Here it goes for part 2:



QUEEN OF THE SOUTH

From the network that brought you Mr Robot, so starts the trailer for Queen of the South, and...I am in. I have only one request, please no voice over as in Narcos!
Teresa Mendoza seeks refuge in America after her boyfriend, a drugdealer, is gunned down. Seeking revenge she wants to bring down the head of a drug trafficking ring that has her on the run.
Stories about the Cartel and drugpins are tricky. You can never surpass Breaking Bad, you can get a cheesefest as Blow, you can go in overdrive and get a classic as Scarface, you can keep it intimate, see the excellent End of Watch, or loose all perspective and end up with Miami Vice the movie. Queen of South of course will give more perspective on the Mexican side of the story, as did the documentary Cartel Land, the movie Sicario, or the show The Bridge, with mixed results ( hint: the first one is the one to see, it goes downhill from there.)
I hope that the trailer, with its Mr. Robot reference, indicates that with Queen of the South they will make a show filled with  idiosyncrasies, very specific settings, with characters who surpass cliches. It is not enough that the main character is a QUEENpin, played by Alice Braga.
Tidbit: Braga’s role in the very successful Telemundo series was played by actress Kate del Castillo,  the woman who brought Sean Penn and infamous drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán together. 



21 June on USA


AMERICAN GOTHIC

There is a crime craze on TV, according to Bustle and I am fine with that!

This one looks like an old fashioned murder mystery.

 
The deceased patriarch of a prominent Boston family might have been a serial killer, and one of the remaining members could have been his accomplice. From Spielbergs production company (responsible for Under the Dome and Extant, both cancelled) and James Frey, the resident expert on liars, written by Corinne Brinkerhoff (“The Good Wife,” “Jane the Virgin”), with Virginia Madson starring, this 13-part mini series looks promising.  And the perfect excuse to show this clip of Virginia Madson in The Hot Spot, where she hits the femme fatale role out of the ball park.



22 June on CBS and Amazon Prime





DEAD OF SUMMER

Dead of Summer is set on a lakeside summer camp, run my Elisabeth Mitchell.  At first glance this doesn't seem to be adding anything new to the horror, slasher genre. Put some teens in a remote location and watch them go down one by one.  But produced by Once Upon a Time creators Adam Horowitz and Edward Kitsis, the trailer seems to hint that they will mix the mythology of camp horror stories with the timeline of the throwback eighties setting. If so that is an awesome idea. (The Final Girl?!)
Man, I love summer shows!



28 June Freeform


MARCELLA

The Guardian calls this 'a long way from good television, but guiltily entertaining.' This moody british show written by the creator of the Scandi The Bridge, starring Anna Friel, follows police detective Marcella who quits the force when pregnant. Now 11 years later, she wants to go back to work to resolve an open murder case, but... Marcella suffers from short term memory loss.  And is involved somehow in the crimes she will be investigating.



 1 July Netflix


THE NIGHT OF

If you take Law and Order,  change the lightning to give everything a sickly glow, add Rikes Island prison and the political scheeming of the criminal justice system you get this limited series, who follows all aspects of a New York city crime.  It's an adaptation of the BBC's Criminal Justice. I'm excited to see what screenwriter Steve Zallian, and novelist and screenwriter Richard Price, (He wrote for The Wire, but is also responsible for one of my favorite movies Mad Dog And Glory) cooked up, Expect a stark look at institutions, blunt realism and a compelling story.
John Turturro starts and keep your eyes open for The Wire alums in supporting roles.


10 July HBO



MR ROBOT


When you start watching a show because people tell you it is good, you can end up asking yourself what the big deal is. How to convince somebody who hasn't seen the first season of Mr Robot to get their asses in line?  I remember when I watched the pilot just because it was free on iTunes. It didn't sound very appealing, a story about this guy Elliott, a hacker... Most movies about hackers are so lame, I was thinking, and Christian Slater? I was fully expecting it to be a B-kind of show. So my attention was not really with it. I wanted to dismiss the pilot, but it kept drawing my attention, and at the end of the episode, I wasn't enthusiastic, but slightly intrigued.
It ended be my favorite show of the year. By far. It grows on you,  it is a weird show, singular, very peculiar. The actors have a very specific look, not TV at all, the cinematography is distinctive, the philosophy is appealing, and will feel too close for comfort to the ones being targeted ( spoiler alert: the social media obsessed, glued to their screens, masses).
I can't still believe that it did win the Golden Globe for best TV Show.
Season two returns with Elliott and FSociety taking on EvilCorp and Mr Robot. I don't even want to watch the trailer. Waiting patiently for the real thing!



13 July USA



STRANGER THINGS


Another eighties show, this eight-episode one is set in Indiana. Winona Ryder plays the mother of a young boy who vanishes. Searching for him, she and the sheriff stumble on a mystery involving top-secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces — and a very strange little girl.

What is this, the X Files sequel we should have had, a Twin Peaks appetizer?  With Winona? Yas Queen!
No trailer yet...

15 July Netflix



SHOOTER

This trailer made me laugh. I'm paraphrasing: He is a killing machine, a family man, the real deal, he held off 200 Taliban on his own, don't make the mistake of underestimating him. Oh, man!
A remake of the movie with the same name, based on the Bob Lee Swagger novels by Steven Hunter, this is the tale of of Bob the sharpshooter, who after being in exhale is hired by the Secret Service to protect the president, and in a familiar scene for Scandal watchers, finds himself at the wrong place wrong time when shit goes down. This show can be a cheesy disaster, or fun ride, I am very curious to see which way it will go.
Produced by Mark Walhberg (the original lead actor) starring Ryan Philippe.



19 July USA network