13 Summer 2019 TV Shows You Might've Slept On

Image via FX

Starring: Carla Gugino, Giancarlo Esposito, Elena Anaya, Michael Aronov, Gaite Jansen, Christopher Backus, Gil Bellows, Violet McGraw

Where to Watch: Cinemax; all 9 episodes available now

Venezuelan writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez has adapted Elmore Leonard on multiple occasions and has become a master of smart, stylish neo-noir in his own right. And Gutierrez created Jett as a perfect vehicle for his longtime partner and frequent collaborator Carla Gugino, who plays Daisy “Jett” Kowalski, a master thief who gets out of prison, tries to go legit and focus on motherhood, and is forced back into pulling heists. Breaking Bad’s Giancarlo Esposito plays to his strengths as the charismatic kingpin who pulls Jett back into a life of crime, but the show is full of entertaining performances, including Chris Backus (Editor's Note: also seen this summer on the decidedly not-underrated Mindhunter, in a great showcase scene as real-life Manson acolyte Tex Watson) as Esposito’s talkative henchman. Jett is a dark, violent, cleverly plotted show, but there’s a lot of heart and pathos in Gugino’s performance as a beleaguered badass. (Second Note: if you dig Gugino in a Leonard homage, I implore you to check her out as the real deal in the tragically canceled Karen Sisco.)

Starring: Catherine Reitman, Paul Fox, Aleysa Young

Where to Watch: Netflix

Catherine Reitman has a recurring role on Black-ish, but is perhaps best known as a member of a family that includes two successful directors, her father Ivan Reitman and her brother Jason Reitman. And Catherine has come into her own recently as the creator and star of the hilarious Canadian sitcom Workin’ Moms. There are moments of broad comedy, like when Reitman stares longingly at a clock that reads 11:59, then pours a glass of wine the moment the clock strikes noon. But it’s also a relatable, insightful show that finds comedy in the challenges of work-life balance that every parent faces. Netflix brought the first season Workin’ Moms to American audiences in February, but since the show has been airing on CBC Television since 2017, there are now a lot of episodes to binge: Netflix released the second season in July, and Season 3 dropped on August 27th.

Starring: Emma Greenwell, Joely Richardson, Jon Fletcher, Ronan Raftery, Catherine Steadman, Adrian Lester, Olivia Munn

Where to Watch: Starz

Based on the 2012 novel of the same name by Daniel O’Malley, The Rook is a tense miniseries that mixes high concept sci-fi with British spy intrigue. Myfawny Thomas (Greenwell) wakes up surrounded by dead bodies and with no memory of her past, and things just get more bizarre from there. But perhaps the most memorably novel idea in this series is the Rook Gestalt, four bodies who share one mind and are played by three actors (one of whom plays a set of twins).

Starring: Fred Savage, Taylor Tomlinson

Where to Watch: Fox, Hulu

The big four broadcast networks go big on sleazy reality programming and goofy game shows in the summer while their most popular shows are on hiatus. And FOX slipped an odd little scripted program that pretends it isn’t scripted into this mix. What Just Happened??! is an aftershow in the style of Talking Dead, but the sci-fi drama it follows, The Flare, doesn’t exist. We get a glimpse of the imaginary big budget show at the top of each episode, and then hapless host Fred Savage enthusiastically recaps it, often passive-aggressively letting his jealousy show that he didn’t get a role on The Flare. It’s an absurdly specific meta joke about a very recent television fad, something that would probably be more at home on Adult Swim than on FOX, where ratings for the entertainingly silly show have been dismal. Fingers crossed that it ends up being a belated discovery on streaming.

Starring: Laura Chinn, Patty Guggenheim, Laci Mosley, Melaine Field

Where to Watch: Pop

Between movies like Spring Breakers and Magic Mike, and memes about ‘Florida Man’ headlines, the seedy underbelly of Florida has saturated pop culture over the past decade. Florida Girls skewers many of the clichés and jokes about the Sunshine State, but creator and star Laura Chinn grew up in Florida, and there’s a knowing, affectionate undercurrent to even the lewdest moments on the show.  It’s a bit like what Claws might have become when it was originally developed as a half-hour comedy. With Schitt’s Creek recently becoming the little-known Pop channel’s first Emmy-nominated breakout, Florida Girls stands the strongest chance of being the network’s next hit. 

Starring: Bernardo Velasco, Cassandra Ciangherotti, Ana Fabrega, Julio Torres, Fred Armisen

Network: HBO

Although Fred Armisen co-created Los Espookys and has a small supporting role in the show, the Spanish language comedy is unlike anything executive producer Lorne Michaels has put on TV before. In a surreal, unnamed Latin American country, four friends start a business, providing horror movie special effects for practical situations: staging a possession and exorcism to help a priest’s career, or scaring people out of a supposedly haunted house they stand to inherit. HBO has already picked up the odd, impishly funny show for a second season, and recently aired Julio Torres’s comedy special My Favorite Shapes, so get on the bandwagon while there's still room.

Starring: Arturo Castro

Where to Watch: Comedy Central, all 10 episodes available

At a time when Saturday Night Live struggles with trying to be everything to everyone, it’s refreshing to see more opportunities open up on cable for sketch comedy from perspectives that SNL doesn’t always make room for, from HBO’s A Black Lady Sketch Show to Comedy Central’s hilarious Alternatino. After rising to fame with polar opposite roles on Broad City and Narcos, Arturo Castro gets to show his full range in Alternatino, which swings effortlessly between absurd observational comedy and cutting topical sketches, like a fantasy sequence about the magical powers of the paper towels President Trump tossed into crowds in hurricane-stricken Puerto Rico.

Starring: Georgia Flood, Lucas Neff, Seana Kofoed, Rory O’Malley, Mary Hollis Inboden

Where to Watch: Lifetime

After years of centering their programming around melodramatic TV movies, the Lifetime network has in recent years stepped into the arena of scripted series, with acclaimed, dark dramas like UnReal and You. On the surface, American Princess is a little lighter than those shows, following a well-to-do young woman who discovers on her wedding day that she’s being cheated on, and decides to abandon her privileged life to work at a Renaissance Faire. American Princess pulls a lot of wry humor from the fish-out-of-water premise, but the dialogue is spiked with four-letter words and a sharp, mischievous wit that keeps the show from getting too frothy. 

Starring: Parker Simmons, Griffith Kimmins, Lika Leong

Where to Watch: Cartoon Network

Although the nocturnal Adult Swim programming block earns Cartoon Network most of its cool points, those of us with kids know that the daytime programming on the channel has been consistently excellent lately, often bringing in some of the talent and subversive sensibilities from the Adult Swim side. Mao Mao: Heroes of Pure Heart is an incredibly cute and silly show about a sheriff cat and his sidekicks, a cyborg badger named Badgerclops and a bat named Adorabat. But creator Parker Simmons paid his dues as an animator on Adult Swim favorites like Metalocalypse and The Venture Bros., occasionally bringing in voice talent from those shows, so parents may find the comedic undertone of Mao Mao familiar.

Starring: n/a

Network: Netflix

Netflix has dozens of docuseries, the most popular of which are often grizzly true crime tales of cults and serial killers. But if you’re in the mood for something lighter, consider these six episodes about the beloved Mexican street food. Each episode has a different narrator, and exhaustively covers a different style of taco’s history and cultural origins. Just don’t watch it hungry. 

Starring: Damson Idris, Carter Hudson, Emily Rios, Sergio Peris-Mencheta, Jaevian Gibson, Amin Joseph, Angela Lewis, Filipe Valle Costa, Michael Hyatt, Malcolm Mays, Judith Scott, Alon Aboutboul, Kevin Carroll, Reign Edwards, Jonathan Tucker, Adriana DeGirolami, DeRay Davis

Where to Watch: FX; seasons 1 & 2 on Hulu

Groundbreaking filmmaker John Singleton may have left us far too soon when he passed away in April, but the last project he brought to fruition is still going strong. Snowfall, which he co-created and wrote and directed multiple episodes of, began its third season in July and has already been picked up for a fourth. And Snowfall’s ambitious set of overlapping narratives, about a young American drug dealer, a Mexican crime syndicate, and a CIA agent, continue to get darker and denser as the mid-‘80s crack epidemic descends on Los Angeles. In a way it’s an origin story for Singleton’s debut film, building towards what South Central L.A. had become by the early ‘90s when he made Boyz n the Hood. The Season 3 finale airs next week, so if you're only behind on season 3 you still have some time.

Starring: Kevin Bacon, Aldis Hodge, Jonathan Tucker, Mark O'Brien, Lauren E. Banks, Amanda Clayton, Jere Shea, Kevin Chapman, Jill Hennessy

Where to Watch: Showtime

Any gritty cable drama that takes an unflinching look at a city’s law enforcement gets compared to The Wire. But City On A Hill, a series about corruption in 1990s Boston, is less of a far-reaching ensemble and more focused on a small core of characters, including a charismatic superstar performance by Kevin Bacon as flawed hero and FBI veteran Jackie Rohr. Executive producers Ben Affleck and Matt Damon have filled the show with loving shots of local geography, as well as the city’s musical touchstones, from Morphine and the Pixies to Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch. A second season was recently greenlit, which should be the greenlight for those of you who don't like to form attachments to new shows too soon.

Starring: Russell Crowe, Seth MacFarlane, Sienna Miller, Simon McBurney, Annabelle Wallis, Aleksa Palladino, Naomi Watts

Where to Watch: Showtime

Like an unaffiliated follow-up to Christian Bale’s award-winning turn as Dick Cheney in last year’s Vice, Showtime’s miniseries The Loudest Voice allows another big name actor to shed all his Hollywood glamour to portray one of the more consequential figures of 21st century right wing politics. Across seven episodes, Russell Crowe portrays Roger Ailes from the creation of Fox News in the mid-‘90s up until the disgraced CEO’s death in 2017, painting a damning portrait of the media mogul’s far right ideology and the pattern of sexual harassment that undid his career.