Summer is almost here — which means turning on your home fans and lounging in front of the TV. Weighing in on the best shows to watch this season are Jen Chaney, TV critic for New York Magazine, and Proma Khosla, senior TV writer for IndieWire.
The Acolyte
The latest series based in the Star Wars universe is set a century before Star Wars: Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. It stars Amandla Stenberg, Jodie Turner-Smith, and Carrie-Anne Moss. The show drops on Disney+ on June 4.
Khosla: “This is when the Jedi are at the height of their power, and we really haven't seen a lot of that within the live-action Star Wars universe. … The cast list looks amazing. It is stacked. And there's also something so interesting about those push-and-pull relationships between the Jedi Master and the Padawan. Obviously, that is the crux of the original Star Wars and even of the prequel series. A similar relationship comes up in this series as well.”
Chaney: “It feels like we've had a little bit of a break from another Star Wars thing that's really major. They've been doing some animated stuff, so I'm hoping that having a little bit of a break, and having a focus on a different era before The Phantom Menace will maybe give us some fresh perspective. You're going to have mixed reactions from the Star Wars fandom no matter what you put out, so I'm less concerned about that. I'm just eager to see what this actually is.”
We Are Lady Parts
This Peacock series revolves around a punk rock band made entirely of Muslim women. Its story is told from the perspective of the group’s guitarist, who is a PhD student in microbiology. Season two premieres on May 30.
Chaney: “We very rarely see Muslim women on television that are dimensional and fully unusual people in the way that the women in this punk band are, and I love that. I've been waiting for the second season eagerly. In this new season, they're still trying to make their band, and one of the obstacles they find is that there's, somehow, another band of Muslim women who are trying to pay homage to Lady Parts by covering their songs. And so they're conflicted as to: ‘Should we celebrate these women because we're all part of a sisterhood? Or are we mad because they're kind of stealing our thunder?’”
Khosla: “I just absolutely adored the first season. It's a very near and dear project for me because I'm a South Asian woman. But at the same time, I am in on the show because it's my exact sense of humor. It's so freaking hilarious. … I love Nida Manzoor, the creator of the show. I would watch anything she makes. And so if people have liked Polite Society, which she has done since then, if you like Scott Pilgrim, if you like Girls5eva, a lot of shows that have a similar ideology, I think We Are Lady Parts is really inviting.”
Lady in the Lake
This new series follows reporter Maddie Schwartz (Natalie Portman) as she investigates the mysterious but unrelated murders of a Jewish girl and a Black bartender in 1966 Baltimore. It’s based on the 2019 novel of the same name by Laura Lippman and debuts on Apple TV+ on July 19.
Khosla: “I was really intrigued by the premise. And any time those intersectional stories [take] you back within American history, I think are just so great to watch. … It's not the nostalgia that I think we see in previous eras of tackling a story that might be set in the 50s or 60s. Everything is darker, grittier, [and] gray-looking. It is a murder mystery, and I think that that … is always going to be popular for TV viewers.”
Chaney: “The setting was intriguing to me. But it's really a story about a woman trying to find herself, and that Natalie Portman's character at the very beginning, she leaves her husband and her son because she's so upset about this girl who has gone missing, and she ultimately ends up becoming a newspaper reporter. And that aspect of it is really interesting to me too, so I'm excited to watch more.”
Paris 2024
The Summer Olympics kick off in late July and will feature 39 sports, including classics such as beach volleyball and gymnastics, plus the newest sport to join the roster: breakdancing. Paris has hosted the international event twice, once in 1900 and again in 1924. The Games of the XXXIII Olympiad start on July 26 and run through August 11.
Chaney: “NBC is broadcasting literally every event in real time through Peacock and all their various channels. They're clearly trying to do some different things. The opening ceremony … they're doing it in boats, on the Seine [River]. … I cannot wait to find out how the boats are going to work. They're going to have beach volleyball in front of the Eiffel Tower. … I just can't even wait to see what this looks like visually, let alone who's going to win.”
Khosla: “I'm excited to see Paris on full display. It's very cool to see how different host cities treat the Olympics, and how they incorporate the setting into the actual games. And I think that they have some very fun ideas for how to do that. And just in general, maybe it's trite, but the Olympics bring people together. We could really use that. And if this is the pocket of time that we have that — which is watching a bunch of people swim or run, or whatever it is that you choose to watch during those weeks, then let’s please take that. Let's enjoy it.”