New US TV Shows Airing Soon in the UK – and Where to Watch Them
It’s our turn to enjoy these recent American TV hits – from Natasha Lyonne’s Poker Face to the new season of Superman & Lois, and more
Imagine, if you dare, the time before this golden age of international streaming services. Oh the horror! All those hit US TV shows we had to wait so patiently for, wondering when the UK would finally air the next series of Friends, The Sopranos or The West Wing.
These days we’re much luckier, with most of the top US TV highlights dropping simultaneously or soon after on one of the big streamers, but there are still some American terrestrial TV gems that slip through the net.
We’ve kept our eyes peeled for you – so here are the top US shows that will soon be arriving in the UK, plus one we’re impatient to watch but which is still only available to purchase per-episode.
Poker Face – Sky Max and NOW, Friday 26th May
This should be right at the top of every crime drama fan’s watchlist. Poker Face comes from the mind of Knives Out director-writer Rian Johnson, and retains his classic murder mystery style with a Columbo twist, taking on the iconic detective show’s ‘case of the week’ format where we discover whodunnit at the start of each episode, and simply enjoy watching a great mind unravelling the truth.
Poker Face’s co-creator is Russian Doll star Natasha Lyonne, who also plays the lead role of Charlie Cale, a scrappy underdog who can somehow always tell when someone is lying. The ten-part series has an original format with a good dose of comedy from Lyonne, and was rightly lauded when it came out in the States. The UK can enjoy Poker Face from Friday May 26th on Sky Max and NOW.
White House Plumbers – Sky Atlantic and NOW, Tuesday 30th May
Woody Harrelson stars in this five-part satirical drama about the Watergate scandal, and how the Nixon presidency was brought down by the very people tasked with protecting it. Harrelson plays E. Howard Hunt alongside Justin Theroux (Mulholland Drive) as G. Gordon Liddy, two of Nixon’s political saboteurs who failed their way upwards, ending up on his re-election committee, where they become responsible for one of America’s greatest political crimes.
White House Plumbers is a classic and highly entertaining example of truth being stranger than fiction, and also stars Game of Thrones’ Lena Headey and Sons of Anarchy’s Kim Coates. It begins airing in the UK on Sky Atlantic from May 30th.
The Idol – Sky Atlantic and NOW, Monday 5th June
Popstars, self-help gurus, a cult… The Idol certainly earns its ‘drama’ classification, and that’s before we get to the high-profile cast of young stars. Lily Rose Depp (The King) leads the cast as Jocelyn, a pop singer trying to stage a comeback after a nervous breakdown, when she becomes involved with troublesome self-help guru Tedros (real-life popstar The Weeknd) and his modern-day cult.
The six-episode series – as you might expect from Euphoria creator Sam Levinson – is quite literally full of sex, drugs and rock and roll, and also stars Dan Levy (Schitt’s Creek), YouTube influencer Troy Sivan and K-Pop star Jennie Kim. After premiering at Cannes, it arrives on Sky Atlantic in the UK on June 5th.
The Ark – Sky Sci-Fi and NOW, Tuesday 13th June
Set 100 years in the future, The Ark is a sci-fi drama about a spacecraft full of humans trying to survive the devastation of Earth by escaping to a new planet, when a catastrophic event kills the ship’s technical crew and senior officers, leaving the survivors to try desperately to reach their destination.
This action-packed twelve-part series was created by Independence Day producer Dean Devlin and Stargate SG-1 director Jonathan Glassner, and stars Christie Burke (The Twilight Saga), Reece Ritchie (Hercules) and Richard Fleeshman (Coronation Street) as three of the leading survivors. After its US premiere in February, The Ark is expected to arrive on Sky Sci-Fi in the UK on Tuesday June 13th (*updated from previously announced air date of May 25th*) .
Quantum Leap – Paramount+, Thursday 13th July
Almost three decades since the cult time-travelling sci-fi series Quantum Leap concluded in 1993, NBC released a brand-new revival, set 30 years after phycisist Dr Sam Beckett vanished into his experimental Quantum Leap accelerator. There’s a new lead physicist on the project, Dr Ben Song (Raymond Lee, Mozart in the Jungle), and like Beckett, the accelerator traps him in the past, living the lives of other people in their bodies, and changing history in hopes of getting back to the present. Newcomer Caitlin Bassett plays Song’s fiancee Addison, who appears as a hologram in order to help Ben on his missions, and The Sandman‘s Mason Alexander Park play’s Quantum Leap’s AI expert. The 18-episode first season of Quantum Leap‘s revival began airing in the US back in September 2022, and it’s now found a UK home on Paramount Plus, arriving on the streaming service from Thursday 13th July.
The Bear Series 2- Disney+, 19th July
This comedy-drama about an award-winning chef who returns to Chicago to run the chaotic kitchen of his deceased brother’s sandwich shop took America by storm when its first season premiered in June 2022, scooping up a host of awards, including several for its lead star Jeremy Allen White, who plays troubled chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto. Season 2 of The Bear began airing on Hulu in June this year, and UK fans don’t need to be too patient, as all ten episodes arrive on Disney+ on 19th July. Until then, you can catch up on series one, which is on Disney+ already.
Queer As Folk – Channel 4, 21st July
The original British series was one of Russell T Davies’ earliest hits back in the late nineties (The Guardian named it one of the top 50 dramas of all time back in 2010), and it had already had one American remake from 2000-2005, but last year Queer As Folk was reimagined once again for a US audience, courtesy of Stephen Dunn and with Davies as Executive Producer.
This new iteration brings us bang up to date without pulling any punches, beginning with a deadly shooting at a queer nightclub called The Babylon in New Orleans, and there’s a more diverse representation of the LGBTQ+ community on show as the victims of the attack find support in each other as they struggle to come to terms with the tragedy . The cast stars the likes of Fin Argus (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D), Jesse James Kietel (Big Sky), John Sibilly (Pose) and Devin Way (Grey’s Anatomy), as well as Sex and the City‘s Kim Cattrall and Yellowjackets‘ Juliette Lewis in supporting roles. Channel 4 announced it would air Queer As Folk as part of its “summer of streaming” and arrived from 21st July on E4.
The Girl From Plainville – Channel 4, 27th July
As true crime dramas go, The Girl From Plainville is particularly harrowing, focussing as it does on the infamous case of Michelle Carter, the young woman who in 2014 was accused of encouraging her boyfriend Conrad Roy to commit suicide. Elle Fanning (The Great) plays Carter alongside Colton Ryan (Little Voice) as Roy, with the eight-part series flipping between Carter’s 2017 trial for involuntary manslaughter and flashbacks of Carter and Roy’s time together leading up to his death. The series also stars Stranger Things‘ Cara Buono and Carter’s mother and Broadway star Norbert Leo Butz as Roy’s father. The series begins on Wednesday 27th July at 10pm on Channel 4.
Cruel Summer – E4, 14th August
This good old-fashioned teen thriller has Jessica Biel and Michelle Purple among its Executive Producers, and tells a story set over three consecutive summers in 1990s Texas, when a girl goes missing and another mysteriously takes over her life. It stars Chiara Aurelia (Tell Me Your Secrets) as Jeanette, an awkward nerd who bumps into the popular girl Kate (Olivia Holt, Cloak & Dagger) in 1993. Each episode then flips forward to 1994, where Jeanette has seemingly replaced Kate in her friendship group after she mysteriously goes missing, and then 1995, where Jeanette has become “the most hated person in the nation.” It’s full of twists and turns, and arrived on E4 from 14th August.
Superman & Lois Season 3 – BBC One and BBC iPlayer, late summer 2023
Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch return as power couple Clark Kent (spoiler alert: also secretly Superman) and the world’s best reporter Lois Lane, who live in Smallville with their twin sons Jonathan and Jordan, trying to play happy families but being constantly interrupted by the need to fight bad guys. The third season of Superman & Lois sees Superman go up against dastardly crime syndicate Intergang, while Lois begins a more relatable battle after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis.
As ever, the UK will be able to watch Superman & Lois on the BBC, with the third series due to arrive later in the summer.
Love & Death – ITVX, 7th September 2023
This highly anticipated, gripping true crime drama stars Elizabeth Olsen (WandaVision) as Candy Montgomery, a dutiful Texas housewife who was accused of killing her lover’s wife in a brutal axe attack back in 1980.
The impressive cast also includes Jesse Plemons (Friday Night Lights) as Candy’s lover Allan, Lily Rabe (American Horror Story) as his wife Betty, as well as Krysten Ritter (Jessica Jones), Patrick Fugit (The Last of Us) and Homeland’s Elizabeth Marvel. The seven-episode HBO series will arrive on ITVX in the UK on 7th September.
Still Purchase-Only in the UK: Interview With the Vampire
Anne Rice’s much-loved 1976 novel has already had a pretty famous adaptation – the 1994 Gothic horror film starring Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise – but this new TV version is an altogether more modern take, fully embracing the original story’s queerness and adding themes around race and toxic masculinity. US reviews – including our own – were extremely enthusiastic.
Jacob Anderson (Game of Thrones) stars as Louis de Pointe du Lac, a vampire recounting his life story to journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian, Succession), detailing his tempestuous relationship with Lestat de Lioncourt – the vampire who turned him, played by The Newsreader’s Sam Reid – and the young vampire Claudia (Bailey Bass, Avatar: The Way of Water), whom he cares for as a daughter.
You can currently buy individual episodes of this seven-part series on Prime Video in the UK, but at the time of writing, there’s still no way to stream the season as part of a subscription package, or to see it on broadcast television. As soon as that changes, we’ll let you know.
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Laura is a freelance writer and social media pro specialising in entertainment, food and drink and charities. She also writes novels, sometimes badly. She's a huge…