Between streaming and cable, there is a seemingly endless variety of things to watch. Here is a selection of TV shows and specials that are airing or streaming this week, June 23-29. Details and times are subject to change.
If you can’t take the heat …
“The Bear” — FX’s hotly anticipated kitchen drama — airs its fourth season this week. The first season, which aired in 2022, had a familiar premise of the prodigal son returning home: Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), who was climbing the culinary career ladder, goes back to Chicago to take over the family’s sandwich shop after a sudden tragedy. Much of the drama takes place in the kitchen, where Carmy, like Hamlet in a pair of Birkenstock Tokios, navigates his grief while managing competing pressures. In subsequent seasons, “The Bear” has included cameos by such real-life Michelin-starred chefs as René Redzepi and Thomas Keller.
“The Bear” is about the pursuit of greatness, however fleeting, but it doesn’t play into the myth of the individual genius either. Much of the show’s success is owed to the fleshed-out portraits of an ensemble of characters — Liza Colón-Zayas and Ayo Edebiri have both picked up Emmys for their roles — whose abilities and dreams are as real as those of the show’s tortured frontman. Season three ended with a cliffhanger involving a consequential review for Carmy’s new fine-dining restaurant. Tune in for more of the show’s choreographed mania. Streaming Wednesday on Hulu.
A point of origin
In fire forensics, the “point of origin” is the term for where things ignited. For the Apple TV+ original series “Smoke,” that was the podcast, “Firebug,” about a real-life arsonist who tried to use his crimes as fodder for a novel, and then got caught. “Smoke” will run for nine episodes and center on the fraught partnership between an arson investigator (Taron Egerton) and a detective (Jurnee Smollett) as they try to catch two serial arsonists on the loose. A game of cat and mouse ensues, set to the melancholic crooning of Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke, who wrote the series’s theme song, “Dialing In.” “Smoke” was created by the novelist cum TV writer Dennis Lehane, who is also an executive producer. Fans of Lehane’s books “Mystic River” and “Shutter Island” may appreciate the show’s slow-burning drama (forgive the pun). Streaming Friday on Apple TV+.
Redemption arcs
The makers of “Ted Lasso” have confected a new sports show, “Stick,” starring Owen Wilson as a washed-up professional golfer named Pryce Cahill, whose career was derailed years ago. But Pryce is given a second lease on life when he takes an interest in the career of a teenage golf prodigy, Santi Wheeler, played by Peter Dager. Pryce convinces Santi — and his long-suffering mother — to take training to the next level, as they soon hit the road in a lumbering motor home. This week’s episode, “RV Shangri-la,” takes place in a campsite on a rest day before the start of the U.S. Amateur Championship competition. Viewers who came for golf may stay for Wilson’s charm, and the show’s wry but life-affirming humor. As fans of “Ted Lasso” can attest, the sport is part of the show’s appeal, but it’s the human-centered drama that’s at its core. New episode streaming Wednesday on Apple TV+.
A show that spawned 1000 memes
The third and final season “Squid Game” arrives this week, and the Netflix series’s cultural offshoots are everywhere. From the memes that proliferated online to a thematic nod on “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” the South Korean dystopian thriller has thoroughly permeated the zeitgeist. (“Squid Game Experience,” where you can playact the drama with none of the danger, opened in Manhattan last year.) As The New York Times’s chief TV critic, James Poniewozik, wrote in his review of season 2, the show became a phenomenon “less for the novelty of its themes (capitalism exploits the desperate) or structure (see “The Hunger Games” and much reality TV) than for its spattery panache and visual inventions.” Tune in Friday for the show’s visually arresting displays of high-stakes games and carnage. Streaming Friday on Netflix.
The post ‘The Bear,’ Plus 3 Things to Watch on TV This Week appeared first on New York Times.
