The days of fall TV premieres being the only new season on the horizon are long gone. With an array of scripted and unscripted series poised to hit the airwaves, this summer is sure to be action-packed.
Showtime is sinking its teeth into Anne Rice’s vampire world, with Jacob Anderson (Game of Thrones) and Rolin Jones as the leads. Meanwhile, Inventing Anna is a buzzy Shonda Rhimes debut.
The Idol
From the mind of Euphoria creator Sam Levinson and The Weeknd (or, Abel Tesfaye, to his fans) comes The Idol, a new HBO drama that follows a self-help guru and underground cult leader in the world of Hollywood music. The series stars Lily-Rose Depp as a rising pop star who begins a relationship with the mysterious figure and becomes tangled in his web.
The Idol premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and already has garnered a reputation for itself with its scandalous content. The two episodes screened at the event earned negative reviews, with Rolling Stone calling it “toxic” and The Playlist calling it “crude, gross, and sexist.” The drama has a star-studded cast that includes Tesfaye, Depp, Levinson, Reza Fahim, and more, and was directed by Amy Seimetz, who had previously worked on hits like Succession.
The Idol is set to premiere on Sunday, June 4 on HBO Max. The service is the streaming arm of the company and offers a full suite of original shows, plus HBO hits and classics, such as House of Cards and The Last of Us. If you haven’t yet, make sure to sign up for a free trial here. Then you can watch all the shows you want, on any device, anytime, anywhere.
Mrs. Davis
A new Peacock original series titled Mrs. Davis premieres April 20 with four episodes and will air weekly starting on Thursdays. This drama stars Betty Gilpin as Sister Simone, a nun who sets out to battle an all-powerful AI. The show is the brainchild of Tara Hernandez, writer of The Big Bang Theory and Young Sheldon, and Damon Lindelof, creator of Lost, The Leftovers, and Watchmen. This pairing of TV juggernauts promises to deliver an epic story of faith versus technology.
In the first episode of Mrs. Davis, Sister Simone is sent on a mission to stop a powerful artificial intelligence called Mrs. Davis. Her journey will take her across the globe and to places she has never been before. Along the way, she will be accompanied by her ex-boyfriend Wiley, who will help her in her quest to destroy the AI.
The series is created by Tara Hernandez and Damon Lindelof, who are known for their ability to craft complex narratives. The two have worked together on a number of projects in the past, including Lost and The Leftovers. The cast of the show also includes Jake McDorman, who starred as Brian Finch in Limitless and Avery Brown in Murphy Brown, and Andy McQueen, who has appeared in Coroner, Outer Banks, and Station Eleven.
The new show is set to premiere on Peacock on April 20, and will be available for streaming on the platform From Anywhere. If you don’t have a Peacock subscription, you can use a VPN like ExpressVPN to unlock the content.
The Vampire Diaries
The Vampire Diaries is one of the most popular TV series to ever come out. It captivated audiences around the world for almost a decade and even inspired spin-offs like The Originals and Legacies. The show is known for its mix of romance, drama, and horror and has impacted viewers in a deep way. It has taught them so much about life and relationships.
BhagyaLakshmi Written Update premiered in 2009 and ran for eight seasons on the CW network. The series stars Nina Dobrev as Elena Gilbert, a human teenager who becomes infatuated with the centuries-old vampire Stefan Salvatore. The relationship is complicated when Damon Salvatore, Stefan’s older brother, shows up and wreaks havoc on the town of Fells Church, Virginia.
While it’s impossible for any television adaptation to cover everything that happens in a book series, The Vampire Diaries has managed to do so in an amazing and captivating way. It has touched countless lives, and has left fans wondering whether or not there will be a season 9.
While it seems unlikely that there will be a season 9, the series did end on a happy note. It also starred Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder. Both of them have gone on to star in other projects and have a robust resume including roles in Casual, April Apocalypse, Eve, and Kyle XY. Additionally, Somerhalder is set to star in a new television series titled Vampire Academy. The show is being produced by Peacock and will bring author Richelle Mead’s vampire YA novel universe to life.
The Good Fight
For six seasons, The Good Fight has been a relentlessly brilliant, impeccably acted triumph of topical satire. Its legal drama cast — led by Christine Baranski as Diane Lockhart and Audra McDonald as Liz Rupert — has kept one eye on the world’s madness, tackling everything from street fascists to corporate corruption to the perils of zoom filters.
The spin-off of CBS’ The Good Wife, which starred Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick, had the tricky task of updating its milieu and premise (which assumed that self-dealing and consensual extramarital sex would bring down a Cook County State’s Attorney) to Trump-era reality. And yet it’s succeeded on the theory that chaotic times call for a kaleidoscopic filter and a grab bag of absurdities.
For its sixth and final season, The Good Fight will pick up with a case that could potentially bring America to civil war. Maia Rindell, the up-and-coming lawyer played by Rose Leslie, has signed on to partner with Diane and Lucca Quinn (Cush Jumbo) at Lockhart & Gittes, and this case pits them against a white supremacist who’s trying to buy the Democratic Party and Fox News, while he sends his minions to infiltrate Twitter and blackmail senators. It’s the kind of case that’s ripe for the reenactments and squabbles that The Good Fight has made its name on, and we can’t wait to see it on September 8.
The Last Ship
There’s plenty of military drama on TV, but it doesn’t get much more action-packed than The Last Ship. Based on William Brinkley’s novel, the series follows the crew of a Navy destroyer in a post-apocalyptic world after a global virus wipes out 80% of the world’s population. With Michael Bay (“Transformers,” “Pearl Harbor”) among the executive producers, the show features some exhilarating naval battles – think Harpoon missiles and torpedoes vying for supremacy in close-up, bringing a welcome sense of urgency to this genre.
The cast includes Eric Dane, a regular on Charmed and Grey’s Anatomy, as Admiral Tom Chandler, the commander of the lone unaffected U.S. Navy destroyer, the Nathan James. He is aided by his crew, which includes his best friend and second in command, XO Richard Parker (Adam Baldwin). Also on board are Marissa Neitling, Bridget Moynahan, Charles Parnell and Travis Van Winkle.
The show’s fifth season, which premiered this fall, finds the crew on the hunt for a cure to the virus that’s rapidly infecting the remaining population. It’s an epic return that ups the ante in terms of action and excitement, but remains true to its core message that war is a brutal and devastating thing for human beings, even the most ruthless military leaders.
Halo
Halo, the first live-action TV series based on a major video game franchise, premiered on March 24. The show stars Pablo Schreiber as Master Chief, an enhanced human whose mission is to lead humanity against an alien invasion. He is aided by his holographic AI companion, Cortana, played by Jen Taylor. The show is produced by Amblin Television in partnership with 343 Industries and Showtime. Its cast also includes Natascha McElhone as Dr. Halsey, the brilliant and conflicted creator of the Spartan super soldiers. Other cast members include Bokeem Woodbine, Shabana Azmi, Natasha Culzac, Olive Gray, Yerin Ha, Kate Kennedy, Charlie Murphy, and Danny Sapani. Otto Bathurst, best known for his work on Peaky Blinders, serves as the show’s director.
The show has received a mixed response from fans. Many are concerned that the adaptation will stray too far from its source material. However, producers have assured fans that the show will maintain some level of canon.
A second season has been greenlit, and it is set to air sometime in 2023. Until then, viewers can watch the first season of Halo on Paramount Plus. The series is also available for streaming on other platforms such as Netflix. The first season of the sci-fi drama consists of nine episodes, with each episode running for about an hour. Each episode will premiere on Thursday, with subsequent episodes airing weekly.