Netflix’s Witcher, an Idris Elba thriller, and all the new TV to watch this week

This week on TV, all is fair in love and war — at least as far as new seasons of The Bachelorette, Jack Ryan, and The Witcher are concerned. It’s possible those trapped in the battles for the Continent or in a competition for the love of a single woman on a reality show might not feel like it’s all fair. But for audiences, we’ll at least have a good time.

Netflix’s The Witcher is one of the bigger releases of the week, with volume 1 of the new season dropping the first five episodes on Thursday. But don’t miss Hijack, Idris Elba’s return to TV post-Luther, and a surprisingly effective TV thriller.

This week also features another Strange New Worlds episode that Trekkies won’t want to miss (if you can afford to miss any of the best modern Star Trek show): Christina Chong’s La’an gets teleported to an alternate reality and has to team up with Kirk (Paul Wesley) to get the timelines back on track. In classic Trek fashion they are, of course, sent back to the 21st century (what are the odds??).

Here are all the significant TV premieres this week for your scheduling purposes:

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New shows on Netflix

The Witcher season 3 volume 1

Image: Netflix

Genre: Fantasy
Release date: June 29
Showrunner/Creator: Lauren Schmidt Hissrich
Cast: Henry Cavill, Anya Chalotra, Freya Allan, Joey Batey, and more

Geralt is back — as is Henry Cavill, for his final season as the titular Witcher. Season 3 follows him, Yen (Chalotra), and Ciri (Allan), trying to beat back the darkness of the Continent and protect Ciri from the forces that want her. Of course, the new season brings some struggles of its own, including a convergence of mages and some new freaky monsters.

Muscles & Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of American Gladiators

Genre: Documentary
Release date: June 29
Showrunner/Creator: Tony Vainuku and Jared Hess
Cast: Features interviews with Nitro (Dan Clark), Diamond (Erika Andersch Bunker), Laser (Jim Kalafat), Sky (Shirley Eson-Korito), Ice (Lori Fetrick), Zap (Raye Olson), Storm (Debbie Clark), Blaze (Shari E Pendleton Mitchell), and Tower (Steve Hennebery)

Netflix takes a look back at American Gladiators, the ’90s show where amateur athletes compete against each other in feats of agility and strength. Muscles & Mayhem will interview the athletes themselves, charting the rise and fall of the ’90s program and all the triumphs and struggles that came with it.

Is it Cake? Too?

Genre: Meme-based competition show
Release date: June 30
Showrunners/Creators: Dan Cutforth and Jane Lipsitz
Cast: Mikey Day and a cast of talented bakers ready to guess what’s cake

Remember that period of the pandemic where people were cutting into everyday objects only to reveal that they were actually hyper-realistic cakes? They made a reality show based on it! This is the second season, bringing more chefs back to guess whether the thing they’re looking at is actually cake.

New shows on Apple

Hijack

Genre: Thriller
Release date: June 28
Showrunner/Creator: Jim Field Smith
Cast: Idris Elba, Archie Panjabi, Christine Adams, Max Beesly, Eve Myles, and more

Sam Nelson (Idris Elba) is just trying to get home to London. Unfortunately (as the name of the show might clue you into), his plane just got hijacked. Luckily for us, at least, Hijack is an immensely enjoyable and taut thriller, following the attempts to keep the situation under control and unfurl the mystery of what these hijackers are aiming for (and who they work for).

New shows on Hulu

The Bachelorette season 20

Genre: Reality dating
Release date: June 26 (ABC), June 27 (Streaming on Hulu)
Cast: Charity Lawson and a troupe of men who are hopefully all there for the right reasons

You know the drill: One titular bachelorette, a host of potential beaus, and several roses to give out to contestants who get to stay. Will this bachelorette find true love? And what does the new season look like without controversial Bachelorette creator Mike Fleiss? We’ll (start to) find out on June 26, when the new episode premieres on ABC, dropping on Hulu the next day.

Secret Chef

Image: Hulu

Genre: Reality cooking (amateur’s version)
Release date: June 29
Showrunner/Creator: David Chang
Cast: Beginner chefs hoping to impress their families

The task is simple, at least in description: Become a chef worthy of a Michelin-star. The problem is, the chefs of this show are total novices, more likely to burn a salad than they are to brûlée a crème. The ten contestants come from a variety of backgrounds and perform a series of cooking challenges. (Disclaimer: This show is produced by Vox Media Studios, which is owned by Vox, just like Polygon.)

New shows on Max

Warrior season 3

Photo: David Bloomer/Max

Genre: Historical action drama
Release date: June 29
Showrunners/Creator: Evan Endicott, Josh Stoddard, Jonathan Tropper
Cast: Andrew Koji, Olivia Cheng, Jason Tobin, Dianne Doan, Kieran Bew, and more

Television’s best martial arts show, based on a concept by Bruce Lee, returns for its third season (and first to air on Max) after escaping from the decaying husk of Cinemax. The new season takes the show to even greater heights, forging new alliances and testing old ones as the Industrial Revolution begins to rear its ugly head in San Francisco.

The legendary Mark Dacascos joins a stacked cast that already featured Andrew Koji, Jason Tobin, Joe Taslim, and Dianne Doan. Executive producers Evan Endicott and Josh Stoddard have been promoted to showrunning duties, but former showrunner Jonathan Tropper (Banshee) and executive producer Shannon Lee (Bruce’s daughter) are still heavily involved.

New shows on Prime Video

Jack Ryan season 4

Photo: Attila Szvacsek/Prime Video

Genre: Action spy thriller
Release date: June 30, with two episodes
Showrunner: Vaun Wilmott
Cast: John Krasinski, Wendell Pierce, Abbie Cornish

John Clancy’s Jack Ryan is back for one last ride. While John Clancy’s Jack Ryan might get future spinoffs, the Amazon show starring John Krasinski is coming to an end with season 4. The episodes will drop two at a time every Friday, following Ryan as the new CIA Acting Deputy Director uncovering a conspiracy of massive proportions.