TV Watchlist: 'House of the Dragon' Roars Back, Black Barbie Gets a Netflix Doc

Plus Hulu has a documentary on the Jonestown massacre and Jessica Alba leads a new Netflix actioner Week of June 15 – 21 We’re not going to sugar coat it – this week isn’t as full of heavy hitters as you’ve maybe come to expect. But even with a lower wattage line-up, there are still some big, big shows and movies including perhaps the biggest show “House of the Dragon.” Yes, it makes its return after nearly two years away. There’s also a new action movie starring Jessica Alba (“Trigger Warning”) and a host of fascinating documentaries about the creation of the first Black Barbie (“Black Barbie”), the tragedy at Jonestown (“Cult Massacre: One Day at Jonestown”), disco (“Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution”), Roger Federer (“Federer: The Last Twelve Days”), the making of “Slave Play” (“Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play”) and, um, UFOs (“Alien Encounters: Fact or Fiction”). At the very least you’ll learn something this week! On with the television! House of the Dragon Sunday, June 16 at 9 p.m., HBO Source: HBO Feels good to have “Game of Thrones” back for the summer, doesn’t it? Set roughly 200 years before the original “Game of Thrones” series, “House of the Dragon” follows Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy), Targaryen royalty who feels betrayed when, following her father’s death, she does not inherit the throne. (Olivia Cooke plays her former BFF who becomes her father’s new bride.) This, of course, sets about one of the book and show’s famous power plays, known in the lore as the Dance of the Dragons. (The series is based “The Princess and the Queen,” a novella George R. R. Martin included in “Fire & Blood,” his history of House Targaryen.) The first season of “House of the Dragon” aired nearly two years ago and we could have been waiting longer but the production was able to work through the strikes last year thanks to their scripts being completed and filming taking place overseas, truly a blessing for the Seven Kingdoms. (Sadly, this season is two episodes shorter than the first season, running a slimmer eight episodes as opposed to ten.) “House of the Dragon,” while not on the same zeitgeist-capturing level as “Game of Thrones,” was still one of the best, most bloodily entertaining shows on television. And we’re so happy that it's back. [[TRAILER](] The UnXplained Friday, June 21 at 9 p.m., History Source: History Look, there aren’t a lot of big finales on this week. And if you’ve never seen “The UnXplained,” it’s a hoot – a series that investigates paranormal phenomena, hosted and narrated by a 93-year-old William Shatner (mostly sitting down), that explores bizarro concepts that will truly make your brain hurt. It’s the kind of show that would have run after “The X-Files” on Friday nights because Fox didn’t want to pay for anything else. This week’s episode is entitled “Mysteries of the Universe: Secrets of the Sun.” What are the sun’s secrets, exactly? Only one way to find out! [[TRAILER](] Trigger Warning Friday, June 21, Netflix Source: Netflix Everybody needs their own “John Wick.” Including Jessica Alba. In “Trigger Warning,” Alba plays an ex-Special Forces commando who, following her father’s death, takes over his small-town bar. Wouldn’t you know it, though, she’s soon forced to square off a violent local gang who is terrorizing the town. Anthony Michael Hall stars as a politican who we are guessing does not have our new bar owner’s interests in mind. Listen, this all works for us. The film comes from Indonesian filmmaker Mouly Surya, from a script that was worked on by the writers of “A History of Violence” and “The Game.” Plus it was produced by Thunder Road, the folks behind the “John Wick” movies. They know a thing or two about blood-drenched revenge sagas. [[TRAILER](] Black Barbie Wednesday, June 19, Netflix Source: Netflix And you thought Barbie fever was over? Never! This brand-new documentary hails from Shondaland and explores a rarely covered part of the iconic doll’s history. Here’s the official synopsis: “Directed by Lagueria Davis, ‘Black Barbie’ explores the impact of three Black women at Mattel responsible for the Black Barbie debut in 1980: Beulah Mae Mitchell, Kitty Black Perkins and Stacey McBride Irby. Through insider interviews and charismatic retellings of what went down at Mattel in the days leading up to Black Barbie’s debut, the documentary examines the importance of true representation — and how dolls aren’t just dolls, but childhood symbols that can be crucial to identity formation and imagination.” We’re in! [[TRAILER](] Game of Thrones Max Source: HBO If the return of “House of the Dragon” has you feeling nostalgic, why not revisit “Game of Thrones,” the series that started it all? There has been so much sophisticated sci-fi and fantasy storytelling in the years since “Game of Thrones” that it’s a little hard to remember just how revolutionary the series felt back in 2011. Fantasy was mostly defined by Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” movies, which were undoubtedly brilliant but skewed much younger. “House of the Dragon” introduced us to murderous, incestuous scoundrels who would sooner drop you out of a window than let you live and vie for the iron throne. These were complex characters, richly textured and highly emotional, who changed and grew as the series went on. And while the final seasons of the series were more controversial, even that unified fan response feels like something of a lost era in our splintered and highly divided culture. And the artistry on display! Every belt buckle, every dragon scale, was meticulously detailed and fully authentic, shooting on real locations instead of in LED volumes and feeling so tactile and alive. “House of the Dragon” has us chasing that high once again. [[WATCH](] Source: Hulu “Cult Massacre: One Day in Jonestown” Monday, June 17, Hulu The Emmy-winning series “One Day in America” returns with a three-part account of the massacre at Jonestown. If you don’t already know the story of Jonestown, it was a commune established by a cult leader named Jim Jones in Guyana. After a somewhat troubling visit by Leo Ryan, a California congressman who had been urged to check on the conditions in Jonestown, Jones ordered Ryan’s assassination and then led his followers in a mass murder/suicide that resulted in more than 900 deaths. This documentary includes archival footage and interviews with survivors of the cult. [[TRAILER](] “Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution” Tuesday, June 18 at 9 p.m., PBS Hope your bellbottoms are pressed. “Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution” is, according to the official synopsis, “a new three-part series that tells the surprising and overlooked history of disco: its origins, its triumphs, its fall and its legacy. Told by the original musicians, promoters and innovators – as well as modern day musical icons – the series charts disco from its inception in the early 70s to global domination in the latter part of the decade up to its violent end in the summer of 1979.” Sounds groovy. [[TRAILER](] “Alien Encounters: Fact or Fiction” Wednesday, June 19 at 10 p.m., Discovery “With reports of UAPs (unexplained aerial phenomena) on the rise, UFO experts Mitch Horowitz and Chrissy Newton use scientific data and research to dissect real life encounters with extraterrestrial activity and determine whether or not they can be explained,” reads the official synopsis. We’re guessing they can’t be explained, given the whole “unexplained aerial phenomena” distinction but we’ll be watching anyway. The truth is out there. [[TRAILER](] “Federer: Twelve Final Days” Friday, June 20, Prime Video Well this sounds fascinating. The documentary is being described as originally being a home video never intended for public viewing, “the film captures the final chapter in Roger Federer’s legendary tennis career.” The movie version of the saga includes interviews and footage of Roger, his family and, as described in the official synopsis, “his three main rivals:” Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. Is it too late to add the music from “Challengers” to this thing? [[TRAILER](] “Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play.” Thursday, June 20 at 9 p.m., HBO This documentary, which recently had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York, serves as a self-portrait of playwright Jeremy O. Harris, who deconstructs his Tony-winning play “Slave Play.” According to the festival write-up, “this documentary is as bold and daring as Harris himself, offering an unflinching exploration of his creative process and the motivation behind his groundbreaking work.” Sounds like a must-see documentary to us. 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