Series to Watch: June 2022
DQ checks out the upcoming schedules to pick out 10 new dramas to watch this June, from a time-bending thriller and a gangland drama to a classic sci-fi adaptation and a Korean take on a Spanish heist hit.
The Midwich Cuckoos
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Sky Max, NOW
Starring: Keeley Hawes, Max Beesley, Synnøve Karlsen, Cherrelle Skeete, Samuel West, Aisling Loftus, Ukweli Roach, Lara Rossi, Lewis Reeves, Rebekah Staton and Anneika Rose
Air date: June 2
A dark, modern-day reimagining of John Wyndham’s classic sci-fi novel, this series finds the residents of sleepy Midwich plunged into panic when a mysterious blackout causes everyone to pass out for no reason. When they awake, life returns to normal – except that every woman of child-bearing age has suddenly fallen pregnant. Psychotherapist Dr Susannah Zellaby (Hawes) tries to support those affected, while DCI Paul Haynes (Beesley) is tasked with maintaining order as a terrifying force starts to build. Who are these children and what do they want?
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Irma Vep
From: US
Original broadcaster: HBO
Starring: Alicia Vikander, Vincent Macaigne, Jeanne Balibar, Devon Ross, Lars Eidinger, Vincent Lacoste, Nora Hamzawi, Adria Arjona, Carrie Brownstein, Tom Sturridge, Byron Bowers, Fala Chen, Hippolyte Girardot, Alex Descas and Antoine Reinartz
Air date: June 6
Created, written and directed by Olivier Assayas based on his 1996 film, Irma Vep (also pictured top) stars Vikander as Mira, an American movie star disillusioned by her career and a recent break-up. But when she comes to France to play the lead in a remake of silent film classic Les Vampires, she soon starts to struggle to separate herself from her character.
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Everything I Know About Love
From: UK
Original broadcaster: BBC One
Starring: Emma Appleton, Bel Powley, Aliyah Odoffin, Marli Siu and Connor Finch
Air date: June 7
Written by Dolly Alderton, based on her memoir of the same name, this seven-part series is described as an unflinching account of surviving your 20s. Set in a 2012 London house-share, with flashbacks to suburban adolescence, the show dives into bad dates, heartaches and humiliations to ask whether platonic love can survive romantic love as we grow up.
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Ms Marvel
From: US
Original broadcaster: Disney+
Starring: Iman Vellani, Aramis Knight, Saagar Shaikh, Rish Shah, Zenobia Shroff, Mohan Kapur, Matt Lintz, Yasmeen Fletcher, Laith Nakli, Azhar Usman, Travina Springer and Nimra Bucha
Air date: June 8
Marvel Studios’ latest superhero outing on Disney+ introduces Kamala Khan (Vellani), a Muslim American teenager growing up in Jersey City. She’s a superhero megafan with an oversized imagination, who doesn’t feel like she fits in at school or even at home – until she gets superpowers like the heroes she’s always looked up to.
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Skruk (Baby Fever)
From: Denmark
Original broadcaster: Netflix
Starring: Josephine Park, Olivia Joof Lewerissa, Simon Sears, Charlotte Munck, Mikael Birkkjær, Tammi Øst, Emil Prenter, Thomas Levin, Jesper Ole Feit, Andersen, Amelia Høy, Morten Jørgensen, Anne Sofie Wanstrup and Lisa Carlehed
Air date: June 8
From Apple Tree Productions – the company founded by the producers of Forbrydelsen (The Killing), Avingerne (The Legacy) and Bron/Broen (The Bridge) – comes this comedy-drama about a fertility doctor (Park) who drunkenly inseminates herself with her ex-boyfriend’s sperm, leaving her scrambling to explain her mysterious pregnancy and win back her lost love.
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Sherwood
From: UK
Original broadcaster: BBC One
Starring: David Morrissey, Joanne Froggatt, Robert Glenister, Alun Armstrong, Lesley Manville, Adeel Akhtar, Claire Rushbrook, Kevin Doyle, Lorraine Ashbourne, Phillip Jackson, Perry Fitzpatrick, Adam Hugill and Stephen Tompkinson
Air date: June 13
Sherwood is inspired in part by real events and set in the Nottinghamshire mining village where writer James Graham (Quiz) grew up. At the heart of the series are two shocking and unexpected killings that shatter an already fractured community and spark a massive manhunt. But as suspicion and antipathy build, both between lifelong neighbours and towards the police forces that descend on the area, the tragic killings threaten to inflame historic divisions sparked by during the miners’ strike three decades earlier.
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The Lazarus Project
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Sky Max, NOW
Starring: Paapa Essiedu, Anjli Mohindra, Tom Burke, Caroline Quentin, Rudi Dharmalingam and Charly Clive
Air date: June 16
Written by Joe Barton (Giri/Haji), this action thriller centres on George (Essiedu), who wakes up one day to find himself reliving a day from months ago. He thinks he’s lost his mind, with recent events – his success at work and marriage to Sarah (Clive) – all undone. Then Archie (Mohindra) recuits George for the Lazarus Project, a secret organisation that has harnessed the ability to turn back time every time the world is at threat of extinction. Their task is to track down Rebrov (Burke), a criminal intent on destroying the world.
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The Twelve
From: Australia
Original broadcaster: Fox Showcase
Starring: Sam Neill, Marta Dusseldorp, Kate Mulvany, Brendan Cowell, Pallavi Sharda, Hazem Shammas, Ngali Shaw and Brooke Satchwell
Air date: June 21
The Twelve is based on the Belgian series of the same name. The courtroom drama follows 12 ordinary citizens summoned for jury duty as their conflicts, their families and their secrets are put to the ultimate test while they decide the fate of a woman charged with murder.
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Blocco 181
From: Italy
Original broadcaster: Sky Atlantic
Starring: Laura Osma, Alessandro Piavani, Andrea Dodero
Air date: June 20 (Italy), June 21 (UK)
Described as a dark fairy tale, this series is set within the fictional block 181 on the outskirts of Milan. Bea (Osma) is a Latin American girl torn between loyalty to her family, the dangerous Misa gang and a desire to change her life, while Ludo (Piavani) and Mahdi (Dodero) are two friends from different social backgrounds. While the Misa and kids from the block do battle, the trio share a relationship all about sex, friendship and belonging to a new family as they make their way up the criminal hierarchy together.
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Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area
From: Korea
Original broadcaster: Netflix
Starring: Yoo Ji-tae, Kim Yunjin, Park Hae-soo, Jun Jong-seo, Lee Won-jong, Park Myung-hoon, Kim Sung-o, Kim Ji-hun, Jang Yoon-ju, Lee Joobeen, Lee Hyun-woo, Kim Ji-hoon and Lee Kyu-ho
Air date: June 24
A remake of Spanish series La Casa De Papel, this show is set in a fictional Joint Economic Area in a world where the Korean Peninsula faces reunification. Into this ruthless new world of inequality step a crew of thieves from North and South Korea, led by The Professor (Yoo Ji-tae), who set out to pull off a history-making heist.
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tagged in: Baby Fever, Blocco 181, Everything I Know About Love, Irma Vep, Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area, Ms Marvel, Sherwood, Skruk, The Lazarus Project, The Midwich Cuckoos, The Twelve