Squid Game to The Bear: 10 of the best TV shows to watch this June
From the final series of Netflix's gruesome dystopian thriller to the return of the Emmy-winning series set in a Chicago restaurant – and Owen Wilson in a golf comedy.
1. Stick
Golf has been the source of some goofy, wildly popular films, with Bill Murray in Caddyshack, and Adam Sandler in Happy Gilmore and next month's Happy Gilmore 2. But Owen Wilson veers toward the sincere, feel-good route in this comic series, as a one-time professional golfer nicknamed Stick, who has since been divorced by his wife and lost his job at a sporting goods store. When he spots a talented 17-year-old golfer, he decides to mentor the boy and give his life new meaning. "The game takes and it takes. The game's finally giving me something back," he says in the trailer. Marc Maron, Judy Greer and Timothy Olyphant have supporting roles, and real-life pro golfers will make cameo appearances, although you'll probably have to be a serious fan to recognise them (no Tiger Woods announced). Whatever your taste for warm, fuzzy sports stories, Wilson, recently seen as an agent of the Time Variance Authority in the Marvel spinoff series Loki, is always fun to watch.
Stick premieres 4 June on Apple TV+ internationally
2. Outrageous
Scandalous aristocratic British siblings the Mitford sisters are endlessly fascinating, offering something for everyone: Nancy the witty novelist of manners; Diana the great beauty who married the fascist leader Oswald Mosely; Unity, who became Hitler's pet; Jessica the Communist. Emily Mortimer's recent The Pursuit of Love offered a fictional version based on Nancy's best-known novel. Outrageous focuses on the late 1930s leading up to World War Two. You can imagine the family tensions. Bessie Carter (Prudence Featherington in Bridgerton) is perfectly cast as Nancy, the central character and narrator. Joanna Vanderham is Diana, with Anna Chancellor as their mother – Muv in Mitford-speak – and James Purefoy as their father, Farve. The glamour of the Bright Young Things years still glitters, especially in the wealthy Diana's fabulous dresses and jewels, even as the world spirals toward war and the sisters find themselves on opposite sides of the moral battle. Through it all, Nancy's piercing observations hold this engaging show together.
Outrageous premieres 18 June on BritBox in the US and UKTV in the UK, and later this year on BritBox in Australia
3. We Were Liars
In this thriller based on the 2014 bestselling YA novel by E Lockhart, a group of great-looking, mostly privileged teenagers gathers every summer on a private island owned by the wealthy Sinclair family. The setting alone is a recipe for trouble. The show starts with Sinclair grandchild Cadence (Emily Alyn Lind) left for dead on the beach. Her voiceover explains that she has no memory of that traumatic night and no one will tell her what happened, but that she is determined to find out. The story then flashes back to follow Cadence, her two cousins Mirren and Johnny and family friend Gat (Esther McGregor, Shubham Maheshwari and Joseph Zada), a mischievous bunch the family calls the Liars, as they flirt, swim and head toward disaster. The grown-up actors include David Morse as Cadence's grandfather, Mamie Gummer and Caitlin Fitzgerald.
We Were Liars premieres 18 June on Prime Video internationally
4. The Buccaneers
The fizzy series about young 19th-Century Americans searching for aristocratic British husbands is back, in all its candy-coloured, pop-music-infused style. Nan St George, now the Duchess of Tintagel, schemes to arrange matches for other American girls, even though her own marriage has its issues. She is married to Theo, but is in love with his best friend, Guy. Her sister Jinny, a pregnant and abused wife, tries to flee her husband and the country. And their mother (Christina Hendricks) is ready to divorce their father, whatever the scandalous consequences. The show may be set in the 1870s but its spirit of female friendship and empowerment is as contemporary as its music (Taylor Swift songs bookended last season). Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester will appear in a yet-to-be revealed role. Could it possibly be a coincidence that at the end of season one we learned that Nan's long-gone birth mother has popped up in town? The show is based on an unfinished Edith Wharton novel, so there is plenty of room for it to invent the future.
The Buccaneers premieres 18 June on Apple TV+ internationally
5. The Waterfront
Kevin Williamson, the creator of Dawson's Creek, returns to North Carolina, where that series was shot, with another scenic waterside drama. Now he has created the fictional town of Haverford, where the powerful Buckley family is seeing their fishing empire fall apart. Holt McCallany (the controlling father in the film The Iron Claw), plays the patriarch, Harlan Buckley, who has recently suffered two heart attacks. His wife, Belle (Maria Bello), and their son, Cane (Jake Weary) step in to try to save the business. Melissa Benoist (Supergirl) plays Harlan and Belle's daughter, Bree, a recovering addict in a relationship that threatens the family even more. "They've pulled themselves up from nothing and they've built this mini fishing empire in their little small town," Williamson has said of his characters. "They'll do anything to hold onto it, because it represents their family." That "anything" will drive the plot. Topher Grace has a guest role as a would-be business partner.
The Waterfront premieres 19 June on Netflix internationally
6. The Gilded Age
Julian Fellowes' (Downton Abbey) opulent, class-conscious series about New York society in the age of robber barons picks up after the reversal of fortune that ended the last season. Imperious old-guard Agnes Van Rhijn (Christine Baranski) has lost all her money, but luckily her meek, quickly-widowed sister, Ada (Cynthia Nixon) has inherited a fortune. In the nouveau riche Russell mansion across the street, Bertha (Carrie Coon) is not satisfied with just having entered society. She is determined to arrange a marriage between her daughter, Gladys (Taissa Farmiga) and the Duke of Buckingham, whether Gladys likes it or not (she definitely doesn't). And the character of Peggy (Denée Benton), Agnes's secretary and an aspiring writer, continues the show's depiction of the era's educated, middle-class black society. Like Law and Order, The Gilded Age is shot in New York, and takes advantage by casting plenty of great theatre actors, including Baranski, Audra McDonald as Peggy's mother and Donna Murphy as Mrs Astor.
The Gilded Age premieres 22 June on HBO and Max in the US, and Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK
7. Ironheart
In an especially lively scene in Black Panther: Wakanda, the brilliant young inventor Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) helps the warrior-princess Shuri out of a mess. Ironheart gives Riri her own series, revealing more about her genius as the creator of a tool to detect the all-important metal vibranium. She returns to her hometown of Chicago, where she becomes entangled with the mysterious Parker Robbins (Anthony Ramos), known as The Hood, who is an expert in the dark arts. They meet when, as a test of her ability, he traps her in an elevator and gives her minutes to break into a device on the floor before she suffocates. Nice guy. She is tempted to partner with him anyway in order to build a suit even better than Iron Man's. Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is an executive producer, and the show's creator, Chinaka Hodge, is a poet and playwright, which suggests a freshness in line with Coogler's high Black Panther standards.
Ironheart premieres 24 June on Disney+ internationally
8. The Bear
The show is now in season four, and you know what you'll get, maybe. That is to say, its creators and publicists haven't revealed much about the storyline, except to say that Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and his team will try to raise the quality of his high-end restaurant even further. The professional pressures and family dynamics are sure to be intense. Carmy's mother (Jamie Lee Curtis) turns up in the trailer, and so does his investor, Uncle Jimmy (Oliver Platt), warning that money is running out. Last season leaned into episodes focusing on single characters, to good effect. The top-flight cast returns, including Ayo Edebiri as Sydney, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Cousin Richie, Abby Elliott as Sugar, Liza Colón-Zayas as Tina and Lionel Boyce as Marcus. White and Edebiri have both launched successful movie careers, with White playing Bruce Springsteen in the forthcoming Deliver Me From Nowhere, so it seems we should enjoy The Bear while we still can.
The Bear premieres 25 June on Hulu in the US and 26 June on Disney+ in the UK and internationally
9. Smoke
Taron Egerton and crime writer Dennis Lehane, who together had a success with the Apple series Black Bird, team up again for this drama about the search for not one but two serial arsonists in the Pacific Northwest. Egerton plays the fictional arson investigator Dave Gudsen, who reluctantly partners with police detective Michelle Calderone, played by Jurnee Smollett. According to Apple, he is enigmatic and she is troubled. Aren't they all? But that may be what makes a drama work. Never underestimate the power of an intense glare from Egerton. Rafe Spall, Anna Chlumsky, Greg Kinnear and John Leguizamo are also in the cast. Lehane, whose novels have been the basis for terrific films including Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone, created and wrote the show, which is inspired by the true-crime podcast Firebug (the previous title of the series).
Smoke premieres 27 June on Apple TV+ internationally
10. Squid Game
Last chance to see the most sinister version of Red Light, Green Light ever played, as Squid Game returns for its third and final season. Al Pacino's iconic line from The Godfather Part III – "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in" – is just as true for this series' hero, Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) who gives the game one more try as he attempts to sabotage it from the inside. Last season he was duped by the sinister Front Man, the one controlling the lethal game, who masqueraded as Gi-hun's ally. In announcing the new season, the series' writer and director, Hwang Dong-hyuk, said "The fierce clash between [Gi-hun and Front Man's] two worlds will continue into the series finale". Meanwhile, detective Jun-ho continues to search for his lost brother in the show that popularised South Korean television globally and that Netflix says is its top non-English-language series of all time.
Squid Game premieres 27 June on Netflix internationally
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