Sorry to kick off the month with bad news, but Paramount+, Peacock, and Max are raising their prices soon. By how much? CableTV.com’s chief financial/anime reporter, Olivia Bono, has all the details.
This week’s What to Watch picks include the new season premiere of The Bachelorette, the final episodes of Vikings: Valhalla, new series Exploding Kittens and Sunny, the broadcast TV debut of Sylvester Stallone’s Tulsa King, and the 2024 ESPY Awards. Crank the AC and get watching!
What’s new on TV this week
Season 21 premiere, Monday, July 8: It only took 20 seasons, but The Bachelorette finally has an Asian-American leading lady: Jenn Tran, a 26-year-old physician assistant from Miami. You may remember Tran from season 28 of The Bachelor (the Joey Graziadei season). “I feel so grateful and so honored to be the first Asian bachelorette in this franchise,” Tran said on the season finale of The Bachelor, slightly overstating the prestige and gravity of a reality TV dating show.
The ESPYS | ABC | Sports, awards
Special, Thursday, July 11: Tennis icon Serena Williams hosts the 2024 ESPY Awards, which will feature over 20 trophy categories for NFL, NBA, NHL, WNBA, UFC, boxing, soccer, golf, tennis, racing, and winter sports athletes over three primetime hours. There will also be three special awards: Former NFL safety Steve Gleason will receive the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage, USC coach Dawn Staley will receive the Jimmy V Award for Perseverance, and Prince Harry (???) will receive the Pat Tillman Award for Service.
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What to watch on Netflix this week
Vikings: Valhalla | Netflix | Drama
Season 3 premiere, Thursday, July 11: Vikings sequel series Valhalla comes to an end with its third season, as Harald Sigurdsson (Leo Suter), Leif Eriksson (Sam Corlett), and Freydís Eiríksdóttir (Frida Gustavsson) cut their final violent swaths through Norse mythology and true-ish European history. “Where do you go when you’ve lost everything? You go back home,” Harald proclaims in the final season opener. But Leif has eyes on the far west, while Freydís faces being burned at the stake. D-R-A-M-A.
Exploding Kittens | Netflix | Animation, comedy
Series premiere, Friday, July 12: King of the Hill producers Greg Daniels and Mike Judge are reunited in Exploding Kittens, a new animated series based on the popular card game. Purists may be wondering, “Will the TV adaptation stay true to the integrity of the game?” Let’s see: God (voiced, ironically, by Lucifer’s Tom Ellis) is banished to Earth as a housecat living next door to the Antichrist (Sasheer Zamata, Saturday Night Live), who is also a housecat. Meanwhile, the apocalypse looms. Yeah, this all checks out.
What to watch on Apple TV+ this week
Sunny | Apple TV+ | Comedy, drama, sci-fi
Series premiere, Wednesday, July 10: Looking to fill that uncomfortably weird, sci-fi-adjacent dark dramedy void left by Severance? Apple TV+ has the answer in Sunny (don’t let the title fool you). Suzie (Rashida Jones), an American expat living in Japan, is devastated when her son and husband go missing after a plane crash. But when her husband’s tech company sends her a domestic robot, Sunny, she begins investigating their suspicious disappearance with her new “friend.” See? Dark and weird.
Me | Apple TV+ | Family, sci-fi
Series premiere, Friday, July 12: A far more wholesome superhero-coming-of-age story than The Boys’ spinoff Gen V, Me follows preteen Ben (Lucian-River Chauhan) as he endures middle school, his newly-blended family, and now, the realization that he has superpowers. Unexpectedly, his new stepsister, Max (Abigail Pniowsky), becomes his closest ally in navigating what comes next (which absolutely includes at least one fight with a school bully). All 10 episodes stream on July 12.
More of what to watch on streaming this week
Sausage Party: Foodtopia | Prime Video | Animation, comedy
Series premiere, Thursday, July 11: In the 2016 animated comedy Sausage Party, food items in a supermarket came to foul-mouthed CGI life and attempted to escape their ultimate consumer fate. They did, which now leads to Sausage Party: Foodtopia, wherein Frank (voiced by Seth Rogan), Brenda (Kristen Wiig), Barry (Michael Cera), and Sammy Bagel Jr. (Edward Norton) establish a safe haven from becoming lunch. Will they live to see their natural expiration dates? All eight episodes drop on July 11.
Tulsa King | CBS, Paramount+ | Drama
Broadcast TV premiere, Sunday, July 14: The Paramount+ hits just keep coming to CBS as the 2022 Sylvester Stallone crime drama Tulsa King makes its (heavily language-edited) way to the airwaves. The fish-out-of-water setup: Dwight “The General” Manfredi (Stallone), fresh out of jail after 25 years, is charged by his NYC mob boss with setting up satellite crime operations in Tulsa, Oklahoma. It’s another Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone) joint, but Tulsa King carries a Sly sense of humor in its tough-guy swagger.
New movie releases available to rent/buy on VOD this week
The Bikeriders (2023)
Inspired by Danny Lyon’s 1968 photo book, The Bikeriders dramatizes the story of Chicago’s infamous Outlaws Motorcycle Club (presented here as the Vandals Motorcycle Club). The movie spans the ’60s and ’70s, chronicling the rise of the Vandals MC through the eyes of Johnny (Tom Hardy), Benny (Austin Butler), Benny’s wife Kathy (Jodie Comer), and a young photojournalism student named Danny Lyon (Mike Faist). The Bikeriders has been praised by critics for its “charismatic cast and the gritty authenticity of writer/director Jeff Nichols’ approach” (Rotten Tomatoes), as well as its period-perfect soundtrack.
- Arena Wars (July 9)
- The Bikeriders (July 9)
- The Blues Society (July 9)
- Cottontail (July 9)
- Dead Whisper (July 9)
- Dragonkeeper (July 9)
- Exposure (July 9)
- Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (July 9)
- Last County (July 9)
- The Mandela Effect Phenomenon (July 9)
- Paul & Trisha: The Art of Fluidity (July 9)
- Tiger Stripes (July 9)
- Titanic: The Musical (July 9)
- Hyperlink (July 12)
- The Inheritance (July 12)
- The Outlaws (July 12)
- Sorry/Not Sorry (July 12)
- Twice Colonized (July 12)
