We’re into the dog days of summer, when TV tends to stick its out-of-office on, frozen raspberry daiquiri in hand. This year the gaping holes in the schedules have been alleviated in part by the Olympics, but what do you do at 10pm every night when the canoe slalom and freestyle BMX wind down?
Thankfully, there is some good newish TV out there if you’re willing to look for it. Here’s five shows to get you through the summer doldrums.
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Fantasmas
What is it? | Summer telly doesn’t just have to be reheated detective dramas and lobotomised sitcoms: sometimes a wild peacock strays on to the screen. This series from SNL alum Julio Torres (above left) is ostensibly about the search for a lost golden oyster earring but that barely scratches the surface of this freewheeling, Michel-Gondry-meets-Pee-wee’s-Playhouse sort-of sitcom: there’s Steve Buscemi playing the letter “Q”, imagined as a forgotten avant garde rocker; a fictional sitcom about a robot cat thing called Melf; lots of jabs against gentrification and the ever-presence of corporate branding; and an A-list cast list that Marvel would be proud of (Emma Stone, Paul Dano, Tilda Swinton, Julia Fox).
It’s a lot, in other words – but why does that have to be a bad thing?
Where can I watch it? | Sky Comedy/Now in the UK; HBO in the US
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Heels
What is it? | Why would you waste your valuable leisure time watching a show that has already been cancelled? In the case of Heels, the answer is that it might not be over quite yet. This enjoyably soapy wrestling drama was the victim of a three-count by US network Starz last September, but has just been licensed by Netflix, with the streamer hinting that it might commission a third season if enough people watch the first two. The catch for UK viewers is that, due to confusing licensing issues, you can’t actually watch the show on Netflix: instead you’ll have to sign up for MGM+ (again with the pluses!) to watch it. Worth signing up to their seven-day free trial and burning through the whole thing though catch a bruising (often literally) performance by Stephen Amell as the proprietor and primary heel of a struggling wrestling league.
Where can I watch it? | MGM+ in the UK; Netflix in the US
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Presumed Innocent
What is it? | The ding against Apple is that they make a lot of shows that are lovely to look at – with big stars and bigger budgets – but are a drag to sit through. That’s not a view I subscribe to, but even those who make it surely couldn’t claim that it applies to this legal thriller, adapted previously in 1990 with Harrison Ford but this time by David E Kelley (Big Little Lies, Ally McBeal, about 50 other TV shows you’ve definitely heard of). Jake Gyllenhaal is Rusty Sabich (quite the name!), a swaggering criminal prosecutor who takes on the case of a colleague’s murder, only for it to emerge that, well, he might be on the hook for it. Pure middlebrow moreishness, as delicious a gourmet cheeseburger as any Netflix are making. Expect to scarf it down in a couple of sittings.
Where can I watch it? | Apple TV+
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The Boss
What is it? | By dint of its many subsidiaries around the world, Disney+ has a hefty catalogue of international shows on its platform for when you’ve had enough of endless Star Wars spin-offs. A huge hit in Argentina, this comedy-drama stars veteran actor Guillermo Francella as the doorman of an apartment complex in Buenos Aires who resorts to all manner of deviousness – blackmail, breaking and entering, endlessly hiding listening devices under pot plants – when a proposed building project threatens his livelihood. Francella has great fun as the smilingly nefarious Eliseo, and the show somehow manages to find new ways to spin out a potentially one-note premise. Series three is streaming now.
Where can I watch it? | Disney+
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Celebrity Send Off
What is it? | You can’t really get more “summer doldrums TV” than a reality series where celebrities plan a funeral for their very-much-still-alive celeb mates. And yes, you probably should just scroll past the rest of this entry in search of something more edifying. But I have three words that might change your mind: Shaun. And. Bez. You absolutely want to watch the Happy Mondays’ chief maraca shaker arrange a “cosmic” farewell to his remarkably spherically headed bandmate, complete with UFOs, glow sticks and ashes scattered by a drone. Admit it, you’ve already loaded the video up, haven’t you?
Where can I watch it? | Channel 4 in the UK
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