Summer TV Watch List: Re-Enter the Dragons (and Sly Stallone)

Summer TV Watch List: Enter the Dragons (and Sly Stallone) No images? [Click here]( ID=167008;size=700x180;setID=556351;uid={EMAIL}5862219;click=summer_tv_watchlist_top [- - -] [TheWrap - SUMMER TV WATCH LIST] Week of August 20 – 26 This year’s battle of the big-budget streaming fantasy epics has begun, with HBO (and HBO Max) debuting “House of the Dragon” ahead of Prime Video’s upcoming “Lord of the Rings” series. (This is to say nothing of the just-launched Netflix series “The Sandman” and Disney+’s one-two punch of “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law,” which just started, and the “Star Wars” spinoff “Andor,” coming next month.) Which series will ultimately hold the Iron Throne and/or the Rings of Power (depending on your analogy of choice)? We’ll just have to wait and find out! Elsewhere, we’ve got the end of “Only Murders in the Building” (for now), a new Sylvester Stallone movie, a controversial Mike Tyson series and the return of “Star Trek: Lower Decks!” It’s a busy week! On with the television! [Premiere of the week] “House of the Dragon”Sunday, August 21 at 9 p.m., HBO [House of the Dragon] Photo: HBO Ready to make another play at the Iron Throne? “Game of Thrones” wrapped up more than three years ago and even with its divisive final season, the show cemented itself as the biggest, most important series in the history of HBO. Now, after some false starts (including a hugely expensive pilot for a more offbeat spinoff series called “Bloodmoon”), the first proper “Game of Thrones” follow-up is here. “House of the Dragon” is a prequel series, set more than 200 years before the events of the mainline show. This new show focuses on the House Targaryen and the battle for succession for the Iron Throne, an event known in the “Game of Thrones” canon (and in a perfectly filigreed, George R.R. Martin way) as the “Dance of Dragons.” The cast for the new show is terrific, with Paddy Considine, Emma D’Arcy, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Rhys Ifans, Sonoya Mizuno and Eve Best. And Martin (who still hasn’t finished writing the “Game of Thrones” novels) is more involved in this project than in other proposed offshoots. Hey, if it looks like “Game of Thrones” and it tastes like “Game of Thrones,” chances are, it’s probably “Game of Thrones.” [[REVIEW](] ID=167008;size=300x250;setID=556895;uid={EMAIL}5862219;click=summer_tv_watchlist_2 [- - -] [Premiere of the week] “Only Murders in the Building”Tuesday, August 23, Hulu [Steve Martin in ] Photo: Hulu Doesn’t it seem like the first season of “Only Murders in the Building” just wrapped up? My how time flies when you’re hosting a true-crime podcast out of your posh Manhattan apartment building while simultaneously solving actual murders that occur there. The second season of the popular Hulu series maintained what worked so well about the first – mainly the unexpectedly flinty chemistry between Steve Martin, Martin Short (two long-time friends and comedy partners) and newcomer Selena Gomez. It just works! Season 2 also wisely maintained the fun tone of the first season, which flickered between ghoulish crimes and lighter, sometimes emotionally resonant comedy. All while expanding the world to include new characters – each of them potential suspects (or victims). In short: The show is a delight. And don’t worry, it’s already been picked up for season 3. Canceling it now would have been a crime. [[INTERVIEW](] [- - -] [Premiere of the week] “Samaritan”Friday, August 26, Prime Video [samaritan-sylvester-stallone] Photo: Prime Video/MGM This movie shuffled around the release calendar during the height of COVID nearly as often as “Top Gun: Maverick.” Now it’s arriving as a Prime Video original movie after Amazon’s acquisition of MGM. Javon Walton (“Euphoria”) plays a kid who discovers that a sanitation worker in his neighborhood (Sylvester Stallone) might actually be the Samaritan, a superhero long presumed dead after vanishing 25 years earlier. The script for “Samaritan” had been around for so long that it has already been adapted into a comic book. Director Julius Avery last helmed the terrific World War II zombie movie “Overlord,” which makes him a good choice to deconstruct superhero lore. Plus, this could signal the beginning salvo of Stallone’s big 2022 comeback, with his upcoming Taylor Sheridan series “Tulsa King” dropping this fall and a fourth “Expendables” film tentatively scheduled for sometime later this year. Never bet against him or you might wind up getting knocked out. [[TRAILER](] [- - -] [Premiere of the week] “Welcome to Wrexham”Wednesday, August 24 at 10 p.m., FX Photo: FX Like a documentary version of “Ted Lasso,” “Welcome to Wrexham” follows actors Ryan Gosling and Rob McElhenney, who decided to pool their resources and buy a struggling Welsh soccer team (Wrexham A.F.C.). After years of poor mismanagement, COVID nearly ended the team for good, before Gosling and McElhenney took over. Judging by the promotional materials, it looks like the kind of feel-good, inspirational (but not saccharine) story that we could use about now. Goal! [[TRAILER](] [- - -] [Premiere of the week] “Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law”HBO Max [Harvey Birdman] Photo: [adult swim]/Cartoon Network If Disney+’s terrific “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law” has you hankering for more superpowered lawyer shows, look no further than “Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law,” one of the very first breakout hits in Cartoon Network’s [adult swim] programming block. Voiced by Gary Coleman, Harvey Birdman is an attorney who gets involved with cases involving other Hanna-Barbera characters (Shaggy faces a drug charge, etc.) It’s very clever with that snappy, post-“Space Ghost: Coast to Coast” sensibility (“Harvey Birdman” as ostensibly a spin-off of “Space Ghost”). “Harvey Birdman” crawled (flew?) so “She-Hulk” could walk (smash?). [[WATCH](] [- - -] [Premiere of the week] “Lost Ollie”Wednesday, August 25, NetflixImagine if Terrence Malick decided to remake “Toy Story” and you have a good idea of the general vibe of “Lost Ollie.” Created by Shannon Tindle and directed by Peter Ramsey (one of the filmmakers behind “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”), “Lost Ollie” deviates greatly from the William Joyce children’s novel by William Joyce on which it’s based. Yes, it’s still the story of a lost, homemade toy named Ollie (voiced by Jonathan Groff) who goes searching for his child, but it takes some big swings, commenting on the socioeconomic state of the rural South, underlying racial hostilities and the passage of time. It’s also super fun, with gorgeous character animation from Industrial Light & Magic and great performances by Jake Johnson, Gina Rodriguez, Mary J. Blige and Tim Blake Nelson. [[TRAILER](] “Little Demon”Thursday, August 25 at 10 p.m., FXIn this new adult animated series (produced by “Rick and Morty” co-creator Dan Harmon), Aubrey Plaza plays a young single mother trying to raise her daughter in Delaware, but her attempts at a normal life are undermined by the reappearance of her daughter’s father, Satan (voiced, of course, by Danny DeVito). With a fanciful art style and a cast that Eugene Cordero, Michael Shannon and Lennon Parham, with guest appearances by Mel Brooks, William Jackson Harper, Pamela Adlon, Rhea Perlman, Dave Bautista, June Diane Raphael, Sam Richardson, Lamorne Morris and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Sounds like devilishly good fun! [[TRAILER](] “Mike”Thursday, August 25., HuluThe controversy has already begun for this limited series based on the life of Mike Tyson (played in the show by the wonderful Trevante Rhodes), created by writer Steven Rogers and directed, in part, by his “I, Tonya” collaborator Craig Gillespie (who recently tackled another hot-button, real-life case in “Pam and Tommy”). “Mike” has already come under fire from Tyson himself, who claimed that the filmmakers “stole” his life rights and demanded payment for the eight-part miniseries. (It’s common for projects about public figures to be made without the subject’s cooperation.) Did you really expect Mike Tyson to go down without a fight? [[TRAILER](] “Lower Decks”Thursday, August 25, Paramount“Lower Decks,” ifnot the greatest “Star Trek” series since the franchise’s multifaceted rebirth on Paramount+, is at least the most enjoyable. The animated workplace comedy follows the below-the-line employees of a Starfleet ship. While not much is known about this new season, if it follows through on the promise of last season, we’re in for something very, very special. [[TRAILER](] “Me Time”Friday, August 26, Netflix“Me Time” is a high-concept, R-rated comedy written by John Hamburg (“I Love You, Man,” “Along Came Polly”) and starring Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg, about a stay-at-home dad (Hart) who decides to have some “me time” while his wife and kids are out of town and reconnects with a rambunctious old pal (Wahlberg). Do we really need to say anything else? Either you’re in or you’re out. As Walter White once said, there are no half measures. 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