The 25 Most Anticipated TV Shows of Summer 2013

With TV's regular fall-to-spring programming wrapping up this month, it's tempting to resign yourself to spending summer catching up on every TV episode you've had waiting in your DVR these past few months. But before you schedule time to get up-to-date on New Girl or whatever network show you're behind on, let us remind you: There are major premieres happening in the coming months. From newbies like Ray Donovan to the last season of every other person's favorite show, Breaking Bad, these are the 25 most anticipated TV shows of Summer 2013.

Written by Tara Aquino (@t_akino), Matt Barone (@MBarone) and Frazier Tharpe (@The_SummerMan)

Stars: Mireille Enos, Joel Kinnaman, Liam James, Billy Campbell
Premiere Date: June 2

The good news: Rosie Larsen won't be the driving force behind The Killing's almost-didn't-happen third season. Wisely, series creator Veena Sud is sending detectives Linden (Mirielle Enos) and Holder (Joel Kinnaman) into an all-new, hopefully Rosie-free case, one that takes place a year after Seattle's crime-solving odd couple finally found out who killed the teenage girl after two seasons' worth of teasing the show's audience with an actual resolution.

This year, Linden's no longer on the force, but Holder's work on a case revolving around a series of murders and a runaway girl pulls her back in—as does a mysterious death row inmate played A-grade actor Peter Sarsgaard.

The even better news: Sud promises that the killer will be revealed this season. Reassuring, for sure. If The Killing can recapture the powerful bleakness and dark intrigue of its first season's earlier episodes, a series that kicked off with great potential could atone for its previous storytelling follies and give AMC a worthy life-is-bad placeholder before Breaking Bad gloriously returns in August. —MB

Stars: Yunjin Kim, Erik Stocklin, Brett Tucker, Alyssa Milano, Jes Macallan, Jason George, Rochelle Aytes
Premiere Date: June 3

Recipe for a good TV show: Sexy name: check. Plot outline includes, "four female friends and their involvement in an array of illicit and complex relationships," which we'll roughly translate to four female friends doin' the do with people: check. Four female friends played by talented actresses who we always want to see more of, like Alyssa Milano: check.

And that's what we know about Mistresses.

Stars: Anne Heche, Michael Landes, Alexandra Breckenridge, Heather Burns, Madison Davenport, Lamman Rucker
Premiere Date: May 23

We're not 100% sure that this series isn't autobiographical. After all, the star, Anne Heche, did announce on national television that she had an alter ego named "Celestia," an alien from another planet, who could talk to God and was the half-sister of Jesus himself.

Yes, that's what happened in real life. Now, let us describe the show she's set to star in, Save Me, which premieres on Thursday, May 23. After Heche's character almost chokes to death on a sandwich, she becomes a direct pipeline to God.

Art imitates life, right?

Stars: Maxim Knight, Noah Wyle, Moon Bloodgood, Drew Roy
Premiere Date: June 9

How are you not watching Falling Skies? Created by Robert Rodat and picking up with its third season this summer, it's a sci-fi thriller starring Noah Wyle as a college professor turned armed-and-dangerous freedom fighter leading a group of humans through fight against aliens. And did we mention it's produced by legendary Steven Spielberg. "Oh, I don't like sci-fi, Complex, it's too weird!" Get used to it! This is the future, you dummies. Alien invasions! Prepare!

Stars: Aaron Tveit, Daniel Sunjata, Serinda Swan, Scottie Thompson, Manny Montana, Vanessa Ferlito, Brandon Jay McLaren, Courtney B. Vance
Premiere Date: June 6

Finally! The Elvis Presley biopic we've all been waiting for. Just kidding. The series, inspired by a true story, is actually more like a scripted version of The Real World, except instead of a house full or regular people, the tenants are from various U.S. law enforcement agencies and are living in a So. Cal beach house as part of an undercover mission. In other words, pretty people + bikinis + ass-kicking = Graceland. Could you really ask for more from a summer show?

Stars: Amanda Bertoncini, Ashlee White, Casey Cohen, Chanel (Coco) Omari, Erica Gimbel, Joey Lauren
Premiere Date: June 2

There's no more Jersey Shore, so what are you going to hate-watch? Enter: the ladies from Princesses: Long Island. They're a little bit older, a little bit wiser (maybe) than the cast from Jersey, but we suspect their trials and tribulations will be similar to Snookie's.

Add a little money and living with your parents when you're near your late 20s, and you've got the LI princesses. They're dependent on their family and looking for Prince Charming. We don't know what more you want out of a reality TV show. It's going to make you feel better about yourself, OK?

Stars: Rachel Griffiths, Tom Green, Tim Pocock, Dena Kaplan, Rodger Corser, Nikolai Nikolaeff
Premiere Date: July 10

Now that we're grown up and in the ripe age of the ideal demographic (18-34), NBC will finally be cashing in on our nostalgia of TV shows about summer camps like Salute Your Shorts and Bug Juice with their own sitcom, Camp. And, like what we assume most of our parents went through during the summer break from school, the TV show promises parents calming down with gin, teen counselors falling in love and breaking hearts, and no mention of the children.

Created by Liz Heldens (Friday Night Lights) and Peter Elkoff (Gossip Girl), Camp is set to become a summer time staple of TV viewing.

Stars: Emily Bevan, Harriet Cains, Steve Cooper, Kenneth Cranham
Premiere Date: August 3

We've found the secret to a promising TV show. Cop what's been successful in Britain, and just re-air that stuff. In the Flesh? Endearing, captivating. Those accents? Classy as hell.

The mini-series explores the fine line between human and zombie, after medication is introduced to prevent the flesh-eating-brain-dead from going rabid and eating your favorite auntie. Now, they're just like us! They love, they don't walk like they're in the music video for "Thriller," and they wear contacts and cosmetics so they don't look like something that sprang up from a coffin. Also, we suspect they make excellent significant other material because, as we all know, zombies love you for your braaaaaains.

Stars: Tyler Posey, Crystal Reed, Dylan O'Brien, Tyler Hoechlin, Holland Roden, Colton Haynes, Daniel Sharman
Premiere Date: June 3

OK, so the MTV series is chock full of young actors and actresses who are probably on the glossy posters of your niece's wall, right next to Taylor Lautner. But the only difference between this and Twilight is that it's actually fun to watch.

Picking up on its third season this June, Teen Wolf deserves your Monday night. It promises more bloody battles, creepy creatures, frustrating romantic relationships, and pretty much more general sexiness all around. All the essentials of a guilty pleasure.

Stars: David Oakes, Amanda Hale, Max Irons, Rebecca Ferguson
Premiere Date: Sometime in August

What do The Borgias, The Tudors, Rome, and Spartacus all have in common? They're all period pieces led by dudes. BBC One and Starz are offering to switch up the perspective on history with the historical drama, The White Queen, proving girl power existed in England years before the Spice Girls.

Set against the War of the Roses, the series, based on Philippa Gregory's novel series The Cousin's War, follows the conflict between three would-be queens—Elizabeth "The White Queen" Woodville, Lady Margaret Beaufort, and Anne Nevill—gunning for the throne of England.

Stars: Gillian Anderson, Séainín Brennan, Michael Colgan, Chris Corrigan
Premiere Date: May 28

For those of you who've been waiting for Agent Scully to make her grand return since The X Files went off the air, you can let go of that breath you've been holding for 11 years. The actress returns to television in this British crime drama as detective Stella Gibson, who's tracking down a serial killer terrorizing Belfast, Ireland. (Unfortunately, there are no aliens involved this time.) Best of all, after the series premieres on BBC Two on May 13th, it will be available to stream on Netflix later this month to binge watch.

Stars: Mark Strong, Lennie James, Athena Karkanis, David Costabile, Erika Alexander, James Ransone, Sprague Grayden, Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Premiere Date: August 11

Sometimes, all it takes to guarantee viewership is brilliant casting. Consider AMC's new crime drama series Low Winter Sun—its led by two of England's strongest character actors, Mark Strong (Zero Dark Thirty) and Lennie James (The Walking Dead).

The two of them are such captivating on-screen presences that it's easy to overlook Low Winter Sun's otherwise familiar construct. An American take on a 2006 British miniseries of the same name (which also starred strong), AMC's most promising new program since the premiere of that little zombie show centers on cops and detectives working the streets of Detroit—sounds very similar to damn near every procedural on those non-cable networks, doesn't it?

Not quite, actually. With fine acting and a dread-drenched elegance, Low Winter Sun could be the antidote for TV's overuse of the old cops-with-problems motif. —MB

Stars: Troian Bellisario, Ashley Benson, Shay Mitchell, Lucy Hale, Tyler Blackburn, Ian Harding, Laura Leighton, Chad Lowe, Holly Marie Combs, Janel Parrish, Sasha Pieterse, Keegan Allen
Premiere Date: June 11

Hurry the hell up and catch up to Pretty Little Liars! At this point, there have been too many back-stabbings, failed relationships, mysterious figures, and an unconnected clues to recount in one paragraph. Considering the show has already been renewed for season five, without the fourth having aired yet, the glossy thriller, which follows four BFFs trying to track down the murderer of their Queen B, in addition to their own cyberbullies, is a must-see, even if only to be a part of the social media frenzy it starts every night it airs.

Stars: Anna Paquin, Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, Alexander Skarsgard, Ryan Kwanten, Joe Manganiello, Kristin Bauer, Deborah Ann Woll, Chris Bauer, Jim Parrack, Carrie Preston, Todd Lowe, Christopher Meloni, Denis O'Hare
Premiere Date: June 16

Can True Blood regain its original magic? That's the question hovering over the sex-crazed and campy HBO series' upcoming sixth season, which, coming off of last year's sloppily paced and altogether underwhelming season, is a crucial one.

Story wise, the promo trailers suggest that True Blood's human race is about to wage war on the "fangers" of Bon Temps, hopefully meaning that the unnecessary subplots involving Alcide's (Joe Manganiello) wolfpack drama and war veteran Terry's (Todd Lowe) battlefield demons have been jettisoned. Probably not, but one can hope.

Behind the scenes, True Blood has undergone some major changes. This will be the first year without Alan Ball as showrunner, now that he's migrated over to Cinemax for Banshee. Also, the usual 12-episode duration has been truncated to 10, due to star Anna Paquin's pregnancy. Season 6, at the very least, will be leaner—let's just hope that it's also cleaner. —MB

Stars: Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, John Gallagher, Jr., Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski, Dev Patel, Olivia Munn, Sam Waterson
Premiere Date: June TBA

After a promising pilot, The Newsroom writing team—Aaron Sorkin, Aaron Sorkin, and Aaron Sorkin—frustrated us with juvenile romantic comedy, a timeline that allowed the News Night team to crack stories because of convenient connections or just sheer, unexplained prescience, that annoyingly saccharine theme song, and the 18th use of Coldplay's "Fix You" for a moving montage.

And yet, for all the jokes, each time a big national event went down we found ourselves wondering if and how Sorkin-through-McAvoy would cover it. Sure, there's a very high possibility that the election 2012 coverage will be intercut with Jim and Maggie staring longingly at each other with Vanessa Carlton playing in the background, but either way, The Newsroom will certainly have our attention. —FT

Stars: Teri Polo, Sherri Shaum, Jake T. Austin, Hayden Byerly, David Lambert, Maia Mitchell and Danny Nucci
Premiere Date: June 3

Kudos to ABC Family for bringing to television one of the most groundbreaking shows this season. Essentially The Kids Are All Right in TV form, The Fosters, produced by Jennifer Lopez (yes, Jenny from the Block), follows a lesbian bi-racial couple (Teri Polo and Sherri Shaum) going through the ups and downs of raising their biological and adoptive children together.

Although announcement of the show didn't come without outrage from conservative, anti-homosexual groups, including One Million Moms, ABC continues to defend the refreshing and game-changing series.

Stars: Liev Schreiber, Jon Voight, Paula Malcomson, Eddie Marsan, Katherine Moennig, Dash Mihok, Kerris Dorsey, Pooch Hall, Steven Bauer
Premiere Date: June 30

Showtime is enjoying a level of prominence unlike the network has ever seen, but thankfully its far from content to rest on the success of Homeland and Shameless. With this possibly being the last year for network staples Dexter and Californication, it's full steam ahead in the drama department, and talent-wise, Showtime is kicking off the new year with its biggest new gun.

Liev Schrieber leads the A-list cast as the titular Ray Donovan, "fixer" to the rich and famous, handler of all types of unscrupulous situations (the show is located in Hollywood, naturally). His successful business and family life are threatened upon his father's (Voight) expedited release from prison, and if the trailers are any indication, Angelina Jolie's dad has one hell of a scary performance up his sleeve. Could this be the next great crime series? It's looking good so far. —FT

Stars: Jason Gann, Elijah Wood, Fiona Gubelmann, Dorian Brown
Premiere Date: June 20

The Odd Couple reboot, which is made even more odd by having a depressed man see a dog as a human in a dog costume, is set to return for its highly anticipated third season in June. In case you missed the previous two seasons of hilarious and crude situation comedy, we'll give you the run down.

Ryan (Elijah Wood), depressed after losing his job, tries to commit suicide with a drug cocktail. When he fails, he begins to see his neighbor's dog as a cigarette smoking, marijuana toking, mentor (played by Jason Gann). Season three will pick up right where season two darkly dropped off, with Ryan seriously questioning his sanity, the importance of Wilfred in his life, and his love interest who's set to marry another man.

Stars: Michael C. Hall, Jennifer Carpenter, David Zayas, Desmond Harrington, C.S. Lee, James Remar
Premiere Date: June 30

The most important thing about season eight of Dexter is that, at this time at least, it's set to be the series' swan song. And we pray to Ghost Harry that executives at Showtime don't swoop in and change that. It's high time that this wildly uneven series come to an end. And as the (mostly) creatively rejuvenating seventh season proved, the promise of an end date is exactly what Dexter and Dexter needed to become engaging, and interesting again.

Considering this is the last season of Dexter, it could be the most suspenseful batch of episodes the show's ever delivered. Seasons prior have wrung exciting drama out of the idea of law enforcement closing in on the Bay Harbor Butcher, but we ultimately knew Dex would wriggle out of the noose. This year, hopefully all bets are off.

Throw in wild card sister and police homicide lieutenant Debra, who is sure to make some bad decisions over her guilt about killing Laguerta, and Angel, who might actually become, dare we say, relevant again in the wake of her death, and Dexter has several different avenues it could take toward an unpredictable ending. We can't wait, as long as one of those roads includes the return of the always-welcome Yvonne Strahovski. —FT

Stars Taylor Schilling, Jason Biggs, Laura Prepon, Kate Mulgrew, Danielle Brooks, Michael Harney, Michelle Hurst, Maria Dizzia, Natasha Lyonne
Premiere Date: July 11

The Netflix original series, produced by Weeds creator Jenji Kohan, delves into yet another drug-scapade from the showrunner. Based on the Piper Kerman's memoir of the same name, the series follows Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) during her time in prison for her connection to a drug smuggler. But don't jump to any conclusions about this turning into a bizarro women-in-prison spectacle if you haven't read the book. If the cast of comedy vets (Jason Biggs, Natasha Lyonne and Laura Prepon) are any indication, the show will be much more of a dark comedy.

Stars: Diane Kruger, Demián Bichir, Annabeth Gish, Ted Levine
Premiere Date: July TBA

Police drama, two no-nonsense cops from different sides of the tracks, a serial—that's the nuts and bolts of the highly buzzed about The Bridge. Kruger plays an officer from Texas, Bichir an officer from Mexico—together, they're forced to work together to capture a killer that operates between the U.S./Mexico border, and are interrupted by the corruption of the Mexican authorities and the dangers of drug cartels.

Also, we're going to pitch an idea here. TV executives, if you like it, hit us up. Two cops, one from America and one from Canada, trying to capture a maple syrup smuggler that operates between the border of the U.S. and our neighbor to the north. We call it, Sorry Aboot That, Eh. No? OK, just watch The Bridge.

Stars: Mike Vogel, Rachelle Lefevre, Colin Ford, Natalie Martinez, Alexander Koch, Britt Robertson, Nicholas Strong, Jolene Purdy, Aisha Hinds, Dean Norris
Premiere Date: June 24

The pedigree behind CBS' ambitious, one-season-long series Under the Dome is serious business. One, it's based on Stephen King's epic 2009 novel, and, unlike the dozens of other King-rooted projects that tangentially benefit from his name, the iconic novelist is one of the executive producers. Similarly impressive is the fact that Under the Dome's top overseer is comic book veteran Brian K. Vaughan, most known for titles like Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina. Lastly, the pilot's director is Swedish filmmaker Niels Arden Oplev, the man who first brought Steig Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to the big screen in '09.

Together, those first-class creative minds have tackled one truly sprawling and dark tale. Like King's book, Under the Dome shows what happens when the residents of Chester's Mill, Maine, turn savage after an impenetrable, clear wall closes them off from the rest of the world. Anyone who's read King's novel will tell you: The Simpsons Movie has nothing on Under the Dome. Bodies will drop, blood will flow, and Breaking Bad's Dean Norris will dominate as the antagonistic Big Jim Rennie. —MB

Stars: Chris O'Dowd, Tom Bennet, Nina Conti
Premiere Date: May 12

Our hopes are so high for Family Tree we can't possibly imagine what could go wrong. Created by Christopher Guest (responsible for writing/directing/starring in some of the greatest mockumentary films ever, like This is Spinal Tap) and Jim Piddock (Best in Show) and starring the unstoppable comedy force, Chris O'Dowd, the new HBO show, Family Tree, has already become one of our favorite shows on TV, and it hasn't even aired yet.

The single-camera series follows Tom (O'Dowd), after he is dumped by his girlfriend and fired from his job, as he explores an old chest his great aunt had left him in search of figuring out his family and lineage with his sister (Nina Conti) and best friend (Tom Bennett).

Stars: Bryan Cranston, Aaron Paul, Anna Gunn, Dean Norris, Bob Odenkirk, Betsy Brandt, RJ Mitte
Premiere Date: July 15

The end is finally here. For four and a half tremendous seasons, we've watched Walter White (Cranston) ascend to unforeseen heights as he slowly but surely used his wits and chemical expertise to take control of the methamphetamine drug trade, but at the very large cost of his soul. He's finally amassed enough money to quit, but it's too late to walk away clean at this point.

There are several confrontations hanging over Mr. White's head, waiting to crash down on him at any given moment, that will surely color most of the final episodes. How will Hank (Norris) react to his recent discovery that his brother-in-law is the phantom meth distributor he's hell-bent on catching? Will Jesse (Paul) ever learn what Walter did to Jane and Brock? All we know is that in the near future Walter is alone, desperate, and apparently has a problem that can only be solved with a very large machine gun. —FT

Stars: Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, David Cross, Michael Cera, Jeffrey Tambor, Will Arnett, Alia Shawkat, Tony Hale, Jessica Walter
Premiere Date: May 26

The first episode of Arrested Development—the funniest TV comedy ever—was released like, 10 years ago, guys. And if you haven't had a chance to join the cult-like fanbase yet, check it out on Netflix. There's a reason why the show's fans were so passionate about getting it revived. And now, they can finally reap the rewards of their work.

On the 26th, 15 episodes of the dysfunctional family will be released on Netflix. Not only will there be a fourth season, but the show's creator, Hurwitz, said it is serving as a lead-in to a feature film. We can only hope.