Illustration: Hayley Watson
Summer on the small screen has seen old favorites return with new seasons (House of the Dragon, Crave, June 21st), surprise revivals (Ted Lasso, Apple TV, August 5th), and final closures (The Bear’s final season, Disney+, June 24th).
But this is also a time when networks and streamers pull something completely new off the shelves. Of course, it’s usually based on something literally pulled off the shelf. Here are 10 new series to try. Seven of them are based on books.
Vampire Lestat, AMC and AMC+
Sam Reid plays the title role in The Vampire Lestat.AMC/Supply
Strictly speaking, this isn’t a brand new series inspired by Anne Rice, but Interview with the Vampire is returning for a third season under a different name. The focus shifts to Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid) and his vampire rock star career. Filmed in and around Toronto, Canadian playwright and screenwriter Hanna Moscovici is one of the show’s key gory creators. First broadcast on June 7th
Alice and Steve, Disney+
This provocatively set British comedy tells the story of a middle-aged man who begins dating his best friend’s female daughter. The trailer for the show, which was produced and written by Sophie Goodhart (Sex Education) and stars Nicola Walker (Split) and Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords), has left YouTube commenters in disarray, but it won Best Series at France’s Cannes earlier this year. First released on June 8th
Prime video every year
The Amazon streamer is betting big on ending the summer with a Canadian lakeside romance. First up is an adaptation of Toronto author Carly Fortune’s bestselling book Every Summer After. Amy B. Harris, whose TV credits include Sex and the City and Gossip Girl, is the showrunner for the series, which follows Persephone (Percy) Fraser (Sadie Sauveall) and her six summers (and weeks) of transformation and beauty. First released on June 10th
Two reservations for APTN and APTN+
Turtle Love Island? It’s not perfect, but if you’re looking for a new twist on a dating reality show, APTN’s first attempt at the genre sounds fresh and relatively wholesome. Indigenous singles try to match while dating around Winnipeg’s Forks, where the Red and Assiniboine rivers have been happily married since time immemorial. First released on June 15th
material woman, britbox
The Channel 4 series has now arrived in North America and is the second film based on Barbara Taylor Bradford’s popular 1979 novel of the same name, but the first in this millennium. Yorkshire girl Emma Hart rises from penniless to millionaire at the top of the fashion industry, with Jessica Reynolds and two-time Oscar nominee Brenda Blethyn playing central roles at different ages. First released on June 24th
Five Star Weekend, W Network, STACKTV
Grieving the loss of her husband in a car accident, food blogger Hollis Shaw (Jennifer Garner) plans a girls’ trip to Nantucket with her closest friends from various points in her life (played by Chloë Sevigny and Regina Hall). The eight-part miniseries is based on the novel by Elin Hildebrand, who also provided the original story for Netflix’s bizarre Nantucket murder case, The Perfect Couple. First released on July 9th
Lucky, Apple TV
Anya Taylor-Joy in “Lucky”.Michael Becker/Provided
Based on Marissa Stapley’s 2021 bestseller, this crime thriller stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Lucky Armstrong, a con artist who ends up on the run from both the FBI and a mob boss after a heist goes wrong. Big screen queen Annette Bening plays the latter, continuing the strategy of reinventing herself as a small screen villain that began with Dutton Ranch. First released on July 15th
The Hawk, Netflix
Molly Shannon (left) and Will Ferrell in “Hawk.”Provided by Colleen E. Hayes/Netflix/
Last summer, Owen Wilson’s mini-comedy about a washed-up golfer, Stick, premiered on Apple TV. This summer, Will Ferrell will begin a broader comic book series with a similar premise to “Flix.” Ferrell plays Ronnie (The Hawk) Hawkins, the PGA’s biggest star circa 2004, on the circuit one last time. SNL regular Molly Shannon co-stars. First released on July 16th
sterling points, prime video
Well, we’ve arrived at the second installment of Amazon’s coming-of-age stories set on a Canadian lake that will be released this summer. My Old Us screenwriter and director Megan Park is the author of this original story about 17-year-old Manhattanite Annie (Ella Rubin) who unexpectedly inherits an island north of the border. Family secrets and new romances await discovery. First released on August 5th
Anna Pigeon, USA Network and Crave
Morwyn Brebner, creator of CBC’s The Coroner, is the showrunner of this new Alberta-shot drama about the city-town-turned-national-park police officer, based on the novel by Nevada Barr. A cross-border collaboration between Bell Media and Versant in the US, Tracy Spiridakos (Chicago Police Department) plays the lead character and leads a predominantly Canadian and Indigenous cast. Premiered on August 7th and streamed the next day.
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