As the summer nears an end, television fans may find themselves endlessly scrolling in pursuit of something new to watch.
With so many platforms and streamers available to choose from, PEOPLE has picked out five shows that seemingly flew under the radar but are worth watching.
From a rom-com (without too much rom) to a head-spinningly smart thriller, here are PEOPLE’s picks at some of the most underrated shows on television.
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PLATONIC (Apple TV+)
The best rom-rom of 2023 isn’t technically a rom-com — but it’s close enough.
Rose Byrne plays Sylvia, a stay-at-home mom (and former lawyer) who learns that an old but long-neglected friend, Will (Seth Rogen), has just gotten divorced. Out of pity (and boredom), she meets him for coffee — and remembers how much she liked hanging out with this shambolic oddball, who sounds (as does Rogen) like a foghorn with a temper.
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Byrne’s performance, as you’d expect, has a pinpoint precision, but she also gives off the humming energy of someone scrutinizing the horizon for excitement. The two new besties start hanging out, sometimes squabbling to the point of breaking things off, but you always hear what Evelyn Waugh called “a thin bat’s squeak of sexuality.” Delightful.
FULL CIRCLE (Max)
Director Steven Soderbergh’s twisty series about a kidnapping in Manhattan is haunted, in more ways than one, by a strikingly bizarre premise: The motive isn’t mercenary but otherworldly, part of a ritual to reverse a curse. Perhaps fittingly, then, the plan’s execution seems to be under a spell too, with everyone lost in an entanglement of sloppiness, cross-purposes and bad luck.
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The show has a large, terrific cast that includes Claire Danes, Zazie Beetz and the extraordinary CCH Pounder, playing a sort of Guyanese mobster who sets it all in motion: She’s ruthless and possibly also insane, bursting with irrational exuberance whether the scheme goes well or off the rails.
You also have Dennis Quaid, as a celebrity chef, with his hair pulled back into something that looks like a man bun combined with a chignon. But it’s Soderbergh’s coolly gleaming visual style, expert pacing and icy, ironic detachment that work the magic.
DROPS OF GOD (Apple TV+)
This silken melodrama, a French-Japanese production, is an Olympics for oenophiles: We watch as Camille (Fleur Geffrier) and Issei (Tomohisa Yamashita) compete against each other in a series of extraordinary challenges to see who’ll inherit a wine cellar worth $148 million.
If it were just a matter of judging whether a bottle of Beaujolais was corked, we could call it a day, but that wouldn’t make for eight lip-smacking episodes, with richly hued wines being swirled in glasses as a complicated backstory is fleshed out. Each candidate has a special genius for understanding the fermented grape, but in the end one of them is given a special, secret advantage that has nothing to do with vintage, varietal or terroir.
It’s all a bit silly but, to borrow from an old song, it goes to your head like a sip of sparkling burgundy brew.
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THE MAKANAI: COOKING FOR THE MAIKO HOUSE (Netflix)
Kiyo and her friend Sumire (Nana Mor and Sumire) head to Kyoto with dreams of becoming geisha. However, before we or they go any further, you should be aware that these gorgeously costumed hostesses do not provide sexual favors for clientele.
No! In fact, Makanai is a sweet, gentle, quietly rhapsodic show that—something like Call the Midwife—celebrates a community of dedicated, disciplined women. The difference here is that they seem more inclined to giggle, and at one point they stage a geisha production of Night of the Living Dead. Which is certainly unexpected.
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Kiyo, at any rate, realizes that her true path is to serve as a cook in the establishment, and as a result much of Makanai showcases the simple but appetizing meals she prepares. “We can either be the cook,” says a wise old woman, “or the one who tastes it.” Either role can be noble, is the point, although we’ll take No. 2.
JURY DUTY (Prime Video)
A reality stunt so elaborate and encompassing it evokes The Truman Show, this series creates a fake courtroom, trial, judge and jury pool (one that includes actor James Marsden, playing a preening, over-the-top parody of himself).
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The exception, plunked down on a hard wooden bench for the duration, is one Ronald Gladden, a solar contractor who thinks he’s participating in a documentary about the legal system. Friendly and open to anything, he stares in puzzled amazement as the “defendant,” serving as his own lawyer, leaps back and forth, posing and answering questions.
It beats 12 Angry Men any time.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education