Summer TV: Dragon-free but still plenty to see

There will be no "Game of Thrones" this summer, but these new and returning TV shows should make up for a shortage of dragons.

From left: Mena Suvari, Alicia Silverstone, and Jennifer Bartels star in Paramount's "American Woman," a half-hour dramedy premiering June 7.Read moreCourtesy Paramount Network

by Ellen Gray

Published Jun. 6, 2018, 5:00 a.m. ET

Was it only last summer we were talking about dragons?

HBO's Game of Thrones may be taking 2018 off, but there's still plenty to see this summer, including two recently launched series, Succession (10 p.m. Sundays), an HBO drama about the struggle for a different kind of throne, and AMC's slightly surreal exploration of the kingdom of Dietland (9 p.m. Mondays), as well as these other new and returning shows:

Condor (10 p.m. June 6, Audience Network). Max Irons (The White Queen) stars as Joe Turner, a CIA analyst who must go on the run after stumbling upon a deadly conspiracy. Irons makes an appealing hero, and a cast that includes William Hurt, Mira Sorvino, Bob Balaban, and Brendan Fraser helps make this thriller, inspired by Three Days of the Condor, worth your time if you have access to the Audience Network through DirecTV or AT&T.

Marvel's Cloak & Dagger (8 p.m. June 7, Freeform). Olivia Holt and Aubrey Joseph star as Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson, two teens who are linked by a night from childhood that left them with complementary superpowers. Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball, Shots Fired) directed the premiere.

American Woman (10 p.m. June 7, Paramount Network). Alicia Silverstone stars in this half-hour dramedy set in the 1970s about a newly single mother of two trying to start over in a world that's decades away from seeing the commercial appeal of a Beverly Hills housewife. Mena Suvari and Jennifer Bartels play her best friends in a story inspired by the mother of actress/co-executive producer Kyle Richards (ER, Little House on the Prairie). Paramount, by the way, is the channel formerly known as Spike TV.

Just Another Immigrant (9 p.m. June 8, Showtime). New "reality" series follows British comedian Romesh Ranganathan as he moves his family from the U.K., where he's had considerable success, to the U.S. In the first episode, he books a large venue in Los Angeles for an appearance and then seeks advice for selling enough tickets to fill it, attends his first NFL game, and tries to work his way into the L.A. comedy scene.

The Staircase (June 8, Netflix). Jean-Xavier de Lestrade's Peabody Award-winning true-crime mini-series from 2004 gets another update, with three more episodes dealing with the final disposition of the case of novelist Michael Peterson, who was charged in North Carolina with murder in the 2001 death of his wife, Kathleen. Didn't see the original or the 2012 sequel? Worry not — the streaming service will have those, too, in what's now a 13-episode series.

Claws (9 p.m. June 10, TNT). Stephen King speaks (or tweets) highly of this South Florida-set crime dramedy about a nail salon where the manicurists — played by Niecy Nash, Jenn Lyon, Judy Reyes, Carrie Preston, and Karrueche Tran — are breaking bad, but at least not breaking nails. Second-season opener finds them caught even more deeply in the local drug trade. And, as King noted on Twitter last summer, "some of the nail jobs are insane."

The Bold Type (8 p.m. June 12, Freeform). One of my favorite shows from last summer was this one about three young women navigating their first jobs at a women's magazine. It was soapy, sure, but surprisingly relevant, and I'm looking forward to more of the same.

The Last Defense (10 p.m. June 12, ABC). How to Get Away with Murder star Viola Davis takes a break from fictional murder cases as she and her actor-producer husband, Julius Tennon, serve as executive producers on this seven-part documentary series, which examines the cases — and backgrounds — of two death row inmates, Darlie Routier and Julius Jones, with an eye toward exposing flaws in the U.S. justice system.

Marlon (9 and 9:30 p.m. June 14, NBC). As the second season begins, Marlon (Marlon Wayans) and Ashley (Essence Atkins) are still working out some issues in their "amazing" divorce, which, like the one on ABC's recently renewed Splitting Up Together, looks in many ways like other sitcom couples' supposedly intact marriages, with a clueless husband and an exasperated wife.

Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce (10 p.m. June 14, Bravo). Fifth and final season opens with some characters still having trouble moving on from their exes. Even Abby (Lisa Edelstein), who's trying to blend her family with that of her boyfriend, Mike (James Lesure), may not be able to escape the pull of his past.

Strange Angel (June 14, CBS All Access). The newest original series from the CBS-owned subscription streaming service is a period piece inspired by the real-life story of Jack Parsons (Jack Reynor), a pioneer in rocket science and a convert to Thelema, an occult movement developed by English mystic Aleister Crowley.

Goliath (June 15, Amazon). Last season was so, so dark. That, along with the departure of Norristown's Maria Bello, makes the second season of this streaming legal drama harder to recommend. And yet Billy Bob Thornton is still there, as drunken lawyer Billy McBride, who's now much, much richer after winning a huge verdict, but still living like a derelict. When his regular bartender (Lou Diamond Phillips, Longmire) asks for a favor, Billy finds himself reluctantly drawn into a murder case that's not as simple as it first looks. So maybe we'll try this again?

Shades of Blue (10 p.m. June 17, NBC). Third and final season of the Jennifer Lopez-Ray Liotta police drama opens in typically dramatic fashion. Anything else I could say would be a spoiler.

Love Is___ (10 p.m. June 19, OWN). Married producers Mara Brock Akil (Being Mary Jane, Black Lightning) and Salim Akil (Black Lightning) are teaming up on a romantic dramedy, and I can't help but be intrigued. Michele Weaver and Will Catlett play Nuri and Yasir, whose 1990s-set love story is told from the perspective of the characters' present-day selves, whose lives have a lot in common with those of their creators.

Yellowstone (9 p.m. June 20, Paramount Network). Kevin Costner's in a cowboy hat for a new family drama, set in today's West and created by actor/writer Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water, Sicario).

Take Two (10 p.m. June 21, ABC). From the producers of Castle, another series about a nonpolice officer shadowing a detective and then getting involved in police work. Rachel Bilson (The O.C., Hart of Dixie) plays the former star of a cop show who, after landing in rehab, sets out to shadow a private investigator (Eddie Cibrian, Third Watch) as the first step in her comeback.

Shooter (10 p.m. June 21, USA). Delaware's Ryan Phillippe returns for a third season as veteran sniper Bob Lee Swagger, based on the character from the Stephen Hunter best sellers. The premiere picks up from last fall's cliff-hanger, in which Swagger was taken hostage by the infamous assassin Solotov (Josh Stewart). According to the network, this season will focus on a conspiracy that somehow involves Swagger's late father. I like the show's emphasis on the issues of military veterans and their families, and I suppose it's probably too much to wish for that there could be less shooting.

Luke Cage (June 22, Netflix). Mike Colter returns for a second season as the Harlem superhero. Reg E. Cathey (House of Cards, The Wire), who died in February, plays Cage's estranged father.

Preacher (10 p.m. June 24, AMC). Dominic Cooper, Ruth Negga, and Joseph Gilgun return for a 10-episode third season that takes Cooper's title character, Jesse Custer, back to the Louisiana plantation where he was raised.

GLOW (June 29, Netflix). The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling return for a second season in this dramedy inspired by the show from the 1980s that featured the wrestlers in an all-female league.

Power (9 p.m. July 1, Starz). Fifth season premieres with a sixth already ordered: That's power. Produced by creator and showrunner Courtney A. Kemp, a former writer for The Good Wife, with Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson, who also acts in the series, the drama about a drug kingpin (Omari Hardwick) who's trying to find a legal path to money and, yes, power, has been Starz's most-watched show.

Sharp Objects (9 p.m. July 8, HBO). Eight-episode limited series from Marti Noxon (Dietland, Girlfriends' Guide to Divorce) is based on the first novel of Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn. Amy Adams stars as a journalist with a troubled past who returns to her hometown to report on the murder of a young girl and the disappearance of another. Jean-Marc Vallée directs every episode, as he did with the HBO hit Big Little Lies.

Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (July 16, HBO). Variety called this Marina Zenovich-directed documentary on the late actor and comedian that premiered at Sundance in January, "sharp-edged, humane, and deeply researched."

Trial & Error (9 and 9:30 p.m. July 19, NBC). The second season of the true-crime parody will feature Kristin Chenoweth as a woman accused of killing her husband. (The first season, which starred John Lithgow as the accused, was inspired by The Staircase — the series coming to Netflix — and the trial of Michael Peterson.)

Snowfall (10 p.m. July 19, FX). John Singleton's drama about the beginning of the crack epidemic in 1980s Los Angeles returns for a second season.

Castle Rock (July 25, Hulu). Horror series adapted from stories of Stephen King. Stars include Sissy Spacek, Andre Holland, Melanie Lynskey, Bill Skarsgård, Scott Glenn, and Jane Levy.

Insecure (10:30 p.m. Aug. 12, HBO). Issa Rae is back for a third season of her bittersweet comedy.

Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (Aug. 31, Amazon). John Krasinski (The Office, A Quiet Place) becomes the fifth actor to play the CIA analyst. First season is eight episodes, and it's already been renewed for a second.