Good news, bad news and five shows to watch

There’s good news and bad news before getting to the usual business of viewing suggestions over the next two weeks. Good: The scorchingly superb drama The Bear (still called a “comedy,” sheesh) returns to Disney+ on June 25. More on that in the next edition, but this is your heads-up to either get caught up on, or resavour, all or parts of seasons 1-3 before then. The bad news: The documentary Tell Me Everything, about the scorchingly (often) superb TV legend Barbara Walters, will première exclusively on June 23 on U.S.-only Hulu, and not in Canada until “later this year” on the usual simultaneous-release partner Disney+ Canada. Boo, hiss. But no time to dwell. Onward!

● Revival (series premières at 10 p.m. on Thursday, June 12, on CTV’s Sci-Fi channel)

If a murder victim returns from the dead, is it still a murder? Const. Dana Cypress (Wynonna Earp’s Melanie Scrofano) doesn’t know the answer either. Based on the graphic novels of the same name, Revival is set in a small Wisconsin town where the dead start disinterring themselves and appear to be happy to just carry on. Some of the living find this upsetting and square off against the Revived. Registration becomes mandatory. Symbolism abounds, but this is, the press kit explains, more “lively murder mystery” than the kind of existential mind-bender that was The Leftovers (2014-17, streaming now on Crave and highly recommended if you also appreciate a brain-cramping series from time to time).

● Deep Cover (movie premières on Thursday, June 12, on Prime Video)

If you are used to serious, scary Sean Bean characters, as on Game of Thrones and Snowpiercer, prepare to have that expectation toyed with. Here, he plays Det.-Sgt Billings, who hires three aspiring standup comics to use their improv “skills” to go undercover to infiltrate a criminal gang. The comics are played by Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World), Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings) and Ted Lasso’s Nick Mohammed. Will comedy’s imperative to really “kill” become literal for this trio? Stay tuned. Additional fun comes by way of Paddy Considine (currently in MobLand on Paramount+) as a mob guy named Fly and Ian McShane (Deadwood, American Gods) as menacing Metcalfe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1x—MaHsbEc

● Echo Valley (movie premières on Friday, June 13, on Apple TV+)

While Julianne Moore plays the billionaire owner of a New England bird sanctuary on Sirens (new on Netflix), she also stars in what the press kit for Echo Valley promises to be an “edge-of-your-seat thriller.” Here, she plays Kate, the mother of trouble magnet Claire (Sydney Sweeney) who turns up on mom’s doorstep covered in blood. How far will Kate go to protect her daughter from her own actions? Also showing up on the doorstep is some guy (Domhnall Gleeson, Alice and Jack) threatening to tell all. This raises the important question of whether he knows more or less than mother Kate does. And is daughter Claire being honest with anyone?

● Patience (series premières Sunday, June 15, at 7 p.m. on PBS and then streaming on PBS Passport)

Joining the league of crime solvers plumbing the “gift” of their medical conditions (including Professor T’s OCD, Astrid’s autism spectrum disorder) is this new series in which the title character with ASD is recognized for her analytical brilliance and raised out of the Criminal Records Office in the U.K. city of York and promoted to assist DI Bea Metcalf. Here’s hoping the series is less cringey than the press kit’s calling ASD a “special gift.”

● The Waterfront (series premières with all eight episodes on Thursday, June 19, on Netflix)

The poster boasts “from the creator of Scream and Dawson’s Creek.” Kevin Williamson, so successful in blending intense danger/violence with tenderness and slapstick relief, also appears to be taking a page from Ozark (2017-22, Netflix) in this story about a family turning to crime to save their business. In the wake of a couple of heart attacks, Harlan (Mindhunter’s Holt McCallany), wife Bella (Maria Bello, NCIS) and son Cane (Jake Weary, Animal Kingdom) turn to the drug trade (hello, Topher Grace) to prop up their position as cornerstone family of the harbour town Havenport, N.C. What could go wrong? Better question is what kind of jangly fun can be had taking this story, “inspired by true events,” into comic territory? Judging by the trailer, quite a bit.

Broadcast dates subject to change. Questions, comments to denise.duguay@winnipegfreepress.com.