What to Watch This Week: July 2 to 7

From new renovation series Hack My Home to a documentary about legendary ’80s pop duo Wham!, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week

1. Unknown: The Lost Pyramid – Monday, July 3, Netflix | Series Premiere

The first of four docs in Netflix’s Unknown series (focusing on pushing the boundaries of knowledge through exploration) follows two of the world’s most famous Egyptologists, as legendary Dr. Zahi Hawass hunts for the long-lost pyramid of a forgotten Egyptian king while his protégé and rival, Dr. Mostafa Waziri, searches for an unlooted tomb in an ancient necropolis.

2. Macy’s Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular – Tuesday, July 4, NBC

Whether you missed out on the Canada Day fireworks or you just like to see how the Americans celebrate their independence, this annual spectacle is always an impressive watch. Once again this year the action is co-hosted by Today anchors Craig Melvin and Dylan Dreyer, who welcome a slew of special guests in between all of the pyrotechnics. Some of the planned performers include 5 Seconds of Summer, Brett Eldredge, Carly Pearce and Pitbull with Filmore, who will take to the stage before the sky lights up. There are also special performances from the cast of Freestyle Love Supreme and Moulin Rouge! The Musical in store, as well as an appearance from celebrity chef and barbecue expert David Rose. Of course, the real event is the fireworks themselves: this year organizers will launch more than 48,000 shells and effects from five barges, giving everyone there and at home an amazing view. It’s a 25-minute performance synchronized to a musical score with plenty of jaw-dropping colours and shapes—all of which launch at an impressive average of 1,900 shells and effects per minute. 

3. Tom Segura: Sledgehammer – Tuesday, July 4, Netflix

Proving that he possesses the gift of longevity, standup Tom Segura returns to Netflix this week with his fifth special. Recorded in front of a sold-out crowd in Phoenix, Arizona, Sledgehammer packs a wallop—see what we did there?—with material about what it’s like to raise two sons, how much he admires Brad Pitt, and what he learned from sharing his gummies with his mother. What’s perhaps most notable about this special, however, is the amount of growth Segura showswith what he opted to cut.“I made some really grown-up decisions,” he told the Hollywood Reporter back in May. “I really wanted this to be a tighter special. When I look back at my old specials, I always regret not cutting out more, so I made this grown-up decision to cut big chunks out that had really killed.”

4. Mission: Impossible Behind the Scenes Special – Wednesday, July 5, CBS

With anticipation building for the long-awaited seventh film in the Mission: Impossible franchise (Mission: Impossible–Dead Reckoning Part One, for those keeping track), this new half-hour special takes viewers behind the scenes with star Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie for an inside look at the series’ biggest and craziest stunts to date, including Cruise jumping a motorcycle off a cliff. 

5. Wham! – Wednesday, July 5, Netflix

This feature-length documentary tell the story of WHAM!, the duo that took the pop charts by storm during their 1980s heyday. It all began in 1982, when teenage best friends George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley set out to conquer the world, and ended just four years later, when WHAM! played their final gig in front of 90,000 fans at London’s Wembley Stadium after having done exactly that. Now, for the very first time, the two tell their amazing story in their own words, recounting how they managed to dominate the music industry worldwide in just four short years while churning out hit after hit. Their time in the spotlight was white-hot (remember when WHAM! became the very first western pop act to perform in China?), with their pop-star reign both encapsulating and epitomizing not just their youth, but also those of the many millions of fans that adored them all over the world. 

Director Chris Smith (Tiger King, Sr.) and producers John Battsek (The Deepest Breath) and Simon Halfon (Supersonic) capture this magical time. Given unprecedented access to both the personal archives of both Michael (who died in 2016 at age 53) and Ridgeley, the documentary features remarkable and never-before-seen footage, alongside rare, candid and previously unheard interviews, to chart the band’s incredible journey from school friends to bona fide superstars.

6. Human Footprint – Wednesday, July 5, WTVS & KCTS | Series Premiere

This six-part program, hosted by biologist and Princeton University professor Dr. Shane Campbell-Staton, uses a part-science, part-travel series approach that takes viewers from high-tech labs to sweltering street markets, from farms to restaurants, and from primeval forests to the back alleys of NYC, to explore the ways in which humans are transforming the planet—and what those transformations tell us about who we are as a species. “I study how animals adapt to the changes we are making to the planet, but this journey really helped me to better understand the depth and breadth of our impact,” said Campbell-Staton.

7. The Lincoln Lawyer – Thursday, July 6, Netflix | Season Premiere

We knew that a series based on Michael Connelly’s bestselling novels would have legs, but this show is hitting the ground running when the first part of its second season debuts on the streaming service this week. The series stars Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller, a lawyer who runs his law practice out of the back of his Lincoln Town car. 

The first season quickly became one of the most talked-about dramas on Netflix when it debuted last year, rising to become the 18th most popular series on the streamer in 2022. Production on season two kicked off last October in Los Angeles, and for those who follow the book series it traces the events set out in The Fifth Witness. In the book, those events include Haller falling on tough times as he works to exonerate a new client despite all evidence pointing to her guilt. To coincide with that story there will be some familiar faces returning, including Neve Campbell as Maggie McPherson (although her role is no longer full-time), Becki Newton as Lorna, Jazz Raycole as Izzy and Angus Sampson as Cisco. There are also two new and important actors joining the second-season action. Lana Parrilla (Once Upon a Time) plays Lisa Trammell, a beloved chef and community advocate who is struggling to keep her restaurant afloat when a real estate developer threatens her neighbourhood. Yaya DaCosta (Chicago Med) also joins this year, portraying a character named Andrea Freemann, a cutthroat prosecutor and Haller’s undefeated courtroom rival. The icing on the cake? She also happens to be friends with Haller’s ex-wife, Maggie.

Matt Angel, Angélica María, Robert Horry, Clint Carmichael, Douglas Bennet, Brian Dare and Ryan W. Garcia also join the cast.

8. Wake Up, Carlo! – Thursday, July 6, Netflix | Series Premiere

Netflix has made a point of expanding its content to include as much international flavour as possible, and one country in particular that they’ve been trying to focus on in recent years is Brazil. “While we saw the conversations and the impact that stories have on the world, we wanted to dig deeper to understand how stories bring people closer to a country like Brazil,” said Netflix co-CEO Reed Hastings in a 2021 press conference. Yes, it seems like a lifetime ago, but animated series do take awhile to come to fruition, and now viewers can enjoy Netflix’s first Brazilian cartoon, Wake Up, Carlo! 

The show follows Carlo, a seven-year-old who falls under a spell that makes him sleep for 22 years. Now that he’s woken up, the world around him has changed, of course, but more importantly, he’s changed… unlike his best friends, who are now responsible adults. Given that he still has the mindset of a kid, Carlo helps his pals reclaim some of the youthful spirit that they’ve buried over the past two decades.plate. 

9. Hack My Home – Friday, July 7, Netflix | Series Premiere

Wish you had a little more space in your home to store your things, get some distance from your family, or entertain in? The families featured on this new eight-part series certainly do. The home renovation show features deserving families and a team of experts who come together to try and solve the age-old space issue with creative redesigns and space-saving hacks. 

You may be jealous once you see just how much lives change with some of these clever tweaks, but the good news is that you may pick up a tip or two in each half-hour episode along the way. 

The four-person expert team includes designer Mikel Welch, construction guru Ati Williams, innovator Brooks Atwood and engineer Jessica Banks. All told, they’re not just talented, they’re exceptionally efficient.

10. The Horror of Dolores Roach – Friday, July 7, Prime Video | Series Premiere

Based on the hit Spotify podcast of the same name, The Horror of Dolores Roach is described as “a contemporary Sweeney Todd-inspired urban legend of love, betrayal, weed, cannibalism and survival of the fittest.” The story surrounds Dolores Roach (Justina Machado, One Day at a Time), who is released from prison after 16 years, with nothing but $200 and the clothes on her back. She returns to her old NYC neighbourhood of Washington Heights, only to discover it is now utterly gentrified and completely unfamiliar to her. She reunites with an old stoner friend, Luis (Alejandro Hernandez), who lets her live and work as a masseuse in the basement beneath his empanada shop. When the promise of her newfound stability is quickly threatened, “Magic Hands” Dolores is driven to shocking extremes to survive, leading her to seek refuge beneath the streets in an abandoned subway tunnel, where she encounters others driven underground to escape the past.