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TV to watch in July: Will Ferrell’s return, plus loads of crime-drama excitement
Post-apocalyptic bunker sci-fi, a golf comedy and a British crime pressure cooker highlight the month’s streaming options
For many people busy ferrying their kids to camp or embarking on vacations, summer is a time to let their TV backlog swell. But if you’re the kind of person who streams as usual during the summer months, there are some terrific options for you this July.
‘Silo’ season 3
Silo — Season 3 Official Trailer | Apple TV - YouTube
“Silo” has become one of the most beloved dystopian sci-fi series of the decade, in large part due to its magnetic central character, Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson). The show returns for a third season with a major surprise.
Instead of focusing exclusively on the post-apolyptic bunker dwellers of the title, the new season also leans on a second timeline, set in a near-future Washington, D.C. There, Congressman Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman) and journalist Helen Drew (Jessica Henwick) — introduced in the season 2 finale — navigate the events that led to the apocalypse, including a war with Iran. It’s “fun and incredibly interesting,” said Jean Henegan at Pop Culture Maniacs, and the “final stretch of this season is just spectacular across the board.” (on Apple TV+ now)
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MGM+, a relatively new streamer, may have its first big hit with this real-life tale of dueling New York crime families set in the 1980s. Eamon Sweeney (J.K. Simmons) and his deputy, Jimmy Roarke (Tom Brittney), lead an upstart Irish-American syndicate battling their Italian mafia rivals for the spoils stemming from a major construction project, the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Hamish Allan-Headley (“Mayor of Kingstown”) plays John Gotti, the leader of the far larger and more powerful organization. This “gritty new drama” ultimately “takes a Shakespearean turn, as the new generation clashes with the old” in both families, said Erin Maxwell at TV Insider. (July 12on MGM+)
Anya Taylor-Joy (“The Gorge”) found perhaps her biggest success in the 2020 Netflix mini-series “The Queen’s Gambit,” and here she’s the centerpiece of Apple TV+’s seven-part limited series “Lucky.” Taylor-Joy plays Luciana “Lucky” Armstrong, a seasoned criminal aiming for one final heist before going straight. To complicate the narrative, her mom, Priscilla (Annette Bening), is a mob boss and her dad, John (Timothy Olyphant), is a career criminal. With “adrenalized action, tense familial drama, and a classic ‘one last job’ hook, the omens are strong” for this highly anticipated thriller, said Jordan King at Empire. (July 15 on Apple TV+)
Comedy legend Will Ferrell has starred in several beloved sports parodies, including the car-racing satire “Talladega Nights” and the figure skating send-up “Blades of Glory.” This time he brings his many talents to a TV series about golf.
Ferrell stars as Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins, a pro golfer two decades past his prime who seeks one last big tournament win even though his wife, Stacy (Molly Shannon), and golf phenom son, Lance (Jimmy Tatro), want him to retire. Lonnie is a “loud, silly and gloriously arrogant” man whose “on-the-green rivalries take on an extrafamilial dimension,” when he ends up competing against Lance, said Luke Buckmaster at The Guardian. (July 16 on Netflix)
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Respected Bristol schoolteacher Michael Polly (David Morrissey) displays a strange lack of emotion when his wife, Sarah, goes missing, triggering the suspicion of Detective Sergeant Annie Cassidy (Eve Myles) in this engrossing, six-part pressure cooker from “Lupin” writer-creator George Kay. The setup sounds similar to the superb HBO Max drama “The Staircase.”
The couple’s daughter, Alana (Emma Appleton), is caught in the middle as Michael becomes the prime suspect, while the audience is left to figure out who is telling the truth. “If there is a tauter, clammier or more engrossing drama this year I will eat my mortarboard with chips,” said Sarah Dempster at The Guardian. (July 23 on BritBox)
David Faris is a professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of "It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics." He's a frequent contributor to Newsweek and Slate, and his work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New Republic and The Nation, among others.
