Lives & Legacy

Quick, stock up on snacks and call in sick. The September onslaught is about to take over your TV-watching life.

Is it just me or is there an increase in the pressure to just calm down and carry on? Like getting worked up is a bad thing? Especially with the recent passing of feminist stalwart Gloria Steinem (check out Famous Last Words on Netflix and the Finding Your Roots episode The Pioneers on the PBS Passport app), maybe it’s time to lean in to the antsy discomfort that might lead to change. Just me? OK, carry on anyway with these edgy new offerings.

Looking back is often productive, although occasionally the victory exacts its own price, as evidenced by this selection of new viewing recommendations: another look back at an epic poem, a group vacation, an anniversary reflection on The Tragically Hip (sob), a missing-child crime thriller and the return of a fictional talk-show host.

Crazy weather got you hunkering down? A richly varied assortment of recommendations will help you pass the time until we get back to climatic normal. Or, as close as possible.

Now that all good (and SO intense!) soccer/football people have had a nap or two to recover from the 2026 World Cup final, but before they turn to their screens for the return of Ted Lasso (coaching a women’s soccer/football team in Season 4, starting Aug. 5 on Apple TV), here are a few suggestions for some brand new non-soccer programming.

From back in the black-and-white days to today’s kaleidoscope of small-screen streaming options, television has offered many pleasures. This new handful of viewing recommendations dances nicely along that spectrum, from a period drama with a much needed modern perspective, a weekend of she-raging, a couple of spy thrillers and golf as a path to true grace (and a few gut-laughs). Onward!

Weird, stupid, funny, intense and historically inaccurate are not the words they recommend using in TV reviewer school, and yet these are all good reasons to check out the latest batch of viewing highlights. Settle in. Probably get a drink. Maybe call your therapist. And then definitely press ‘Play.’

If you are stacking up your beach reads for the summer, here is a list of lightweight TV viewing for when you’re too tired to hold up a book or e-reader. Pour yourself a drink and press play.

Television is working hard to keep you occupied with escapism, supernatural twists and turns, and a good old-fashioned tear-jerker. Get comfortable. Here’s your new batch of small-screen premieres. 

Bookended by soft-hearted stories from the lands of Jane Austen, Hollywood and sentient octopi, the rest of this edition of viewing suggestions has more adrenaline than any one episode of The Pitt, which we are all missing except for the gory bits. Well, there are occasional gory bits on tap here as well. Be prepared to look away or to wipe away a tear.