You think it’s bleak now? Just wait

After the first couple “Vampire Lestat” episodes, we’d be tempted to call the show bleak. Or grim or downbeat or such.
Lestat, after all, is a rock-and-roller (shown here) who doesn’t just rip up hotel rooms after the show. He also rips up bodies, barely survives an attack and reflects on his tortured childhood, 130 years ago.
But hey, that was just a warm-up. From here, said Sam Reid (who stars), “it gets pretty bleak.”
Rolin Jones — who created this show, which continues the two seasons of “Interview With The Vampire” — agreed. Starting with the third episode (9 p.m. June 21, on AMC), “it’s going to get about as dark as we’ve ever gone.” Read more…

Best-bets for June 17: new Homer; random awards

1) “The Simpsons,” Disney+. Yes, a new episode is arriving in June — and for streaming-only. Disney+ is celebrating the fact that it now has all 37 seasons of the show, plus the movie and shorts. This one has Marge (shown here in a previous episode) imagine life with alternate Homers; there will be two more new episodes this summer. Read more…

Best-bets for June 16: big night for documentaries

1) “Becoming Katharine Graham,” 9-11 p.m., PBS. A rich socialite, Graham (shown here) was a friend of Kennedys and Reagans. Then her life transformed at 46; her husband’s death left her in charge of the Washington Post. She steered it through Watergate, the Pentagon Papers and more. It’s a great story and (despite an awful music score) an interesting film. Read more…

Best-bets for June 15: Holocaust hero’s potent story

1) “The Last Twins,” 10p.m., PBS. Judith Richter was a married grad student before spotting a magazine article (shown here) that hinted at her father’s amazing story: In Auschwitz, twins were being studied; older than the others, Emo Spiegel became a big brother and then a protector, walking them to their homelands after liberation. It’s a great story, wrenching at first and then uplifting. Read more…

Best-bets for June 14: good vicar and messy vampire

1) “Grantchester” season-opener, 9 p.m., PBS. For a decade, this has given us some likable villagers (including three crime-solving vicars) and smart stories. Now the 11th and final season starts with a drive-in movie fundraiser, then offers a sharp murder mystery. In eight episodes, this will take the vicar (shown here) and others through times of angst and joy. Read more…

Week’s top-10 for June 15: Cue the dragons

1) “House of the Dragon” season-opener, 9 p.m. Sunday, HBO and HBO Max. This is epic filming — TV on a mega-movie scale. At one point, the show had expected to close its second season with the Battle of the Gullet. Now, instead, it uses that to give the third season a huge start. Dragons, ships and (shown here) warriors collide in the water between two kingdoms. Read more…

Best-bets for June 12: raw emotion in soccer, ranching

1) World Cup, 3 and 9 p.m. ET, Fox. Here are the Cup openers for two teams with home-field advantage. First, Canada faces Bosnia and Herzegovina, at 3 p.m. in Toronto; then the U.S. faces Paraguay, at 9 in Los Angeles. (Mexico had its opener Thursday, in Mexico City.) There’s much more soccer ahead (shown here is action from a previous Cup); these are also on Telemundo and stream on Peacock and Fox One. Read more…

Here’s a fresh surge of PBS documentaries

While some networks are in their summer slumbers, PBS seems to be surging with new documentaries.
Now “POV” starts its 39th season July 20, with a film (shown here) that views China’s unbalanced dating scene. It follows with five more films.
PBS had already set a busy non-fiction line-up. In one burst, it debuts a moving Holocaust film (“The Last Twin”) at 10 p.m. June 15; a deep profile of Katharine Graham, the late Washington Post publisher, at 9 p.m. June 16; and a joyous view of Australian wildlife, at 10 p.m. June 17. Then is a Friday string of multi-part reruns, starting with George H.W.Bush, at 9 p.m. June 19. Read more…

Best-bets for June 11: Earth swelters; soccer soars

1) “Surviving Earth” debut, 8 p.m., NBC. Some 252 million years ago, the Earth was locked in a heat wave. Many creatures died; some (shown here_ persisted, plodding toward the poles and the high ground. It’s a dramatic story, told with great special effects. But attempts to lighten it (special-effect creatures frolicking) seem pointless; leave that part to the superb “Americas,” rerunning at 9. Read more…