Supernatural shenanigans, feel-good comedies, a He-Man revival, soapy drama, and more. We sifted through July TV shows for the must-sees.
Summertime is here, and the TV viewing is easy and breezy. In other words, there’s feel-good comedies on the way along with supernatural shenanigans, a revival of a classic animated series, deliciously soapy drama, and more. The schedule’s still chock-full of goodness amid an even larger sea of mediocrity while movie theaters play only the biggest of blockbusters during these sweltering months. In other words, your home theater is still where things are at, so we’re here to sift through the new July TV shows for the must-see selections. There’s a few relentlessly cheery comedies on Apple TV+ and a fresh take on Masters of the Universe on Netflix, which is also giving us a dating series unlike any you’ve ever seen. Disney+ is bringing us the latest effort from a Pixar mainstay, and speaking of franchises, there’s a What We Do In The Shadows spinoff on the way. HBO Max is hustling back a confection of a series that launched several O.G. careers, and Martha Stewart is getting (literally) dirty for her audience. Discovery+, AMC, Paramount, Peacock, and the CW also represent here. Here are the biggest shows worth noticing in July: Martha Gets Down and Dirty: Season 1 (Discovery+) — The frequent onscreen and business partner of Snoop Dogg goes solo while traveling home to her 150-acre farm where, as the title suggests, she gets her hands seriously dirty. Martha Stewart might be 79 years young and a total perfectionist, but she’s entirely engaged in prepping her farm for summertime, and that means some serious digging in the dirt alongside her gardener, Ryan McCallister. That’s only part of the dirty work on this show, for Stewart will also welcome celebrity guests, including Seth Meyers, Kim Kardashian, Tiffany Haddish, Al Roker, Alyson Hannigan, Tamron Hall, and more. Is it too much to ask for a Snoop tulip-pruning appearance, too? C’mon, Martha. Jared Harris stars in this revenge-thriller series (which originally aired on BritBox UK and achieved a viewing record) that has already been renewed for a second season. The story’s based on Nicholas Blake’s 1938 novel and revolves around a mother who’s hell-bent upon avenging her son’s death, all while a detective’s working the case and hoping to solve matters before mom takes justice into her own hands. Meanwhile, the detective’s suffering from PTSD, and yes, this sounds like an enormously chaotic show, but it’s so crushingly executed that you’d be gripping your seat arms if you watched it in a theater. (Note: Although AMC+ will stream the first two episodes of the series on July 6, AMC will wait a week for a traditional premiere on July 12.) Get ready for more insanely absurdist (and almost therapeutically refreshing) sketch comedy from creator and writer Tim Robinson. He’s back with partner Zach Kanin for more of turning the most mundane and bizarre life moments into shouty hilarity, and guest stars this season include Bob Odenkirk, Sam Richardson, Paul Walter Hauser, Tim Heidecker, and many more. If you haven’t had the pleasure of digging into Robinson’s work, and you love Adam Sandler and Chris Farley’s exaggerated humor, yet crowned with an especially self-aware twist, you must plop this show into your queue. The original CW series helped to launch the careers of Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, Sebastian Stan, and Penn Badgley (and the latter is now portraying an amped-up version of the same character on Netflix’s You). HBO Max is now ready to welcome another crop of mostly unknown faces playing wealthy, privileged teens who find themselves socially surveilled and at the mercy of the “Gossip Girl” narrator, who’s still voiced by Kristen Bell. Showrunner Josh Safran has promised that this reboot series will be much more socially conscious than the original, and that the teens will “take Ubers, not limos.
