What's worth streaming in June 2024: 'House of the Dragon,' 'The Bear' and much more

By Mike Murphy

'Bridgerton,' 'The Boys,' 'Hit Man' and 'The Acolyte' co-headline a blockbuster month. Here's how to spend your streaming money wisely.

Summer is heating up, and so is the streaming schedule.

There's a whole new crop of bingeable, blockbuster shows dropping on streaming services this June, including Hulu's "The Bear," Max's "House of the Dragon," Netflix's "Bridgerton," Amazon's "The Boys" and Disney's "The Acolyte."

That's great news for viewers, but worrisome for budget-minded consumers, especially as streaming prices have soared. But that's precisely where a strategy of churning - that is, adding and dropping services month to month - comes in. It takes some planning, but pays off in monthly savings. Keep in mind that a billing cycle starts when you sign up, not necessarily at the beginning of the month.

Each month, this column offers tips on how to maximize your streaming and your budget - rating the major services as "play," "pause" or "stop," similar to investment analysts' traditional ratings of buy, hold or sell - and picks the best shows to help you make your monthly decisions.

Here's a look at what's coming to the various streaming services in June 2024, and what's really worth the monthly subscription fee:

Netflix ($6.99 a month for basic with ads, $15.49 standard with no ads, $22.99 premium with no ads)

Netflix (NFLX) has one of the most critically acclaimed movies of the year in "Hit Man" (June 7), starring Glen Powell ("Anyone But You") as a professor who moonlights for the police acting as a killer-for-hire but winds up falling for a prospective client. The rom-com crime caper, directed by Richard Linklater, was a critical darling at film festivals last year, and Netflix bought it for $20 million, largely foregoing a theatrical release (technically it's in select theaters now but good luck finding it). It's wildly fun, sexy and thrilling, by all accounts (98% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), and might actually be the must-see movie of the summer. So it's a little sad that it'll only be on Netflix, where movies go to be forgotten. (Like that big one that came out a while back, the one with that guy ... you know the one?)

"Bridgerton" (June 13) is back with Part 2 of its third season, picking up right after Part 1's steamy cliffhanger between Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton).

There's also the third and final season of the fantasy "Sweet Tooth" (June 6); Season 2 of the docuseries "Tour de France: Unchained" (June 11), landing a couple weeks before this year's race starts; two new episodes of "My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman," as Dave interviews Miley Cyrus and Charles Barkley; Season 2 of "That '90s Show" (June 27); and Season 2 of the reality show "The Mole" (June 28)

Netflix is also adding all nine seasons of the classic sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" (June 3), and all eight seasons of Showtime's serial-killer drama "Dexter" (June 19) - a curious combination since, despite some terrific early seasons, both end with arguably the two worst series finales ever made.

Update: In a surprise release, Netflix just dropped "Godzilla Minus One" (June 1), last year's stunning, Oscar-winning adaptation of the kaiju's origin story. You don't need to be a fan of cheesy monster movies to appreciate this spectacular, thoughtful film.

Meh: New York Times TV critic James Poniewozik recently noted the rise of "mid TV" - shows that are not bad, not great, but simply... fine. A prime example is "Bodkin," which dropped in early May. A dark comedy/mystery set in Ireland, it's got an intriguing plot about a decades-old disappearance, an appealing cast (led by Will Forte as a doofus podcaster and Siobhan Cullen as a hard-boiled journalist), beautiful scenery, yet it's just ... fine. Which is frustrating, because it feels like it should have been better.

On the move: On the flip side is "Scavengers Reign," a 12-episode, animated sci-fi/horror series that overperforms in every way. While it drew raves when it premiered on Max last year, it got Zaslaved - err, canceled - in May, and Netflix picked it right up. It's a visually stunning, emotionally haunting series, like a mashup of Hayao Miyazaki and David Cronenberg. Check it out, perhaps a bigger audience on Netflix can earn it a well-deserved second season.

Play, pause or stop? Play. There's a reason why Netflix is dominating the streaming game: It offers something for everyone, month in and month out.

Hulu ($7.99 a month with ads, or $17.99 with no ads)

Hulu's got one of the best shows on TV with "The Bear" (June 27), which is returning for its third season. Jeremy Allen White, Ayo Edebiri and Ebon Moss-Bachrach lead a fantastic cast, and the new season picks up with the new restaurant's dysfunctional kitchen going through more growing pains. And once again, the tense restaurant drama is going "chaos menu" and dumping all of its 10 episodes at once, a questionable strategy that has nevertheless paid off, if the number of random people in real life you hear saying "Yes Jeff" and "Behind!" is any indication.

Meanwhile, the L.A. Clippers are the subject of a new miniseries - "Clipped" (June 4) - that looks less fun than HBO's L.A. Lakers drama "Winning Time." It details the fall of longtime Clippers owner Donald Sterling (Ed O'Neill), who was ousted by the NBA in a 2014 racism scandal. The impressive cast includes Laurence Fishburne (as head coach Doc Rivers), Jacki Weaver and Cleopatra Coleman, but while the story is definitely juicy, it's unclear what a six-part tragicomedy will do that a "30 for 30" documentary could not.

Hulu also has the miniseries "Becoming Karl Lagerfeld" (June 7), starring Daniel Brühl as the fashion icon; "Queenie" (June 7), a miniseries adaptation of Candice Carty-Williams's bestselling novel about a Jamaican-British woman straddling two cultures; Season 3 of "Shorsey" (June 21), the "Letterkenny"-spinoff hockey comedy that is just as profane yet endearing as its predecessor; and "Breakin' on the One" (June 24), a documentary about the legendary 1981 breakdancing battle in New York that sparked a movement that will be recognized as an Olympic sport for the first time at the upcoming Paris Summer Games.

Hulu's got a number of Pride events, including livestreams of the Los Angeles Pride parade (June 9) and "Pride Across America" (June 30). There are also new eps of the soccer docuseries "Welcome to Wrexham," until its season finale June 13.

Deeper dive: Check the 2015 British comedy "Chewing Gum" (June 14), the breakthrough series from Michaela Coel ("I May Destroy You"). Based on Coel's 2012 play, it's about a sheltered and religious 24-year-old virgin who wants to expand her world. It's filthy, hilarious and wildly creative.

Play, pause or stop? Play. There aren't many shows that are worth a subscription all on its own. But "The Bear" is one. And Hulu has a lot more to offer besides just that.

Max ($9.99 a month with ads, $16.99 with no ads, or $20.99 'Ultimate' with no ads)

Note: Max raised prices for its ad-free plans on June 4 for new customers, and effective July 4 for existing customers.

"House of the Dragon" (June 16), the massively expensive "Game of Thrones" prequel, is finally back for its second season. And it promises more dragons, which actually may not be a good sign, since the flying weapons of mass destruction provide spectacle but don't add much to the human story, which is where the original series shined brightest. While execs at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) are banking on repeating the mass-appeal success of "Thrones," the first season of "House of the Dragon" was disappointing and disjointed, and incredibly self-serious, missing the spark of "Thrones" characters like Arya, Tyrion and Littlefinger. It's not too late for a course correction, and the second season should benefit from a single timeline and a more focused story - the full-fledged civil war between factions of the ruling Targaryen family. Hopefully, that means it'll also be more entertaining.

Max also has the quirky, three-part docuseries "Ren Faire" (June 2), about the behind-the-scenes power struggle to lead the world's largest Renaissance Fair in Texas; it looks both slightly unhinged and entirely fascinating. There's also "Fantasmas" (June 7), a surreal comedy series from Julio Torres ("Los Espookys") that looks fantastic; "Am I OK?" a comedy-drama movie starring Dakota Fanning and co-directed by Tig Notaro; and "Hannah Einbinder: Everything Must Go" (June 13), a standup special from the "Hacks" co-star.

On the sports side, Max has MLB games every Tuesday night and U.S. national-team soccer, with the women playing South Korea on June 1 and 4, and the men playing Colombia on June 8 and Brazil on June 12.

Get current: "Hacks" just finished its third season, which may have been its best yet. "The Sympathizer," the surreal, 1970s-set Vietnamese spy drama, also just concluded its run and is a below-the-radar gem, always compelling and surprising, with a breakout performance from Hoa Xuande. And don't forget "Dune: Part 2," which landed on Max in May and is still spectacular on the small screen.

Play, pause or stop? Pause and think it over. It leans toward "play," but a lot depends on whether "House of the Dragon" was properly fine-tuned.

Amazon's Prime Video ($14.99 a month with ads, $8.99 without Prime membership, both +$2.99 to avoid ads)

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06-04-24 1722ET

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