Illustration by Hayden Maynard
Summer Culture Preview • Theatre • Movies • Albums • Visual Arts • Live Music
During the precious warm months in Canada, the great outdoors and canoe rides beckon – but sometimes, if we’re being honest, so too does the small screen and a bit of air-conditioned couch slouching. Fortunately, the days of June-to-August reruns are long gone in the streaming era. Here are seven series and events worth staying in for.
The Big Cigar
André Holland plays Huey P. Newton in this miniseries about the Black Panther’s escape to Cuba from the United States aided by movie producer Bert Schneider. Based on a true story, the show is inspired by a Playboy article by Joshuah Bearman – who also wrote a Wired article about a film-assisted escape that was the inspiration for the 2012 movie Argo. Don Cheadle directs the first two episodes.
Star Wars: The Acolyte
Premieres June 4
If you get nervous when you hear the words “Star Wars” in the vicinity of the word “prequel,” you may be skeptical about a series set in the High Republic era hundreds of years before The Phantom Menace (a.k.a. Episode 1). But the lightsaber buzz is strong for this mystery thriller that introduces Squid Game’s Lee Jung-jae and The Matrix’s Carrie-Anne Moss as Jedi masters a longer time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
House of the Dragon, Season 2
Premieres June 16
For those who haven’t got enough of pointless bloody conflicts in the real world, the popular Games of Thrones prequel is back, promising to plunge viewers into the Targaryen civil war – a period also known as the Dance of the Dragons in George R.R. Martin historiography. The series’ prompt return is thanks to it starring Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke and lots of other members of British actors’ unions who were allowed to shoot during last year’s Hollywood strikes.
Orphan Black: Echoes
Premieres June 23
This sci-fi/fantasy spinoff of the Canadian series that made Tatiana Maslany a star is set 37 years after the end of Orphan Black. Rather than trying to clone the original premise, new showrunner Anna Fishko is taking the concept in a different direction, with star Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones) playing just one of what seems like several DNA doppelgangers at different ages played by other actors – or so the trailer suggests.
The Bear, Season 3
Releases June 27
The much-lauded Chicago-set restaurant workplace drama – or, if you’re a Golden Globes voter, “comedy or musical” – returns to pull at your heart strings while making you salivate like one of Pavlov’s dogs. While Canadians had to endure frustratingly slow service in terms of getting Season 2 of The Bear, this third dose of the Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri hit will land on Disney+ in Canada at the same time it does on Hulu in the United States. Happy Canada Day!
Sausage Party: Foodtopia
Prime Video
Premieres July 11
Globe and Mail film critic Barry Hertz didn’t hold back in his review of the 2016 R-rated animated film Sausage Party – calling it “the most delirious movie to come out of a major studio in decades, perhaps ever.” This spinoff miniseries will see many of the original movie’s voice actors return to their roles as sentient snacks – including Canucks Seth Rogen and Michael Cera as a couple of sausages.
Paris 2024 Olympic Games
CBC/CBC Gem/TSN/Sportsnet
July 26 to Aug. 11
Canada’s public broadcaster and its partner networks are going big on the Olympics – on the old-fashioned clickety-click channels, on the CBC Gem streaming service and on a bespoke CBC Paris app designed for Android and iOS devices. Between 12 p.m. and 6 p.m. ET, Bell Paris Prime Live will be hosted by Scott Russell, who has covered 16 Olympic Games and is on the advisory panel for the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport. He will be joined by Julie Stewart-Binks, who is covering an Olympic Games for the third time.