📺 Watching: House of the Dragon, Doctor Who, Them: The Scare
plus 6 upcoming shows
Happy Thursday! The deadline for shows submitting to the 2024 Emmy Awards is tomorrow, and we’ve seen a dramatic slowdown in series and season premieres as a result. However, mid-to-late-June is looking pretty fun with new episodes of Bridgerton, House of the Dragon, and The Bear coming to our screens. Check out our more extensive list of upcoming releases, plus where and when you can watch them in our June Preview premium newsletter on Saturday!
In today’s edition:
Weekly Watchlist
House of the Dragon - Season 1 (Max)
Doctor Who - Season 14 (Disney+)
Them: The Scare (Prime Video)
— Jenni Cullen and Jess Spoll
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Below is a selection of new shows and movies premiering this week. Our full list of May releases, including theatrical releases and streaming debuts, is available here and published monthly for our premium subscribers.
Eric (Limited Series) — Benedict Cumberbatch leads the cast of the upcoming psychological thriller about a puppeteer in 1980s New York whose son has gone missing. His increasingly volatile behavior as he tries to get his son back alienates him from his friends and other family.
Watch on Netflix: May 30 (all 6 episodes)Geek Girl (Limited Series) — Emily Carey (House of the Dragon) stars in this YA comedy about an awkward teen and self-described geek who becomes a modeling sensation.
Watch on Netflix: May 30 (all 10 episodes)The Outlaws (Season 3) — This comedy-crime-thriller from Stephen Merchant follows a group of strangers who meet doing community service and find themselves getting into trouble.
Watch on Prime Video: May 31 (all 5 episodes)Mayor of Kingstown (Season 3) — Jeremy Renner is back as the titular (unofficial) mayor trying to keep the peace in this drama from Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone) about a town in which incarceration is the main business.
Watch on Paramount+: June 2 (1 of 10 episodes, then weekly)The Acolyte (Season 1) — This standalone Star Wars series is set at the end of the High Republic era — before the events of the prequel trilogy — and follows a Jedi investigation into a series of crimes. Amandla Stenberg (The Hunger Games) and Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game) star.
Watch on Disney+: June 4 (2 of 6 episodes, then weekly)Clipped (Limited Series) — Based on an ESPN podcast called The Sterling Affairs, this limited series dramatizes the true story of the downfall of LA Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling amidst the team’s drive to win a championship under coach Doc Rivers.
Watch on Hulu: June 4 (2 of 6 episodes, then weekly)
We reviewed a show in its early days on air. Now that we’ve watched more of it, would we change our initial rating?
House of the Dragon - Season 1
Keywords: prequel series, drama, fantasy, political intrigue
Watch if you like: Game of Thrones, Shōgun, The Last Kingdom
Jess’s Rating: A-
I tried to watch the first season of The House of the Dragon when it premiered two years ago, and I gave up halfway. Maybe it was just the circumstances of the weekly release schedule vs. my social calendar that were incompatible that summer, but it probably had more to do with my negative mindset going into it: I thought it was a soulless cash grab feebly riding the coattails of Game of Thrones. As they say, mindset is everything, because I decided to give it another chance recently, and it turns out I… love it? I’m as shocked as you are!
For the unacquainted: House of the Dragon takes place about 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones. Based on a book written by George R. R. Martin, it chronicles the first century of the Targaryen dynasty. Like its predecessor, the question of who will sit on the Iron Throne constitutes the core of the story, but this time, the fighting is coming from inside the house.
There is a ton of set-up in the first episode, as is standard for a high fantasy tale with dense lore. The rest of the season moves along in fits and starts, with some episodes occurring in close succession, and others separated by significant time jumps — one by a decade, another by six years. But all this set-up pays off. With the story centered around two women and their relationship with each other — transforming over the years from childhood BFFs to something far more complicated and thorny — experiencing this evolution is vital to understanding the baggage that comes with their later political predicament.
As someone who loves a complex character, the fact that House of the Dragon revolves around two layered and morally ambiguous women in positions of power is more than enough to keep my interest. Previously stopping at episode five had robbed me of the chance not only to see Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke give stunning turns as the older incarnations of the main characters, but to fully grasp the heart of the show. If you were like me, there’s still time to join me in righting your wrongs before Season 2 premieres on June 16.
— Jess
Length: 60-min runtime, 1 season / 10 episodes
Watch on: Max
These popular shows came back with new episodes. Here’s what we thought and where you can watch them.
Doctor Who - Season 14
Keywords: science fiction, comedy-drama, British
Watch if you like: Good Omens, Loki, The Sandman
Jenni’s Rating: C+
This BBC classic follows the adventures of The Doctor, a humanoid alien who explores space and time and often saves a person — or entire civilizations — in need along the way. Part of the show’s lore is that The Doctor can “regenerate” when injured too badly to heal, so every few seasons a new actor takes over as the lead. In this latest season, Ncuti Gatwa (Sex Education) debuts as the Fifteenth Doctor, joined by companion Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson).
There are a lot of things to be excited about with this iteration of Doctor Who. For one, this season sees the return of showrunner Russell T. Davies, the creator of some of my favorite television episodes of all time. For another, the latest Doctor is both the first openly Queer and the first Black incarnation since the series debuted in the 60s. He’s also the most emotionally engaged Doc we’ve seen in a while! Though always energetic, the main character of this series has historically found it hard to tap into his deeper feelings, and this shift lends a decidedly more youthful vibe to the show.
I am already loving Gatwa and Gibson’s partnership and their infectious charm, but these first few episodes are a bit of a mixed bag in terms of structure and tone. The first two in particular contain some terrible music, a lot of exposition-dumping, and strange shifts between toothache-inducing family-friendly energy and a slightly more messy, edgy timbre.
With a new and broader audience to appeal to thanks to a new slot on Disney+, some growing pains are to be expected. But the lapse in quality makes me want to encourage new viewers to just read some recaps and begin with episode 3. The season has gotten progressively better — the most recent folk-horror-influenced episode was almost excellent! — so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a continued upward trend.
— Jenni
Length: 60-min runtime, 5 of 8 episodes out, new on Fridays
Watch on: Disney+ (other seasons and episodes available on Max)
Them: The Scare
Keywords: horror, mystery, paranormal
Watch if you like: The Haunting of Hill House, Candyman, Us
Jess’s Rating: B-
Them is a horror anthology, similar to the better known American Horror Story, with each season bringing new characters and chilling stories to the screen. The Scare, its second installment, follows LAPD detective Dawn Reeve (Deborah Ayorinde) as she investigates a series of gruesome murders. Set against the backdrop of ‘91 Los Angeles following the assault of Rodney King, the narrative weaves in social commentary about racism, police brutality, and the foster care system.
For horror enthusiasts, there is plenty to like in Them: The Scare. Its first moments promise a spine-chilling watch, with Reeve methodically walking through a grisly crime scene. Upping the atmosphere of fear and tension is the uniquely arresting visual style, with analog elements and heavy usage of the color red. The ensemble cast is the standout of this season, though, with a truly spine-chilling performance from Luke James as Edmund, an aspiring actor who works at a Chuck. E. Cheese-type restaurant.
As the season progresses, it continues to rely on a sense of foreboding rather than an overuse of jump scares. This works for the most part, but since the first episode suggests a more overt horror tone, it’s disappointing that there’s no real culmination of energy. And the interweaving of two parallel storylines is creative, but it reinforces the slow-burn feel instead of delivering the edge-of-your-seat mystery I was hoping for. Creator Little Marvin clearly has a vision for Them, but the blend of horror and social commentary in this series lacks the nuance of better executed, similar works within the “elevated horror” genre.
— Jess
Length: 40-min runtime, 1 season / 8 episodes
Watch on: Prime Video
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I felt the exact same way about House of the Dragon. Took me 2 years to get past the first two episodes. Recently started it over and loved it all the way through and pumped about the new season.
I will say I’m also excited for S2 of We Are Lady Parts. One of my sleeper favs a couple years ago. I was surprised how much I enjoyed it, and actually kinda forgot about it until I saw S2 was debuting today.