Following a rather slow month for television aside from standouts such as Apple TV+’s “Ted Lasso,” it would seem like we’re back in the swing of things with plenty of series debuts and follow-ups returning this month and a lot of big names accompanying them. Nicole Kidman will once again gear up for a splashy television role, this time positioned more as the antagonist figure while Joseph Gordon-Levitt tries to do it all in his series “Mr. Corman.”
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Following the enormous critical success of “What We Do in the Shadows,” Taika Waititi is attached to yet another new TV series due to the premiere on FX while Marvel Studios readies itself for yet another premiere amidst controversy. Some of the most exciting productions are the ones that we’d heard little about before the release of the trailer, making the slate of series due to premiere all the more interesting.
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“Mr. Corman”
After a relative absence over the past few years, Joseph Gordon-Levitt returns to television with “Mr. Corman” which he wrote, directed, and produced along with starring in. This Apple TV+ series follows an unhappy music teacher who is having a personal crisis when he begins to suspect that he isn’t fulfilling his dreams and that he also might be an unlikeable person. TV shows have found success through unlikable characters but it would seem “Mr. Corman,” despite Levitt’s best efforts, isn’t one of them. Our critic wrote, “If someone plugged all of the mid-tier Sundance, quarter-life crisis dramedies of the last decade about people discovering that they may be the problem of their lives into a machine and asked it to stretch all the contained clichés into a TV series, that computer would spit out ‘Mr. Corman.'”
Release Date: Season 1 premieres August 6 on Apple TV+.
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“Reservation Dogs”
Even with the relative misfire that was the tonally clunky “Jojo’s Rabbit” (which, hey, still went on to win an Oscar) filmmaker Taika Waititi has still had more wins than losses. Executively produced and co-created by Waititi alongside Sterlin Harjo, the two combine forces for “Reservation Dogs” about four Indigenous teenagers living in rural Oklahoma who steal, rob, and save to run away to California. The series stars relative newcomers D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Devery Jacobs, Paulina Alexis, and Lane Factor. Our critic wrote, “…its commentary on how cultural business practices such as genetically modified flower and Etsy neck charms have negatively affected the livelihood of entire cultural hubs, festering loss across entire communities, do ring true, though the meaning of the text often seems secondary to introducing a world of stoners run amuck by slacker punks.”
Release Date: Season 1 premieres on August 9 on FX on Hulu.
“What If?”
Opinions may vary but so far of the original Marvel shows debuting on Disney+, “Wandavision” sparked the most conversation, “Loki” landed the strongest ending, while “The Falcon vs. The Winter Soldier” was, in hindsight, the weakest link, perhaps. “What If?” marks the studious foray into animated series and it will be interesting to see if, due to the medium, they’re allowed to take more risks in their storytelling. The series reimagines noteworthy events in the MCU and creates a multiverse of infinite possibilities with many of the cast from the series reprising their roles, including the late Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther.
Release Date: Season 1 premieres on August 11 on Disney+.