LoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyIf it feels like summer has quietly become the best season for new (and returning) television, you’re not imagining things. Not long ago, the warmest months were widely considered television’s doldrums, dominated by reruns and reality shows while viewers waited for September’s fall lineup. Like so many other parts of the TV landscape, streaming changed all that. Now, the hottest season is also when many of the year’s biggest—and best—series arrive.
Rather than simply rounding up the biggest shows of the month, we’ve curated a list to best reflect the stories WIRED tells every day. Chances are you’re already watching returning favorites like The Bear and The Vampire Lestat, along with new must-watch series like Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America. The picks below offer something different: stories that illuminate the technologies, ideas, and cultural shifts shaping the world—making them as thought-provoking as they are binge-worthy.
Here are our picks for the 11 best shows to watch this month.
For the better part of seven years, HBO has been desperate to fill the dragon-sized hole left by Game of Thrones. Though House of the Dragon will never live up to its predecessor’s acclaim, it’s a pretty good also-ran, especially if you’re craving even more dragon action (and don’t mind that George R.R. Martin has called out some of cocreator Ryan Condal’s creative decisions as “toxic”).
When King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) names his firstborn daughter Princess Rhaenyra (played by Supergirl Milly Alcock in the earliest episodes before Emma D’Arcy steps in as the adult version of the character) as his heir to the Iron Throne instead of his “Rogue Prince” younger brother Daemon (Matt Smith), all hell breaks loose. This prequel series, which returned for a third season on June 21, is set approximately 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones and gives deeper context to the wild history of House Targaryen and how the once-ruling family engineered its own demise.
What began as a hit Friday-night animated series on Nickelodeon in the mid-aughts has transformed into a critically acclaimed live-action fantasy hit for Netflix. Set in a world made up of four nations—the Water Tribe, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Nation, and the Air Nomads—certain individuals, known as Benders, possess the ability to telekinetically manipulate their native elements. A 12-year-old boy named Aang, however, can manipulate them all. That makes him the Avatar, a title that comes with the ultimate “with great power comes great responsibility” dilemma: maintaining harmony among the four nations.
It would be a big job in the best of times, but young Aang comes to power just as the Fire Nation is spoiling for a fight. The series’ second season, which dropped all seven episodes on June 25, immerses viewers further into the expanding conflict and Aang’s quest to restore peace. A third and final season has already been shot, though it likely won’t be ready for release until at least 2027.
Since the turn of this decade alone, there have been nearly 10 Superman-focused projects across film and television. But this animated Adult Swim series, which kicked off its third season on June 13, might just be the most acclaimed of them all if its rare perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes is any indication. In this anime-inspired rom-com, Clark Kent (Jack Quaid) is ready to hang up his blue tights and settle into a life of domestic bliss with longtime love Lois Lane (Alice Lee). But a seemingly never-ending list of villains doesn’t seem to have gotten the memo, forcing the Man of Steel to have to keep pulling his cape back out of the closet. It’s a quirky yet very human reimagining of one of the comic book world’s most iconic (alien) superheroes.
Over the course of more than 60 years, Doctor Who—the TV show—has regenerated almost as many times as its titular Time Lord. At present, the future of the legendary sci-fi series is a bit up in the air, following the departure of Fifteenth Doctor Ncuti Gatwa and rebooter extraordinaire Russell T. Davies.
The good news, of course, is that there are 43 seasons of the campy classic to keep you occupied until a new plan is confirmed: the original 26 seasons are on BritBox and Tubi, while Gatwa’s two seasons will remain on Disney+, where they originated (in the US). But as of June 11, the first 13 seasons of the modern era, aka NuWho, have found a new home on AMC+. There, fan-favorite Doctors Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, and Jodie Whittaker are crashing through space and time to battle Daleks, outwit Weeping Angels, and save the universe all over again—all while proving what makes Doctor Who one of television’s most indelibly inventive series.
In 2010, Pendleton Ward subverted typical cartoon tropes with Adventure Time, a surreal, coming-of-age sci-fi series that let its characters do what few other animated creations ever have: age. Now, the Land of Ooo is calling once again. Adventure Time: Side Quests, a companion to the original series developed by Nate Cash, a storyboard supervisor on the original series, takes audiences back in time to Season 1 vibes, with dynamic duo Finn the Human and Jake the Dog reuniting for more wild shenanigans where they’ll battle monsters, meet new friends, and, according to the official synopsis, “punch evil in the butt.” And they’ll do it all with the same mix of humor and heart that made Adventure Time a beloved cult classic.
Over the course of more than three decades, the X-Men have headlined nearly 20 movies and television series. Yet one of the franchise’s most beloved entries remains the one that started it all: the iconic ’90s cartoon. X-Men ’97 picks up where X-Men: The Animated Series (which you can stream on Disney+) left off, reuniting many of the original voice actors for a critically acclaimed continuation that finds the mutant superheroes learning how to navigate a world without Professor Xavier to guide them. The long-awaited Season 2 arrives on July 1 with the first three of nine episodes.
Fresh off a scene-stealing turn in Apple TV’s multi-award-winning The Studio, Golden Globe nominee Rebecca Hall toplines this eco-focused psychological drama about Claire, a seemingly contented wife, mom, and English teacher whose life begins to fall apart when she starts hearing a low-frequency humming sound that no one else notices. That is, until she discovers someone else who does. The five-part series, adapted from Jordan Tannahill’s 2021 novel, is finally arriving stateside nearly two years after airing as a BBC miniseries in the UK, but its timing couldn’t be better. Beneath its eerie premise, the series explores some of today’s most pressing anxieties, from the ease with which people can be drawn into conspiracy culture to the isolation fueled by an escalating mental health crisis.
Dystopian dramas are hardly in short supply on the small screen right now (see: The Last of Us, Fallout, and Severance, just for starters). But there’s always room for a well-crafted one, and Silo is very much that. The series, from Justified creator Graham Yost, takes place in the wake of a devastating global event that has turned Earth into a toxic wasteland. In order to sustain, and rebuild, human life, the last 10,000 people on Earth are brought together to live in an underground bunker known as Silo 18.
It’s an experiment that was doomed from the start, as the residents are required to follow The Pact, a strict list of rules that forbids them from asking even the simplest questions about what is happening in the world above them. This doesn’t sit right with everyone, and it doesn’t take long for a rebellion to begin forming. As more and more people are sent to the surface to die, engineer-resident Juliette (Dune’s Rebecca Ferguson) quietly begins investigating the truth of their situation. It’s hardly a spoiler to say that all is not as it seems. Season 3 of the critically acclaimed Apple TV series will arrive on July 3, with a fourth and final season confirmed.
Star Trek’s impact on the science fiction genre is impossible to overstate. Nearly 60 years after Gene Roddenberry first imagined a future where exploration and optimism went hand in hand, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds continues that legacy. Returning for its fourth season on July 23 (a shortened fifth season will be its last), the acclaimed Paramount+ series—which serves as both a prequel to the original series and a spin-off of Star Trek: Discovery—once again follows Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount) and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the years before James T. Kirk’s command.
Embracing the classic “monster-of-the-week” format that made the original series a cultural touchstone, Season 4 sends the Enterprise into uncharted corners of the galaxy to confront new alien threats and revisit familiar faces while the crew face their own personal demons. New episodes stream weekly through September 24.
What do Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, Christopher McQuarrie, Alex Cox, and Simon West have in common? They’ve all tried to bring The Prisoner to the big screen, though all have come up empty—so far. But never say never, especially when it comes to the Inception auteur (AMC did manage to reimagine a new version of the series in 2009 with Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel, which failed to ignite much excitement). Before shows like Twin Peaks and Lost were blurring the line between reality and paranoia, there was The Prisoner. Patrick McGoohan both created and stars in this groundbreaking 1967 British sci-fi spy thriller, which remains one of TV’s most influential cult classics. The 17-episode, one-season series follows a secret agent who resigns from his job only to awaken in the mysterious Village, where every attempt to escape is thwarted by an unseen authoritarian force. Nearly 60 years after it first aired, The Criterion Channel is bringing this provocative series—which blends espionage, psychological suspense, and surreal storytelling into a meditation on identity and free will—back to entrance and inspire new audiences, with all episodes arriving on July 1.
One month before Burning Man is set to kick off its 40th installment, HBO is paying tribute to the desert spectacle in the most HBO way possible: with a four-part docuseries. Directed by Oscar nominee Jehane Noujaim and Vikram Gandhi, the series—which debuts on July 9—gives viewers an all-access pass to the decades-long evolution of the annual event.
The Man Will Burn features more than three decades of archival footage and deeply personal interviews with the festival’s organizers and attendees to trace Burning Man’s transformation from a tiny, counterculture gathering on a beach in San Francisco into a nine-day cultural phenomenon in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert that attracts more than 80,000 people from around the world. The series also explores the tensions threatening Burning Man’s future, from the rise of social media influencers and Big Tech billionaire attendees to the challenge of preserving its fiercely independent spirit ahead of this year's event, which runs August 30 through September 7.
