If the prospect of endless football terrifies you and your last experience of the great outdoors ended in sunburn and a mugging at the hands of a posse of psychotic badgers, allow us to help. This month is delivering an array of worthy movies, TV shows and original content, and to a lesser extent, Martin Clunes: Last Lemur Standing. We’ve sorted through it all, distilling the best picks into one easily digestible list. Run for your red button, because here’s the best June has to offer...
Billions, Season 1
Where to find it? NOW TV
Available: Now
Hedge fund managers, eh? Loveable sorts, always looking for ways to put a penny in the old man’s hat – especially if there’s a chance the old man may die and they’ll get it back again. Damian Lewis’ hedgie, Bobby "Axe” Axelrod, a man whose maxim is “What’s the point in having fuck-you money, if you never say fuck you?”, is still kinda shady even by those standards. Trying to bring him down this modern-day Gordon Gekko in Showtime’s zeitgeisty miniseries is Paul Giamatti’s crusading US attorney. Blood – or at least, strong coffee – will be spilt.
Outcast, Season 1
Where to find it? NOW TV
Available: Now
Zombies will seem like a veritable dance around the maypole after the kind of foes you come across in Outcast, the latest creation to be spawned from the twisted brain of The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman. Demonic possession trumps the undead in this case, with Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous) attempting to understand why his all loved ones need round-the-clock exorcisms. The power of Christ compels you to put this on your watchlist.
Dope
Where to find it? NOW TV
Available: Now
Rick Famuyiwa’s Dope, AKA ‘What the new Flash director did first’, is a smart, surprisingly sharp-edged comedy-drama in the spirit of Go or Friday. Its three geeks' (Shameik Moore, Kiersey Clemons and The Grand Budapest Hotel’s Tony Revolori) plunge into the LA underworld is soundtracked by ‘90s rap gems and takes its cue from Tarantino and Spike Lee. Trust us, it’s worth making a date with.
Preacher, Season 1
Where to find it? Amazon Prime
Available: Now
Preacher started life as a comic book by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon, telling the simple story of a small town minister who happens to be the most powerful being in the universe. Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg have been granted the unlikely adaptation keys to the much loved comics, with Dominic Cooper as the dog-collared hero, and valiant support from the likes of Ruth Negga and Joseph Gilgun. The first two episodes – skilfully blending horror, comedy, extreme violence and the supernatural – bode well for the series.
UnREAL, Season 1
Where to find it? Amazon Prime
Available: Now
In US TV, dating reality shows have reached the inevitable point where TV must now take the piss out of itself. Step forward UnREAL, a sly Lifetime drama depicting a fictional reality television almost as salacious and synthetic as the real thing. Ruthlessly skewing the artificiality of the genre, it’s as much an acerbic satire as it is a tragic human drama – not to mention a show bursting with such feisty dialogue like “Why are you letting Adam get all up in your vag?”
Guardians Of The Galaxy
Where to find it? Netflix
Available: June 20
From June 20 Netflix is Groot, too. The MCU’s first outer-space caper will bring Star-Lord, Rocket, Gamora, Grax and his tree-ness to your home in a flurry of wisecracking, prison-breaking, 10cc-playing, Ronan-vexing joys from later this month, so if you’re one of the four people that haven’t caught it already, there’ll be no excuses. None. Seriously, we’ll be checking.
Catastrophe, Season 2
Where to find it? Amazon Prime
Available: Now
Hands down one of the funniest shows British telly has produced in recent years, Twitter star Rob Delaney and Sharon Hogan reunite for more parental carnage as they try to negotiate having not one, but two kids, without killing each other or allowing either of them to die. Expect blisteringly funny patter, ferocious rows, scene-stealing cameos from Mark Bonnar and Carrie Fisher and puking babies in possibly TV’s first ever vom-rom-com.
Blow Out
Where to find it? Netflix
Available: Now
Close your curtains, sweep your flat for bugs and then settle down for this slice of early '80s paranoia courtesy of a never-better Brian De Palma. Not one of this best known films but definitely one of his best, it’s a tense companion piece to Coppola’s The Conversation that’s infused with the political edge of the Chappaquiddick scandal and the feel of an uncertain America in transition. John Travolta is in it, but don’t expect any dancing.
Broad City, Season 3
Where to find it? NOW TV
Available: Now
One day soon the hilarious Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson will take over the world. Until then, they’re satisfying themselves with Manhattan and the bits of New York they accidentally go to when they pass out on the Subway. Season 3 finds Abbi joining Tinder, the pair accidentally trashing a piece modern art, Ilana hooked to the back of a moving lorry, an encounter with Hillary Clinton and a trip to Israel. What could go wrong? Well, everything. Watch this show, it’s here to stay. Yaaaaaas queen!
Double Indemnity
Where to find it? Netflix
Available: Now
Picking your favourite Billy Wilder movie is like picking a favourite child, if you have about 16 amazing children. Double Indemnity is definitely top-tier Wilder however you cut it, and well worth tracking down on Netflix. Callous, black and morally compromised to the nth degree, it’s a perfectly structured noir morality tale featuring a femme so fatale (Barbara Stanwyck) she makes Shere Khan look like a declawed moggy. As a bonus, it’ll also teach you loads about insurance.
It Happened One Night
Where to find it? Netflix
Available: June 15
Screwball comedies don’t come much more iconic than this Frank Capra treat. Spoilt rich girl Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable’s smart-mouthed, carrot-crunching hack go toe-to-toe (and eventually kisser-to-kisser) while hitchhiking across country. While the England football team is enmeshed in a screwball comedy of its own, here’s one with guaranteed laughs and no penalty shoot-out at the end.
Penny Dreadful, Season 3
Where to find it? NOW TV
Available: Now
It seems like several moons ago that Bond pair John Logan and Sam Mendes launched their creepy, icky, weirdly enthralling Gothic world onto our screens. There were more vampires, monsters, beasties and demonic possessions than you could shake a cross at. What’s changed? Well, not much, happily. Season 3 may require some catching up for newbies – head to your nearest chamber of horrors and you’ll be about up to speed – but it’s well worth diving in. Expect the show’s ongoing attempt to break Eva Green to continue.
Straight Outta Compton
Where to find it? NOW TV
Available: June 17
Even in the hip-hop ignorant surrounds of Empire towers (motto: Straight Outta Old Compton Street) F. Gary Gray’s biopic made a mighty impression when it hit cinemas. Expect it to lose little of its boom when it arrives later this month. Authentic – look out for O’Shea Jackson playing his dad Ice Cube – and gripping, if it washes away some of the less palatable moments in N.W.A.’s rise, there’s enough honesty in its account of the group’s eventual disintegration to steer it away from hagiography. The soundtrack ain’t bad, either.
Mistress America
Where to find it? NOW TV
Available: June 10
For fans of sharply-observed comedies, Noah Baumbach’s quirky metropolitans and the ever-watchable Greta Gerwig just being a bit of a buffoon, Mistress America ticks all the boxes this month. Ostensibly about Lola Kirke’s freshman struggling to adjust to a new life, the long, slightly ungainly shadow of Gerwig stretches across the movie as her Pollyanna-ish stepsister, Brooke. Gerwig devotees will want to double-bill it Frances Ha on Amazon.
Orange Is The New Black, Season 4
Where to find it? Netflix
Available: June 17
If you’re an OITNB devotee, you won’t need us to tell you when the [fourth season](http://www.empireonline.com/people/taylor-schilling/orange-nw-black-season-four-new-trailer/
) lands on Netflix – you’ll have the date tattooed on your eyelids. If not, June 17 is the day Piper, Red, Crazy Eyes and co welcome us back to the slammer for another slab of often-electrifying, occasionally plain gonzo goings-on in Litchfield Penitentiary. Taylor Schilling’s Piper will be wading into murkier waters as she breaks bad (well, bad-ish), while a job lot of new prisoners, including a Martha Stewart-alike celebrity chef, pile more bodies into the prison’s claustrophobic confines. Expect fireworks.
The Diary Of A Teenage Girl
Where to find it? Netflix
Available: June 30
An underseen gem from last year, this adaptation of Phoebe Gloeckner’s ‘70s memoir combines peppery relationship woes, the messiness of teenage life, sharply-observed period detail and trippy animated bits into a poignant comedy-drama that’s well worth your time. It also boasts a potentially star-making turn from its lead, Bel Powley, a seriously composed anchor for an indie that makes its bid for cult status from June 30.