The summer of 2017, like summers of Peak TV before, has been overloaded with buzzy hot-weather series like GLOW, Preacher, Twin Peaks, Rick & Morty, Orphan Black and of course Game of Thrones, to name a few. There weren’t any other below-the-radar shows you need on your catch-up cue once you’ve had enough fun in the sun, right? Wrong! Here are six you probably missed, but need to get up to speed on.
The Jim Jefferies Show (Comedy Central): The late-night talkers have done an admirable if repetitive job of jabbing our Made for TV president. None have done it with the gleeful swagger of Australian comedian Jim Jefferies, who backs up his barbs with cold facts, on-location bits and “weatherman” Brad Pitt consistently predicting climate doomsday.
Blood Drive (Syfy): In the “distant future of 1999,” environmentally-ravaged America’s favorite new spectator sport is the Blood Drive, wherein the cars run on human blood! The jarringly perverse and stoopid series is just Death Race 2000 with a cartoon-grindhouse twist, but emcee Julian Slink (Colin Cunningham) is a delicious villain for the ages.
Queen of the South (USA): Teresa’s (Alice Braga) path to becoming a future drug queenpin got even more tangled than her hair in Season 2—surely she can afford a brush by now—upping the stakes and the body count along the way. Also, the woman she’ll eventually replace (Adriana Barraza), transformed from an icy caricature into a fleshed-out, almost sympathetic character. But only almost.
Wynonna Earp (Syfy): The demon-hunting descendent of Wyatt Earp may have that Jessica Jones smolder, but she’s also a goofball, pushing into Buffy the Vampire Slayer territory. Star Melanie Scrofano bites into an impressive array of emotional flavors when the show gets serious. When it’s not, Earp is Syfy’s funniest series after Blood Drive.
I’m Sorry (TruTV): Longtime comedic side-player Andrea Savage’s first all-about-me vehicle doesn’t care to differentiate itself from other Comics as Themselves half hour shows—it’s all about the jokes. I’m Sorry, referring to the mom-comedy-writer’s tendency to say the most hilariously wrong things, is a white wine spritzer of a sitcom. Not too heavy, not too sweet, perfect for summer.
Bravo Christopher Saunders/Bravo
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Odd Mom Out (Bravo): This adaptation of author Jill Kargman’s Momzillas (starring herself, she’s an adept comedic actress) is everything the Real Housewives are not: smart, self-aware and funny. Abby Elliott particularly shines as a Manhattanite so dim and self-absorbed she’s practically a black hole.
Bill Frost writes about television for Salt Lake City Weekly, and at @Bill_Frost.
