New TV Shows To Watch This Weekend

House of the Dragon – Season 3 (HBO Max)

The third season of Game Of Thrones spinoff, House of the Dragon, returns this Sunday with its season premiere. The episode is all about the Battle of the Gullet, the largest and most devastating naval battle in the history of Westeros. The prequel series was much-lauded in its first season, but faced quite a lot of pushback in Season 2, including from George R.R. Martin himself, over changes to the original story from Fire & Blood. In many ways, the second season simply didn’t push the story forward, leaving us at much the same point we were at by the end of Season 1. Season 3 has gotten much better reviews so far, with a 95% Rotten Tomatoes score (compared to 90% in Season 1 and 84% in Season 2). That’s good news! As I noted above, my own reviews are forthcoming.

Sugar – Season 2 (Apple TV)

I can think of very few shows with a more shocking twist than Apple TV’s Sugar. It’s such a shocking twist that I won’t spoil it here. The story follows private detective John Sugar (Colin Farrell) as he investigates the disappearance of the granddaughter of a wealthy movie producer in Hollywood. Things get weird. I’m very excited to start Season 2.

I Will Find You (Netflix)

Netflix’s latest miniseries based on a Harlan Coben novel stars Sam Worthington, Milo Ventimiglia, Erin Richards and Britt Lower of Severance fame. I Will Find You is based on the novel of the same name and tells the story of a man wrongly imprisoned for the murder of his son, who may actually still be alive. I’ve read one Coben novel and I was not a fan, but hopefully this is good – though a 64% RT score is only just barely fresh. I was perusing reviews and this audience review caught my eye: “I really liked it. Yes, it is missing some key elements like character development, believable plot points and the wrap up at the very end was the most unsatisfying lazily written epilogue I could imagine to the story - but I was hooked from the beginning.” Lol.

The Capture – Season 3 (Peacock)

I’ve had several readers tell me that I need to start watching the British police conspiracy series, The Capture, and it’s on my list! The show stars Holliday Grainger (who is excellent in the detective series, Strike) as Rachel Carey, a Metropolitan Police detective who finds herself in the middle of a vast high-tech conspiracy involving deepfake technology. It looks great!

The Agency – Season 2 (Paramount+)

Michael Fassbender, Jeffrey Wright, Jodie Turner-Smith and Richard Gere star in this espionage thriller about a spy ordered to abandon his undercover identity and return to real life. While this kind of thing is right up my alley, I didn’t actually watch the first season though, like so many shows and movies, it’s on my list! While there aren’t enough reviews in for a Rotten Tomatoes consensus on the second season, the ones I’ve seen tend to be quite positive. The entire season drops this Sunday on Paramount+.

New Movies To Watch This Weekend

I Am Frankelda (Netflix)

I do love stop-motion animated movies and I Am Frankelda (or Soy Frankelda in Spanish) looks delightfully bizarre. The first-ever Mexican-made stop-motion film, the musical follows writer Frankelda as she journeys into her own subconscious where the monsters she created come to life. On her journey she meets a prince trapped inside of a nightmare and the wicked writer, Procustes. It sounds very creative, though the actual musical numbers have gotten mixed feedback.

Voicemails For Isabelle (Netflix)

Netflix’s new rom-com stars Zoey Deutch as Jill, who leaves voicemails for her dead sister, Isabelle, as a way to deal with her grief. The twist? A man named Wes (Nick Robinson) has been given Isabelle’s old number and apparently not set up a new voicemail message or something, because he’s been listening to all her voicemails and slowly falling for Jill in the process.

A couple other older films are landing on streaming services this weekend, with horror hit, Wolf Man, out on Peacock and sci-fi action film, The Creator, landing on Hulu.

New Movies In Theaters This Weekend

Toy Story 5

The Toys are back in the fifth Toy Story installment, this time tackling the rise of screens and the threat tech devices pose to traditional play. I haven’t seen this one yet, but I’m excited for another adventure with Woody, Buzz and the gang, even if the ending of Toy Story 3 remains the perfect end to a perfect trilogy.

The Death Of Robin Hood

Hugh Jackman, Jodie Comer and Bill Skarsgård star in auteur director, Michael Sarnoski’s latest film. The director of Pig and A Quiet Place: Day One tackles notions of myth and legend in this story of an aging Robin Hood who meets a mysterious woman and a young girl and, perhaps, a shot at redemption. It’s an interesting concept, but the film has had very mixed reviews so far.

TV Shows Currently Streaming Weekly

From – Season 4 (MGM+)

We’re down to just two more episodes of MGM+ horror mystery box series, From. I have mixed feelings about the season as a whole. While it started off strong, some of the most intriguing parts of the story have been all but abandoned. What happened to the Lake of Tears? Or Julie’s story-walking? Why do they spend so much time treading water. Widow’s Bay managed to tell a tighter, more exciting story in ten half-hour episodes, and I suspect that From would be better with shorter episodes and less filler as well. A lot of fans are also mad that we haven’t gotten very many answers, but I’m not really bothered by this so much. I expect we’ll get some big revelations by the end of the season but that most loose threads won’t be tied up until Season 5. Read my review of Episode 8 right here. New episodes drop on Sundays, with the finale airing on June 28.

The Legend of Vox Machina – Season 4 (Prime Video)

Since they’re releasing these three episodes at a time, Critical Role’s animated fantasy series, The Legend of Vox Machina, is almost done airing its fourth season. I’m not quite caught up on this, but so far I’m very much enjoying the adventures of Vex and Vax, Grog and Pike, Percy and Keyleth and all the colorful characters and outlandish situations they find themselves in.

The one thing I don’t love? Scanlan isn’t in this season. Following the character’s path from the Critical Role campaign, he’s out of the group for now, replaced by Taryon “Tary” Darrington (voiced by Wayne Brady). Darrington is a fun new character, but I miss Scanlan. Three new episodes drop each Thursday on Prime Video for a total of 12, with the final three landing on June 24.

Star City (Apple TV)

Apple TV’s hit sci-fi series, For All Mankind, explores a “what if” scenario: What if the Soviet Union had landed the first man on the moon, propelling a real space race that hadn’t fizzled out decades ago? Star City takes us to the other side of the Iron Curtain, exploring this hypothetical scenario from the Soviet side. The series currently holds a 97% Rotten Tomatoes score. New episodes drop weekly on Thursday evenings for a total of eight episodes, with the finale airing on July 9.

Cape Fear (Apple TV)

Javier Bardem and Amy Adams star in this television series based on the novel The Executioners and its two film adaptations (1962 and 1991) both of which were also called Cape Fear. The story follows vicious ex-con, Max Cady (Bardem) and his revenge plot against married couple Tom (Patrick Wilson) and Anna Bowden (Adams). The series holds a 76% on Rotten Tomatoes. New episodes drop Thursday evenings for a total of 10 episodes, with the finale landing on July 30.

The Vampire Lestat (AMC+)

The Vampire Lestat follows the vampire, Lestat (Sam Reid), as he becomes a rockstar (Anne Rice based his persona on Jim Morrison of The Doors) and tries to set the record straight via his own autobiography rather than leave history to his old friend and rival, Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson) and his infamous interview from Interview With A Vampire. New episodes drop on Sundays on AMC+ for a total of seven episodes, with the finale airing on July 19.

Dutton Ranch – Season 1 (Paramount+)

Yellowstone spinoff, Dutton Ranch, ollows Rip and Beth from Montana to Texas where they try to live a life of peace, somehow not realizing that if you own a ranch in Taylor Sheridan’s universe, someone will try to take it from you and kill you in the process. Critics and fans are all pretty upbeat about Dutton Ranch, with an 89% / 85% critic-audience split. The new show also stars Annette Benning and and Ed Harris. New episodes drop weekly on Fridays for a total of nine episodes, with the finale airing on July 3.

Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed (Apple TV)

Tatiana Maslany stars in Apple TV’s new dark comedy series, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed, as a divorced fact-checker who forms an online relationship with a male sex worker and finds herself the target of a blackmail scheme. Things get darker from there. It has excellent reviews from both fans and critics. New episodes drop on Tuesday evenings, with the finale landing on July 14.

Check out the week before last’s streaming guide below:

What are you watching these days? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook.