The Most Anticipated TV Shows of Summer 2026

With the weather warming up, you're going to need excuses to duck inside and recuperate from the heat. Or maybe you're just looking for something to watch on the beach? Either way, the summer TV schedule is packed with returning favorites like The Vampire Lestat (which, despite the name change, picks up after the events of Interview with the Vampire Season 2), the long-awaited House of the Dragon Season 3, and the final season of The Bear. New releases include Mindy Kaling's Not Suitable for Work, the DCU-set series Lanterns, and the romance novel adaptation Every Year After, among others. If you want to know what shows are worth keeping your eye on through June, July, and August, here are our picks for the most anticipated shows of the season.

There can never be too many comedies about twentysomethings trying to have it all in New York. The latest to join the club is Mindy Kaling's Not Suitable for Work, which follows five young adults who are obsessed with their jobs and who live in "Manhattan's most glamorous neighborhood, Murray Hill." Murray Hill is really the sixth character on the show. Ella Hunt, Avantika, Will Angus, Jack Martin, Nicholas Duvernay, and Jay Ellis star, alongside a recurring guest cast that includes Constance Wu, Ego Nwodim, and — good work, everybody — Victor Garber. -Kelly Connolly [Trailer]

Why not start your summer with an old-fashioned thriller? Cape Fear is inspired by Martin Scorsese's 1991 movie of the same name, which is a remake of the 1962 movie of the same name, which is based on John D. MacDonald's 1957 novel The Executioners. This show has a long bloodline. But Scorsese's film — a violent, Hitchcockian, Southern Gothic psychological thriller — is the one that shares the most DNA with the Apple limited series, which is also executive produced by both Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Here, Javier Bardem takes on the role of Max Cady, a notorious killer who's out of jail and out for revenge; Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson play the married lawyers Cady blames for his imprisonment. Sometimes you just want to watch Javier Bardem and Amy Adams go toe to toe in the Southern heat. -Kelly Connolly [Trailer]

Whether you consider it Season 3 of Interview with the Vampire or Season 1 of The Vampire Lestat, one thing is certain: Lestat's running the show now. After the publication of Daniel Molloy's (Eric Bogosian) book, also called Interview with the Vampire, Lestat (Sam Reid) seeks to take control of the narrative to clear up a few, shall we say, misconceptions about himself. What better way to do so than with a documentary following him (and his band, also called The Vampire Lestat — are you noticing a pattern here?) on tour as he sings about his feelings using the age-old power of rock and roll music? Jacob Anderson, Assad Zaman, and Delainey Hayles all return, while Jennifer Ehle joins the cast as Lestat's mother — and everything going on with those two has to be seen to be believed. -Allison Picurro [Trailer] [Everything to know about The Vampire Lestat]

Prime Video's summer of book-to-screen adaptations continues. Next up is Every Year After, which adapts Carley Fortune's romance novel Every Summer After. This story about first loves and what-ifs is told over six years and follows the relationship between Persephone "Percy" Fraser (Sadie Soverall) and Sam Florek (Matt Cornett), who spend every summer vacationing together in Barry's Bay. Also in the main cast are Aurora Perrineau, Abigail Cowen, Michael Bradway, and Joseph Chiu. -Kat Moon [Trailer]

Stop reading now if you don't want to know the bizarre/ridiculous/awesome/unnecessary/inane (choose any combination of adjectives from that list, as they all apply) twist that appropriately dominated the discourse surrounding Season 1 of Apple TV's Sugar, because we're gonna have to talk about it. The series stars Colin Farrell as John Sugar, a cinema-loving private detective working cases in Los Angeles while also searching for his missing sister, and is a throwback to film noir movies of the olden days. One last little detail? Sugar is an alien. That tidbit of information was revealed in the sixth episode of Season 1 and lurked underneath the rest of the plot and somehow never became a big deal. Maybe his extraterrestrialism will factor more into Season 2, when Sugar tracks the older brother of a local boxer (Jin Ha) while unraveling a citywide conspiracy. Raymond Lee, Tony Dalton, Laura Donnelly, Sasha Calle, and Shea Whigham also join the cast. -Tim Surette

After a largely battle-less Season 2, House of the Dragon is slated to return bigger and better. To start, the third installment of the Game of Thrones prequel features the highly anticipated Battle of the Gullet, which is known as one of the deadliest naval battles in Westerosi history. In addition to the Greens and the Blacks continuing their war against each other, Season 3's trailer promises serious infighting, too. "I'm going to kill my brother or die in the attempt," Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) says about Aemond (Ewan Mitchell). -Kat Moon [Trailer] [Everything to know about House of the Dragon Season 3]

Aang (Gordon Cormier) and his friends are back, and they're heading to Ba Sing Se next. Season 2 of Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender — which adapts the beloved animated Nickelodeon series of the same name — brings the Avatar, Katara (Kiawentiio), and Sokka (Ian Ousley) to the Earth Kingdom. That of course means we're going to meet the earth bender Toph (Miyako), who becomes a teacher to Aang. Returning cast members for Season 2 include Dallas Liu as Zuko, Elizabeth Yu as Azula, and Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai. -Kat Moon [Trailer] [Everything to know about Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender Season 2]

Say goodbye to chef. The Emmy-winning series The Bear is closing up shop with its fifth season, which hits Hulu at once on June 25, like an eight-course meal. (Episodes will also air weekly on FX.) Fans have at least had some time to prepare; FX confirmed the news of the show's end in early May, immediately after releasing a special stand-alone episode to whet everyone's appetite. Season 5 picks up the morning after the gang finds out that Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) has quit the business, leaving the restaurant to Sydney (Ayo Edebiri), Richie (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), and Natalie (Abby Elliott). Will they finally earn that Michelin star? And will the debate about whether The Bear is a comedy ever end? -Kelly Connolly

It's time for Elle to approach the bench. Before Elle Woods (played here by Lexi Minetree) was an outsider at Harvard Law, she was an outsider at a high school in Seattle, which she starts attending after her father's (Tom Everett Scott) new job moves their family from their very swanky, very pink life in Bel-Air. We're rooting for this Legally Blonde prequel series, which has the very unenviable task of trying to match the energy of the beloved 2001 Reese Witherspoon film. What, like it's hard? -Allison Picurro [Teaser]

Your classic summer beach read in TV form, The Five Star Weekend adapts Elin Hilderbrand's 2023 novel of the same name. And like the last show based on a Hilderbrand book (Netflix's The Perfect Couple), it's going all in on star power, which is fitting, given the show's title. Jennifer Garner plays Hollis Shaw, a cook and best-selling author reeling from a tragedy that shatters her picture-perfect facade. Looking for a way forward, she invites friends from different stages of her life to spend the weekend at her house on Nantucket, where not everything goes as planned. D'Arcy Carden, Gemma Chan, Regina Hall, Chloë Sevigny, Harlow Jane, and Timothy Olyphant also star. -Kelly Connolly [Trailer]

Anya Taylor-Joy is on the run in this new crime thriller adapted from Marissa Stapley's 2021 book about a young grifter named Lucky (Taylor-Joy) dodging feds while trying to track down the boyfriend — well, ex-boyfriend now — who stole her illegally obtained millions. The adaptation comes from action specialist Jonathan Tropper, whose name you might not know, but whose work, including the high-octane Banshee and bone-crunching Warrior, you should. The cast also features Timothy Olyphant as Lucky's father, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as the FBI agent after Lucky, and Annette Bening as the mob boss who wants her money back. -Tim Surette

Everybody loves an island with secrets. In Sterling Point, a coming-of-age series from My Old Ass writer-director Megan Park, 17-year-old Annie Jacobson (Ella Rubin) uproots her life in New York when she inherits an island in Canada from her mysterious grandfather. The island promises new friends and, obviously, new romance, but it also leads Annie to unexpected revelations about her family. Jay Duplass plays her adoptive father, alongside a cast that also includes Keen Ruffalo, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Missi Pyle. -Kelly Connolly  

Well, here we go again. After a very mixed reception to Ted Lasso's third season and a lot of caginess from Apple about whether that would truly be its final season, the Jason Sudeikis sports comedy is officially back for Season 4. Though the Season 3 finale saw Ted (Sudeikis) moving back to America, these new episodes see him heading back to England to coach AFC Richmond's new second-division women's team, which Keeley (Juno Temple) convinced Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) to start at the end of last season. -Allison Picurro [Teaser] [Everything to know about Ted Lasso Season 4]

Bret Easton Ellis' 2023 semi-autobiographical novel about hypersexualized teens and a serial killer gets adapted by — who else? — Ryan Murphy. The drama tags along as a group of privileged prep school seniors in 1980s Los Angeles explores all the things those kinds of teens are wont to do. But things get heavier when Bret (Igby Rigney) suspects the mysterious new transfer (Homer Gere) is a serial killer targeting teens. -Tim Surette

What's better than one Green Lantern? Two Green Lanterns. The latest entry in the DCU will be this series from Chris Mundy, Damon Lindelof, and Tom King, which follows an elder Green Lantern — Kyle Chandler's Hal Jordan — as he trains a younger Green Lantern — Aaron Pierre's John Stewart — in the ways of the Lantern ring. The show is set in Rushville, Nebraska, where the pair are tasked with investigating a murder that may or may not have an extraterrestrial connection. -Allison Picurro [Teaser] [Everything to know about Lanterns]

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