June’s here, which means Action May is done and behind us. While Citadel season 2 disappointed (as did April’s Man on Fire tbh), The Punisher: One Last Kill and Nemesis did what they had to do. I remain locked into Frank Castle’s story, and have found I really need to know what happens next in Det. Isaiah Stiles and Coltrane Wilder’s cat-and-mouse game.
Though June doesn’t have a theme to it, I’m looking forward to what’s on offer. May 31 freed me from Euphoria (the ending was as disappointing as the season), and I’ve stepped into this new month feeling renewed. My back catalog watch of choice for June is Everwood as it’s now on Pluto TV. The hit WB show was an unfortunate casualty of the network’s merger with UPN that formed the Big 4’s once cool little sister, The CW.
I love small town dramas and pretty much anything Greg Berlanti has made or has had a hand in making, he’s my generation’s King of TV and I admire him immensely. So I will be watching the pilot and circling back to y’all with my thoughts like I did with The X-Files.
Before June’s curated list of offerings and my take on what’s of most interest to me, which you can skip to now if you’d like, I want to remind everyone of a programming shift happening in the realm of television this month and two government in TV business items that you should have on your radar.
BET+ will no longer be a standalone streamer. It’s being integrated into Paramount+ and its content will be made available through the BET Hub on the platform. BET+ subscribers that signed-up through the app will receive a discounted plan if they choose to purchase a Paramount+ subscription.
The UFC fight at the White House is set for Sunday, June 14. It’s being billed as UFC Freedom 250. Construction on the south lawn of the People’s House got underway on Memorial Day. If you’re going to be in the city, whether or not that’s to watch the event at the Ellipse instead of on Paramount+, please be careful.
There have been two events of exchanged gunfire between a suspect and law enforcement near the White House and at the Washington Monument since the White House Correspondents’ Dinner attack. One bystander was critically injured.
About 5,000 people are expected to be at the fight at personal invitation from the UFC and the Trump administration. I suspect traffic is going to be awful and there are likely to be protests. Plan accordingly. Stay safe.
The FCC comment replies deadline is Monday, June 22 if you want to leave a reply either supporting or opposing someone else’s commentary about the federal agency’s inquiry into whether TV age rating regulations need to be updated, including if children’s programming that features trans or non-binary characters should be labeled.
You can find more information about the request for public commentary in my April Government in TV Business article. As well as the official request document from the agency. Here is the link to read other people’s comments.
Ad break: Want news you can trust and analysis you can understand on a platform besides Substack? Follow my coverage on Forbes for explainers about what’s happening on popular TV shows and in Hollywood!
Tuesday, June 2 - Not Suitable for Work (Hulu)
Friday, June 5 - Cape Fear (Apple TV)
Sunday, June 7
The Vampire Lestat (AMC and AMC+)
Earth, Wind & Fire (To Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World) (HBO)
Monday, June 8 - Gamechangers (Roku Channel)
Tuesday, June 9 - Dragon Striker (Disney XD, Disney+, and Hulu)
Wednesday, June 10 - Every Year After (Prime Video)
Wednesday, June 17 - The Season (Hulu)
Sunday, June 21 - House of the Dragon season 3 (HBO and HBO Max)
Thursday, June 25 - The Bear season 5 (Hulu)
Set in Manhattan’s Murray Hill, Not Suitable for Work follows five 20-somethings looking to succeed in their professional and personal lives. But they’re all work-obsessed, which has left little time for the happiness they crave as they eye the next rung on the career ladder.
Release schedule: First three episodes premiere Tuesday, June 2 on Hulu. Two episodes release weekly until the finale on June 23.
I am not a comedy person. Putting that out there now. I like them just fine. I just don’t tend to continue on with them because I love dramas so much.
Mindy Kaling’s brand of comedy tends not to move the needle for me at all, but what’s pulling me in with Not Suitable for Work is the new adult angle to it. I see television working through this space of bridging the gap between YA and early 20s to mid-20s centric storytelling.
It’s a space that Freeform occupied with The Bold Type, a workplace dramedy focused on three best friends finding their footing at a fashion magazine. The Pitt has elements of it with its younger cast. We’re going to be seeing Forever make this leap with its second season that makes a time jump to Keisha and Justin’s post-college years.
I’m intrigued by this shift. While Not Suitable for Work could wind up being a bit past its expiration date given the reality of the American job market as it stands today, since it focuses on a quintet of young professionals in a “glamorous” neighborhood working to climb a ladder that in reality is crumbling as we speak, it might provide the kind of escapism and fantasy its target audience is interested in.
Heartbroken and betrayed, Lestat takes the stage in the series that now bears his name to tell his own story since Louis’ version of their life together and their daughter Claudia’s death has been published for mass consumption. Through the muses that haunt him, he takes the audience on a wild and emotionally difficult ride through his past and the events that shaped him into the vampire he is today.
Release schedule: Weekly on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on AMC starting June 7. Episodes will be available to stream on AMC+. The finale is July 19.
I know folks have been waiting on Cape Fear, House of the Dragon is back, and The Bear’s final season is upon us, but The Vampire Lestat is THE series to watch this summer. If you love vampires, if you love rock n’ roll, if you love gothic horror, this season of Interview with the Vampire is going to eat you alive.
The first two seasons were funny and gorgeous and tragic and a lot all set in the backdrop of NOLA, Paris, and Dubai. I cannot describe the amount of artistry that lies within Louis’ story. You will cry. Now Lestat has control of the tale and it’s so good. I wrote a review of the season for Forbes. Here’s a snippet:
This season does not feel effortless, it feels earned. There is a difference between following a narrative change born from the books and stepping fully into a perspective shift whilst embracing what that means for the story and its audience. But if you’re going to follow Lestat down the Devil’s road, you must be prepared to question everything you think you know about Lestat, Louis, Claudia (Delainey Hayles), Armand (Assad Zaman), and even Daniel (Eric Bogosian).
It’s not that the series is no longer preoccupied with the monstrosity of memory, it is. But its focus is now on what it means to try to heal. How messy and painful that process can be. It’s about re-discovery of self, accountability, and ownership of your own choices from how they affect you to how they affect other people, particularly the ones you love.
The Vampire Lestat achieves this while still being a rollicking, rolling, campy, hot mess with off the wall, out of pocket dialogue that’ll leave you wondering if that line really came out of someone’s mouth. It is also incredibly heartbreaking and full of triggers that can and will hit close to home for anyone who has lost someone, been abused, assaulted, raped, or used substances to dull the pain of existence.
But in that heart break is an overwhelming, overflowing exploration of grief and love that feels like a pouring out of Pandora’s box until what’s left is a hope that’s as golden and full of song as Lestat himself. This season acts like the embodiment of the gift Louis thanked Lestat for in the season 2 finale of Interview with the Vampire. He said, “I came here to thank you. For the gift you offered me. The gift I denied. For the nights in front of me, where I might learn to live honestly.”
Ad break: I’ll be covering The Vampire Lestat for Forbes, so give me a follow over on that platform to stay up on my thoughts from episode to episode. Let’s enjoy this wild ride together!
Spanning six years and one week, flitting between the past and present, Every Year After follows Persephone and Sam’s love story from when the connection between them sparked to where living separate lives has left them as adults. Nostalgic, romantic, and honest about the mark the people we love leave on us, the show begs the question, if you could have a second chance, would you take it?
Release schedule: All eight episodes release Wednesday, June 10 on Prime Video.
Admittedly, I’m only watching Every Year After because the trailer made me curious about why Persephone left Barry’s Bay and broke Sam’s heart. I know nothing about Every Summer After by Carley Fortune, the book that the series is adapted from, but the show feels very low stakes whilst still having enough drama to keep your attention.
Essentially, I expect this series about former teen sweethearts who are thrust back into each other’s orbit because of the death of Sam’s mother to be like a beach read. Having watched a lot of thinky thrillers, action dramas, Euphoria, and The Vampire Lestat in the first half of the year, it’s going to be nice to tune into a story that’s all about emotion but light on trauma.
When a group of friends get together for boating season in Hong Kong, they’re expecting fun in the summer sun. But what they get is a twisting and turning web of lies that catches them by surprise as secrets are revealed and power is negotiated and fought for.
Release schedule: All six episodes drop Wednesday, June 17 on Hulu.
Jessie Mei Li has me seated for The Season. I loved their work as Alina in Shadow & Bone and have wanted to see them in another meaty TV role. They play Cola, a woman navigating the ultra-rich world of Hong Kong’s elite.
I’m not sure what exactly this series is going to be digging into besides summer fun turning into a mess over power plays and hidden agendas, but I’m willing to give it a chance. Often this style of storytelling is set in the West for my side of the world, typically New York though occasionally the American South with a hop across the pond to London now and again, so I’m intrigued by how the tropes typical to it might shift in the East.
Gods help the realm, the Targaryens are at war.
Release schedule: House of the Dragon season 3 premieres Sunday, June 21 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max. New episodes will air weekly until the finale on August 9.
Full disclosure, I’m struggling to remember what happened in House of the Dragon. I need to refresh my memory of what went on in the previous season. The show is so dense. To me, it very much feels like a period piece and a play all rolled in one. It’s because of this that it’s hard for me to get that invested in what’s going on, but I do enjoy the series when it’s airing.
I’m Team Rhaenyra all the way and, of course, here for the dragons. Everything else that unfolds I’m simply tuned in and intrigued by. My favorite aspect of this series is a how everyone speaks. I love dialogue that sings, particularly when flowery language or an elevated way of talking is done right and not high hat or done simply to do it. The words feel like they’d fit in these characters’ mouths.
I know season 3 explores Rhaenyra finally getting what’s she’s wanted, the throne that is her birth right. But the game isn’t done. Aemond’s not set to roll over and Aegon is very much still alive. This makes for a very sticky situation for the queen as the call to war hasn’t quieted, it’s only gotten louder. Should be good!
The morning after Carmy quits and hands The Bear over to Sydney, Richie, and Sugar, the trio immediately hop into action. They have to get the team ready to weather a torrential storm, the threat of the restaurant being sold, and having not a dime to their name.
Determined, they push their team to get through one last service in the hopes of earning a Michelin star. As they do, they begin to notice that maybe it’s the people and not the food that makes a restaurant perfect.
Release schedule: All eight episodes drop Thursday, June 25 on Hulu.
I don’t know how I feel about this being the last June we’ll have The Bear. Based on the narrative, it’s time. But it’s been such a staple of the summer that it will be hard bidding the show farewell. I don’t think anyone who tuned into the first season could have expected the launch rocket it turned out to be.
Not because the writing wasn’t tight or because it was so different from anything on TV at the time. But because it felt so niche. I mean you’re talking about a show that’s not only about immense grief in the midst of a mental breakdown, but also set in a hole in the wall restaurant with the most unprofessional staff you can imagine and with it moving a mile a minute.
Say what you will on whether it’s a comedy—I think it’s a drama with comedic elements—The Bear is exceptional. I’ve enjoyed every single season, including the third which tripped some people up by slowing all the way down at parts, particularly the premiere (a fave of mine).
I’m going to miss this series, but I’m so excited to see what Carmy’s journey is now that he’s passing the restaurant onto Sydney, Richie, and Sugar. And, as a SydCarmy person, getting my fill of their partnership one last time.
That’s it for my June TV picks! What are you watching?
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