The small screen feels big this month, with Canadian Carrie-Anne Moss joining Arnold Schwarzenegger for the second season of FUBAR (June 12 on Netflix), the return of tense kitchen drama The Bear (June 25 on Disney+) and Masterpiece’s Patience, a new English-language version of the hit French procedural about a neurodivergent detective (June 15 on PBS). With a wealth of options on the menu, here are our picks of new scripted series worth checking out in June.
Stick
Lighthearted and laid back: Owen Wilson (Zoolander, 56) is a disgraced former pro golfer whose career derailed after a meltdown on TV. Now considered washed up and over-the-hill, he discovers Santi, a teen prodigy, and takes him under his wing, coaching with the help of former caddy Mitts (Marc Maron, 61, as his usual lovable curmudgeon self). Hilarity ensues but, like Apple’s most successful feel-good comedies Shrinking and Ted Lasso, at heart it’s a surprisingly tender show about empathy, connection and community.
Where to Watch: Streaming on AppleTV+ (10 episodes)
Mr. Loverman
At last! This acclaimed BBC adaptation of Booker-winner Bernardine Evaristo’s 2013 novel aired in the U.K. last fall and I’ve been hoping to see it on a North American streamer since. Set in Hackney’s Caribbean community, two older gay men reckon with being closeted in a rapidly-changing world: Barry (Lennie James, 59), is a 74-year-old from Antigua and his wife Carmel (Olivier-winning stage actress Sharon D. Clarke, 58) discovers he’s been in a decades-long relationship with his male best friend. It’s a touching (and at times sweetly funny) drama about late-in-life reinvention and shifting attitudes in the Afro-Caribbean community. James and co-star Ariyon Bakare, 54, just won BAFTAs for their work in the series.
Where to Watch: Streaming on BritBox (8 episodes)
Outrageous
No series is more resonant of the current moment than this hotly-anticipated show exploring the loyalties and politics of a family divided by fascism. It’s based on the true story (and definitive biography) of the six headstrong Mitford sisters, famously eccentric and celebrated 1930s British aristocrats. Bridgerton’s Bessie Carter stars and is acting royalty herself, as the daughter of British thesps Imelda Staunton, The Crown’s final Queen Elizabeth, and Jim Carter, a.k.a Downton Abbey’s beloved butler Mr. Carson. As novelist sister Nancy Mitford, Carter narrates the proceedings with rueful hindsight. The first of three planned seasons follows the rise of the Nazi Party as sister Diana is wooed by politician Oswald Mosley, founder and leader of the British Union of Fascists. To give you an idea of the family divided: socialist sister Jessica runs away to join the Spanish Civil War while Unity heads to Germany and becomes an ardent Nazi (and, as recently discovered diaries reveal, Hitler lover). Boldly tackling difficult paradoxes, the series grounds the interwar glamour in sobering realism, charting the consequences of feuds and shifting alliances. The MVP is indomitable Anna Chancellor (character actor and forever ‘Duckface’ from Four Weddings, 60) as the matriarch trying to hold it all together.
Where to Watch: Streaming on BritBox starting June 18 (6 episodes)
The Waterfront
The Buckley fishing business has dominated the local economy, until the prominent family’s fortunes take a turn for the worse while patriarch Harlan (Mindhunter’s Holt McCallany, 61) is recovering from heart trouble. Wife Maria Bello (ER, 58) gamely tries to navigate the challenges, but they look for other opportunities to survive. That ’70s Show‘s Topher Grace (46) guest stars as a drug kingpin – yes, really – in this autobiographical series from showrunner Kevin Williamson (Dawson’s Creek) that reflects questionable decisions his own parents made during the 1980s fishing industry downturn. (Williamson’s father served a prison term for conspiracy to traffic.) “The show’s about this aspirational, gorgeous coastal environment,” he says of the North Carolina setting. “It’s a postcard picture everywhere you look. All of our characters are full of light and dark.”
Where to Watch: Streaming on Netflix starting June 19 (8 episodes)
Countdown
To scratch the political conspiracy itch, Jensen Ackles (Supernatural, 47) leads the action as an LAPD detective recruited to a shadowy task force. As he and other undercover operatives (such as Grey’s Anatomy stalwart Eric Dane, 52 and Jessica Camacho from Bosch: Legacy, 42) from across government agencies investigate the broad-daylight murder of an officer with the Department of Homeland Security, they undercover an insidious plot. Gen X’s favourite Brat Pack outlier Eric Stolz, 63, who has in recent years become a fixture behind the camera of many of your favourite series, directs at least one episode. And the series comes from FBI and One Chicago franchise’s Derek Haas (with Dick Wolf, co-creator of enormously successful Chicago Med, Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D.), so expect a pulse-pounding pace.
Where to Watch: Streaming on Prime starting June 25 (13 episodes)
Smoke
Taron Egerton (Rocketman) produces and stars in crime novelist Dennis Lehane’s adaptation of Firebug, the true crime podcast series in which a fictional novel leads to a true story of a serial arsonist who terrorized Southern California for more than a decade. It also features Lovecraft County’s Jurnee Smollett and a cast rounded out by Rafe Spall, Emmy-winner John Leguizamo (Freak, 64) and Oscar-nominated Greg Kinnear, 61. As wildfire season heats up, the stakes in this engrossing series cut close to home.
Where to Watch: Streaming on Apple TV+ starting June 27 (9 episodes)
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