5 things you have to watch on TV this weekend

Prime Video drops two summery shows, while some buzzy films hit streamers

By Saloni Gajjar  |  June 17, 2022 | 9:00am
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5 things you have to watch on TV this weekend
Introducing Endless Mode: A New Games & Anime Site from Paste
Gavin Casalegno and Lola Tung in The Summer I Turned Pretty; Julia Stiles in The Lake Photo: Peter Taylor/Prime Video; Peter H. Stranks/Prime Video

Welcome to the weekend edition of What’s On. Here are the big things happening on TV from Friday, June 17 to Sunday, June 19. All times are Eastern. [Note: The weekly What’s On will publish on Sundays.]

1. Get your teen rom-com fix with The Summer I Turned Pretty

Prime Video, Friday, 12:01 a.m.: To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before author Jenny Han adapts her other teen-romance trilogy for the screen. In The Summer I Turned Pretty, Belly (Lola Tung) reunites with Jeremiah (Gavin Casalegno) and Conrad (Christopher Briney), on an annual summer vacation to their family friends’ beach house, eventually finding herself in a love triangle. Here’s a bit from Lauren Chval’s review:

The beats of The Summer I Turned Pretty might be familiar—predictable, even—but it’s a good familiarity, like your favorite summer spot coming into view for the first time on vacation.

2. Julia Stiles leads a TV comedy (it’s about damn time)

Prime Video, Friday, 12:01 a.m.: Let’s all take a minute to appreciate Julia Stiles’ return to the small screen. She stars in this Canadian comedy
along with Orphan Black’s Jordan Gavaris. They play step-siblings who struggle to reconnect when Justin returns home after a breakup and tries to bond with his biological daughter, Billie (Madison Shamoun). His plans go awry when he finds the family cottage is left to his picture-perfect sister, Maisy-May. In his review, Manuel Betancourt writes:

Indeed, the series makes for a breezy binge even if its repetitive nature, not to mention the one-note characterization of its main ensemble (Billie’s main personality detail is … she’s very into environmentalism?), can sometimes wear thin.

3. Sundance favorite Cha Cha Real Smooth hits Apple TV Plus

Apple TV+, Friday, 12:01 a.m.: This year’s Sundance fave is coming straight to your home thanks to the streamer, which purchased the rights for Cha Cha Real Smooth for a cool $15 million. Cooper Raiff writes, directs, and co-stars as Andrew, a Bar Mitzvah party host who befriends a young mother, Domino (Dakota Johnson), and her autistic daughter. Here’s an excerpt from The A.V. Club’s Sundance takeaway of the film:

Cha Cha Real Smooth is, at heart, a warm variation on the Judd Apatow prolonged-adolescence comedy, complete with a terrific Leslie Mann in the role of Andrew’s mother. But it ends up proving surprisingly wise in admitting how lacking in wisdom we all are in our early 20s—especially during the expertly written scenes between Raiff and Johnson, who delivers maybe the most relaxed, lovely performance of her career as a thirtysomething woman going through her own growing pains parallel and perpendicular to Andrew’s.

4. Chris Hemsworth stars in Spider-Man—er, Spiderhead

Netflix, Friday, 3:01 a.m.: MCU’s erstwhile Thor leading a movie called Spiderhead? Yeah, the filmmakers knew what they were doing. In the Joseph Kosinski-directed sci-fi thriller, Hemsworth plays Steve Abnesti, who oversees a prison where convicts grapple with their past by volunteering for experiments with emotion-altering drugs. Trouble arises when inmates Jeff (Miles Teller) and Rachel (Jurnee Smollett) start plotting their escape.

5. Check out the new season of docuseries Home

Apple TV+, Friday, 3:01 a.m.: Season two of this docuseries continues to examine the groundbreaking ideas and inspiring stories behind the world’s most imaginative dwellings. Expect interviews with visionaries who challenge conventional concepts of “home” and rethink how we live, as well as striking abodes in Ghana and Barcelona.

 
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