Summer 2022 TV Preview: 18 Shows and Movies to Watch TV for Grownups

Summer TV Preview 18 Shows and Movies You Won t Want to Miss

The very best of the crop from the networks to Netflix

Claudette Barius/Warner Bros. Pictures; Craig Blankenhorn/Hulu; Ollie Upton/HBO (Left to right) Andy Garcia and Gloria Estefan in "Father of the Bride," Steve Martin, Selena Gomez and Martin Short in "Only Murders in the Building" and Matt Smith in "House of the Dragon." ​Remember when summer TV was all about reruns? With streaming giants like , Apple TV+ and HBO Max in the mix, those doldrums are a thing of the past. Along with backyard cookouts and beach days, mark your calendar for these 18 top-flight premieres, from a new season of Only Murders in the Building to the final season of Better Call Saul to a prequel to Game of Thrones.

Stranger Things Netflix Part 1 May 27 Part 2 July 1

After three years, Netflix’s most important show returns, changing its sci-fi fantasy tone from Steven-Spielberg-meets- to a more Nightmare on Elm Street vibe. Star Winona Ryder, 50, her career revived by the show, has said the young actors playing 1980s kids nailed it. “I was their age when the show takes place. These kids are just magic.” Watch it:

Pistol Hulu May 31

Even if you think the Sex Pistols sucked — arguably part of the point of punk rock — the saga of their rise from brats with no future to culture-shuddering artists we remember makes for terrific drama. The limited series is based on guitarist Steve Jones’ memoir Lonely Boy: Tales From a Sex Pistol. Watch it:

​Tom Swift CW May 31

Why would a grownup watch a Nancy Drew mystery spin-off about a young inventor? Because he invented his “tough-love mentor,” an AI voiced by LeVar Burton, 65 (Roots, ). Watch it:

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​This Is Going to Hurt AMC June 2

Just as Michael Crichton spun his grueling medical-school experience into ER, Britain’s Dr. Adam Kay turns his memoir into a dramatic portrait of a gynecology/obstetrics ward where 100-hour workweeks are possible — barely. Watch it:

​Borgen Power & Glory Netflix June 2

Sidse Babett Knudsen, 53, brilliantly portrayed Denmark’s first female prime minister on this smart three-season hit. Nine years later, the show returns, with her as a foreign minister coping with Russia, China and America’s struggle for power after a big oil discovery in Denmark’s constituent country Greenland. Watch it:

​Hustle Netflix June 10

Queen Latifah, 52, plays the wife of Adam Sandler, 55, a down-on-his-luck NBA scout who tries to revive his career with a talented amateur he discovers in Spain (actual Boston Celtic Juancho Hernangomez). Robert Duvall, 91, has a supporting role, and since Le Bron James coproduced the film, it’s apt to be authentic. Watch it:

​Becoming Elizabeth Starz June 12

Sure, we’re gaga about the British royals, but is there anything about the first Queen Elizabeth’s story that hasn’t already been told to death? How about the days when Elizabeth Tudor (Alicia von Rittberg) was a teenage orphan aggressively courted (and maybe abused) by much older Thomas Seymour after Henry VIII’s death triggered a power struggle? Watch it:

​Iron Chef Quest for an Iron Legend Netflix June 15

Alton Brown, 59, whose recipe for a inspired many others, returns, along with the Chairman, Mark Dacascos, and Top Chef winner Kristen Kish. Watch it:

​Father of the Bride HBO Max June 16

Andy Garcia, 66, and , 64, star in a remake of the 1950 Spencer Tracy comedy classic (remade in 1991 with Steve Martin) about a dad coping with his daughter’s marriage. But this time, Garcia told ET, it’s about “a big, sprawling Cuban American family” meeting a clan from Mexico City. “It’s a convergence of those two cultures and how they deal with one another.” Watch it:

​The Old Man FX June 16

In his first lead TV role, Jeff Bridges, 72, plays a CIA agent who went off the grid after Russia’s 1980s Afghanistan invasion and now is sought by his old partner (John Lithgow, 76). “Our chickens have come home to roost — the consequences of our earlier behavior,” says Bridges, who’s glad to be back at work after almost an almost two-year battle with cancer and . “I feel terrific!” Watch it:

Jerry & Marge Go Large Paramount June 17

Annette Bening and Bryan Cranston star in the improbable yet fact-based tale of a retired guy who uses a loophole in the Massachusetts lottery to win millions and revive their little Michigan town. Watch it:

Loot Apple TV June 24

A month before she turns 50, SNL icon Maya Rudolph plays a billionaire in a midlife crisis after her husband’s infidelity, so she decides to do the unthinkable: start thinking about others, not herself. Watch it:

​Only Murders in the Building Hulu June 28

In the second season of the unexpected hit mystery/comedy, now that they’re suspects in the death of the landlord of their fancy Manhattan building, the true-crime podcasters ( and Selena Gomez) hunt the actual killer, while plagued by another podcast all about them. Watch it:

​Black Bird Apple TV July 8

Thriller writer Dennis Lehane’s series follows a cop’s son, a high school football star busted for drug dealing who cuts a deal with the FBI to befriend an alleged serial killer in prison and coax him to confess — unless he’s just faking. Watch it:

Better Call Saul AMC AMC July 11

Don’t miss the final episodes of the epic about slick-but-not-really-evil lawyer Jimmy McGill’s metamorphosis into Breaking Bad’s Saul Goodman. Bob Odenkirk, 59, Giancarlo Esposito, 64, and Jonathan Banks, 75, are increasingly fantastic, but the real news is the moral spiral of Saul’s wife/sidekick Kim (skyrocketing star Rhea Seehorn, 50). Watch it:

Reservation Dogs Hulu Aug 3

Besides , one of TV’s few 2021 debuts with a perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes score is this coming-of-age show about Native American teens plotting to escape Oklahoma. Lakota actor Zahn McClarnon, 55, who gave gravitas to Longmire’s Officer Mathias, Fargo’s Hanzee Dent and Westworld’s Akecheta, is more comic as Officer Big, who dogs the Dogs. Watch it:

​House of the Dragon HBO Aug 21

What were the families up to about 170 years before the time of Game of Thrones? Having a civil war and playing bloody musical chairs to land first on the Iron Throne. Can the prequel match the original? Watch it:

​The Patient Hulu Aug 30

Steve Carell, 59, plays a psychotherapist whose psycho patient (Domhnall Gleeson) demands that he cure him of his serial-killing habit. But will he talk about his mother? Watch it: Tim Appelo covers entertainment and is the film and TV critic for AARP. Previously, he was the entertainment editor at Amazon, video critic at Entertainment Weekly, and a critic and writer for The Hollywood Reporter, People, MTV, The Village Voice and LA Weekly.

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