10 TV and streaming shows to catch up on over the summer

Sarah Greene, Anne-Marie Duff, Sharon Horgan, Eva Birthistle, Eve Hewson in Bad Sisters.
The best new Star Wars “content” in years, Andor asks us to take seriously, just for a moment, this universe of lightsabers, Sith Lords and annoying robots. It is, essentially, science fiction as a grown-up prestige drama, and it is gripping. Critically acclaimed, too, with solid reviews followed by a sweep of Emmy nominations – including a best drama nod.

Diego Luna stars as the titular Cassian Andor, a smuggler drawn into the first stirrings of rebellion against the Galactic Empire. There’s a significant Irish component. Denise Gough from Wexford plays an ambitious Imperial functionary, Genevieve O’Reilly reprises her movie turn as Rebel conspirator Mon Mothma and Fiona Shaw is Andor’s adoptive mother. It’s excellent – and much better than season three of The Mandalorian.
For leave-brain-at-the-door holiday viewing, you can’t beat this thumpingly silly reality show, just back for a second season. Expert bakers are tasked with creating confections indistinguishable from real-life items, such as hard hats, chairs and pillows. Think of it as Bake Off with a surreal twist and glazed in absurdity.
Sharon Horgan’s hilarious murder-mystery set in coastal Dublin is from last year but is in the news again after bagging a clutch of Emmy nominations. It’s the comedically gruesome tale of a family of sisters who come together to bump off the brother-in-law from hell – which doubles as an advertisement for “Dublin coastal chic”. A cracking cast includes Eve Hewson, Sarah Greene, Brian Gleeson, Eva Birthistle, Daryl McCormack and Anne-Marie Duff.
Probably to be avoided if you’re about to get on a flight, but there’s no denying the charm of his absurd caper starring Idris Elba as a harried businessman whose plane is hijacked. It’s Diehard for Generation Streaming – and Elba makes for a decent stand-in for peak Bruce Willis.
They said video games could never be successfully adapted for TV or film. But this year saw the mega-smash Super Mario Brothers movie rack up a high score at the box office. Then there is HBO’s taut take on the heartbreaking horror hit, The Last Of Us, in which Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey play survivors of the downfall of civilisation required to work together when one of them is revealed to have extraordinary powers.

Cork actress Máiréad Tyers is the best thing in this dead-pan London-set Disney comedy about a world where everyone has a super-power - except for our cynical heroine Jen (Tyers). Look for Derry Girls Siobhán McSweeney in a funny cameo as Jen’s perpetually confused mother, whose magic gift is an ability to manipulate electricity (even though she doesn’t even know how to turn on the television).
Fed up with superhero movies? So are the makers of this surrealistic comedy-drama about a boy born the size of an elephant who finds himself in conflict with a Batman-style vigilante. It’s weird and fun – but also a riposte to the superhero industrial complex.
With AI and virtual reality in the news as never before, there’s never been a better moment to revisit one of the original seers of the future-shock genre, William Gibson. Westworld’s Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy have adapted his novel, The Peripheral – about a virtual reality world that becomes even deadlier than reality. Dubliner Jack Reynor stars alongside Chloë Grace Moretz.
Netflix has decided we deserve a Summer of Schwarzenegger. A three-part documentary about the life and times of the original action hero is accompanied by this fun if disposable, comedy-thriller in which Arnold stars as a secret agent who discovers his daughter (Monica Barbaro) is also a CIA operative.
The story of George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley is movingly told in this tender documentary, reminding us Ridgeley was more than just a glorified backing vocalist to Michael and that the Wham! hit parade was loaded with some of the 1980s greatest pop songs. A fantastic movie about music - and an even better one about friendship.