Nine TV shows to watch in June

From Loki to Lupin and the return of Tuca & Bertie, Eddie Mullan picks the programmes worth seeing this month.

Loki

Following WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, the Marvel Cinematic Universe returns to the small screen once more with a series centred on Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Thor's malevolent brother who now steps out of his sibling's shadow. Set after the time-travelling events of Avengers: Endgame, which saw him steal the all-powerful cube known as the Tesseract from S.H.I.E.L.D. and make a quick exit, it sees Loki come to the attention of the Time Variance Authority. Responsible for protecting the proper flow of time, the TVA's Mobius (Owen Wilson) and Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) quickly move to recruit Loki to help repair the issues he has created in the timeline – namely the breaking of reality – but can the god of mischief be trusted? Only time will tell. Sophia Di Martino, Wunmi Mosaku and Richard E Grant also star. Watch the trailer here. Premieres 9 June on Disney+.

Lupin

The French-language heist comedy-drama series, which became Netflix's first smash-hit show of the year, returns for another helping of escapism entertainment, with part two of its debut series. Inspired by the legendary, literary gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, the con-artist and charmer Assane (Omar Sy) continues on his quest for revenge against the powerful Hubert Pelligrini, while also doing whatever it takes to track down his son Raoul (Etan Simon). Having framed Assane's father over the theft of a diamond necklace, Pelligrini and his henchmen pursue Assane. But with his family torn apart, 's most wanted man gains an unlikely new ally, and draws up a grand plan to reveal Hubert's crimes, even if it means putting himself in danger. Watch the trailer here. Premieres 11 June on Netflix.

Time

What does it take to survive in a British prison? This three-part BBC drama by Cracker writer Jimmy McGovern stars Sean Bean (Game of Thrones) and Stephen Graham (Line of Duty) as two men living on the edge – on either side of the cell door. Consumed by guilt for his crime, new inmate Mark Cobden (Bean) is way out of his depth with life in prison. He meets Eric McNally (Graham), an exemplary guard doing his best to protect those in his charge – but he is also under threat. When one of the most dangerous inmates identifies a weakness of his, Eric faces an impossible choice between his principles and his family. Watch the trailer here. Premieres 6 June on BBC One in the UK.

Sweet Tooth

Taking place in a post-apocalyptic future, new comic-book adaptation Sweet Tooth inhabits a world where a mysterious event has wreaked havoc on humanity, and led to the strange emergence of babies being born part-human and part-animal. Unsure if these hybrid creatures are the main cause of the virus or arriving as a result of it, the remaining humans now hunt them. After a decade of living safely in a forest home, one of the hybrids, a boy with antlers named Gus (Christian Convery), befriends a wandering human loner named Jepperd (Nonso Anozie). Together they set out in search of answers to Gus's origins, journeying across what’s left of the US, while encountering unexpected allies and enemies. Watch the trailer here. Premieres 4 June on Netflix.

Intelligence

Retinal scans at the ready, as David Schwimmer is back for some more classified misadventures in series two of this Sky comedy, which pairs up two intelligence employees from different sides of the Atlantic, with Schwimmer as a deluded alpha-male National Security agent and Nick Mohammed as his clueless British computer analyst sidekick. After narrowly avoiding extradition from the UK on charges of treason, Jerry Bernstein (Schwimmer) again finds himself the centre of attention when Russians obtain a cyber-attack weapon that Jerry himself helped develop. With his intel vital to the safety of the UK, he is more than willing to be the hero. But with the stakes so high, can he avoid a national disaster? And more importantly, will the work romance of Mohammed's Joseph Harries develop into something more substantial? Watch the trailer here. Premieres 8 June on Sky One in the UK and 17 June on Peacock in the US.

Lisey's Story

Master of Horror Stephen King has adapted his 2006 novel Lisey's Story – which the author has stated is his favourite of books he has written – into an eight-part Apple TV+ series, directed by Chilean director Pablo Larraín, best known for the Oscar-nominated Jackie. The story centres on Lisey Landon (Julianne Moore), two years after the death of her husband, a famous novelist named Scott (Clive Owen). Lisey is plagued by the attention of unhinged fanatics and academics who want to collect and examine any of Scott's unpublished work, if it exists. Meanwhile a series of unsettling events causes her to unearth repressed memories of her marriage that she has deliberately blocked out – periods when Scott became disconnected from reality, demonstrating an ability to transport to another world. Joan Allen, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Dane DeHaan star alongside Moore and Owen. Watch the trailer here. Premieres 4 June on Apple TV+.

Katla

Netflix's first original Icelandic series tells the story of a small town, Vik, living in the shadow of a subglacial volcano, the titular Katla, which has been erupting constantly for a whole year. As it transpires, the eruptions aren't the only thing disturbing Vik's peace and tranquility. Heroine Gríma is still looking for her missing sister who disappeared the day the eruption started - but as her hope of ever finding her body is fading, the residents of the surrounding area start to have visits from unexpected guests. As people evacuate the area, mysterious elements (deeply frozen into the glacier from prehistoric times) start to emerge from the ice and cause consequences no one could ever foresee. Watch the trailer here. Premieres 17 June on Netflix.

Raven

A psychological thriller with a supernatural twist, this six-part Polish series follows Adam Kruk (Michal Zurawski), a police officer addicted to painkillers and psychedelic drugs. When he receives an unexpected visit from his childhood friend Slawek (Cezary Lukaszewicz), Kruk returns to Białystok, the city where he grew up, to lead an investigation related to child abuse at an orphanage. Shortly afterwards though, Kruk has to put his own investigation on hold as he is summoned to investigate the kidnap of an 11-year-old boy. With his wife Anka (Katarzyna Wajda) pregnant and Kruk attempting to give up on his own deadly addictions, he has personal issues to address before he can seek out the shocking truth. Premieres 18 June on All4/Walter Presents in the UK.

Tuca & Bertie

The birds have flown the coop and they've found a new home: cancelled by Netflix after just one short series, this surreal yet relatable animation written by Lisa Hanawalt (BoJack Horseman), returns with a second series on Adult Swim, the channel home to other great animated series like Rick and Morty and Robot Chicken. It follows the adventures of two 30-year-old bird-women best friends, toucan Tuca (Tiffany Haddish) and songbird Bertie (Ali Wong), who are just trying to live their lives in a vivid and surreal world of anthropomorphic animals and plants. As we catch up with them, Bertie is busy getting help from a therapist, while Tuca prefers to hide her problems behind the toilet. Meanwhile, Speckle (Steven Yeun) is building a new house, but soon finds he's driven to the brink of insanity. Watch the trailer here. Premieres 13 June on Adult Swim.

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