With the temperature rising and the slower pace of daily life during summer just a little more than a week away, what better time to catch up on all the TV viewing you have missed while out enjoying the cool weather? In the not-so distant past, summer was a bumper season for DVD box-set sales. However, the addition of international streaming services – including Netflix and Starz Play – to the local TV market, alongside existing digital platforms such as OSN Play and a dramatically improved regional iTunes service, means it is easier and more convenient than ever to discover brand new shows or revisit old favourites. On top of that, as the pace of life shifts down a gear, there is no excuse for missing your favourite weekly shows that are still running. If you are looking for recommendations, Chris Newbould picks the best of the current and upcoming shows – as well as a few recent classics you might have missed
Banshee
This Emmy Award-winning crime thriller’s fourth and final season just ended on OSN HBO, but catch-up episodes are still available through the broadcasters, On Demand and Play services if you missed one of the best TV dramas of recent years. The show features Antony Starr (pictured) as Lucas Hood, an ex-con who takes on the identity of a murdered, small-town sheriff in Banshee, a town in Pennsylvania’s Amish country, where his ex-girlfriend (Ivana Milicevic) lives. Lucas aims to hide there from his former boss, Rabbit (Ben Cross), from whom he stole US$15 million (Dh55.09m) worth of diamonds, while living out a bizarre double life as a robber and local lawman. He also hopes to rekindle his romance with his ex – who happens to be Rabbit’s daughter – and clashes with local crime lord Kai Proctor (Ulrich Thomsen). Season four is available on OSN Play, while you can buy seasons one to three on iTunes’ Middle East store.
Orange is the New Black
The hit Netflix drama about the inmates and staff of a women’s prison returns for its fourth season on June 17. And this being Netflix, the whole season will drop at once – perfect for binge viewers. Season three ended with several cliffhangers: a mass breakout, Alex (Laura Prepon) cornered in the greenhouse by a far-from-friendly guard and a busload of prisoners arriving at the newly expanded prison. And if you missed the first three seasons, here’s the chance to catch up before the new episodes arrive.
Seasons one to three are available now on Netflix. Season four will be released on June 17. www.netflix.com
Penny Dreadful
This British-American horror series is midway through its third season on Starz Play Arabia, with the final episode due to be broadcast on June 19. The show takes its title from the pulp fiction horror novellas that were popular in Victorian times, and features many familiar characters from the era – including Dracula, Victor Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll – appearing together in new adventures. The show, which features some big-name stars such as former James Bond Timothy Dalton and ex-Doctor Who star Billie Piper, has won several awards, including Baftas and Television Critics' Choice Awards.
All episodes to date are available on Starz Play, arabia.starzplay.com
House of Cards
The popular political drama, starring Kevin Spacey, is a Netflix show, but OSN bought the rights to screen it in the region before Netflix launched here in February. What does this mean if you want to catch up on it? Well, in short, seasons one, two and three are on Netflix, but the fourth season is being broadcast weekly on OSN First HD, with the season finale on June 13. Season four will no doubt eventually appear on Netflix, but for now, if you want to watch it, you can view it on OSN On Demand.
www.netflix.com; myosn.osn.com
Game of Thrones
HBO’s smash-hit fantasy drama is another one that requires a little work if you are planning a six-season binge, but at least this time everything is in the same place. Season six is broadcast on Mondays on OSN, with new episodes available from 5am on OSN On Demand and OSN Play – the same time as they are broadcast in the US – then repeated that evening on OSN First HD at 11pm. All previous seasons are also available on OSN Play, so brace yourself – summer is coming.
osnplay.osn.com; myosn.osn.com
Fear the Walking Dead
Audiences just can't get enough of zombies, and the second season of this companion show to The Walking Dead – which is broadcast globally on the AMC Channel, available here on OSN – is on its midseason break. The second half will begin after the summer. The series takes us back to the early days of the zombie outbreak, to show how society broke down to the state that Rick Grimes, the main character in The Walking Dead, found it in when he awoke from his coma. If you did not get your fill of flesh-eating mayhem when it screened the first time around, don't panic. Some episodes are still available on OSN Play, while season one and the first-half of season two are also available on iTunes – as are all six seasons of The Walking Dead.
Marco Polo
Another Netflix offering, this historical epic about the European explorer's time in the Mongol court of Kublai Khan returns for its second season on July 1. Season one received mixed reviews, but is worth watching for its sheer scale – the US$90 million, 10-episode series was the second-most expensive ever made, after Game of Thrones, according to The New York Times – and attention to historical detail. Mongolian actor Orgil Narangerel (who doesn't appear in the show) told AFP that the first series was more accurate than any previous foreign portrayal of his country's culture. Season two promises more of the same epic filmmaking, with Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) joining the cast. Catch up on season one on Netflix.
[ www.netflix.com ]
Preacher
We've seen some great TV comic-book adaptations recently, not least AMC's The Walking Dead. And Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon's tale of a conflicted preacher, Jesse Custer (Dominic Cooper, above), could be next. Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and Breaking Bad writer Sam Catlin have adapted the graphic novel, in which Jesse is possessed by a supernatural being comprised of equal measures of good and evil. Imbued with new powers, he sets off across the United States to discover the meaning of life, accompanied by former girlfriend Tulip O'Hare (Ruth Negga) and an Irish vampire, Cassidy (Joseph Gilgun). The pilot debuted on AMC in the US last Sunday to positive reviews. There is no news of TV screenings here, but iTunes has a US$24.99 season pass for access to episodes as they are broadcast.
[ iTunes ]
Marcella
Another mid-Ramadan, July 1 launch from Netflix, the signs are good for this new show. Marcella stars British actress Anna Friel, the star of Pushing Daisies and Brookside among others, and is written by The Bridge creator Hans Rosenfeldt. The London-based story centres on the psychological struggles of Friel's character, a Metropolitan police officer who has reached a crisis point in her personal and professional life.
[ www.netflix.com ]
The Americans
Season four of this spy thriller began in March on the American cable-TV channel FX, but the broadcaster does not have a regional presence yet, so this highly acclaimed show might have slipped under your radar – luckily, iTunes has all four seasons. The show follows Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, two Soviet spies (played by Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, above) pretending to be the perfect American couple – complete with unsuspecting kids – living in the suburbs of Washington in the early 1980s, at the height of the Cold War. Their new neighbour happens to be an FBI counter-intelligence agent (Noah Emmerich), so plenty of intrigue ensues, though the show is as much an examination of an unusual marriage – the couple were paired up by their bosses in Moscow – as espionage.
[ iTunes ]
