2019 Summer TV Preview TV for Grownups

2019 Summer TV Preview

Get ready for ' Handmaid' s Tale ' ' Big Little Lies ' and shows with Kevin Costner Ann Curry Julianna Margulies and more

CBS

Elementary Season 7 CBS May 23

Lucy Liu, 50, just made history, as the second Asian American woman to get her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, following Anna May Wong in 1960. Liu has triumphed over the stereotyping that plagued Wong, partly through this police procedural starring Liu as Dr. Joan Watson, who solves homicides with her memory-impaired partner Sherlock Holmes (Jonny Lee Miller). In this, the final season, a grave injury of someone close to them makes them consider moving from London to New York.

The Hot Zone National Geographic May 27

ERBlack Hawk Down

The Handmaid s Tale Season 3 Hulu June 5

In the third season of Margaret Atwood's scary fantasy about an anti-female fascist future, Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd, 63) is no nicer after surviving a knife attack; June (Elisabeth Moss) is out to get her child back; cast newcomers Christopher Meloni, 58 (Law & Order: SVU), and Elizabeth Reaser (Twilight), play high-ranking Commander pals of June's enslaver; and who knows what Commander Lawrence (The West Wing's Bradley Whitford, 59) — a designer of wicked Gilead who also helps handmaids escape — will do? Game of Thrones ain't the only show with reunions and betrayals in store.

Armistead Maupin s Tales of the City Netflix June 7

A quarter century after the classic San Francisco saga began, Mary Ann (Laura Linney, 55) returns to her old bohemian haunts after decades in Connecticut and reconnects with her eccentric old landlady (Olympia Dukakis, 87), her ex (Paul Gross) and her irresistibly misfit friends. But the place has changed: Tech has driven rents sky-high, and Mary Ann must deal with her successful sex-blogger daughter (Ellen Page), who's peeved that Mary Ann abandoned her for a career back East. The new series harkens back to the old, but new showrunner Lauren Morelli (Orange Is the New Black) has some big changes in store, too.

Big Little Lies Season 2 HBO June 9

The last time we saw the octuple Emmy-winning miniseries about Northern Californians with big secrets, an abusive husband (Alexander Skarsgard) met his unlamented end. But now we meet his mother (Meryl Streep, 69) and learn a bit more about him — plus a lot more about their circle (, Laura Dern, Reese Witherspoon, Zoe Kravitz and Shailene Woodley). “I loved this show,” Streep says. “I thought it was an amazing exercise in what we know and what we don't know about people.” ADAM ROSE/FOX Broadcasting Co.

So You Think You Can Dance Season 16 Fox June 10

After 16 years and 16 Emmys, the show whose grueling competition will crown America's Favorite Dancer returns, minus dance judge Vanessa Hudgens. The new panel includes Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Dominic Sandoval and Lady Gaga choreographer Laurieann Gibson. But will host Cat Deeley finally, after five nominations, win an Emmy of her own?
Erig Ogden/Showtime

City on a Hill Showtime June 16

If you liked Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone, try this show produced by Ben Affleck, Matt Damon and Chuck MacLean. It's inspired by Boston's battle against corruption in the 1990s, with Aldis Hodge as a two-fisted reformist assistant DA and Kevin Bacon, 60, as an FBI man inclined to bend a rule or two. “The thing about City on a Hill that I loved,” Bacon says, was “a kind of gritty vibe that was reminiscent of the movies that I loved in the ‘70s from Scorsese and Sidney Lumet.”

Endeavour Season 6 PBS June 16

It's 1969, and Endeavour Morse (Shaun Evans), now sporting a mustache and long sideburns, is still in shock over last season's mysterious murder of Detective Constable George Fancy, not to mention the startling 1960s social changes sweeping through society. But there are new murders to solve — from a 10-year-old girl to an Oxford librarian whose messy death may have more to do with the Holocaust than with the two professors who had motives to do him in.

Grand Hotel ABC June 17

Eva Longoria produces, directs and costars in her adaptation of the extremely binge-worthy hit series Gran HotelDownton AbbeyMarried With Children's

Yellowstone Season 2 Paramount Network June 19

If Game of Thrones'The Walking Dead

Grantchester Season 4 PBS July 14

The 1950s are a-changing on Masterpiece's mystery series set in a cozy English village, and so are the crime-fighting vicars: the jazz-loving Rev. Sidney Chambers (James Norton) is starting to drink too much, he's besotted by a young American evangelical civil rights activist (The Little Drummer Girl'sCall the Midwife's

Chasing the Cure TNT and TBS July 25

, 62, the former anchor of NBC's Today show and the host of PBS's We'll Meet Again
Ed Araquel/AMC

The Terror Infamy AMC Aug 12

George Takei, 82, who played Sulu on Star Trek

More Entertainment for Grownups

Featured AARP Member Benefits See more Entertainment offers > See more Entertainment offers > See more Entertainment offers > See more Entertainment offers > Cancel You are leaving AARP.org and going to the website of our trusted provider. The provider’s terms, conditions and policies apply. Please return to AARP.org to learn more about other benefits. Your email address is now confirmed. You'll start receiving the latest news, benefits, events, and programs related to AARP's mission to empower people to choose how they live as they age. You can also by updating your account at anytime. You will be asked to register or log in. Cancel Offer Details Disclosures

Close In the next 24 hours, you will receive an email to confirm your subscription to receive emails related to AARP volunteering. Once you confirm that subscription, you will regularly receive communications related to AARP volunteering. In the meantime, please feel free to search for ways to make a difference in your community at Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again.