Series to Watch: July 2025
DQ checks out the upcoming schedules to pick 10 new series to watch this July, from a new Stephen King adaptation and a Lena Dunham comedy to a Mark Gatiss period detective drama and an assassin thriller starring Keeley Hawes.
Such Brave Girls
From: UK
Original broadcasters: BBC Three (UK), Hulu (US)
Producers: VAL, A24
Starring: Kat Sadler, Lizzie Davidson, Louise Brealey, Paul Bazely and Freddie Meredith
Launch date: July 3 (UK), July 7 (US)
The return of the Bafta-winning comedy picks up with Josie (Sadler), her sister Billie (Davidson) and their mother Deb (Brealey), who are still risking everything they’ve got for a single scrap of love and adoration. With the trio desperately trying to escape the reality of their cramped, crumbling, debt-ridden home, it’s a good thing Dev (Bazely) and Seb (Meredith) are coming to the rescue.
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Ballard
From: US
Original broadcaster: Prime Video
Producers: Fabel Entertainment, Hieronymus Pictures
Starring: Maggie Q, Courtney Taylor, John Carroll Lynch, Michael Mosley, Rebecca Field, Victoria Moroles, Amy Hill, Ricardo Chavira, Noah Bean, Alain Uy, Hector Hugo and Titus Welliver
Launch date: July 9
Based on the novels by Michael Connelly, this Bosch spin-off centres on Detective Renée Ballard (Q) as she leads the LAPD’s new and underfunded cold-case division, tackling the city’s most challenging long-forgotten crimes with empathy and relentless determination, aided by a volunteer team and retired detective Harry Bosch (Welliver).
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El clan Olimpia (The Olimpia Clan)
From: Spain
Original broadcaster: Disney+ Spain
Producers Tornasol Media, Par Producciones, Gloriamundi Producciones
Starring: Zaira Romero, Tamara Casellas, Juan Carlos Vellido, Joel Bosqued, Daniel Ibáñez, Mina El Hammani, Juan Pablo Raba and María de Nati
Launch date: July 9
In this series inspired by true events surrounding a Spanish drug trafficker, Olimpia’s life takes a radical turn when her husband is diagnosed with cancer. Determined to keep her family afloat, she begins selling hashish in her neighbourhood and becomes involved in cocaine trafficking. Along with her partner, ‘El Moreno,’ Olimpia quickly rises in the world of drug trafficking, establishing ties with Colombian cartels and the Neapolitan mafia. However, her family, which has a history of drug dealing, would never accept a woman working in that business. Forced to hide her double life, Olimpia builds a web of lies to protect her secret – until her father discovers the truth.
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Too Much
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Netflix
Producers: Universal International Studios, Working Title Television, Good Thing Going Productions
Starring: Meg Stalter, Will Sharpe, Michael Zegen, Janicza Bravo, Richard E Grant, Leo Reich, Rita Wilson, Naomi Watts, Andrew Rannells, Rhea Perlman, Emily Ratajkowski and Adwoa Aboah
Launch date: July 10
From writer/director Lena Dunham (Girls), Too Much stars Stalter as Jessica, a New York workaholic in her mid-30s, reeling from a broken relationship that she thought would last forever. When she takes a job in London, she meets Felix (Sharpe) – a walking series of red flags – and finds that their unusual connection is impossible to ignore, even when it creates more problems than it solves. Now they have to ask themselves: do Americans and Brits actually speak the same language?
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Dexter: Resurrection
From: US
Original broadcasters: Paramount+ (US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Latin America, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria)
Producers: Showtime Studios, Counterpart Studios
Distributor: Paramount Global Content Distribution
Starring: Michael C Hall, Uma Thurman, David Zayas, Jack Alcott, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Kadia Saraf, Dominic Fumusa, Emilia Suárez, James Remar, Peter Dinklage, Neil Patrick Harris, Krysten Ritter, Eric Stonestreet and David Dastmalchian
Launch date: July 11 (US)
Dexter showrunner Clyde Phillips reunites with the show’s original star Hall in this continuation of the story that began in Dexter and was expanded in Dexter: New Blood. Set weeks after Dexter Morgan (Hall) takes a bullet to the chest from his own son, Harrison (Alcott), he awakens from a coma to find Harrison gone without a trace. Realising the weight of what he put his son through, Dexter sets out for New York City determined to find him and make things right. But when Miami Metro’s Angel Batista (Zayas) arrives with questions, Dexter realises his past is catching up to him fast. As father and son navigate their own darkness in the city that never sleeps, they soon find themselves deeper than they ever imagined – and realise the only way out is together.
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Furia (Rage)
From: Spain
Original broadcaster: HBO Max
Producer: Mandarina Productions
Starring: Carmen Machi, Candela Peña, Cecilia Roth, Nathalie Poza and Pilar Castro
Launch date: July 11
A series focused on five women on the edge, whose stories weave together a tale of blackmail, oppression, betrayal and manipulation. Marga (Machi) is a snobbish artist whose husband Roberto (Alberto San Juan), a TV director, is having an affair with his maid Tina (Claudia Salas) – whom he has also gotten pregnant. Vera (Castro), Marga’s friend, is a media-loving chef who is forced to close her business after a disastrous review. Nat (Peña), a clerk in an exclusive fashion store where Marga and Vera shop, is hit hard when her employer replaces older staff members with younger ones. Adela (Poza), Tina’s mother, is unemployed and in danger of being evicted along with her elderly mother by a ruthless landlord. Victoria (Roth), Adela and Nat’s neighbour, is a forgotten cult actress from the 1970s erotic film era who is offered the chance of a comeback, but it proves to be far from what she had hoped for.
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The Institute
From: US
Original broadcaster: MGM+
Producer: MGM+ Studios
Starring: Mary-Louise Parker, Ben Barnes and Joe Freeman
Launch date: July 13
Based on the novel by Stephen King, The Institute follows the story of teen genius Luke Ellis (Freeman), who is kidnapped and awakens at The Institute, a facility full of children who all got there the same way he did and who all possess unusual abilities. In a nearby town, haunted former police officer Tim Jamieson (Barnes) has come looking to start a new life, but the peace and quiet won’t last, as his story and Luke’s are destined to collide.
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Washington Black
From: US
Original broadcaster: Hulu (US), Disney+
Producers: 20th Television, Indian Meadows Productions, The Gotham Group
Starring: Ernest Kingsley Jr, Rupert Graves, Iola Evans, Edward Bluemel, Sharon Duncan Brewster, Eddie Karanja, Tom Ellis and Sterling K Brown
Launch date: July 23
Based on the novel of the same name by Esi Edugyan, Washington Black follows the 19th-century odyssey of George Washington ‘Wash’ Black, an 11-year-old born on a Barbados sugar plantation, whose prodigious scientific mind sets him on a path of unexpected destiny. When a harrowing incident forces Wash to flee, he is thrust into a globe-spanning adventure that challenges and reshapes his understanding of family, freedom and love. As he navigates uncharted lands and impossible odds, Wash finds the courage to imagine a future beyond the confines of the society into which he was born.
Bookish
From: UK
Original broadcaster: U&alibi
Producers: Eagle Eye Drama, Happy Duck Films
Distributors: Beta Film, PBS Distribution (North America)
Starring: Mark Gatiss, Polly Walker
Launch date: July 16
Already renewed for a second season ahead of its debut, Bookish stars creator and lead writer Gatiss as witty, extraordinary and whip-smart bookshop owner Gabriel Book, who helps the police to solve the most uncrackable crimes. But he has a secret himself – as a gay man in the 1940s, he lives in a mutually agreed ‘lavender marriage’ with his childhood friend Trottie (Walker). Having lost the love of his life in the war, Book’s past suddenly seems to catch up with him and poses a riddle that seems unsolvable, even for him.
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The Assassin
From: UK
Original broadcasters: Prime Video (UK & Ireland), Stan (Australia), ZDF (Germany)
Producer: Two Brothers Pictures
Distributor: All3Media International
Starring: Keeley Hawes, Freddie Highmore, Gina Gershon, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Jack Davenport, Alan Dale, Gerald Kyd, Devon Terrell, Richard Dormer and David Dencik
Launch date: July (UK & Ireland)
From the makers of The Tourist and Boat Story comes this series set on a remote Greek island, where retired assassin Julie (Hawes) and her estranged son Edward (Highmore) must work together in a fight for survival. Amid questions around Edward’s paternity and Julie’s dangerous past catching up with her, the pair are forced to flee the island and go on the run.
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tagged in: Ballard, Bookish, Dexter: Resurrection, El clan Olimpia, Furia, Rage, Such Brave Girls, The Assassin, The Institute, The Olimpia Clan, Too Much, Washington Black