Also: let’s rewatch ‘Game of Thrones’ in prep for Season 7.
In the week leading up to Game of Thrones Season 7, we’re all just passing time, twiddling our thumbs, passively watching new rap documentaries and feminist TV series and dramas reimagining playwrights of 500 years ago as hipper and hotter than they probably were. Or maybe we’re really skipping all that for some GOT rewatching marathons. Either way, it’s not the most exciting week of television/streaming, but the ice and fire will be here before we know it.
To help you keep track of the most important programs over the next seven days, here’s our guide to everything worth watching, whether it’s on broadcast, cable, or streaming for July 9th-15th (all times Eastern):
SUNDAYThe Defiant Ones (HBO, 9pm)
With Veep and Silicon Valley done with their latest seasons and new Game of Thrones still a week away, stick with HBO for the start of this four-part documentary miniseries about the partnership of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, partners in Beats Electronics, and how their careers led to that collaboration. Directed by Allen Hughes (Menace II Society), the doc features Dre and Iovine, as well as Ice Cube, Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen, Eminem, Snoop Dog, Will.i.am, Bono, Gwen Stefani, Sean Combs, Nas, Kenrick Lamar, Stevie Nicks, and Tom Petty. The series runs through Wednesday.
Also on Sunday:
Alec Baldwin: One Night Only: special premiere (Spike, 9pm)
Claws S1E5: “Batshit” (TNT, 9pm)
Fear the Walking Dead S3E7 & S3E8: “The Unveiling” & “Children of Wrath” — summer finale (AMC, 9pm)
First Ladies Revealed E2: “Twists of Fate” (Smithsonian, 9pm)
The Nineties: doc series premiere (CNN, 9pm)
Power S4E2: “The Kind of Man You Are” (Starz, 9pm)
Twin Peaks: The Return “Part 9” (Showtime, 9pm)
I’m Dying Up Here S1E5: “Girls Are Funny Too” (Showtime, 10pm)
Kevin Hart Presents: The Next Level S1E4: “Vincent Oshana: From Combat to Comedy” (Comedy Central, 11pm)
MONDAYWill (TNT, 9pm)
William Shakespeare has been involved in political controversy this summer, and that’s so punk rock of him. Especially considering he’s been dead for 501 years. Now he’s the latest historical icon to get the “Young…” treatment in series form —National Geographic probably wanted him for their Genius series at some point, also anyway we did see a young Shakespeare in the Best Picture-winning Shakespeare in Love 20 years ago. This time he’s “dropping the quill” with his battles of wit in the pubs set to a soundtrack featuring The Clash.
What else can we expect from Craig Pearce? He’s the screenwriting partner of Baz Luhrman, and yes he worked on Romeo + Juliet. He also makes his directorial debut with some of the show’s episodes, while some others are handled by Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth, Elizabeth: The Golden Age), who is also an executive producer. Newcomer Laurie Davidson plays the Bard, Jamie Campbell Bower is Christopher Marlowe, and the rest of the main cast includes Ewan Bremner, Olivia DeJonge, and Abigail Hardingham.
Last Men in Aleppo (PBS, 10pm)
This week’s POV entry continues focus on Syria with a feature about the first-response rescue workers known as the White Helmets (also subjects of this year’s eponymous Oscar-winning short). In his review of the documentary for our sister site Nonfics, Andrew Karpan writes: “Last Men in Aleppo is, fundamentally, a war movie. Not in the documentary-on-History Channel sense of a war movie, with the generals and the historians but in the visceral, holed-up-in-Stalingrad sense of a war movie.” He also calls it “a striking pieces of anti-Russian agitprop.” If your local PBS station doesn’t follow the main schedule, check local listings. Or it’s likely to be online following first broadcast.
Also on Monday:
The Defiant Ones part 2 (HBO, 9pm)
Preacher S2E4: “Viktor” (AMC, 9pm)
TUESDAYThe Bold Type (Freeform, 9pm)
Hopefully this show about young women working for a magazine fares better than Amazon’s Good Girls Revolt. That show was a period piece based on Lynn Povich’s experiences at Newsweek in the late ’60s. The Bold Type is a modern show based on the life of former Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Joanna Coles. Although being on Freeform might turn some serious adult viewers off, apparently this was the only network that allowed it to be so focused on the women characters. Anyway, it co-stars the always-amazing Melora Hardin as the boss at “Scarlet” magazine, while Katie Stevens, Aisha Dee, and Meghann Fahy play the lead trio. The pilot is paired with episode two, “O Hell No,” tonight.
Also on Tuesday:
Casual S3E10: “Cake Walk” (Hulu)
2017 MLB All-Star Game (Fox, 7:30pm)
Animal Kingdom S2E6: “Cry Havoc” (TNT, 9pm)
The Defiant Ones part 3 (HBO, 9pm)
WEDNESDAYSalvation (CBS, 9pm)
I’m not expecting much from a broadcast network sci-fi series, but I want this show about an asteroid headed toward Earth to be good. At least as good as a small screen Armageddon/Deep Impact/etc. could be. And if not, well, they can just have the thing destroy the planet at the end and be done after a single season. The pilot is directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, best known for helming the impressive sequel 28 Weeks Later.
Also on Wednesday:
Catfish: The TV Show (MTV, 9pm)
The Defiant Ones part 4 (HBO, 9pm)
Broadchurch S3E3 (BBC America, 10pm)
I’m Sorry S1E1 & S1E2: “Pilot” & “Racist Daughter” — sitcom debut (truTV, 10pm)
Snowfall S1E2: “Make Them Birds Fly” (FX, 10pm)
THURSDAYHooten & the Lady (CW, 9pm)
Another hit British show finally comes to America, and if you’ve enjoyed your fill of Edgar Wright this summer, then add to it a fill of Jessica Hynes, one of the stars of his cult series Spaced. She’s in a supporting role in this adventure series starring Michael Landes (Final Destination 2) and Ophelia Lovibond (Guardians of the Galaxy) as a pair of treasure hunters and mystery solvers trekking the globe. It’s ripe for Indiana Jones and Romancing the Stone comparisons, and it also features Jane Seymour as a recurring character.
Also on Thursday
Battle of the Network Stars S1E5 (ABC, 9pm)
The Mist S1E4: “Pequod” (Spike, 10pm)
Queen of the South S2E6: “El Camino de la Muerte” (USA, 10pm)
FRIDAYBuddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile (Netflix)
Chasing Coral (Netflix)
Friends from College (Netflix)
To the Bone (Netflix)
This week’s Netflix premieres have something for everyone. For the kids, they’ve got another choose your own adventure animated series, Buddy Thunderstruck: The Maybe Pile. For the environment-conscious, Jeff Orlowski’s Sundance Audience Award-winning documentary Chasing Coral follows his Oscar-nominated Chasing Ice with a look at the issue of rapidly vanishing coral reefs. For the comedy lovers, Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Neighbors director Nicholas Stoller and his wife, Francesca Delbanco, offer up the self-explanatory Friends from College starring Keegan-Michael Key, Fred Savage, Cobie Smulders, Nat Faxon, Annie Parisse, and Jae Suh Park. And finally, Marti Noxon makes her feature directorial debut with the anorexia dramedy To the Bone starring Lily Collins and Keanu Reeves.
Also on Friday:
The Great British Baking Show S4E6: “Botanical Week” (PBS, 9pm)
SATURDAYGame of Thrones Rewatch (HBO GO)
With no great-looking premieres or standout episodes to highlight for Saturday, let’s just all spend our weekend re-watching as much Game of Thrones as we can. You’ll want to at least do another run through of Season 6 before the start of Season 7, and if you haven’t been following along with Storm of Spoilers’ full-series re-watch then you can at least listen to those podcast episodes to help you in recapping and reminding. And stay tuned to FSR for lots of goodies this whole week, including a list of the best shots of GOT so far.
Also on Saturday:
Orphan Black S5E6: “Manacled Slim Wriests” (BBC America, 10pm)
