Love, music and the return of a weird noir

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There really is no excuse for staying indoors, except for streaming these five viewing suggestions.

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There really is no excuse for staying indoors, except for streaming these five viewing suggestions.

● It’s Not Like That (series now streaming on Prime Video)

Religion is never not a volatile subject, but faith or belief or whatever word is preferred can/should be a different, more personal matter. Yet it is so seldom factored into small-screen storylines. Netflix’s Nobody Wants This (back for a third season in July) — a rom-com about a rabbi (Adam Brody) and a non-believer (Kristen Bell) — proved that with less preaching and more personal faith, audiences would respond.

Apple TV
                                Colin Farrell and Laura Donnelly finally return in Sugar, two years after a cliffhanger left fans with some big questions.

Apple TV

Colin Farrell and Laura Donnelly finally return in Sugar, two years after a cliffhanger left fans with some big questions.

Now, producers Ian Deitchman and Kristin Robinson (Parenthood) have delivered a new story about a widowed minister (Scott Foley of Scandal) and his wife’s best friend (Erinn Hayes from The Goldbergs). Their families still do everything together, which dovetails humorously and pointedly into their processing of grief and will-they-won’t-they intimacy. The children’s characters are also well developed, one of them observing about their elders: “I love how they get to start over and we’re supposed to pick up where they left off like nothing happened.” Buy tissues and enjoy!

● Dear England (all four episodes of miniseries streaming now on Crave)

World Cup soccer will either be ignored or maniacally embraced in households around the world from June 11 to July 19. In the meantime, here’s this miniseries adaptation of the English stage sensation, a fictionalized account of England’s struggling soccer, ahem, “football” team. Joseph Fiennes (The Handmaid’s Tale) is central, playing team coach Gareth Southgate, at one point giving it his best with this Ted Lasso-esque line: “Keep believing. Keep going right up until the final whistle, because one day, you’ll look back and give anything to be back here.”

● Bonnaroo (live festival coverage June 11 to June 14 on Hulu/Disney+)

Music festivals are great things, but also come with the challenge of ticket prices, sometimes travel, always bugs and so many people. Hulu bridges all those hurdles by streaming three impressive U.S. music festivals, starting with the four-day Bonnaroo, live from Manchester, Tenn., with a lineup that includes the Strokes, Yungblud, Skrillex, Wet Leg, Noah Kahan, Geese, Blues Traveler, Wolfmother and Teddy Swims. Next up is Lollapalooza July 30 to Aug. 2, and Austin City Limits Music Festival Oct. 2-4.

● Never Change (movie premières June 17 on Hulu/Disney+)

The height of graduation season is the perfect time for a stupid-funny movie about the 30-something members of a high-school class called back to complete their studies, which were upended by a tornado in 2005. Topher Grace (That ’70s Show), Zach Cherry (Severance), Ana Gasteyer (Saturday Night Live) and Carmen Christopher (English Teacher) are among the stars.

Amazon Malcolm
                                Scott Foley and Erinn Hayes star in the series It’s Not Like That.

Amazon Malcolm

Scott Foley and Erinn Hayes star in the series It’s Not Like That.

●Sugar (Season 2 finally premières with one episode June 19 on Apple TV)

With so many new shows arriving daily, this space is usually reserved for brand-new shows. Sugar, however, was good enough and strange enough, and its Season 2 return long-enough delayed that it warrants a second shout-out. No spoilers here, but fans of 2024’s Season 1 have been desperate to know how the bizarro first-season cliffhanger could possibly be accommodated into the otherwise faithful L.A. detective-noir template. The answer will come when investigator John Sugar (executive producer Colin Farrell) returns with a new assignment, tracking the brother of a rising-star boxer, juggling that with the ongoing search for Sugar’s own missing sister. Viewers new to Sugar will enjoy the Season 1 binge.

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