TV Watchlist: It's Finally Shark Week!

Plus "The Bachelorette" returns, "Sausage Party" gets a TV spinoff and Jimmy Kimmel hosts "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" Week of July 6 - 12 The Fourth of July is over, now we have this last, long stretch of summer until we get to Labor Day and can finally breathe again. Thankfully there are plenty of new shows and movies to keep you entertained indoors, including a new A24 show on Apple TV (“Sunny”), the return of Shark Week (on Discovery), along with the return of “The Bachelorette,” “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” and “Sausage Party” (now in streaming series form). All that plus a new Tyler Perry movie (“Divorce in the Black”) and the Max debut of “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.” ROAR! On with the television! Sunny Wednesday, July 10, Apple TV+ Source: Apple TV+ Honestly, this sounds wonderful. “Sunny,” based on the novel “The Dark Manual” by Colin O’Sullivan, follows a woman living in Kyoto named Suzie (Rashida Jones) whose husband and son vanish during a supposed plane crash. (Her husband is played by the great Hidetoshi Nishijima from “Drive My Car” and “Shin Ultraman.”) While mourning, the robotics company her husband worked for delivers her Sunny (voiced by Joanna Sotomura), a cuddly robot companion. At first Suzie is reluctant to accept Sunny but then realizes that this little droid might be the key to understanding what happened to her family. Judging by the promotional materials, Sunny and Suzie will uncover a vast and dangerous conspiracy. The series was created by Katie Robbins, who also wrote or co-wrote three of the season’s 10 episodes, and was produced by the arthouse darlings at A24. It looks like the kind of cool, compulsively watchable series that will get us through the dog days of summer. And who doesn’t love a cute robot helping to solve crimes? Exactly. [[TRAILER](] The Incredible Dr. Pol Saturday, July 6 at 9 p.m., Nat Geo Wild Source: Nat Geo Wild “The Incredible Dr. Pol,” which followed the Dutch-American veterinarian who tended to all sorts of animals in rural Michigan, lived up to its title, giving us a close-up view of how veterinary medicine works with so many domestic and farm animals. (Some of us are still haunted by the dog that got into a car crash and had to be put down. But we digress.) After 13 years and 24 seasons, the incredible journey is coming to an end. “In the series finale Dr. Pol, Diane, and Charles share the best moments and personal insights. It’s a fast-paced trip down memory lane full of lifesaving moments and family milestones. From farm calls to film sets, hold on tight as we pack in all the highs and lows, the blood, sweat, and tears that we’ve shared together for all these years,” reads the official synopsis. Sounds like there might be a few tears. Plan accordingly. [[TRAILER](] Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Max Source: Warner Bros./Legendary When “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” was released earlier this year, it was a surprise juggernaut, cresting more than $80 million on its opening weekend on the way to becoming the most successful movie in Legendary’s Monsterverse series of films. In this film, a direct follow-up to 2021’s “Godzilla vs. Kong,” a new threat emerges from Hollow Earth – a lanky red ape who, unlike Kong, wants to conquer the surface world. (He also keeps an adorable, ancient kaiju named Shimo under his spell; she has the arctic power to trigger a new ice age.) This forces Kong and Godzilla to form an uneasy alliance in order to take down the Skar King and free Shimo. Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry return from the earlier film, now joined by Dan Stevens as an affable kaiju veterinarian named Trapper. (Stevens’ charming performance is almost as big as any of the monsters.) This leads to some of the biggest and most outrageous monster battles in the entire franchise, and serves as a colorful dessert after the more somber, full meal of the more somber “Godzilla Minus One.” You know. Like some raspberry sorbet after a steak dinner. What makes the current pop culture landscape so fun is that allows for all of these disparate iterations of Godzilla, which speaks to the elasticity of the character and the creativity that these different filmmakers bring to the franchise. Long live the King of the Monsters. [[TRAILER](] Great White Danger Zone Thursday, July 11 at 10 p.m., Discovery Source: Discovery “Great White Danger Zone” concerns scientists discovering a “Great White hotbed” off the coast of South Africa. According to the official synopsis, they will be “equipped with cutting-edge fin cameras, tracking tags, and underwater surveillance, researchers unveil unusual behavior in these massive apex predators.” While “Great White Danger Zone” sounds like a super interesting and fun watch, we’re also using “Great White Danger Zone” as a stand-in for all of Shark Week, the week-long programming block devoted to our favorite toothy underwater marvels. Other specials this week include “Great White Serial Killer: Sea of Blood,” “Deadliest Bite,” “6000 Pound Shark,” “Alien Sharks: Ghosts of Japan” and much, much more. Plus, the host for this year is John Cena. There’s somebody who could given even the deadliest shark a run for their money. [[TRAILER](] Cruel Summer Hulu Source: Hulu “Cruel Summer” was a thriller series that ran on ABC in 2021 and 2023. Initially envisioned as a limited series, it was renewed after its first season but was cancelled following an underwhelming response to the second (and now final) season. It’s a shame, too, because the show was so much fun. If you’re looking for some thrilling, sudsy summer fun, you could do worse than the first season, which takes place in 1993 and 1995 in Texas and follows the disappearance of a young girl and the response from the girl’s friends and the rest of the community once she returns. It was gripping, nuanced television, and a huge surprise especially since it aired on Freeform, the tween-centered Disney channel. (The second season is less sturdy but still enjoyable.) If you want a show as quintessentially summer as an ice cream cone or day at the beach, look no further than “Cruel Summer.” [[WATCH](] Source: Prime Video “The Bachelorette” Monday, July 8 at 8 p.m., ABC Ready to meet your new Bachelorette? For the 21st (!) season of the reality series mainstay features 26-year-old Jenn Tran as the young woman looking for love. Described in the official synopsis as a “sweet and compassionate woman who has dedicated her life to helping others,” Tran is a “bilingual Vietnamese beauty” who “currently resides in Miami and is ready to find love.” But which one of the 25 men vying for Tran’s heart will come out on top? Only one way to find out. [[TRAILER](] “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” Wednesday, July 10 at 8 p.m., ABC Jimmy Kimmel hosts a celebrity-filled version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” the first new episodes of the series since 2021. The series is a key part of ABC’s nonfiction summer programming, which also includes “Celebrity Family Feud,” “Claim to Fame,” “Judge Steve Harvey,” “Press Your Luck,” plus a new game show called “Lucky 13.” Ready to play? [[TRAILER](] “Sausage Party: Foodtopia” Thursday, July 11, Prime Video Remember “Sausage Party?” The R-rated animated movie that was set in a supermarket and all the characters were talking food items, led by Seth Rogen’s Frank, a sausage? It had existential crises and a song from Alan Menken that felt like a foul-mouthed Disney tune? Well, that movie has given way to a new series, which follows the events of the film as the food products are forced to make an uneasy alliance with the humans. (At one point it was conceived as a live-action/animation hybrid a la “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?”) Rogen, Kristen Wiig, Michael Cera, David Krumholtz and Edward Norton return from the film for even more inappropriate, food-based jokes. Keep this one away from the kids. [[TRAILER](] “Tyler Perry’s Divorce in the Black” Thursday, July 11, Prime Video Part of Tyler Perry’s four-movie pact with Amazon, “Divorce in the Black” is a new thriller that follows “a young bank professional who is devastated when her husband Dallas abandons a marriage she is determined to fight for. However, fate intervenes, revealing Dallas’ wicked deeds that have trashed their marriage, and once upon a time sabotaged Ava’s destiny to be loved by her true soulmate” (according to the official synopsis). If that doesn’t sound like a great, juicy Tyler Perry joint, we don’t know what does. For those keeping score, this is Perry’s second movie of the year following the Kelly Rowland-led erotic thriller “Mea Culpa” that hit Netflix in February. Only two movies in the first half of 2024? Talk about an overachiever! [[TRAILER](] “Exploding Kittens” Friday, July 12, Netflix This new adult animated series is based on the popular card game of the same name designed by Matthew Inman. In the series, God (Tom Ellis) and Satan (Sasheer Zamata) are sent to earth in the bodies of chubby house cats. Hilarity ensues. The series was created by Inman and Shane Kosakowski, and executive produced by the legendary Mike Judge and Greg Daniels. It looks very funny indeed. [[TRAILER](] 2034 Armacost Ave. | Los Angeles, CA 90025 [Unsubscribe](