What to Watch This Week: June 4 to 9

From The Weeknd’s controversial new HBO drama to a three-part docuseries profiling Arnold Schwarzenegger, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week

1. The Idol – Sunday, June 4, HBO Canada | Series Premiere

It’s been two years since Scarborough-born R&B phenom The Weeknd (a.k.a. Abel Tesfaye) and Euphoria provocateur Sam Levinson revealed they were creating a dark HBO drama together, in which Tesfaye would also take a leading role. Now, that series is finally here, following lots of backstage drama, including a creative overhaul that led to original series director Amy Seimetz leaving the project with 80 per cent of the show already filmed, and reports of a troubling workplace culture. 

The Idol is the story of a pop star named Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp), struggling to regain her mojo after a breakdown, who begins a complicated relationship with a self-help guru/cult leader (Tesfaye). Judging from the trailers, you can expect lots of sex, drugs, debauchery and, of course, a killer soundtrack as their bad romance unfolds against the backdrop of the L.A. music scene. 

The show debuted last month at the Cannes Film Festival, where it proved, to say the least, divisive.

2. Joe Pickett – Sunday, June 4, Paramount+ | Series Premiere

Author C.J. Box’s ever-underestimated game warden is back for a second season patrolling the wilds of Wyoming. This time, Joe is on the trail of a potential serial killer, a case that also involves “a radical anti-hunting activist” and “a ghoulish set of twins living off the grid.”

3. Barracuda Queens – Sunday, June 4, Netflix | Series Premiere

When you’re young, it can feel like your life isn’t your own—like parental and societal expectations have set you on a path you never had a say in. This fact-based Swedish series follows a group of privileged teen girls who look to chart their own path… by targeting their wealthy neighbours in a string of ever-more-ambitious burglaries.

4. Arnold – Wednesday, June 7, Netflix | Series Premiere

This three-part series chronicles Arnold Schwarzenegger’s journey from the Austrian countryside to the highest echelons of the American Dream. Candid interviews with Schwarzenegger, his friends, foes, co-stars and observers cover everything from his days pumping iron to his triumphs in Hollywood, his two terms governing the state of California, and both the joys and turbulence of his personal life in a tale that matches the man’s larger-than-life persona. 

The first episode explores his family life in Austria and how his obsession with bodybuilding expanded both his body and his horizons. The second looks at how Schwarzenegger parlayed his dominance at bodybuilding into unlikely Hollywood stardom, while the third follows his even more unlikely political career, thrusting him into an arena more challenging than any of his previous conquests. 

“If you’re always hungry, you’re never really satisfied,” said Schwarzenegger of the philosophy that’s guided his life’s journey. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 75-year-old star shared the optimistic vision he holds for his future. “I still work out every day, I ride my bike every day, and I make movies—show business is another part of my life. I add in my life, I never subtract,” he said. “There’s no retiring. I’m still on this side of the grass, so I’m happy. My plan is to live forever—and so far, so good!

5. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – Wednesday, June 7, FXX | Season Premiere

Enough about shows that are ending! Let’s move on to one that, quite possibly, never will. Having already set the record for longest-running live-action comedy in TV history, the Paddy’s Pub gang is back for season 16, with at least two more locked in. (When it was renewed through season 18 back in 2020, star Rob McElhenney tweeted, “Sunny was originally pitched as a 36-season arc. So happy to be halfway done.”) 

What can we expect in this round? Well, for one, a Breaking Bad reunion, with Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul popping by. 

Beyond that, per a press release previewing the new season: “Mac battles with allergies and long-distance dating, Charlie takes on his long-forgotten sisters, Dee fights for rent control and women’s athletics, Frank wrestles for his gun, and Dennis struggles to improve his mental health.”

6. Never Have I Ever – Thursday, June 8, Netflix | Season Premiere

It’s been announced that this final season of co-creator Mindy Kaling’s coming-of-age dramedy will wrap up with Devi’s high school graduation. But before all is said and done, our quirky, brilliant, irrepressible protagonist (Canadian Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) must choose once and for all between Ben and Paxton… or does she? (#TeamDevi)

7. Bloodhounds – Friday, June 9, Netflix | Series Premiere

In a rollicking action thriller that offers a dose of trenchant social commentary, two young South Korean boxers are forced into the ugly world of debt collection to make ends meet. After forging an alliance with a moneylender who’s genuinely out to help his customers, they take aim at a vicious loan shark who feasts on the poor.

8. The Crowded Room – Friday, June 9, Apple TV+ | Series Premiere

In 1977, a man named Billy Milligan was charged with kidnapping, robbery and rape in Ohio. A year later, he became the first defendant to be found not guilty on the basis of multiple personality disorder (today known as dissociative identity disorder). The story of Billy and his 24 distinct selves is a nuanced, messy and controversial one, which loosely forms the basis for this limited series produced by and starring Tom Holland. He plays Danny Sullivan, a man who is arrested following his involvement in a shooting at Rockefeller Center in 1979. Once he’s in cuffs, a woman named Rya Goodwin (Amanda Seyfried) heads up the interrogation, and a most unexpected life story unravels. 

Over 10 episodes (the first three of which drop Friday), we’ll learn about Danny’s abusive childhood and the events that shaped him, all of which inform a case where neither “guilty” nor “not” seems like a fitting verdict.

The role was a tricky one for the Spider-Man actor to embody, and as he went deeper, he found that he had a hard time coping. “I was seeing myself in [the character], but in my personal life,” Holland told Entertainment Weekly. “I remember having a bit of a meltdown at home and thinking, like, ‘I’m going to shave my head. I need to shave my head because I need to get rid of this character.’ I decided not to… It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.” The good news? He also learned from the ordeal, and says he can now recognize his own mental health triggers, like social media. “I hope the series has more respect and more sympathy for people who are going through mental health issues,” he added. “I hope that people will feel educated about the powers of mental health, the struggles [and] our incredible abilities to survive.”

9. Tex Mex Motors – Friday, June 9, Netflix | Series Premiere

Fans of car-restoration reality shows will want to check out this new offering from Netflix, in which four-wheeled junkers are transformed into jewels once they’re in the hands of a team of automotive pros, who bring cars from Mexico to El Paso in order to give these run-down vehicles some truly radical restorations.

10. Flamin’ Hot – Friday, June 9, Disney+

Eva Longoria makes her feature film directorial debut with this too-crazy-not-to-be-true story of how Frito-Lay janitor Richard Montañez (played by Jesse Garcia) changed snack-food history by drawing upon his Mexican-American heritage to develop that spiciest of munchies, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Also starring Emilio Rivera, Dennis Haysbert, Tony Shalhoub and Matt Walsh, Flamin’ Hot is about a whole lot more than just recounting how an iconic snack came to be invented. 

“It’s a beautiful story about the Mexican janitor who worked at the factory and invented the Hot Cheeto, and saved people’s jobs, and couldn’t read or write when he started,” Longoria told Entertainment Weekly of why she felt this was a tale worth telling. “His whole life, he was told, ‘No. That opportunity’s not for you, ideas don’t come from people like you…’ And he was like, ‘Why not?’ It’s a very beautiful story [about] the man and his journey and how he succeeded in a world that tells you no.”