The Hawk to Little House on the Prairie: 10 of the best TV shows to watch this July

From a Will Ferrell golfing comedy to a Legally Blonde prequel and a new adaptation of the famous novels about 19th-Century frontier life – these are the best series to watch and stream.

Twenty-five years after she made Elle Woods an indelible pop-culture figure in Legally Blonde, Reese Witherspoon is a producer of this prequel. In 1995, six years before heading to Harvard Law School, Elle (newcomer Lexi Minetree) is in high school, already an underestimated, misunderstood, chihuahua-carrying heroine. She is horrified when her parents, played by June Diane Raphael and Tom Everett Scott, tell her the family is moving from posh, sunny Bel Air to Seattle. Sure enough, at her new school she is a fluffy pink vision in a sea of grunge, dismissed as a bubble-head by judgmental peers. Is there any doubt she will prove them wrong? Witherspoon has said she was inspired to make a prequel after watching the Netflix series Wednesday, which worked so well by sending Wednesday Addams to school. 

Elle premieres 1 July on Prime Video internationally 

Few books have been as beloved as Laura Ingalls Wilder's autobiographical Little House novels about 19th-Century frontier life, and few television families as embraced as that in the classic series inspired by Wilder's stories, which ran from 1974-83 and endlessly in reruns. This new version, starring relatively unknown actors, takes a fresh look at the family. In the first season (with a second already ordered) Pa and Ma Ingalls, along with young Laura and her older sister, Mary, leave Wisconsin in a covered wagon for a new home in Kansas. Set in 1868, the story deals with the trauma of the recently-ended Civil War, in which Pa's brother died, and gives the Ingalls family sympathetic neighbours from the local Osage Nation. But while those themes and characters reflect 21st-Century expectations, there is still plenty of the old-fashioned family sentiment that made the books and original series so popular.

Little House on the Prairie premieres 9 July on Netflix internationally

In this adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand's 2023 novel, Jennifer Garner plays Hollis Shaw, a cook and best-selling author whose husband has recently died. To deal with her grief, she orchestrates a gathering of four friends from various stages of her life for a weekend in pretty-looking Nantucket, also the location of Netflix' hit Hildebrand adaptation, The Perfect Couple. Chloe Sevigny plays a friend from Hollis's teenage years, Regina Hall plays her college roommate and D'Arcy Carden's character raised her children at the same time as Hollis did. Gemma Chan plays a new friend who carries a secret (what would a reunion be without one?) that threatens to explode Hollis's sense of her own past. The series' creator, Bekah Brunstetter, has compared it to "a marshmallow that's good for you", saying: "We set out to make a show that's uplifting, funny, and gorgeous to look at – but which also has surprising depth around friendship, grief and identity." 

The Five Star Weekend premieres 9 July on Peacock in the US and 16 July on Sky Atlantic in the UK and Ireland

JK Simmons is in tough-guy mode in this crime drama set in New York City in the 1980s. He plays the fictional Eamon Sweeney, head of the real-life Irish mob known as The Westies. The series laces actual period details into the story of a younger generation challenging Sweeney. The plot is set against the real-life backdrop of a convention centre being built, which offered plenty of opportunities for grift and corruption for the Westies and their more powerful rival, the Italian mob. "Who's making more money for you now, me or John Gotti?" Sweeney asks a collaborator, referencing one of the most famous Mafia figures of the day. Tom Brittany (Grantchester) plays an upstart young Westie and Allen Leech (Downton Abbey) plays an IRA cell leader. Titus Welliver (Bosch) plays Sweeney's boyhood friend, now a cop. But he's a corrupt cop, so they haven't diverged all that much.

The Westies premieres 12 July on MGM+ in the US and UK

Octavia Spencer and Hannah Waddingham team up in this action buddy comedy as best friends of 20 years who assumed they knew each other well. It turns out that Judith (Waddingham) has been an international assassin all this time, and Debbie (Spencer) has just learned that her husband has been embezzling from the mob. Now they're both in danger. They go on the run like Thelma and Louise, racing across Europe trying to evade other assassins, assorted criminals and law enforcement officers, with Bill Nighy playing the director of the clandestine operation Judith works for. There are also disguises, flamethrowers and speeding trains that Thelma and Louise never encountered. The trailer promises droll comedy along with the action. "I kill terrible people," Judith explains. When a shocked Debbie says, "For money," you can't argue with the logic of Judith's reply: "Well if I did it for free I'd be a serial killer." 

Ride or Die premieres 15 July on Prime Video internationally

Will Ferrell has starred in some wonderfully silly sports comedies, skating in Blades of Glory, playing basketball in Semi-Pro and driving a race car in Talladega Nights. It was just a matter of time before he got around to golf. In this series he plays Lonnie Hawkins, known as The Hawk, a 2004 champion now trying to make a comeback. No one else thinks that's a a good idea, including his ex-wife, played by Molly Shannon, and their son, Lance (Jimmy Tatro), also a pro golfer. Luke Wilson plays Golden Fisk, The Hawk's biggest rival from the past. Watching real golf is very, very slow and quiet – this should be faster and wilder.

The Hawk premieres 16 July on Netflix internationally

Dramas about teens go on too long at their peril. Prime example: the botched last season of Euphoria, which took its characters past high school. Heartstopper is getting in just under the wire with this feature-length final episode. After three seasons it wraps up the story of friends finding their way toward adulthood and discovering their sexuality. The central couple, Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke), are at a turning point, with Nick heading to university while Charlie, a year younger, stays behind. Alice Oseman, who created the series based on her graphic novels, has said the finale asks, "Are Nick and Charlie a forever couple? If they are, why?" Anna Maxwell Martin takes over from Olivia Colman as Nick's mother. Her response to his coming out in season one – "Thank you for telling me" – captures the warmth and acceptance that has made the series a hit with viewers and critics.

Heartstopper Forever premieres 17 July on Netflix internationally

Anya Taylor-Joy dodges gunfire and gives as good as she gets in this crime thriller created by Jonathan Tropper, who also created a less gritty crime story in Your Friends and Neighbors. Taylor-Joy plays Lucky, a con woman who is abandoned by her boyfriend after a major heist they were trying to pull off goes wrong. All she can do, without money or resources, is run and try not to be killed. Annette Bening plays a scary, cold crime boss who threatens her. Aunjanue Ellis Taylor is an FBI agent trying to find her before the mob does. And Timothy Olyphant plays Lucky's convict father, who has given her advice on how to survive in the family business. The show is based on Marissa Stapley's 2021 bestselling novel. Stapley has a sequel, No Such Thing as Luck, set to be published next year, so it's safe to assume Taylor-Joy's character somehow stays alive.

Lucky premieres 15 July on Apple TV internationally

The hugely popular sitcom Big Bang Theory has already been spun off into two successful shows, Young Sheldon and the spinoff of that spinoff, George and Mandy's First Marriage. In the latest adjunct to the franchise, Kevin Sussman recreates his Big Bang character, the hapless comic-book store owner Stuart, who here somehow breaks a device created by Sheldon and Leonard, the geniuses from the original show. Stuart, his girlfriend, Denise (Lauren Lapkus) and two friends are propelled into an alternate universe, and must try to restore reality. Failure is right there in the title, but we'll see. Chuck Lorre, the mastermind behind all the Big Bang shows, told People "I just wanted to do something that challenged me," including action and special effects, and added "I think it will be revered or reviled." This new spinoff moves the franchise from middle-of-the-road CBS to the more adventurous HBO Max, which does seem like landing in an alternate universe.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe premieres on HBO Max 23 July in the US and 24 July in the UK

Emmy Rossum leads the cast of this thriller as an FBI agent, Alice, trailing an enigmatic serial killer, Catherine (Lola Petticrew). As Alice learns more about her target, she realises they have unsettling similarities in their pasts. Rossum told EW, "They're both victims of violence who are looking for justice both for themselves and also on a much larger scale in unconventional ways. And because they are constantly underestimated they are both able to – and have to – work outside the lanes of convention." The title she said, alludes to "The Furies, who are Greek goddesses seeking vengeance". Scoot McNairy plays a police officer who is Alice's friend, and Jake Lacy is another police officer who is Alice's ex. (Hmm. Might be a good idea to expand her social circle beyond the police.) Elizabeth Meriwether, the show's creator, based it very loosely on the 1987 film Black Widow.

Furious premieres 27 July on Hulu in the US and Disney+ internationally

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