What To Watch This Weekend: Stream Our Top 7 TV and Movie Picks (July 14–20)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | Paramount+ | Science fiction, drama

Season 3 premiere, Thursday, July 17: Critics and fans alike love Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which continues today with the third of what will be five total seasons. “We’re deeply grateful to Paramount+ for the chance to complete our five-season mission, just as we envisioned it,” executive producers Akiva Goldsman, Henry Alonso Myers, and Alex Kurtzman said in a statement. Guest stars this season include Carol Kane, Patton Oswalt, Paul Wesley, Rhys Darby, and more. We get the first two episodes today, with the remaining eight eps coming weekly through September 11.

Untamed | Netflix | Drama, mystery, thriller

Limited series premiere, Thursday, July 17: Eric Bana (Dirty John), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park), and Rosemarie DeWitt (La La Land) lead the cast of this murder-mystery thriller set in Yosemite National Park. Bana plays a National Parks Service special agent stationed in the park who, in working to solve a brutal murder, must confront the park’s dark secrets, not to mention his own. From creators Mark L. Smith (American Primeval) and Elle Smith (The Marsh King’s Daughter), all six episodes stream on Netflix today.

Zarna Garg: Practical People Win | FXX, Hulu | Stand-up comedy

Special, Friday, July 18: In Indian-American comedian Zarna Garg’s second stand-up special (first for Hulu), she tackles (among other things) family, gender identity, and sex. Here are a couple of sample zingers from the Practical People Win trailer: “My 11-year-old son said, ‘Mom, my school has asked me to declare my pronouns.’ I said, ‘You’re Indian. You tell them your pronoun is ‘Dr.’” And here’s one to devastate husbands of all cultures (but primarily Garg’s): “The thing about the Kama Sutra is that it is true Indian people wrote it—but I can promise you that no Indian man has ever read it.”

Billy Joel: And So It Goes | HBO, HBO Max | Documentary, music

Limited series, Friday, July 18 & 25, 11:30 p.m. ET: Singer-songwriter Billy Joel has 13 albums, seven honorary doctorates, six Grammys, two Emmys, a Tony Award, and Rock & Roll Hall of Fame membership. But, until now, the music legend has had zero documentaries about his storied, six-decade career. This two-part, five-hour doc from Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin rights that wrong with new interviews and never-before-seen performance footage. Each episode airs live on HBO tonight and next Friday, July 25, and also streams on HBO Max.

SHARK WEEK! | Discovery Channel | Nature, documentary

Event, Sunday, July 20: SHARRRRRRRRRK! I shoulda yelled that exactly a month ago on the 50th anniversary of the legendary movie Jaws. Well, Shark Week is as good a time as any for that warning. The IRL great white sharks aren’t nearly as big as the 25-foot, three-ton animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg’s classic film, but you’ll see plenty of big, breaching behemoths in the programs Discovery has lined up this year. The first three specials, including Air Jaws: The Hunt for Colossus, air (pun intended) tonight. Here’s that TV schedule (all times Eastern):

• Dancing With Sharks (8:00 p.m.)
• Air Jaws: The Hunt for Colossus (9:00 p.m.)
• Great White Assassins (10:00 p.m.)

Robot Chicken: Self-Discovery Special | Adult Swim, HBO Max | Adult animation, comedy

Special, Sunday, July 20, 11:30 p.m. ET: The stop-motion animated show that made playing with toys into an art form returns with a new half-hour special skewering reality TV series airing on Discovery, Food Network, and TLC. Check out the trailer to see something you didn’t think you needed to see, but did: Guy Fieri and Smurfs villain Gargamel taking the convertible to Flavortown, scooping up Smurfs to sauté along the way. The special airs live on Adult Swim tonight at 11:30 p.m. Eastern and streams on HBO Max the following day.