It’s summer, and if the weather where you are is anything like here then it’s a very nice summer too. However, given that taking one step out your front door these days can easily lead to catching a deadly virus or getting swept up in a riot, why not stay indoors where it’s safe and get stuck in to some TV?
1. I May Destroy You | June 7
https://youtu.be/vrUGIQ2ItE8
Michaela Coel, creator and star of the sleeper hit Chewing Gum, returns with a project about a millennial writer who’s sexually assaulted on a night out and must piece together what happened based on her shattered memories. A millennial writer writing about a millennial writer would usually be my cue for a snarky comment about ‘writing what you know’, but since it’s all based on Coel’s actual lived experience that would be unpleasantly harsh.
The show not being uniformly grim and bleak may turn some viewers off, but this isn’t treating the assault itself light-heartedly, rather it’s a reminder that there is no one-size-fits-all image of a victim. They may still smile, joke around, and, yes, take selfies, galling as it may be to the kind of people who are suspicious of selfies anyway. The MeToo campaign isn’t the newest thing any more, but I May Destroy You’s themes of consent, trauma, and recovery are still timely and recognisable – and will probably remain so as long as there’s predators out there.
2. Crossing Swords | June 12
It’s been over a year since Game of Thrones came to an ignoble end and everyone quietly drew a line under that obsession, so Crossing Swords’ spoof of the swords-and-sorcery genre isn’t exactly timely. But then again, Netflix’s adaptation of The Witcher wasn’t so very long ago, so there is clearly still a healthy appetite out there for guys with swords fighting monsters, annoying kings, and just generally going on quests in a non-specific dung age setting.
Crossing Swords is made by the Robot Chicken people in a similar stop-motion style, which suggests that it’ll be prone to the same sorts of lowest-common-denominator gags – perversely, though, this might make it better at parodying Game of Thrones. The Thrones showrunners made a much-reviled comment about how they had started to tailor the show for ‘mothers’ and ‘NFL fans’ at about the time public opinion turned on them. Having a wizard or dragon abruptly start referencing the Dallas Cowboys would only be the natural conclusion to this kind of logic.
3. Perry Mason | June 21
https://youtu.be/rNATvJMPZaA
A revival of an old, old franchise, the new version of Perry Mason sees HBO return to its roots with a gritty production about crime and the investigation thereof. ‘Gritty’ is perhaps an odd word to invoke for a show that flaunts its lavish, gilded 1930s backdrop as much as this one, but as the overarching plot concerns the kidnapping and murder of a child I’d say it fits.
Oddly, this refigures the character of Perry Mason as a private investigator, rather than a defence attorney as he was in every previous version of the franchise. It’s a strange choice, and arguably an unnecessary one, but there again the slapped-arse expression Matthew Rhys is wearing throughout the trailer could fit either role. Backing him up are John Lithgow and Tatiana Maslany, she of most of the main roles in Orphan Black.
4. Adventure Time: Distant Lands – BMO | June 25
Adventure Time’s original run spanned eight years and influenced every cutesy, wiggly cartoon we’ve seen since. In all that time the audiences and critics never thought it was getting old, the reviews stayed overwhelmingly positive – so there’s no reason why it wouldn’t be brought back. Specifically, it’s returning as a series of hour-long specials, much like Futurama once did after its first cancellation, although if Comedy Central then revives it to much-diminished returns I don’t know if this old heart could quite take it.
The core concept appears to be a kind of ‘where are they now?’, with each of the specials focusing on one or two of the major characters. As the title suggests, this one’s all about chummy walking game-boy BMO, and the elevator pitch is no more, or less, than ‘BMO goes to space’. Sometimes the simplest creations are the most robust.
5. I’ll Be Gone In The Dark | June 1
The truest of true crime, this docu-series covers crime writer Michelle McNamara’s obsessive search for the Golden State Killer, who murdered thirteen people in the ‘70s and ‘80s in addition to a long string of rapes and burglaries. As the trailer’s quick to point out, this serial killer is relatively unknown compared to their more famous peers – your Charles Mansons and Sons Of Sam – but McNamara did her best to change that
McNamara died tragically young, before the book the show’s based on was even published – but, spoiler alert, the Golden State Killer was arrested and charged two years later. And what’s particularly remarkable here is that at the time, the killer’s various crime sprees weren’t even thought to be the work of the same person. An excellent choice for anyone who is themselves unhealthily interested in serial killers.
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