Summer TV 2026: 12 New Series Worth Watching

Summer arrived a month ago in the Northern Hemisphere along with the World Cup. It has been an interesting season to stay glued to the TV screen.

For a couple of years, summer stopped being the lazy TV season of reruns and became one of the strongest.

This summer, TV shows faced tough competition from the World Cup.

So, if you have been watching football matches for the past month and don’t have an idea of what the new summer season has for you on TV, keep with me!

Through this article, we are going to navigate the strongest TV show releases, and I’m going to give you my personal input about them.

As always, I’m focusing on new shows and not new seasons of shows previously released.

The only series not included in this list is Lanterns, as it is scheduled for a late summer release in August.

How to watch these shows

Most of these shows are available for a global audience on streaming services like Netflix, Prime Video, or Disney+.

However, some of them are only released in the US for the time being.

If you want to watch them and you live outside the US, then you need the help of a VPN like ExpressVPN to skip the geo-restriction.

For detailed information and guides on each streaming platform, please visit our dedicated guides on our website.

1. Spider Noir

Genre: Superhero, Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Crime, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery
Episodes: 8 episodes | 1 season
Runtime: 45 min/episode
Release date: 26th May 2026
Available on: Prime Video (worldwide)

Yes, I know that Spider Noir was a late spring release, but I decided to include it in the summer season.

Starring Nicholas Cage as the titular character, Spider Noir adapts the Marvel Comics of the same name with some changes. Spider Noir first appeared in the 2018 animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse, in which Nicholas Cage voiced the character.

However, according to the series showrunner, Oren Uziel, this Spider Noir is not the same as the Spider-Noir from the Spider-Verse movie. He is from an alternative earth, set in 1930, during the Great Depression in New York City.

The story follows Ben Reilly, a photojournalist now working as a private detective. Reilly has superpowers that he gained after being bitten by a strange spider long ago.

He had his years as The Spider, but after a tragedy destroyed his life, he decided to leave his secret identity behind. But now, he sees himself drawn again to that world after a case he’s working on involved other people with superpowers.

The series follows the narrative structure, tropes and visuals of the noir police detective genre.

There are two versions of the series: the high-contrast black-and-white version and the “True-Hue” colour version.

Originally, the series was going to be released only in black and white, but Nicholas Cage suggested to the studio to release a colour version, more appealing to younger generations.

While the black-and-white version is the original and best, showcasing the director’s true vision, the colour version, which is reminiscent of a vibrant vintage film in Technicolour, stands as a work of art in its own right.

My Verdict: What a delightful experience it has been to binge Spider Noir! Besides the fact that my opinion is biased because I’m a comic book and film fan, I can’t deny that Spider Noir is the type of TV show that makes me believe in art again.

If you have experience watching Noir films like me, then you’ll enjoy Spider Noir even more. The use of high-contrast black-and-white filming enhances the narrative, and the creators effectively capture the essence of old films.

At first, I was hesitant to watch the colour version, but after seeing the black and white version, I decided to give it a try. The filmmakers successfully convey the same nostalgic feel of classic black-and-white films, while the colour version features a vibrant palette reminiscent of Technicolour.

They even give it a name: “True-Hue”. Let me tell you a secret, I took the experience to a whole new level by watching the series with a TV stick connected to my old CRT set.

Now, focusing on the story, you don’t need to have previous knowledge about Spider-Man to enjoy Spider Noir. First, because everything you need to know is explained in the show, and secondly, this series is far from being similar to anything Spider-Man-related you may have watched in the past.

Nicholas Cage and the rest of the cast deliver strong performances. The changes made at the character and story level are welcome because they enhance the overall narrative.

Finally, Sony invested its money in a worthy Spider-Man product, and I hope they keep it this way. If you haven’t watched it, go to Prime Video and choose your version!

2. Not Suitable for Work

Genre: Comedy, Drama
Episodes: 9 episodes | 1 season
Runtime: 45 min/episode
Release date: 2nd June 2026
Available on: Hulu (the US), Disney+ (worldwide)

Not Suitable for Work is the new comedy created by Mindy Kaling. The series is suffering from being compared with another sitcom and, as a consequence, is being labelled as “the new Friends”.

The truth is, Friends is an iconic series with a huge loyal fanbase. But another truth is that Friends has not totally connected with newer generations, who have described it as unrealistic and not inclusive.

So, for me, the similarities with Friends aren’t necessarily a flaw. The story follows five young people in their 20s, opening their paths through work, university, careers, and relationships in Manhattan, New York.

The general issue with Not Suitable for Work is that it’s still unrealistic as Friends. And here enters a big question about entertainment: are we seeking a photograph of how hard life is today for Gen Z, something we already know, or are we seeking escapism for almost an hour?

You can like Kaling’s kind of humour or not; I always say that humour is very subjective. For this reason, I found all the negative reviews towards this series pretty much unfair.

If you want to spend 45 minutes forgetting your problems and realising that there are people making worse decisions than you, then Not Suitable for Work is for you.

My Verdict: The first episode hooked me enough to keep watching the rest, so I call this a success. Even when I’m not the target audience for this show, some situations are universal, affecting all people without discriminating against age or genre.

Although I’m not a huge fan of Mindy Kaling’s humour, I’m not a detractor either, and I must acknowledge that she brilliantly writes annoying characters to make fun of them.

Are the five of them annoying? No, but a couple of them, certainly they’re, and it’s part of their charm.

Even the title of the series, even when it plays with a double meaning, is mocking their characters by treating them like useless or like it’s happening nowadays, like “not ready” to face the savage working marketplace.

3. The Witness

Genre: Drama, Crime
Episodes: 3 episodes | 1 season
Runtime: 60 min/episode
Release date: 4th June 2026
Available on: Netflix (worldwide)

When Netflix produces a British mini-series, you have the guarantee of getting a quality show. The Witness is not the exception.

The three-part mini-series is based on the murder of Rachel Nickell that took place in 1992 and left Britain devastated. Rachel was viciously stabbed 49 times in daylight while she was walking on Wimbledon Common with her 2-year-old son, Alex, the only witness to the crime.

The series doesn’t focus on the police investigation but on how Alex and his father, André, must endure their loss and grief while they’re pursued by the media. The series addresses heavy topics, and they become heavier because this happened in real life; this is not fiction.

Jack Seale from The Guardian gave The Witness four stars out of five, and he expresses an interesting point in his review: “It is a crime that has been discussed, analysed and dramatised, but never quite in the way The Witness does. Across its three episodes, narrative emphasis rarely falls where we expect it to, because the main characters are not the police or the killer but the family Rachel left behind: Alex (Jahsaiah Williams, then Max Fincham as the older boy) and his devastated father André (Jordan Bolger). This harrowing new perspective proves to be rewarding.”

My Verdict: As a woman and as a mother, The Witness hit me hard because it’s a reminder of how cruel and unsafe the world we live in is. But also, it shows how ugly society is as a whole.

The pressure the media and the police put on this father and son goes beyond any limits. A child so young carried the weight of being the key to solving the murder of his mother when he didn’t have the tools and skills to communicate properly yet, but the adults’ world was time-pressured over and over again.

The media, which has a dark and nasty history in Britain, proved again to have no ethics when it comes to getting a scoop. From a production point of view, I find The Witness to be a great value, with an accurate recreation of the time period the story is set in and strong performances, especially from the young Jahsaiah Williams as 2-year-old Alex Hanscombe.

If you haven’t watched The Witness yet and don’t have the time to engage in a longer series, then this miniseries is the best option for you.

4. Cape Fear

Genre: Suspense, Crime, Drama, Thriller
Episodes: 10 episodes | 1 season
Runtime: 55 min/episode
Release date: 5th June 2026
Available on: Apple TV (worldwide)
Content warning: explicit violence and suicide scenes. Some content may not be suitable for sensitive viewers.

Cape Fear is the third adaptation of the novel The Executioners written by John D. MacDonald in 1957, and the first adaptation as a TV show. The other two iterations have become classic thriller and horror films.

The first one starring Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck was directed by J. Lee Thompson in 1962. The second one, directed by Martin Scorsese in 1991, became a success thanks to the stunning performance of Robert De Niro, who was seconded by Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, and Juliette Lewis.

This time, the direction is in the hands of Nick Antosca, who is known as the creator of series like Channel Zero, A Friend of the Family and The Act. Starring Amy Adams, Patrick Wilson, and Javier Bardem, the plot follows the bones of the novel and previous films, with Max Cady (Bardem), a dangerous and deadly ex-convict who is released from prison and starts a revenge against his former lawyer Anna Bowden (Adams) and her family.

Some changes have been made from the novel and the other films, updating the story and characters to current times. If you’re familiar with the previous films, then you know that Max Cady represents the worst of humankind with a psychotic mind and a manipulative character.

Mitchum and De Niro did an amazing job portraying him from different approaches. When you think they can’t be beaten, then comes Javier Bardem, taking the evil to another whole new level.

Cape Fear delivers the quality in filming and performances that has become a signature of Apple TV shows. It’s worth noting that Cape Fear is not an Apple production persé.

Sikelia Productions, Amblin Entertainment, Eat the Cat, and Universal Content Production are the companies behind the series, with Apple being the exclusive streamer. Sikelia is the company owned by Martin Scorsese, who is one of the executive producers along with Steven Spielberg, who owns Amblin Entertainment.

The critics all agree this is one of the best productions of the year, and honestly, they are right. Lucy Mangan from The Guardian gave Cape Fear five stars out of five, and she summarised her review saying that “Bardem has the absolute time of his life terrifying everyone in this remake of the classic thriller. It’s a masterclass in tension, sublime directing, and never forgets the power of a jump scare.”

My verdict: When I first heard that a Cape Fear remake was in the works, I was sceptical about this. After two classic films adapting the same book, do we really need another Cape Fear adaptation?

Well, maybe not, but it’s like the internet meme “this is the series I didn’t know I needed”. In 1991, when Scorsese’s Cape Fear was released, my parents said the same because they thought that the Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck version was unbeatable, but De Niro proved them wrong.

Well, now I’m in the same place as them, and this TV show demonstrated to me that if you have the right cast with the right ideas, remakes can be the vehicle to keep updated a book or a classic movie.

From the technical point of view, Cape Fear distilled the quality of all Apple shows that seem to be like movies split into episodes. The colour palette and hue saturation look as if it were shot on 35 mm film, giving it a retro style even when the story is set in the present time.

The reason I started watching this series is because of the three big names of Adams, Wilson, and Bardem, but the whole cast, even the kids, deliver strong performances. There is something addictive in how every episode is built.

Even when there are scenes depicting extremely explicit violent situations, they are functional to the story development and not just for the sake of it. Once you enter the game of manipulation, lies, and secrets that the characters are immersed in, there’s no turning back.

Definitely, Cape Fear is one of the surprises of this summer season.

5. The Polygamist

Genre: Drama
Episodes: 22 episodes | 1 season
Runtime: 26 min/episode
Release date: 12th June 2026
Available on: Netflix (worldwide)

First of all, my kudos to Netflix for producing international shows that put on the worldwide spotlight countries and productions that otherwise would be only known locally. This is not new from Netflix, but I’m thankful for this.

The Polygamist is a South African production spoken in Zulu that can be defined as a concentrated telenovela. With half an hour per episode and a total running of 22 episodes, The Polygamist has a fast-paced narrative following the style and tropes from classic telenovelas.

The series is based on the novel of the same name by Zimbabwean author Sue Nyathi, who has self-published her book, and now she’s seeing how sales have rocketed thanks to the series. Besides becoming one of the most-watched Netflix series among the African audience, The Polygamist reached the top ten around the world.

Overall, the series can be described as an addictive guilty pleasure like most Netflix productions. However, as it happens with traditional telenovelas, it addresses cultural and social issues that have resonated within African society.

An article written by Grace Khunou for The Conversation website talks about this and provides a great frame to understand the different scenarios in the series.

The story begins with the funeral of Jonasi Gomora, a successful banking CEO. His wife Joyce seems to hate him, and immediately there is a flashback to what happened five years earlier.

Jonesi was a polygamist, but he can be labelled as a cheater instead. Polygamy is legal in most African countries, and it relies on common agreements, respect, and the welfare of children.

But Jonasi keeps his wives in secret; he lies, and he ends up trading his family for a younger mistress.

The series uses this situation to evidence the double ethic or “multiple conscience” as Khunou defines it in her article, that Black people in South Africa suffer from the years of European colonialism. The clash of cultures and beliefs, along with the imposition of capitalism, has driven most black people to live trying to be up to both expectations.

The Polygamist could be a frenetic telenovela, but it doesn’t mean that’s something negative.

My Verdict: Telenovelas are not my thing because of the length; they usually require a commitment for a whole year, so The Polygamist has proved to suit my watching habits. Besides this convenience, the fast-paced drama hooked me from the beginning, alongside the strong performances.

Even when the series addresses South African cultural issues, some topics like love, betrayal, and relationships know no borders and have a universal appeal. Some reviews label The Polygamist as junk TV; maybe The Polygamist is not as deep as other series from this season, but it’s far from being junk.

I recommend this series, and I highly recommend watching it in Zulu, its original language, in which you can appreciate the strong performances by the actors.

6. I Will Find You

Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Episodes: 8 episodes | 1 season
Runtime: 50 min/episode
Release date: 18th June 2026
Available on: Netflix (worldwide)

Netflix series are designed to be binged in one sitting in the same fashion you devour a best-selling novel on the beach. So if you put Harlan Coben and Netflix together, the math is easy.

I Will Find You is like eating a bag of candies while drinking your favourite soda. Yes, it’s addictive, and you need to watch the next episode right after the other.

Is this a negative trait? Of course not!

But I mention this because I came across a couple of negative reviews labelling the series as mediocre due to these features. You may or may not like this type of show; in fact, Netflix series vary in quality, but you know the rules of most mini series by the red N.

They’re meant to be binged on a weekend, to be forgotten the next day, so you’re ready for the next series. I Will Find You has a simple, starting, thrilling point that can be summarised like “what would you do if you’re in prison with a life sentence for being accused of killing your son and you find out that your son is alive?”

David Burroughs (Sam Worthington) is in this very situation. He has been in prison for five years after being declared guilty of killing his 3-year-old son Matthew with a baseball bat.

He always has claimed his innocence, but a witness’s declaration sent him right to prison. An unexpected visit from his ex-sister-in-law puts his world upside down with the possibility that his son is still alive, living with another family.

The rest to come is a wild trip that is worthy of enjoying during the eight episodes that comprise the series. Sam Worthington is supported by a strong cast featuring Britt Lower (Severance), Chi McBride (Hawaii 5.0), Logan Browning (Dear White People), Erin Richards (Gotham), Jonathan Tucker (Kingdom), and Milo Ventimiglia (This Is Us), among others.

My verdict: I Will Find You is a classic Coben’s thriller, with some big names in its cast that have proved to be pure entertainment. You can’t ask more from this premise.

For this short review, my intention was to watch the first three episodes, but instead, I ended up watching five. I got caught in Netflix’s trap of binging not because of the quality of the series, as it happened to me with Apple’s Cape Fear, but because Netflix’s series are created to be consumed like this.

I’m not a fan of Coben’s books because they belong to the type of literature that can be compared to junk food. But I’m very aware that both the series and probably the novel are great as entertainment, as a bag of French fries and a burger are a pleasure to eat now and then.

7. Elle

Genre: Comedy, Drama
Episodes: 9 episodes | 1 season
Runtime: 45 min/episode
Release date: 1st July 2026
Available on: Prime Video (worldwide)

There seems to be no middle ground when it comes to critics giving a final thought about Elle. Everything is black and white.

Elle is a Prime Video TV show working as a prequel to the Legally Blonde films. The films that launched Reese Witherspoon’s acting career now find her as the producer of this prequel.

And here comes the main issue. The Legally Blonde films are 25 years old, and even though the first movie has a strong fanbase and has reached the category of cult film, the series relies mostly on nostalgia.

Set in 1995, the series takes place during the six years leading up to the events of the movie. It follows Elle Woods, who has just turned 16, as she rushes to Seattle after her father, a cosmetic surgeon, falls into disgrace due to a failed nose surgery on a famous woman.

For Elle, leaving behind Beverly Hills implies much more than changing her city and school. All her lifestyle is upside down from one day to another.

Rainy Seattle has no appeal for fashionista Elle, who is used to sunny California and lives in pink like a Barbie. If you don’t know anything about Legally Blonde and enter into the code of the series as a stand-alone story, you’re going to enjoy it much more than if you go expecting something similar to the films.

Still, I don’t get the backlash coming from several critics. Of course, we aren’t talking about a very deep series, but as a show aimed at teens, it’s enjoyable.

My verdict: It has been a long time since I last watched the Legally Blonde films. Even when I find them cute and fun, I don’t belong to the cult fanbase.

So, for me, Elle is like watching a stand-alone series, because I recall the general idea of the films but not in detail. I don’t think it’s a bad series, but I acknowledge the issues it may pose, heavily relying on nostalgia.

One thing I truly celebrate is that this is a family-friendly TV show I can enjoy with my daughters, who think Elle is some version of Malibu Barbie. I want to highlight Lexi Minetree’s performance as Elle, capturing Reese Witherspoon’s portrayal of the character.

Maybe Elle is not the strongest release this summer season, but it’s family-friendly, and that’s a positive point for me.

8. The Five Star Weekend

Genre: Drama
Episodes: 8 episodes | 1 season
Runtime: 50 min/episode
Release date: 9th July 2026
Available on: Peacock TV (the US)

The Five Star Weekend is an original Peacock production adapting the beach read novel of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand. Jennifer Gardner leads an ensemble cast of talented ladies, featuring Gemma Chan, D’Arcy Carden, Regina Hall, and Chloë Sevigny.

The story follows Hollis Shaw (Gardner), a food influencer who lost her husband in a car accident. Six months later, struggling with her grief and following the advice of her agent, she invites four friends from different stages of her life for a “five-star weekend” at her house on Nantucket.

Tatum (Sevigny) is Hollis’ childhood friend with whom she grew up, but lately they have been distant. Dru-Ann (Hall), now a sports agent, is Hollis’ friend from college.

Brooke (Carden) is Hollis’ motherhood friend, and finally Gigi (Chan), a commercial airline pilot, whom she met online as a follower of her food blog. As you can imagine, the premise of a perfect weekend is not going to be so perfect.

Hollis’ friends don’t know each other very well and often don’t get along. However, three of them come together when it comes to Gigi, the mysterious follower of Hollis with whom she has opened up about her grief while pushing away her lifelong friends.

During the weekend getaway, Caroline, Hollis’ daughter, is taking a break from college; the ladies ask her to stay so she can take pictures of them. However, each friend, including the host, keeps secrets from the others.

Towards the first episode’s ending, a little bomb is dropped regarding Gigi, reinforcing the general suspicion about her. Five Star Weekend is a follow-by-number template of this kind of story, but once you enter the game, it’s an enjoyable viewing.

My verdict: Honestly, when I first read the plot for this series, it didn’t catch my attention at all. But after watching the first episode, I got hooked.

I just realised that I’m in the target audience, ouch! And with the years comes the experience, and I know I can’t ask more of this type of series.

Nevertheless, the strongest aspect of this show is the casting choice, which is almost perfect. Big names and big talents for a small TV show meant to be a summer entertainment are perhaps too much.

When a plot is simple and predictable, talented actresses from diverse backgrounds can elevate it significantly, and in this case, it works wonderfully.

The Five Star Weekend is a guilty pleasure aimed at women in their 40s and 50s who want to disconnect from their daily lives and dream they have a rich friend inviting them for a weekend sleepover in her fancy house at Nantucket. For me, it works wonderfully!

9. Little House on the Prairie

Genre: Drama, Romance, Family, Western
Episodes: 8 episodes | 1 season
Runtime: 50 min/episode
Release date: 9th July 2026
Available on: Netflix (worldwide)

When Netflix announced a reboot of Little House on the Prairie a year and a half ago, I rolled my eyes, because can we leave the classics alone? Little House on the Prairie has been a TV classic for over 50 years and is still available on TV and streaming services.

The Ingalls family has impacted every generation since the series first aired. But we already know that remakes and milking the nostalgia cow are the tools of the trade of the entertainment industry right now.

However, Little House on the Prairie is a book series aimed at children written by Laura Ingalls Wilder, the main protagonist of the series. Wilder wrote the books as an account of her childhood with her errant family in the shape of children’s literature that is still published and read by many children around the world.

The 1974 series was loosely inspired by the books, omitting some characters, introducing new ones, and even recycling scripts from Bonanza; after all, Michael Landon was involved in both series. Something that can’t be denied is the production quality of this show, which still today looks amazing.

What truly has made the series unforgettable is the ensemble cast, which continues to be cherished and remembered. So, Netflix must live up to all this baggage: fan nostalgia, high production values, a charismatic cast, and a compelling tale of a pioneer family in the wake of America’s beginning.

The Netflix series starts with the Ingalls family leaving their small house in the woods to search for a better life in the West. The family consists of Pa Charles, Ma Caroline, Laura and Mary.

In the first episode, they arrived in Independence, a developing town in Kansas where people sought free land to build their homes. However, things aren’t easy because the land belongs to the Osage Nation, a Native American tribe.

With no money left, the Ingalls need to build their home as soon as possible, before winter comes and the baby on the way is born. The new series rescues a character from the books that was omitted from the classic series, Dr George Tann, a free black man who helps and saves the family on several occasions.

Rebecca Sonnenshine is the showrunner, and her cast choices have been accurate. Australian actor Luke Bracey plays Charles Ingalls, Crosby Fitzgerald plays Caroline Ingalls, Alice Halsey plays Laura Ingalls, Skywalker Hughes plays Mary Ingalls, Alyssa Wapanatâhk plays White Sun, and Wren Zhawenim Gotts plays Good Eagle.

My verdict: After watching the first episode, I am still unsure if I like it or not. From a technical point of view, this is a great period production that has taken its time and work to recreate clothes and sets from more than 150 years ago.

But my issue is related to the pacing and how the characters are written. The classic series was not so faithful to the books, nor is this version.

Although Sonneshine has rescued characters forgotten in the original series, she has been overly concerned with political correctness, which leads to portrayals that differ significantly from the books. And this is what happens when a story with more than a century is brought to this time.

For the sake of not being offensive to current audiences, the historical background of characters, like their cultural ideology, gets lost in translation. But, well, this is a whole new discussion that’s not meant to be addressed here.

Probably, the main flaw I find in this version is the lack of presence from the characters, like Luke Bracey, who doesn’t fill Charles Ingalls’ boots as Michael Landon did. For a moment, I thought that this series might work better with new generations who haven’t been exposed to the classic series.

So, I made an experiment. I’ve watched this first episode with my 6-year-old daughters, the same age I was when I started watching the classic series.

They find it “dull and dark”. Then, we watched the first episode of the 1974 series, and they loved it because it had “brighter colours” and the characters were “funnier”.

Take note, Netflix, kids love colourful series with relatable characters.

10. Agent Kim Reactivated

Genre: K-drama, Action, Thriller, Crime
Episodes: 10 episodes | 1 season
Runtime: 60 min/episode
Release date: 11th July 2026
Available on: Netflix (worldwide)

Always trust a Korean production to be one of the best series of the season. Agent Kim Reactivated premiered on SBS TV on 26th June 2026, in South Korea.

On 11th July, the six episodes that had aired were added to Netflix, and now one new episode will be added each week until the series concludes its run. Agent Kim Reactivated doesn’t deliver an original idea; we have seen it a couple of times already, but this is not about the what but about the how.

The series is based on the Manager Kim webtoon, a spin-off of the webtoon Lookism. The story follows Kim Do-hyeon, an ordinary office worker for a financial company, who is raising his teenage daughter alone after the death of his wife.

His daughter, Kim Min-ji, is a 16-year-old girl who is the victim of bullying at school by three popular girls. When Min-ji is fed up with her classmates’ abuse and defends herself by attacking one of the girls, things get out of control.

One of the bullies happens to be the daughter of construction executive Joo Kang-chan, a powerful and influential man. Min-ji mysteriously disappears, and everything points to her bullies.

Kim Do-hyeon decides to look for his daughter by using his skills as a former North Korean agent who has surrendered to South Korea and has been hiding for years. As you can see, the overall plot is very similar to Taken, the film starring Liam Neeson.

But Agent Kim Reactivated takes this concept to another level and uses the action-packed thriller tropes to criticise South Korea’s legal system.

My verdict: Agent Kim Reactivated has been a pleasant surprise for me. The first episode strikes a good balance between drama and humour while taking its time to introduce the characters.

Kim’s secret is revealed at the end of the episode, creating a great cliffhanger. Even when Taken was my first thought when I heard about the overall premise, the approach is very different.

Also, the series puts on the table several conversations about current and universal topics like bullying, the relationship between parents and children, and the importance of dialogue. Definitely, one of my favourite series of this season.

11. The Westies

Genre: Drama, Crime
Episodes: 8 episodes | 1 season
Runtime: 50 min/episode
Release date: 12th July 2026
Available on: MGM+ (the US, the UK, Latin America, Europe), Paramount+ (Canada), Prime Video (the US, Latin America, Europe), Stan (Australia), Fubo (the US), Philo (the US)

Chris Brancato has experience writing about people involved in illicit activities. After all, he is the creator of Narcos, Narcos Mexico, Godfather of Harlem, and Hotel Cocaine.

And now comes The Westies, the third collaboration between Brancato and MGM+, and of course, it’s about the war and alliance between the Irish and Italian mobs in New York during the 80s. Starring J.K. Simmons as the Irish godfather Eamon Sweeney, The Westies is not based on real individuals but is inspired by how the Irish and Italian mobs operated in the 1980s in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood.

Sweeney just made a truce with the Gambino clan to get his part of the cake by keeping control of the construction of the Javits Center. But the truce is always in danger because Sweeney’s subordinates are reluctant to accept it.

Jimmy Roarke (Tom Brittney) is Sweeney’s right-hand man who has to deal with the mess his comrades do, including saving his best friend Sean Flynn (Rohan Mead), a Vietnam ex-soldier suffering from PTSD and recently released from a psychiatric institution, by killing an Italian mob member.

Then, there is NYPD officer Glenn Keenan, played by Titus Welliver, who has known Sweeney all his life. Keenan has issues with drinking and also gambling.

He’s contacted by Special FBI agent Birdie Polk, played by Jessica Frances Dukes, who is in charge of the investigation into the Gambino family. Keenan enters the game and agrees to work as an infiltrator, but he plays the double agent card.

The Westies drinks a lot from Peaky Blinders and The Sopranos, with a high-value production recreating New York from the 80s, filmed with a filter that emulates the colour of films from that time period. According to the creators, they didn’t use AI to recreate the sets; everything was done in the old way by building a set in Toronto.

Overall, the critics have given The Westies positive reviews, and the series is among the best from this season.

My verdict: Even when TV shows and films related to gangsters and mafia are not my top pick, I must say that The Westies is right now among my favourite TV shows of this season. When I heard that JK Simmons was in the lead role, it was the incentive I needed to watch it.

And I wasn’t disappointed. The first thing that caught my attention was the production detail in recreating Hell’s Kitchen in the 80s, and secondly, the colour filter that emulates an old film from that decade.

For a moment, I felt like going back to my childhood. Regarding the story and the performance, it’s great that The Westies accounts for the Irish mob that has almost no representation in films and TV shows.

Overall, I’ve enjoyed the first episode, and I’ll keep watching this series weekly.

12. Lucky

Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Episodes: 7 episodes | 1 season
Runtime: 50 min/episode
Release date: 15th July 2026
Available on: Apple TV (worldwide)

The latest release this summer is Lucky, a thriller by Apple Studios featuring Anya Taylor-Joy as the lead character, Luciana “Lucky” Armstrong, a con artist abandoned by her husband after a multi-million-dollar heist. And when I said abandoned, I mean the guy just disappeared with a suitcase carrying millions of dollars.

Now the FBI and a deadly mob boss, Wayne Whittaker, are after her. Lucky’s mother-in-law, Priscilla, is Whittaker’s right hand and is sent to catch her.

Priscilla is masterfully played by Annette Bening. As I always say, the Apple TV shows and films are the best productions right now, going head-to-head with HBO.

The series is inspired by the 2021 novel of the same name by Marissa Stapley, who partly based the book on a scam that affected her mother. Lucky mostly relies on Taylor-Joy’s amazing performance, driving the audience through all Lucky’s tribulations as she tries to stay alive and get out of the criminal life in which she was raised.

I totally agree with Rafael Motamayor’s statement on his review for The Wrap: “There is a good balance of episodic and serialised storytelling, making this not a 7-hour movie, but a book turned into a TV show, with clear act breaks and a narrative that fits this medium.”

Most Apple TV shows resemble films divided into episodes, but Lucky honours the narrative structure of the novel, allowing the audience to experience the story in a unique way. Maybe the reason is that this series is released weekly, and it wasn’t conceived to be binged on its release.

My verdict: At this point, it is no secret that I’m a huge fan of Apple productions, so when Lucky was announced, it was automatically added to my must-watch list. Stories about scams and con-artists have always been of interest to me.

However, Lucky is not about the scam itself; it’s about the complicated bond between nature and nurture, and the eternal debate about which one has more importance in the outcome of a person’s life.

Lucky was raised by a con-artist father who is currently in prison. She learned all the tricks from him.

This led her to get romantically involved with a con-artist, the son of a criminal boss. It’s like she can’t break the circle of bad decisions and crime that has been all her life.

So, on the surface, the series follows all the tropes of the typical cat-and-mouse game between a criminal and the FBI, but this is just the excuse to explore the bond between parents and children, whether Lucky and her father, or her husband Cory and his mother.

This dynamic is what makes Lucky unique inside the genre, not because these topics haven’t been explored before, but because they’re the engine to portray a woman who wants to leave behind her criminal life but seems to fail every time. Anya Taylor-Joy playing the titular character was an extra to catch my interest, but when I saw Annette Bening as Priscilla, Apple already sold me the series.

Summary

This summer season has been excellent. All series are pure entertainment in different quality degrees.

There are shows for all tastes, but something I really appreciate is that we get two family TV shows: Elle and Little House on the Prairie.

Family shows are less common now, but they provide a great option for parents with young children to enjoy together without worrying about inappropriate content.

And for the rest of the shows, there is plenty of action and suspense to enjoy. The thrillers have been the winners this summer.

I hope you enjoyed these shows as much as I did.

Let me know which is your favourite by dropping some lines in the message box!

Don’t forget to grab ExpressVPN if you’re heading overseas or unable to access the streaming service showing the TV series you want to watch.