two embark on a quest to understand what brought them together. An A24, Eureka Row, and Le Train Train production, “Sunny” is directed by Lucy Tcherniak (“The End of the F***ing World,” “Station Eleven,” “Angelyne”). —AF

10. July 11: “Sausage Party: Foodtopia” (Prime Video)

You know what? Sure. Inspired by the wildly divisive animated feature from 2016, “Sausage Party: Foodtopia” dares to ask once more: Can Seth Rogen make hypersexualized food funny? What if we give him even more time to do it?

Showrunners Ariel Shaffir and Kyle Hunter co-wrote the original film with Rogen and Evan Goldberg; Conrad Vernon, who co-directed “Sausage Party” with Greg Ternan, returns to direct all eight episodes for Prime Video. A co-production of Annapurna Television, Sony Pictures Television, and Amazon MGM Studios, the sequel series follows Frank (Rogen), Brenda (Kristen Wiig), Barry (Michael Cera), and Sammy (Edward Norton) as they venture to imagine a new kind of food society after the events of their harrowing inaugural epic. David Krumholtz — AKA Kareem Abdul Lavash — also returns, voice acting alongside franchise newcomers Will Forte, Sam Richardson, Natasha Rothwell, and Yassir Lester. —AF

11. July 18: “Those About to Die” (Peacock)

Who knew a book from 1958 would provide so much entertainment in 2024? Daniel Mannix’s nonfiction tome “Those About to Die” first inspired Ridley Scott’s Best Picture winner, “Gladiator” (and, following the film’s success, was soon republished as “The Way of the Gladiator”). Now, Scott is back in the Roman arenas with “Gladiator II” (slated for cinemas later this year), and Mannix’s book is getting a direct adaptation via Peacock. The 10-episode first season aims to explore “the dirty business of entertaining the masses” via “blood and sport.” Utilizing a large ensemble (including Anthony Hopkins and Iwan Rheon), the series will pull together characters from all corners of the Roman Empire to draw parallels between our earliest known sporting events and today’s iterations. Roland Emmerich (“Independence Day,” “Moonfall”) makes his TV directorial debut, helming five of the 10 episodes, while Robert Rodat (“Falling Skies”) is the lead writer. Expect to see plenty of promos during another Peacock event series with ties to Ancient Greece: this year’s Olympics! —BT

12. July 19: “Lady In The Lake” (Apple TV+)

“Lady in the Lake” is a mystery that takes place in 1960s Baltimore where a young housewife begins to investigate the disappearance of a young Black woman the town has seemingly forgotten. Starring Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram, the Apple TV+ show is based on the 2019 novel of the same name by Laura Lippman. Alma Har’el (“Honey Boy”) directs, executive produces, and writes the highly anticipated drama. —ES

13. July TBA: “The Decameron” (Netflix)

While you breathe a sigh of relief that Hollywood seems to have currently filled its quota for COVID-19 pandemic pieces, let us harken back to simpler times with the Black Death. Set in 1348, Kathleen Jordan’s “The Decameron” imagines a group of wealthy elites from Florence who hasten to a villa in hopes of waiting out the deadly plague destroying Europe. But plagues have a nasty habit of, you know, sticking around, turning this blissfully ignorant group’s holiday into a fight for their very lives. Jenji Kohan serves as executive producer along with Jordan, Blake McCormick, Tara Hermann, and director Michael Uppendahl. —PK

14. TBA: “Time Bandits” (Apple TV+)

Taika Waititi’s TV résumé is honestly pretty spectacular. “Reservation Dogs” (which he co-created) and “What We Do in the Shadows” (which he produced, directed, and wrote for) are two of the best series of the decade, “Our Flag Means Death” (rightly) amassed one of the most passionate fan bases out there, and even the lesser-known Aussie import “Wellington Paranormal” is a rewarding sitcom across its four very funny seasons (available on Max). Now, alongside his long-time partner-in-comedy Jemaine Clement, he’s tackling an exciting remake of Terry Gilliam’s 1981 feature film, “Time Bandits,” about a ragtag group of thieves who recruit an 11-year-old history nerd to join their journey through time and space. With a cast led by Lisa Kudrow and Charlyne Yi, that’s really all you need to know to put the Apple TV+ original in your queue — so far, Waititi (and Clement!) simply don’t miss. —BT

15. TBA: “Bad Monkey” (Apple TV+)

Developed and executive produced by Bill Lawrence, “Bad Monkey” sees Apple TV+, home to the interminably delightful “Palm Royale,” once again returning to Florida for a genre collision starring well-loved voices from across comedy. Vince Vaughn is Andrew Yancy: a retired police detective whose gig doing restaurant inspections leads to the discovery of a severed arm and a conspiracy coming out of the Bahamas. Per the streamer, that arm lures Andrew into “a world of greed and corruption.” Also, “Yes, there’s a monkey.”

A joint production from Warner Bros. Television and Doozer Productions (“Shrinking,” “Ted Lasso”), the ten-part series also stars Michelle Monagahan, Jodie Turner-Smith, Meredith Hagner, Rob Delaney, Natalie Martinez, L. Scott Caldwell, John Ortiz, and more. —AF