It’s the middle of the year, but that doesn’t mean your TV time has to be middling. July serves up a feast of period pieces (1970s cops, Roman ragers, bandits from beyond time) and genre mash-ups (mystery-comedy, adult animation, superhero drama), plus the final season of Netflix’s acclaimed Vikings: Valhalla.
Scroll to check out our top ten most anticipated series premiering in July and build up your watchlist—your couch is about to earn some serious mileage.
The Decameron
A medieval sex comedy that drags some of our Derry Girls and Sex Education faves into castle quarantine—count us in, milord. Based on an actual 14th century yarn, this raucous reimagining plonks wealthy nobles into the seeming sanctuary of an Italian villa, where they can wait out the blasted Black Death. After some bodice-ripping and a few too many barrels of mead, however, niceties wear thin, and the spoiled upper set will be forced to struggle for their survival. Perhaps it’s been long enough since the days of lockdowns for a project like this—so clearly reflective of COVID anxieties—to make us laugh.
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
This new British drama casts Wednesday actor Emma Myers as a Nancy Drew type: the only one around willing to fight the power and figure out the truth behind another young girl’s murder. The late girl’s murder has been pinned on her boyfriend, but Myers’ girl detective isn’t so sure, and she’ll speak out against a complacent police department to find the real killer. The show’s based on a series of best-selling novels, so you can rest easy knowing that the mystery will build to a satisfying climax.
Lady in the Lake
A prestige period piece with a capital P, this sophisticated offering from Apple TV+ gives Moses Ingram a well-deserved lead spot after attention-grabbing supporting roles in The Queen’s Gambit and The Tragedy of Macbeth—and seemingly lets Natalie Portman dip back into her stylish Jackie wardrobe, judging by the image above. The pair play two women in 1960s Baltimore (John Waters, where you at?) whose lives become dangerously entangled by the disappearance of a young girl. Expect some heartbreaking performances in a stylish Camelot setting—by which I mean the mid-century optimistic phenomenon, not any actual Arthurian magic that the title may hint at.
Sausage Party: Foodtopia
I must be frank here (Ha Ha! Frankfurter! Sausage…joke!) and say that I more or less hated the 2016 adult animated comedy Sausage Party, a film which some critics hailed as a scathing religious satire. While I can’t wholeheartedly recommend this belated follow-up series, you might be the kind of person who cracks up at the idea that hot dogs and buns may be a wry metaphor for genitalia, and that a pita wrap and a bagel might represent Israeli-Palestinian conflict (I’m especially not keen to see how that gag is going to pan out here…). Hey, all power to you! Fire up the barbecue and let Seth Rogen’s juvenile jokes grill away.
Sunny
When her husband and son go missing in a bizarre plane crash, Rashida Jones gets grief, loneliness…and also a gift from the missing man’s electronics company: a cheery domestic robot to help out around the now-empty house. An American alone in Kyoto, she’ll have to work with the cute emoji-faced automaton to uncover the truth surrounding her husband’s tech work and disappearance. The dark comedy series features Japanese screen star Hidetoshi Nishijima as Jones’ lost husband, and should weave a quirky web of intercultural, AI-probing thrills across its ten episodes.
Supacell
In what feels like an unofficial Misfits spin-off, this supernatural series follows five disconnected South Londoners who each discover they have unbelievable powers. The twist is that the only common thread between them is that they’re all Black: could a sinister conspiracy be afoot, or is this the start of something incredible? One man will have to play Professor Xavier and bring the fledgling heroes together—once they’re done using their new skills such as super-speed and telekinesis to make daily life just a tad less difficult.
Time Bandits
We don’t have much gossip or even a trailer for this episodic remake of Terry Gilliams’ bonkers 1981 kids film—but as you can see, that film’s rowdy gang of time-travelling little people have been swapped out with comic talents Lisa Kudrow, Charlyne Yi, Rachel House, and Super Hans from Peep Show. Kiwi creators Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement bring an antipodean anarchy to the show’s script and direction, hopefully making it a hilarious and surreal watch for those who grew up with the 80s film and their history-buff younguns.
Those About To Die
A proper swords and sandals epic, with Anthony Hopkins casting his chilling gaze about the gladiatorial arena as a Roman emperor. This prestigious-looking period series gathers up a bunch of Game of Thrones actors and arms them with ancient weapons, probably not sticking too closely to historical accounts in a battle royale of power and vengeance. The show’s produced by disaster movie maestro Roland Emmerich, with all the sweeping CGI landscapes and haughty proclamations you’d expect of such a project’s script: thumbs up or thumbs down?
Vikings: Valhalla: Season 3
It’s the final chapter of this historical spin-off series! Since day dot, the creators have said they want to wrap up the franchise with 1066’s Battle of Stamford Bridge, considered the end of the Viking Age proper. So expect to see some sword-clashing and beard-bloodying atop some European bridge in the last episodes of this third season, I guess. The second season enjoyed a spiffy 100% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, so hopefully our favourite warriors will rake in similar acclaim this time around, now that the gang has arrived in Constantinople for more pillaging and glory.
Women in Blue
Inspired by true events, this period crime series follows the first female police force in 1970s Mexico. Sounds like a big win—until the four women realise their promotion is just a marketing ploy to distract the public from an unsolved slew of serial murders (those miniskirts should’ve been a tip-off). Frustrated at both the rising body count and their patronising position, they’ll take it upon themselves to defy expectations and catch the killer as a team.
