TV with kick, secrets, rebellion and green rings

Deep into a summer with endless-seeming heat waves, squadrons of both mosquitoes and dragonflies, and a dearth of insect repellent, here is a richly varied smorgasbord of TV, new and returning, to illuminate your shade-darkened viewing spaces. Also, remember to hydrate.

• Ted Lasso (Season 4 premières Wednesday, Aug. 5, on Apple TV)

It’s the return of the nice guy, the can-do guy, the BELIEVE guy! But enough of that feel-good stuff. There are questions to be answered when the soccer-is-life series returns! How and why does Ted (Jason Sudeikis) leave the U.S. to go back to the U.K. to coach the AFC Richmond women’s team after having quit the Richmond men’s team at the end of Season 3? What fresh stories will the show come up with to avoid a female rewind of the first three seasons, good as those stories were? And finally how will Hannah Waddington gear down from the fun assassin role in Prime Video’s excellent new series Ride or Die back to the buttoned-down AFC team owner Rebecca Welton? Shall we all find out together?

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• The Shards (series premières Wednesday, Aug. 5, on FX, and the next day on Disney+/Hulu)

The clique-building efforts at an elite Los Angeles high school at least occasionally take second place to the teen-focused serial killer in this new thriller. Also, let’s welcome the gigantic theme statement about killing forces in modern society. Well, it is set in the 1980s, based on the novel of Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho) and helmed by Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story). If that’s not scary enough, the hair and fashions guarantee shivers. Bret (Igby Rigney, Midnight Mass) is an aspiring student writer. He has a bad feeling about newcomer Robert (Homer Gere, Euphoria). Wes Bentley plays at being a mentor to Bret.

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• Sterling Point (series premières Wednesday, Aug. 5, on Prime Video)

While The Shards is all about glamour and steely social commentary, this Canadian-shot teen drama relocates a grieving New York City family to an island in Ontario’s Muskoka region left to them by their estranged late grandfather. Of course romance and impossibly great hair follow, but, according to this press release, additional family and family secrets are unearthed. Jay Duplass (Dying for Sex) plays the apparently clueless parental figure, Ella Rubin (Anora) plays Annie and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead) is a local with answers.

Of note: this series is created and directed by Megan Park, whose 2024 film My Old Ass (also Prime Video) should be required viewing for all humans.

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• My Brilliant Career (series premières Aug. 13 on Netflix)

When teenage Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin was writing in Australia’s New South Wales in the late 1800s, she used a selection of cheeky pseudonyms to circumvent male bias in publishing, including Miles and Brent of Bin Bin. It was under the former that she published her best known novel, which is the basis for a fantastic 1979 movie starring Judy Davis as a young woman who dared in 1900 to consider a future beyond marriage, and Sam Neill as the puzzled suitor who persisted. Now, the story gets a steamy update, starring Philippa Northeast (Paper Dolls) as Sybylla and Slow Horses’ Christopher Chung as Harry. Let the reclaimed feminist paradigm shifting — and sexy time — begin!

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• Lanterns (series premières Aug. 16 on Crave)

Reddit users have, as fans are wont to do, taken issue with the plot of this DC Studios series from HBO Max and creator/writers Chris Mundy (Ozark, True Detective), Damon Lindelhof (Lost) and Tom King (Love Everlasting). The argument, generally, is that the Earth-based murder being investigated by the “space cops” (The Rip’s Kyle Chandler, The Morning Show’s Aaron Pierre) is not worthy of their ring-wearing Green Lantern status. There is also the issue of another character’s wig. None of that should dampen enthusiasm for this new superhero story, also starring Garret Dillahunt (Deadwood), Laura Linney (Ozark), Kelly Macdonald (Dept. Q), Jason Ritter (Matlock) and Poorna Jagannathan (Never Have I Ever). And that wig. Oof, but onward.

As is increasingly the case in this world of media mergers and cross-border rights squabbles, broadcast details are subject to change. All questions, comments and suggestions gratefully accepted.

denise.duguay@winnipegfreepress.com