Summer TV Watch List: 'Westworld' Returns and a Princess Kicks Ass

Summer TV Watch List: 'Westworld' Returns and a Princess Kicks Ass No images? [Click here]( ID=167008;size=700x180;setID=556351;uid={EMAIL}5808334;click=summer_tv_watchlist_top [- - -] [TheWrap - SUMMER TV WATCH LIST] Week of June 25 – July 1 There’s something very comforting about a show you haven’t seen for a while coming back. It’s like reconnecting with an old friend. And this week, that includes “Westworld,” “The Chi,” “Only Murders in the Building” and “Stranger Things” (which, granted, has only been gone for a few weeks but that doesn’t make the longing any less severe). We also get “Baymax!” which continues the adventures of our favorite squishy robot from Disney’s “Big Hero 6.” And a new series on Prime Video starring Chris Pratt and Taylor Kitsch. Could your heart get any fuller? On with the television! [Premiere of the week] “Westworld”Sunday, June 26 at 9 p.m., HBO Photo: HBO Welcome (back) to the future. The last season of “Westworld” aired back in March 2020, which is actually perfect given the elastic nature of the “Westworld” timeline. Much has happened since, both in and out of the show; showrunners Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan have decamped from HBO for a lucrative development deal at Amazon Studios (upcoming projects include an adaptation of video game “Fallout” and a TV version of William Gibson’s novel “The Peripheral”) while in the world of the show seven years have passed. And if you’ve ever been lost trying to reengage with the world of “Westworld,” this new season doesn’t make things any easier – Christina (Evan Rachel Wood) is a benign employee at a tech company, while Maeve (Thandiwe Newton) continues her fight for freedom alongside human ally Caleb (Aaron Paul). Oh, and there’s a new park, this one modeled on jazz-age Chicago! That’s right; cowboys have been replaced with gangsters. Of course there’s more, both in terms of philosophical quandaries and cool sci-fi mechanics but if we said more, we might be replaced by a more docile, controllable replicant. If you loved previous seasons, you’ll quickly become obsessed with this new season of “Westworld.” Ready to visit the park? [[TRAILER](] ID=167008;size=300x250;setID=556895;uid={EMAIL}5808334;click=summer_tv_watchlist_2 [- - -] [Premiere of the week] “Stranger Things 4”Friday, July 1, Netflix [stranger-things-season-4-part-2-eddie] Photo: Netflix This is the first time “Stranger Things” has had a finale, but given the way that season 4 was broken up, with the first seven episodes dropping in late May and the final two coming at the beginning of July, a finale is what we get. Here’s what we know: It will be very, very long (the Duffer Brothers have said it’s the length of “a long movie”). And judging by early materials, like a just-released trailer, not all the characters will make it out alive. Will Vecna’s evil plan finally be revealed? Why is Eddie playing an electric guitar in the Upside Down? And will Steve (Joe Keery) and Nancy (Natalia Dyer) finally smooch? We expect some big things from this finale, especially because it is setting up the fifth and final season of the show (though the return date remains unclear). [[INTERVIEW](] [- - -] [Premiere of the week] “The Princess”Friday, July 1, Hulu [Joey King in ] Photo: Hulu You can almost feel the pitch meeting for this one, the idea is so hooky and clever: What if somebody combined “Die Hard” with “Tangled” and had a Princess (Joey King) trapped in a tower who decided to fight her way out, all the way down? That’s “The Princess” in a nutshell. Produced by “Fast & the Furious” franchise kingpin Neal Moritz and “John Wick” screenwriter Derek Kolstad, “The Princess” takes flips elements of stuffy period pieces and mainstream fairy tale adaptations, delivering a protagonist you are rooting for and a lot of sneering villains you can’t wait to see die horribly (among them: Dominic Cooper and Olga Kurylenko). If you only know King from her rom-com work on Netflix, get ready – she’s an apt action star and has a co-starring role later this summer alongside Brad Pitt in “Bullet Train.” At some point, throwing punches becomes more fun than kissing boys. [[TRAILER](] [- - -] [Premiere of the week] “Endangered”Tuesday, June 28 at 9 p.m., HBO [Endangered] Photo: HBO “Endangered,” a new documentary from executive producer Ronan Farrow, looks absolutely harrowing. According to the official synopsis from the Tribeca Festival in New York, the film “chronicles a year in the life of four journalists living and working in democratic countries where freedom of the press has historically been considered a ‘given.’ Yet, as online misinformation proliferates and world leaders brazenly denigrate the press, distrust of traditional media is on the rise, and journalists are increasingly facing situations more typically encountered in war zones or autocratic states.” In other words: No matter how bad you think journalists these days, this documentary (from Academy Award nominees Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady) will show you that it’s actually much, much worse. [[TRAILER](] [- - -] [Premiere of the week] “SeaQuest DSV” Peacock [SeaQuest DSV] Photo: Amblin With everyone (rightfully) fawning over the old-school charm of “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,” why not dip back into the ocean with “SeaQuest DSV”? The series, produced by Steven Spielberg and created by Rockne S. O’Bannon (who would go on to create cult favorite series “Farscape”), centered on an oceanic peacekeeping vessel called SeaQuest and its rascally crew, led by Captain Bridger (Roy Scheider). Sort of a TV version of the EPCOT pavilion The Living Seas, the initial season emphasized discovery and science as well as the usual adventure thrills (there were even nonfiction, educational segments in each episode). Gradually the show mutated; in its second season, it took on a more sci-fi dimension (just like “Baywatch Nights”) and the third season was renamed and featured a new captain (Schneider disliked the direction the series was headed), this time played by Michael Ironside. There’s something very calming and fun about “SeaQuest” — including a talking dolphin and Ted Raimi. Also, it features one of the most beautiful, soaring pieces of theme music ever, composed by the great John Debney, which also adds to its EPCOT-y vibe. [[WATCH](] [- - -] [Premiere of the week] “The Chi”Sunday, June 26 at 9 p.m., Showtime“The Chi,” the critically acclaimed, Lena Waithe-created drama returns for its fifth season. Set in the South Side of Chicago, the show is back for another 10 episodes (Waithe co-wrote the first episode of the new season). And what’s more – if you want your “Chi” fix ahead of time, each season 5 episode will be available to stream two days early. How about that? [[TRAILER](] “Only Murders in the Building”Tuesday, June 28, HuluWhen “Only Murders in the Building” premiered last summer, it was an unexpected smash. Who would have thought that a series starring a pair of septuagenarians (BFFs Steve Martin and Martin Short) and a former Disney Channel star (Selena Gomez) would become a low-key streaming sensation? Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait too long for the second season, which chronologically begins mere moments after the first season finale, with Gomez’s Mabel standing over the corpse of another tenant. Get ready for more cameos (hello, Amy Schumer!), more mysteries, more characters (like Cara Delevingne as a mysterious art dealer/potential love interest) and more meta commentary (much of the first episode involves the folly of trying to follow up a hit first season). [[PREVIEW](] “Blasted”Tuesday, June 28, NetflixLet’s not mince words: This Norwegian import looks like a flagrant ripoff of Edgar Wright’s 2013 masterpiece “The World’s End.” That said, it also looks like a very entertaining ripoff, so we’re pretty excited. A duo known for their laser tag skills are having a fun laser tag/paintball bachelor party that is interrupted by aliens (which, incidentally, even look like the robot “blanks” from “The World’s End”) and so they must save the weekend – and the world – from this extraterrestrial threat. Where do we sign up? [[TRAILER](] “Baymax!”Wednesday, June 29, Disney+Disney Animation Studios’ “Big Hero 6” gets the Disney+ treatment in a series of animated shorts produced by the fabled studio. (There was a more 2D TV series called “Big Hero 6: The Series” that ran on Disney Channel and Disney XD from 2017 to 2021. These are unrelated.) Scott Adsit, as the titular inflatable health-care robot, Ryan Potter and Maya Rudolph return to voice their characters from the animated film. Like the film, it is set in the fictional city of San Fransokyo and like the film expect to say “aww” a lot while watching the episodes. [[TRAILER](] “The Terminal List”Friday, July 1, Prime VideoChris Pratt is back on the small screen! After early roles on “The O.C.” (let us please overlook the fact that he played a character nicknamed “Ché”) and “Parks and Recreation,” Pratt graduated to the big leagues, anchoring several super-successful franchises like “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Jurassic World.” In Pratt’s latest (based on a novel by Jack Carr), he plays a Navy SEAL who returns home after his entire platoon is killed in an ambush to uncover a conspiracy surrounding the mission. Taylor Kitsch, Constance Wu, Jeanne Tripplehorn and Riley Keough co-star. [[TRAILER](] [- - -] [Update your profile]( | [View our privacy policy]( | [Unsubscribe]( Sent from: TheWrap | 1808 Stanford Street | Santa Monica, CA, 90404 | attn: Email Coordinator [TheWrap]( ID=167008;size=700x180;setID=556352;uid={EMAIL}5808334;click=summer_tv_watchlist_bottom This email was sent to {EMAIL}. 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