Hey TV watchers! TV critic Michel Ghanem here. Every two weeks, I highlight the shows worth your TV time for Trust Me, I Watch Everything. Whether you prefer sticking to cable, catching the latest on streaming or digging up a hidden gem that slipped through the cracks, I try to curate something for everyone.
Anyone else experiencing a heat wave? Might as well crank up the AC and turn on a show — and we’ve got a few recommendations that might just hit the spot. If competition shows are your style, Project Runway returns on Freeform for its 22nd season with double its usual participant count. Over on streaming, Peacock’s The Five-Star Weekend is the kind of fluffy, addictive narrative you would pick as a beach read, or there’s Netflix’s Little House on the Prairie reboot for anyone craving a period Western. This is also a good time to revisit Letterkenny on Hulu, a hilarious sitcom co-created by Jacob Tierney, the showrunner of Heated Rivalry. Read on for the rundown.
⏰ Tune in
My recommendation: Project Runway
Why you should watch it: “In fashion, one day you’re in. And the next day, you’re out.” Even over 20 years later, Heidi Klum’s catchphrase on Project Runway still lands with foreboding force.
The competition show’s 22nd season arrives on Freeform and Hulu and promises to be its biggest yet. For one, there are double the number of quirky designers up for the final prize: 22, naturally, although six get eliminated in the first episode.
Part of Project Runway‘s appeal is its soothing, familiar structure: Aspiring designers create their runway looks with almost impossible time and resource constraints, and face brutal critiques from their judges, Klum, fashion editor Nina Garcia, Zendaya’s stylist Law Roach and a rotating set of guest judges. This time around, Tyra Banks pops up as a recurring judge.
The landscape of reality television has changed drastically since 2004, but so has fashion. Social media and the proliferation of fast fashion have created a much more savvy audience, and there is also a lot more appetite for drama beyond design.
Compared to the camaraderie of the earlier seasons, these new participants are sometimes quite nasty (one participant even refers to another’s design as “the no-taste Olympics” in the first episode). That’s especially apparent with the RuPaul’s Drag Race veterans in this group, Q and Plane Jane, who are well-acquainted with a witty zinger.
But the show’s structure is still the same as in its early seasons. Klum even double-kisses every contestant and mutters “Auf wiedersehen,” goodbye in German, for each elimination. As a summer competition show, it’s perfectly serviceable for a weekly watch — especially as the show tries to up the ante after so long on the air. From the “unconventional materials” challenge to group projects, it’s always fun to see designers dive into their creative toolboxes and make more out of less, just as long as you don’t create something the judges — and your peers — think is ugly.
How to watch: New episodes of Project Runway air Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. ET on Freeform and stream simultaneously on Hulu.
📺 Stream it
My recommendation: The Five-Star Weekend
Why you should watch it: If cozy vibes are what you’re craving this July, The Five-Star Weekend is exactly the beach read TV show you’re looking for. Adapted from the 2023 novel by Elin Hilderbrand, the series stars Jennifer Garner as Hollis Shaw, a food blogger mourning the sudden passing of her husband. Her influencer empire and cookbooks might be thriving, but she’s still moving through the grief six months later.
Hollis needs a hard reset. She decides to invite four girlfriends from various eras of her life to her cozy beach house in Nantucket for a weekend of home-cooked meals and lots of wine. Her friends are played by actresses you will definitely recognize: Regina Hall (One Battle After Another), Chloë Sevigny (Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story), D’Arcy Carden (The Good Place) and Gemma Chan (Crazy Rich Asians).
The show is something of a Big Little Lies without the stewardship of Jean-Marc Vallée’s directorial hand. Rather than a murder mystery, one of the women has a big secret revealed at the end of the first episode that ties her to Hollis in a way you might not have expected. Otherwise, there’s the odd mismatch between the women who don’t really know each other beyond their relationship with their host.
Naturally, the more we spend time with these women, the more secrets unspool. Along the way, The Five-Star Weekend reveals itself to be a decent destination for a mid-summer binge, although probably not one that will reach the top of your best-ever television list.
How to watch: All eight episodes of The Five-Star Weekend are streaming on Peacock.
The Polish drama Proud lands on HBO Max.
My bonus recommendation: Proud
Why you should watch it: For something less breezy, there’s Proud, a Polish drama dedicated to stark realism. Written and directed by Karol Klementewicz, the show centers on Filip Raczyński (Ignacy Liss), a 20-something gay fashion model who lives with his sister and her toddler, Tosia, in Warsaw. His life isn’t too serious: He models, takes drugs at clubs and is a regular at orgies. The stakes get much higher, however, when his sister, who was always critiquing his debaucherous lifestyle, passes away unexpectedly.
With his niece’s father out of the picture, Filip reluctantly starts caring for Tosia, but he has no idea where to begin. His friends can only help him so much, and he is forced to unlearn a lot of his previous behaviors while he leans into fatherhood, while still mourning his loss.
It’s a lot to carry, and the show doesn’t make Filip the easiest to root for — it’s going to be bad decision after bad decision until things improve for this guy. A nurse at the hospital just about takes his head off when Tosia is seen for a rash caused by poor hygiene. But Proud reveals itself as a touching, unique story about resilience, adaptability, building community and being forced to grow up. It’s an unexpected gem to check out this summer.
How to watch: New episodes of Proud stream Fridays on HBO Max.
But that’s not all…
Crosby Fitzgerald as Caroline Ingalls, Luke Bracey as Charles Ingalls, Skywalker Hughes as Mary Ingalls and Alice Halsey as Laura Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie.
Little House on the Prairie: A remake of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s iconic Western drama kicks off with the Ingalls family starting fresh in the Midwest in 1868, shortly after the traumas of the Civil War. Created by Rebecca Sonnenshine (The Boys, The Housemaid), the series expands its scope to include Native American characters. It retains all the coziness of what made the original series such a staple, but this time for a new generation. — All eight episodes stream on Netflix
Survival of the Thickest: If you love the fashion emergencies of Emily in Paris, consider this equally charming comedy set in New York City that follows Mavis (Michelle Buteau) as she tries to make it as a 30-something stylist along with her two friends, Khalil (Tone Bell) and Marley (Tasha Smith). The third season thoughtfully explores Mavis’s fertility challenges amid major moves in her professional life, but I love the scrappiness of the first two seasons. — All three seasons stream on Netflix
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Out of all the new generation Star Trek series, this one is my favorite — and it’s not just because of the nostalgia in seeing a new iteration of classic characters like Spock and Uhura. This series — which takes place a decade before the original series — maintains a more episodic structure than Discovery did, which feels more familiar to old Trek. It also toes the line perfectly between silly hijinks and more hard-hitting arcs. — The series returns for new weekly episodes airing on Paramount+ on Thursday, July 23
💎 Hidden gems
My recommendation: Letterkenny
Why you should watch it: Before Jacob Tierney shot to showrunner stardom with his megahit Heated Rivalry, he worked steadily on Letterkenny for a decade, directing and cowriting every episode alongside Jared Keeso. While we wait for a second chapter of Shane and Ilya’s story, it’s the perfect time to revisit this hilarious sitcom and point out parallels.
Set in the titular fictional town in Ontario, we hang out with siblings Wayne (Keeso) and Katy (Michelle Mylett), who run a small farm and produce stand with their two friends, Daryl (Nathan Dales) and Squirrely Dan (K. Trevor Wilson). We also spend time with two dumb but affable hockey boys, Reilly (Dylan Playfair) and Jonesy (Andrew Herr).
What makes Letterkenny so clever is the way it pokes fun at Canadian small-town archetypes while also subverting what you might expect them to talk about. The script is jam-packed with references and bits, mile-a-minute jokes that rival the comedic density of 30 Rock episodes.
Some episodes are pretty silly — one episode in the first season revolves around the creation of “Fartbook,” Facebook for sharing audio clips of your farts. Others just showcase the different ways Wayne tries to maintain dominance in town. Realizing the creator is gay made me appreciate the ways the show pokes fun and unpacks small-town masculinity in sometimes subtle ways.
The star of the show is the dialogue, though. The script is so dense — but delivered in a deadpan, dry style — that I feel proud when I catch even half the references. It’s a bonus if you have any knowledge of Canada, whether it’s a reference to Winners, the country’s version of TJ Maxx, or slang, although as a Canadian myself, I can confirm most of these phrases are absolutely made up. “Pitter patter, let’s get at’er.”
How to watch: All 12 seasons of Letterkenny are streaming on Hulu.
That’s the end of this week’s episode, but there’ll always be more TV to watch. I’ll be back on July 27 with new recommendations.
Think there’s something missing that deserves my TV time? Let me know what else I should have on my radar in the comments below!
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