What to Watch This Week: June 3 to June 8

From ballroom drag to boardroom politics, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week

From ballroom drag to boardroom politics, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week

1. Pose – Sunday, June 3, 6 p.m., 9 p.m. & 10:50 p.m., FX Canada | Series Premiere

In a year of watershed moments, Ryan Murphy’s new show, Pose, is about? to introduce audiences to something genuinely unprecedented: the largest-ever cast of transgender actors on a television show. The drama, which tells the stories? of trans individuals and drag performers ?in the 1980s New York ballroom scene,? will star five transgender actors as series regulars and include 108 trans cast and crew members in total.

The eight-episode show is, in a way, an expansion of the world introduced in Jennie Livingston’s seminal 1990 documentary, Paris Is Burning, which explored the Golden Age of New York City drag balls. The series begins in 1987 and will end when Madonna, ever the pop-culture chameleon, releases “Vogue,” which made aspects of this subculture mainstream. Thematically it is about outsiders coming together to form a family, as well as celebrating those who even today find themselves disenfranchised.

2. Succession – Sunday, June 3, 9 p.m. & 1:05 a.m., HBO Canada | Series Premiere

In the premiere episode of Succession, a full-grown man bets his gardener’s 11-year-old son an arbitrary million dollars that he can’t hit a home run in a “friendly” baseball match. The man in question is one of several offspring of self-made billionaire Logan Roy (Brian Cox) and his wager sets the tone perfectly for the inaugural season of this dark dramedy: entitlement, endless pissing contests and some very dysfunctional people.

Focusing on the uneasy transition? of power in a high-profile media family, the Roys are not your average dynasty. Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong), the eldest son from Logan’s second marriage, works as division president at the company,? and would be the heir apparent, if not considered “soft” by his father. Roman (Kieran Culkin) is on the board of directors but prefers to spend his time having drug-fuelled fun. Siobhan (Sarah Snook) has been pursuing a career in politics, and Connor (Alan Ruck), the only child from Logan’s first marriage, is running a farm in Mexico. But when their father’s health starts to decline, they all show up—eager to take over the family biz.

3. Nigella: At My Table – Monday, June 4, 3:30 p.m., KCTS

It’s nice to eat out at a fancy restaurant every now and again, but the way we see it, there’s nothing better than friends and families congregating in a home kitchen, cooking together and then sitting down to a leisurely meal. That idea is at the heart of Nigella Lawson’s latest culinary series, which debuts this week. The show serves as a companion to the chef’s latest cookbook of the same name, as she offers up fresh takes on old favourites—including French toast, leg of lamb and white chocolate cheese cake. (To hear Lawson’s thoughts on the book and cooking for loved ones, read our recent interview here.) It’s not all reimagined comfort food, though: Lawson will also unroll mouth-watering new dishes inspired by other cuisines, like her Beef and Aubergine Fatteh.

4. Dietland – Monday, June 4, 6 p.m., 9 p.m. & Midnight, AMC | Series Premiere

For eons, there has been the notion sold to women of a certain dress size that if they can only get off the weight, their lives would be wonderful and everyone would love them—not that they’re OK the way they are. It is for these folks that Dietland was created.

Premiering this week with a two-?hour instalment, the satirical series ?from Marti Noxon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, UnREAL) stars Joy Nash (The Mindy Project, Twin Peaks) as Alicia “Plum” Kettle, a ghost writer for Kitty Montgomery (Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife), mercurial editor of one of the hottest fashion magazines in New York.

Plum pens a wildly popular self-help column in which she advises teens on dealing with relationship problems. But this plus-size 30-something could use some help herself, especially when it comes to self-acceptance.

That comes in the form of Verena Baptist (Robin Weigert, Big Little Lies, Deadwood), a well-to-do woman who closed her parents’ successful weight-loss business and used the proceeds to create a program to help women accept themselves as they are. And in Plum, an emotionally closed-down singleton who’s never had a boyfriend or sexual partner, she sees a prime candidate.

5. So You Think You Can Dance – Monday, June 4, 8 p.m., Fox | Season Premiere

A new crew of move-busters showcase their skills in contemporary, tap, hip hop, ballroom, animation and more, as season 15 kicks off this week. Cat Deeley is back to host, while Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy and Vanessa Hudgens handle the scorecards.

6. Unapologetic with Aisha Tyler – Monday, June 4, 8 p.m. & 11 p.m., AMC | Series Premiere

Designed to be a companion show to provocative new comedy Dietland (see above), Unapologetic is something of a departure from the typical AMC after show (i.e. Talking Dead), as host Aisha Tyler (formerly of The Talk) shines the spotlight on some of the hot-button topics raised in the series, including female empowerment, gender issues, concerns with body image and more.

7. Humans – Tuesday, June 5, 7 p.m., 7 p.m., AMC | Season Premiere

If you’ve got yourself a Nest thermostat, Google Home or any other “smart house” technology, this acclaimed sci-fi series, which is set just a stone’s throw into the future, has no doubt had you looking at the device with a bit of healthy mistrust. Sure, for the moment it’s just cutting down your heating bill and letting you double-check the front door is locked… but surely it can’t be long before this helpful little robot and its peers have enslaved the human race.

In season three, Humans continues to explore the evolution of technology and its effects on society, with its first look at what happens when the things we create truly become our equals.

Things pick up a year following the “dawn of consciousness,” with the oppressed Synth population forced into ghettos and fighting for survival in Britain. In a world that hates and fears these newly self-aware machines, it’s more important than ever for them to band together. Peace negotiations with? the humans are ongoing, but the politics of it all is a nightmare, and the situation gets even messier when cracks begin to form within the Synth community’s united front.

8. Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger – Thursday, June 7, 5 p.m. & 6 p.m. (repeating at 8 p.m. & 9 pm.), ABC Spark | Series Premiere

Two very special teenagers are about to become television’s latest Marvels. Olivia Holt and Aubrey Joseph play the title characters, whose complementary supernatural powers make them realize they’re stronger together… though forces conspire to keep the flirtatious teens apart. The supporting cast includes Andrea Roth (Rescue Me) and Gloria Reuben (ER) as their respective mothers.

9. Sense 8 – Friday, June 8, Netflix | Series Finale

In 2017, Netflix angered a small-but-ferocious fanbase by cancelling this sci-fi action series after two seasons. But now, Netflix is pulling a Netflix, with a two-hour movie that gives our mind-melded heroes a proper sendoff, as the Cluster and some unexpected allies unite to protect the future of all Sensates.

10. Phenoms – Friday, June 8, 8 p.m. & 9 p.m., Fox | Season Finale

This five-part documentary miniseries following some of the world’s top soccer players on their quests to represent their respective countries in the 2018 FIFA World Cup comes to a conclusion, with the final two episodes—titled “Playmakers” and “Creators”—airing back to back.