SIZZLING SUMMER

Our top picks for the season's hottest shows!

- Emily Aslanian, Kate Hahn, Jim Halterman, Ileane Rudolph, Diane Snyder

The Crowded Room 

Friday, June 9, Apple TV+

Tom Holland may be best known as Spider-Man in the Marvel movie franchise, but in this taut thriller based on Daniel Keyes’ novel The Minds of Billy Milligan, he plays troubled young man Danny Sullivan. Viewers meet Danny in the opening moments of the 10-part series (three episodes drop first, with subsequent installments each Friday), just before a shooting occurs in 1979 New York City. The mystery begins once Danny is apprehended for the crime. As he’s questioned by sympathetic interrogator Rya Goodwin (Amanda Seyfried), he shares pivotal moments in his life—and the revelations are shockers. They would probably make even Peter Parker run and hide.

The Full Monty

Wednesday, June 14, Hulu (from FX)

Some 25 years after the pants-dropping feature film, the original cast returns in this comedic series that revisits everymen Gaz (Robert Carlyle), Horse (Paul Barber), Lomper (Steve Huison), Nathan (Wim Snape), Gerald (Tom Wilkinson), Dave (Mark Addy) and Dave’s wife, Jean (Lesley Sharp), who are still residing in the north of England. But stripping down to their birthday suits (hence the title) is in their past. “We were never trying to mimic the original film,” says executive producer Uberto Pasolini, who also produced the movie. “Our characters are now 25 years older, with children and grandchildren, but the theme of male friendship is apparent.” Other themes include healthcare and education cutbacks along with “intergenerational issues at play” as the older crowd learns from the young’uns (like Gaz’s teenage daughter Destiny, played by Talitha Wing), and vice versa.