Source : the age
Searching for a new TV show this month? I’m keen to see Stan’s take on the Australian medical drama, with The F Ward debuting from the team behind Bump, while Disney+’s Furious should provide a nail-biting psychological thriller.
Netflix
My top Netflix recommendation is The Hawk (July 16).
The comic stupidity meter is in the red when the pitch is Will Ferrell (Step Brothers) playing an idiotic former professional golfer returning to the pro circuit. With a blond thatch on his head and extreme entitlement, Ferrell stars as Lonnie ‘The Hawk’ Hawkins, who for reasons that are probably unimportant returns to the course. This creates friction with his pro golfer son Lance (Jimmy Tatro, American Vandal), current champion Golden Fisk (Luke Wilson, Old School) and Lonnie’s ex-wife Stacy (Molly Shannon, The White Lotus). Ferrell co-created the comedy, and the big question will be whether there’s a genuine story to go along with the bunker mishaps over 10 episodes.
Also on Netflix: We’ve recently had a spate of reboots updating shows from the 2000s but Little House on the Prairie (July 9) goes much further back. The original 19th-century family drama aired between 1974 and 1983, depicting life for the stoic Ingalls family in the tiny Minnesota town of Walnut Grove. The setting is the 1870s but it’s not a violent frontier western in the style of Deadwood. Australian actor Luke Bracey (Elvis) plays loving father and farmer Charles Ingalls, with Alice Halsey (Days of our Lives) as his wife Laura. The original show was faith-based but with a progressive outlook. Let’s see how Netflix threads that needle in 2026.
June highlights: The Harlan Coben conveyor belt delivered the Sam Worthington-led thriller I Will Find You, while Jennifer Lopez and Ted Lasso’s Brett Goldstein went romcom with Office Romance.
HBO Max
My top HBO Max recommendation is Stuart Fails to Save the Universe (July 24).
Speaking of spin-offs, the hit US network sitcom The Big Bang Theory has generated several, including Young Sheldon. This latest one is the oddest yet. The titular Stuart is Stuart Bloom (Kevin Sussman), who as the owner of the local comic-book store was a much-loved regular guest on a show about science geeks. This spin-off is a science-fiction comedy where parallel universes – mostly dystopian – cross over, with Stuart being the unlikely candidate to save multiple worlds. Think Peacemaker, The Matrix and Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Then add some more goofiness.
June highlights: Larry David gave American history the sketch-comedy show it deserves with Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness, and Australian comic Sam Campbell triumphed with the absurdist mockumentary Make That Movie.
Amazon Prime Video
My top Amazon Prime recommendation is Ride or Die (July 15).
It’s a common action-adventure trope: the covert secret agent who has to reveal their formidable skills to family and friends in order to save them. Think Netflix’s Back in Action or Apple TV’s The Family Plan. What matters is the chemistry between the apologetic assassin and their astounded accomplice. In that regard, this London-set series has potential, with the gun-toting Judith (Hannah Waddingham, Ted Lasso) trying to keep her bewildered best friend Debbie (Octavia Spencer, Truth Be Told) alive as hired killers swarm. The two leads should be able to riff well amid the fight scenes and, for added dry humour, Bill Nighy (Lazarus) plays a very British spymaster.
Also on Amazon Prime Video: It’s 25 years since Reese Witherspoon’s Elle Woods went from sorority queen to Harvard Law School in the hit comedy Legally Blonde. With Witherspoon as executive producer, backing up creator Laura Kittrell (Insecure), Elle (July 1) is a prequel series about the teenage Elle’s 1990s high school misadventures. Played by Lexi Minetree (The Murdaugh Murders), this equally blonde Elle has to start over when her family relocates from Los Angeles privilege to grunge-era Seattle. There are many flannel shirts in the trailer alone. Fingers crossed for a makeover sequence set to Hole.
June highlights: Only Nicolas Cage could have starred in Spider-Noir, a 1930s private-eye spin-off from the Spider-Man universe; plus the YA romantic regret drama Every Year After.
Stan*
My top Stan recommendation is The F Ward (July 17).
We’re going to need six episodes of medical drama, stat! From creators Kelsey Munro (Bump) and Dan Edwards (Year Of), this new Australian series is set in an underfunded Sydney public hospital where the line is being held by veteran doctors and the gifted but flawed interns on their last chance in the health system. Anna Friel (Marcella) and Dan Wyllie (Love My Way) play the former, Lola Bond (Upright) and Ioane Sa’ula (Bump), the latter. In a post-Pitt streaming universe the medical drama is once again a hot genre and, more importantly, open to interpretation. A distinctly Australian milieu amid the personal and professional stakes is a great start.
Also on Stan: Going back to the BBC’s classic John le Carre adaptations in the 1970s, I’ve always been a sucker for British espionage thrillers – preferably with lashings of betrayal, Russian scheming, and self-loathing. The latest candidate is Secret Service (July 2). Headlined by Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans), this new series is centred on the head of MI6’s Russian desk, Kate Henderson, who comes to suspect that a senior British government minister is a traitor. The classy cast also includes Rafe Spall (Under Salt Marsh) as Kate’s husband Stuart, a senior civil servant in the Home Office. The show is adapted from journalist Tom Bradby’s 2019 novel of the same name – the first in his Kate Henderson series.
June highlights: With standout turns from Mia Wasikowska and Heather Mitchell, The Killings at Parrish Station gave the outback murder-mystery an eerie, cosmic gravity.
Apple TV
My top Apple TV recommendation is Lucky (July 15).
Anya Taylor-Joy has been in Hollywood blockbusters the past few years, from Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga to The Super Mario Bros Movie. But she’s now returning to television, where she made her name with The Queen’s Gambit and Peaky Blinders, to headline this crime thriller. She plays Lucky Armstrong, a young woman raised in the underworld by her career-criminal father John (Timothy Olyphant, Justified), who has to rely on her nefarious skills when a mob boss, Priscilla Matheson (Annette Bening, Dutton Ranch), pursues her for a sizeable debt. Expect authentic criminal detail and slippery dialogue, which is what Lucky’s creator, Jonathan Tropper, delivered with his current Apple TV hit Your Friends & Neighbours.
Also on Apple TV: Jake Johnson is one of the most likeable actors on television. My exhibits are New Girl, Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed and Minx. His enjoyable comedy, which always comes with a shrewd touch of self-knowledge, will be front and centre in The Dink (July 24). As Dusty Boyd, a failed tennis pro-turned-children’s coach, Johnson finds redemption in the rival code of pickleball and ends up competing to save his local club. There’s a fair degree of silliness lurking here, with the supporting cast including Johnson’s co-producer Ben Stiller (Dodgeball), plus tennis greats John McEnroe and Andy Roddick playing themselves.
June highlights: With a terrifying Javier Bardem menacing Amy Adams, the Cape Fear remake did not suffer in comparison with the story’s previous films.
Binge
My top Binge recommendation is The Five-Star Weekend (July 9).
Having dipped her toe into streaming with the Apple TV mystery The Last Thing He Told Me, Jennifer Garner now headlines this emotional reckoning drama. The one-time Alias star plays Hollis Shaw, a successful baking blogger who tries to overcome the loss of her husband by hosting a Nantucket weekend away where each guest is someone important from a previous decade of her life. They each bring separate issues, which gives licence to the likes of Chloe Sevigny (Russian Doll), Gemma Chan (Humans) and D’Arcy Carden (The Good Place). Is there a rebound gentleman for Hollis? Let’s just say that the cast is rounded out by the handsome Timothy Olyphant (Alien: Earth).
June highlights: Russell T. Davies’ Tip Toe was an urgent, devastating drama from a Britain where prejudice and violence overwhelms feuding neighbours.
Disney+
My top Disney+ recommendation is Furious (July 27).
Disney+’s Dying for Sex was my No.1 show of 2025, so I’m all in on creator Liz Meriwether’s latest offering. Inspired by the 1987 Hollywood thriller Black Widow, this limited series twists together obsessive crimes and procedural insight from a female perspective. Emmy Rossum (Shameless) stars as FBI agent Alice Black, whose pursuit of a female serial killer targeting violent men, played by rising Irish star Lola Petticrew (Say Nothing), becomes complicated as similarities between the two women emerge. Meriwether has spoken about making audiences confront their conflicted feelings for the characters, so don’t expect a straightforward good/bad divide.
June highlights: The age-gap romance got a comic dissection amid the mayhem of Alice and Steve, while Queer Eye’s culinary expert travelled the globe via Best of the World with Antoni Porowski.
ABC iview
My top ABC iview recommendation is Treasure & Dirt (July 19).
There’s a distinct air of everything spinning out of control in this Australian crime drama. It begins with the discovery of a beheaded miner in a desert opal town and swiftly encompasses the two homicide detectives assigned to the case: city import Ivan Lucic (Michael Dorman, For All Mankind) and local hand Nell Buchanan (Liv Hewson, Yellowjackets). An underground commune, wealthy eccentrics and what looks like Mad Max’s Thunderdome all feature in this adaptation of Chris Hammer’s 2021 novel. As we’ve just seen with Stan’s The Killings at Parrish Station, breaking down the police murder-mystery and rebuilding it anew can really work.
June highlights: Small Prophets was a must-see British comedy from The Office’s Mackenzie Crook, Hugh Bonneville returned as Ian Fletcher in World Cup management mockumentary Twenty Twenty Six, plus Sam Pang led the AFL Tasmanian expansion satire Ground Up.
SBS On Demand
My top SBS On Demand recommendation is Bosch: Legacy (July 3).
This time it really is the end. When the Los Angeles crime procedural Bosch concluded in 2021 after eight solid seasons featuring Titus Welliver (Lost) as author Michael Connelly’s unfailing homicide detective Hieronymus “Harry” Bosch, audiences were ushered straight into Bosch: Legacy. The title character followed the trajectory of the books and became a private detective. But this third Legacy season is definitely the last. The franchise has been a consistent pleasure, imbued with a genuine feel for Los Angeles, Welliver delivering a soulful, hard-nosed performance. Longtime fans will get a new case and some resolution to long-running storylines.
June highlights: This Is Not a Murder Mystery imploded the cosy 1930s murder-mystery by making the suspects history’s most famous Surrealist artists.
Other streamers
My top recommendation for the other streaming services is BritBox’s Mint (July 17).
An interesting development in British television is independent filmmakers taking on a series and bending the show to their aesthetic, instead of making the usual compromises. Claire Oakley did it with the standout crime thriller Under Salt Marsh, and now we have this bold reinvention of Romeo & Juliet from Scrapper director Charlotte Regan. Set in contemporary Scotland and shot with magic realism and directorial flourishes, the series charts the love affair between the offspring of two rival crime clans: Shannon (Emma Laird, The Crowded Room) and Luke (Lewis Gribben, Masters of the Air). Tragedy has rarely looked so striking.
Also: If you’re drawn to darkly comic mysteries in the vein of HBO Max’s The Flight Attendant or Disney+’s The Lowdown, then take note of Diarra from Detroit (July 29). Creator Diarra Kilpatrick (Perry Mason) plays Diarra Brickland, a separated schoolteacher whose search for the hot Tinder date who subsequently ghosted her turns into a descent into the city’s exotic underworld. Kilpatrick is a Detroit native and the show has a real sense of place, while examining the roles Black women are allowed – and not allowed – to pursue. The entire first season drops at once, with weekly episodes of the second season then rolling out on Paramount+.
June highlights: Phoebe Tonkin and Brenton Thwaites played commuters testing their chemistry in the Australian romantic drama Two Years Later.
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