Series to Watch: June 2023
DQ checks out the upcoming schedules to pick 10 new series to watch this June, from an Indian conspiracy thriller and a Dutch family drama to a British ‘anti-romcom’ and the return of Black Mirror.
School of Lies
From: India
Original broadcaster: Disney+ Hotstar
Producer: BBC Studios
Starring: Nimrat Kaur, Aamir Bashir, Geetika Vidya Ohlyan, Sonali Kulkarni and Jitendra Joshi
Launch date: June 2
Directed and co-created by Avinash Arun (Killa), this conspiracy thriller follows the mystery of a missing 12-year-old boy who disappears from a private boarding school, and the domino effect it causes.
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De Droom Van De Jeugd (Childhood Dreams)
From: The Netherlands
Original broadcasters: NPO1, NPO Plus
Producer: Topkapi Films
Distributor: Banijay Rights
Starring: Hanna van Vliet, Tamar van den Dop, Annet Malherbe, Mark Rietman, Jacob Derwig, Peter Paul Muller and Gijs Naber
Launch date: June 7
A recent entry in competition at French television festival Canneseries, Childhood Dreams tells the story of the Wander family from the 1960s to the present day. Seemingly an ordinary Dutch family, they must navigate a bittersweet journey through love, loss and life over several generations, while dealing with historical events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall and 9/11.
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Significant Other
From: UK
Original broadcaster: ITVX
Producer: Quay Street Productions
Distributor: ITV Studios
Starring: Katherine Parkinson, Youssef Kerkour, Kelle Bryan, Mark Heap, Ben Bailey Smith, Sue Vincent, Shaun Williamson, Olivia Poulet and Will Ash
Launch date: June 8
Based on the Israeli series of the same name, this ‘anti-romcom’ follows two lonely neighbours who embark on a hesitant, obstacle-filled relationship after drastic life events bring them together. As this strange love story unfolds with wryly observed wit and warmth, could these deeply flawed individuals – both at a time in their lives when change is difficult and rarely expected – influence each other for the better?
The Crowded Room
From: US
Original broadcaster: Apple TV+
Producers: Apple Studios, New Regency and Weed Road Productions
Starring: Tom Holland, Amanda Seyfried, Emmy Rossum, Sasha Lane, Will Chase, Lior Raz, Jason Isaacs, Christopher Abbott and Thomas Sadoski
Launch date: June 9
This limited series from Akiva Goldsman (A Beautiful Mind) stars Spider-Man actor Holland as Danny Sullivan, a man arrested for his involvement in a shooting in New York City in 1979. The story is then told through interviews with curious interrogator Rya Goodwin (Seyfried), as Danny’s life is unfolded, revealing a mysterious past that shaped him and the twists and turns that will lead him to a life-altering revelation.
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The Full Monty
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Disney+
Producers: Searchlight Television and FX
Starring: Robert Carlyle, Mark Addy, Lesley Sharp, Paul Barber, Steve Huison, Wim Snape and Tom Wilkinson
Launch date: June 14
This show takes place 25 years after the hit British film of the same name, in which a group of unemployed men form a male striptease act. The eight-parter will follow the same band of brothers as they navigate the post-industrial city of Sheffield and society’s crumbling healthcare, education and employment sectors. The comedy-drama will uncover what happened to the gang after they put their clothes back on, exploring their brighter, sillier and more desperate moments.
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The Walking Dead: Dead City
From: US
Original broadcaster: AMC
Producer: AMC Studios
Starring: Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Launch date: June 18
The latest spin-off from the zombie franchise, Dead City follows original characters Maggie (Cohan) and Negan (Morgan) as they travel into a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, long ago cut off from the mainland. The crumbling city is filled with the dead and denizens who have made New York City their own world full of anarchy, danger, beauty and terror.
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Marvel Studios’ Secret Invasion
From: US
Original broadcaster: Disney+
Producer: Marvel Studios
Starring: Samuel L Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Cobie Smulders, Martin Freeman, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Charlayne Woodard, Killian Scott, Samuel Adewunmi, Dermot Mulroney, Christopher McDonald, Katie Finneran, with Emilia Clarke, Olivia Colman and Don Cheadle
Launch date: June 21
The latest series from the Marvel Cinematic Universe is set in the present day and finds Nick Fury (Jackson) learning of a clandestine invasion of Earth by a faction of shapeshifting Skrulls. Fury joins his allies, including Everett Ross (Freeman), Maria Hill (Smulders) and the Skrull Talos (Mendelsohn), who has made a life for himself on Earth. Together they race against time to thwart the imminent Skrull invasion and save humanity.
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Cannes Confidential
From: UK, Sweden, France
Original broadcasters: Acorn TV (North America, New Zealand, Australia and the UK) and Viaplay (Nordics)
Producer: Dramacorp
Distributors: Acorn Media Enterprises and Acorn Media International
Starring: Lucie Lucas, Jamie Bamber, Tamara Marthe
Launch date: June 26
Cannes Confidential is a high-concept detective series that centres on the bicker-banter relationship between no-nonsense detective Camille Delmasse (Lucas) and charming international conman Harry King (Bamber). After the pair are thrown together solving crimes on the French Riviera, Camille and Harry’s chemistry is complicated by Camille’s colleague and wing-woman, Léa Robert (Marthe), and a deal they make to free Camille’s ex-police chief father from corruption charges.
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Black Mirror
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Netflix
Producer: Broke & Bones
Starring: Aaron Paul, Anjana Vasan, Annie Murphy, Auden Thornton, Ben Barnes, Clara Rugaard, Daniel Portman, Danny Ramirez, Himesh Patel, John Hannah, Josh Hartnett, Kate Mara, Michael Cera, Monica Dolan, Myha’la Herrold, Paapa Essiedu, Rob Delaney, Rory Culkin, Salma Hayek Pinault, Samuel Blenkin and Zazie Beetz
Launch date: June TBC
This month brings the long-awaited sixth season of Charlie Brooker’s dark, satirical anthology series – new episodes were last released in June 2019 – which reinvents itself with each new episode. This run of five new films is described as the most unpredictable, unclassifiable and unexpected yet.
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The Change
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Channel 4
Producer: Expectation
Starring: Bridget Christie, Ashley McGuire, Monica Dolan, Tanya Moodie, Liza Tarbuck, Jim Howick, Jerome Flynn, Paul Whitehouse, Omid Djalili, Richard Durden, Amanda Lawrence and Sonny Charlton
Launch date: June TBC
Described as “Shirley Valentine meets Deliverance, with pigs,” this six-part comedy drama is written by and stars Christie (pictured). She plays Linda, a 50-year-old, working-class married mother-of-two, who is having an existential crisis. Convinced she’s got early-onset dementia after forgetting what a shoe is called, Linda is informed by her GP that she is, in fact, experiencing the menopause. Feeling invigorated and empowered by this information, Linda decides to claw back some of the time she’s spent doing ‘invisible work’ over the years and doing something for herself, for a change.
tagged in: Black Mirror, Cannes Confidential, Childhood Dreams, De Droom Van De Jeugd, Marvel Studios’ Secret Invasion, School of Lies, Significant Other, The Change, The Crowded Room, The Full Monty, The Walking Dead: Dead City