Summer used to be the dumping ground for television: long hot days had to be spent outside rather than in because there was nothing new on TV. That’s all changing now that summer dramas like Orange Is the New Black, Mr. Robot and UnREAL are earning critical acclaim and prestigious awards.
And this summer, a particularly prestigious crop of filmmakers are leaping from silver screen to the small screen. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, , Cameron Crowe and Steven Zaillian are all premiering new shows. Here are the most-anticipated new television series to sustain you between trips to the beach.
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Preacher
Premieries May 22 on AMC
This isn’t your usual superhero show. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, the comedic duo behind movies like Pineapple Express and This Is the End, teamed up with former Breaking Bad writer Sam Catlin to adopt the 1990s DC comic books about a Texas preacher with special powers.
Roots
Premieres May 30 on A&E, History and Lifetime
One of the most famous miniseries of all time gets a remake. The second adaptation of Alex Haley’s novel will star Forest Whitaker, Laurence Fishburne, Anna Paquin, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Anika Noni Rose and T.I.
Outcast
Premieres June 3 on Cinemax
Another comic book series, this time with a horror twist. Patrick Fugit—the precocious child reporter from Almost Famous all grown up—stars as a man searching for the reason he’s been suffering from supernatural demonic possessions his entire life.
Feed the Beast
Premieres June 5 on AMC
Following his turn as Robert Kardashian in The People v. O.J. Simpson, David Schwimmer continues his comeback tour. In the new series, he and Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) star as a sommelier and chef struggling to open a restaurant in the Bronx together.
O.J.: Made in America
Airs June 11 on ABC & June 12 on ESPN
The OJ craze is still alive and well, this time in the form of a documentary. ESPN’s 30 for 30 team is taking an in-depth look at the life of O.J. Simpson, from his football career to the trial of the century, in a five-part series. The first episode will premiere on ABC (and ESPN the following day) with the remaining installments airing on ESPN.
Braindead
Premieres June 13 on CBS
The Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King return to politics, but with a twist. A young Hill staffer arrives in Washington to discover that the government has ground to a halt—because aliens are taking over the brains of D.C.’s congressman and staffers. The show stars Monk’s Tony Shalhoub and 10 Cloverfield Lane’s Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
American Gothic
Premieres June 22 on CBS
Steven Spielberg is producing this murder mystery TV show about a Boston family.
Roadies
Premieres June 26 on Showtime
Cameron Crowe is taking his talents to television for the first time. Mining the same territory as his film Almost Famous, he will write, direct and produce the hour-long show that follows the backstage crew at a series of concerts. The roadies will be actors, including Luke Wilson and Carla Gugino, but the bands will be real: The Head and the Heart will feature in the premiere. (J.J. Abrams will co-produce.)
The Night Of
Premieres July 10 on HBO
Schindler’s List writer Steven Zaillian teams up with The Wire vet Richard Price for this adaptation of the 2008 BBC series Criminal Justice. James Gandolfini was meant to star in the eight-part mini-series, but after his death, John Turturro took over the part of a defense attorney defending a Pakistani man (Nightcrawler‘s Riz Ahmed) accused of murdering a New York woman.
Stranger Things
Premieres July 15 on Netflix
Winona Ryder returns to the spotlight in this 1980s-set drama as a single mother whose son vanishes. In the search for her lost child, the mom begins to unravel a government conspiracy involving supernatural forces.
Vice Principals
Premieres July 17 on HBO
Eastbound & Down creators Danny McBride and Jody Hill are returning to HBO with another comedy. This time, McBride and Justified villain Walton Goggins face off as two vice principals competing for the head position at their high school. Bill Murray makes a cameo as the retiring principal whose spot they hope to take.
The Get Down
Premieres Aug. 12 on Netflix
From Moulin Rouge to The Great Gatsby, Baz Luhrmann has a reputation for spectacle. Now he’s helming Netflix’s ambitious musical television series, The Get Down, about a group of teenagers growing up in 1970s South Bronx during the rise of disco, punk and hip-hop. Grandmaster Flash, DJ Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa are serving as music consultants (and are being played by actors in the show).
Gomorrah
Premieres Aug. 24 on Sundance
One of the most popular TV shows in Italian history is getting an American adaptation. Based on the best-selling book of the same name by Roberto Saviano, the show follows a fictional crime family in the suburbs of Naples. Like The Wire, the Italian version of Gomorrah examined the hierarchy of crime from the street level up with the criminal organization’s “soldiers” as the main characters.
