Photograph: AP
TV
The Girlfriend Experience (available now)
Steven Soderbergh’s slick, cinematic show about a borderline sociopathic law student named Christine who becomes a high-end escort. Where his 2009 film of the same name was shallow and utterly unconvincing, the series has been described as mind-blowing TV. Expect to binge all 13 episodes in one sitting.
UnREAL (new episodes every Tuesday)
The subversively, deviously gripping drama that goes behind-the-scenes at dating show Everlasting is back – and it’s as dark as ever. Our antiheroes and arch-manipulators are Quinn and Rachel, Everlasting’s showrunner and executive producer. Last season, they led a contestant to kill herself – but now they seem determined to ramp up the evilness with ever more cunning power plays. This season they’re also tackling race head-on, with a Black Lives Matter activist pitted against a confederate-flag-bikini wearing Southern belle as the contestants vie for the affections of the show’s first black prince charming.
Mr Robot
After Elliot and fsociety successfully hacked E Corp and crashed the financial markets at the end of the first series, this darkly addictive cyber thriller returns with a very timely season, which promises to ask what happens after you’ve made the world burn …
Baron Noir (tbc)
This French political saga makes the Boris/Gove rivalry look positively cordial, as the president and his one-time protege try to destroy each other’s careers.
Preacher (new episodes every Monday)
The excellent, gory, high-energy comic-book adaptation continues apace, as our minister (Dominic Cooper) comes to terms with his newfound superpowers, assisted by his boozy vampire friend Cassidy (Joe Gilgun) and troublemaking childhood love, Tulip (Ruth Negga).
Roadies (new episodes every Monday)
What’s life really like on the road? Cameron Crowe (best known for Almost Famous) and Winnie Holzman (of My So-Called Life fame) try to show us, with this patchy vision of the life of music diehards.
American Gothic (new episodes every Thursday)
Soapy series co-created by James Frey (he of Million Little Pieces notoreity) about a super-rich Boston family who find out that their recently deceased father may have been a serial killer.
24 (available now)
Ahead of the reboot 24: Legacy, watch all eight seasons of the Kiefer-era show and relive every single glorious moment as Jack Bauer secures his status as the ultimate action hero of the modern age.
Film
Beasts of the Southern Wild (available 25 July)
Stunning, poetic picture of post-Katrina life in the Louisiana bayou that could also double as an apocalyptic vision of any point in the climate-change decimated future. Quvenzhané Wallis plays Hushpuppy, a six-year-old living off-grid in “the Bathtub” with her dad, Wink, when the floods hit.
Godzilla (available 5 July)
Sadly lacklustre 2014 outing for the ultimate movie monster.
The Hangover Part II (available 15 July)
Formulaic hair-of-the-dog outing. This time, the gang go to Thailand.
