Provocative Summer TV

BY: PROVOKR Staff

Roots
Debuts May 30 on the History Channel, Lifetime and A&E

It’s been almost 40 years since Roots—the ABC miniseries that provided an unflinching look at the history of slavery in America — captivated more than 30 million TV viewers. So when producer Mark Wolper (whose father David produced the original) set out to film a remake for a new generation of viewers, he had one main goal in mind. “We have to make it better than the first ‘Roots.’ “ he told the New York Times. “Otherwise, why bother?” Armed with decades worth of new scholarship on the slave trade, the Roots remake—which will air over four consecutive nights—intends to one-up the original as far as historical accuracy is concerned. The miniseries also boasts an A-list cast that includes Laurence Fishburne, Forest Whitaker, Anika Noni Rose, Anna Paquin and the rapper T.I. The central role of the young slave Kunta Kinte, however, will be played by a British newcomer named Malachi Kirby.

Bloodline
Debuts May 27 on Netflix

After a riveting debut season, the Netflix thriller—about a Florida Keys family with a shady past and deadly sibling rivalry—returns to chart the fallout from the murder of the black sheep older brother Danny Rayburn (Ben Mendelsohn) at the hands of his younger brother John (Kyle Chandler).

The Night Of…
Debuts July 10 on HBO

Based on a BBC drama, this 8-part miniseries covers both sides of a fictional New York city murder case—the police investigation and the workings of the criminal justice system. The Night Of… was a passion project for the late James Gandolfini (who gets a an executive producer credit on the series). John Turturro now tackles the lead role as the lawyer who takes on the case of a Pakistani man (Riz Ahmed) charged with the murder of a girl on the Upper West Side.

 

Outcast
Debuts June 3 on Cinemax

Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman is the mastermind behind this horror series that follows the journey of a man who’s been  possessed by demons since he was a kid and seeks to find out why.

OJ: Made in America
Debuts June 11 on ABC

This 5-episode documentary series—which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival—moves the OJ Simpson saga out of the courtroom and into the world at large, focusing on Simpson’s biographical story, fleshing out how he became such a beloved sports figure, and exploring the many ways that race and celebrity impacted both his murder trial and his life. The series debuts on ABC and then moves over to its sister network ESPN for the rest of its run.

The Get Down
Debuts August 12 on Netflix

For his first TV project, film director Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!, The Great Gatsby) helms this thirteen-episode musical drama set in 1970s New York City, when the metropolis was on the verge of bankruptcy but was also a cultural boomtown with the rise of hip hop, punk and disco. Luhrmann described The Get Down as “a project I have been contemplating and working on now for over 10 years. Throughout, I’ve been obsessed with the idea of how a city in its lowest moment, forgotten and half destroyed, could give birth to such creativity and originality in music, art and culture.”

Animal Kingdom
Debuts June 14 on TNT

Inspired by the 2010 Australian film of the same name, Animal Kingdom stars Ellen Barkin as Janine “Smurf” Cody, the matriarch of a family of criminals.  “You learn that she’s capable of great menace, some emotional cruelty, but also capable of great love,” said the series showrunner Jonathan Lisco of Barkin’s character. “It never really answers the question whether or not her capacity for cruelty or her capacity for love is the scarier component, and I know that’s something we want to explore in the course of the series. I think that’s a rather bottomless pit when you have an actress like Ellen Barkin.”