If your cookout gets rained out, I’ve got you covered.
It’s (almost) officially Memorial Day weekend, which means the beginning of summer and the official end of the TV season. It’s been an a truly epic one—dragons, melted thrones and all—and with so much great stuff out there, you no doubt have some catching up to do.
So, in case you find yourself with some extra time for a proper streaming session over the next few days, here are five must-binge shows you might have missed.
Dead to Me (Netflix)
The tsunami-style wave of word-of-mouth buzz that this new Christina Applegate/Linda Cardellini comedy-drama has been riding since it dropped on Netflix earlier this month has been seismic—and, for a show with a twist-around-every-corner storytelling style, surprisingly spoiler-free. Since I’m not about to break that rare secretive streak, all I’ll say is that it’s about Jen (Applegate), a real estate agent that recently lost her husband, who is befriended by a stranger named Judy (Cardellini) when she attends her first grief counseling group—and things take off from there. Spanning 10 half-hour episodes that crackle with surprises moving at the pace of a finely tuned vintage Mustang on the California highway, this one is so good it will be hard to not watch it all in the same sitting. Plan accordingly.
The Good Fight (CBS All Access)
There are a lot of shows out there that try to tap into the ‘WTF is happening?!’ political zeitgeist of the moment, but none do it with the glorious style, spirit—and, thanks to it’s off-network roots, swearing—that The Good Fight delivers. Led by perennial MVP and national MF treasure, Christine Baranksi, The Good Wife spinoff hit a spectacular new stride in its third season: using the show’s setting at a predominantly black law firm to full effect, it follows a cast of richly developed characters you actually care about as they navigate everything from Trump mania to the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements. Anchored by these types of timely, intelligent storylines that revel in the complexity of ethical and moral grey areas, the show is slickly produced entertainment that fires on all cylinders to deliver both humor and pathos—right up to what I think is the biggest ‘OMG!’ finale moment of any show this season.
Tuca and Bertie (Netflix)
I don’t know that I’ve ever sat and watched every episode of a new animated show—never mind recommend one—but Tuca and Bertie has a swagger that can’t be denied. Voiced and produced by comedic powerhouses Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong (with support from a handful of top-tier guest stars), think of the series as a cartoon version of Broad City with birds, where two best friends and recently separated roommates find their way through quarter-life crises and the growing pains of, well, growing up in your mid-twenties. Deft in its humor and unexpected in its emotional resonance, Tuca and Bertie wraps an all-too-relatable world in just enough off-the-wall wackiness to make it work.
Fleabag (Prime Video)
Oh, so you dig Killing Eve? Well, the show’s genius creator and producer, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, had her own show before the Sandra Oh/Jodie Comer-starring juggernaut took over the watercooler conversation, and it’s back with a pitch-perfect second season. The recently released second installment of the London-set series (which is based on the creator’s one-woman play of the same name) finds our complicated heroine, Fleabag (played by Waller-Bridge), cleaning up her act after reaching new heights of hot messiness in Season One. This time around, she makes big moves to mature while managing her own business, complicated family dynamics and red-hot connection to an unattainable(?) ‘hot priest’ in an arc that challenges her views on pretty much everything about her life and who she is. Hopeful, heartbreaking and hilarious (especially those razor-sharp ‘break-the-fourth-wall’ asides), the six, half-hour episodes fly by in a whirl of witty, tonally perfect entertainment that don’t require a first-season viewing—though if you have a little bit of extra time, it’s worth the watch.
The Bold Type (Freeform)
Currently in the middle of its third season (and recently renewed for a fourth), the show follows three ambitious best friends in their 20’s as they climb NYC’s personal and professional ladders while making a name for themselves at Scarlet, a Cosmopolitan-esque women’s magazine (former editor-in-chief, Joanna Coles, is an executive producer). The leads are smart, savvy, independent and empowered, whose lives may be complicated by romance but never ruled by it in a refreshing look at the wins and losses in the lives of millennial women on the rise. Touting writing that’s organic, layered and unexpected, spot-on production values (I’ve lived in this world; they nail it) and nuanced, bullseye performances (Katie Stevens, Aisha Dee and Meghann Fahy are superb as the lead trio, and Melora Hardin is bad ass as their boss), The Bold Type is the kind of cool, coming-of-age comedy-drama that will keep you hitting the ‘Watch Next Episode’ button as soon as the credits begin to roll.