Welcome to Now See This, THR chief TV critic Daniel Fienberg’s weekly viewer guide newsletter dedicated to cutting through the daunting clutter of the broadcast, cable and streaming TV landscape! Comments and suggestions welcome at daniel.fienberg@thr.com.

Celebrating Juneteenth

TV is still trying to get a hang of programming for Juneteenth, the now officially nationally recognized June 19 commemoration of the day slaves in Texas were formally freed (well after the Emancipation Proclamation). On Friday, ABC is airing Sound of Freedom — A Juneteenth Celebration, featuring a Lizzo interview and performances by Patti LaBelle and Jon Batiste. On Sunday, CNN will air Juneteenth: A Global Celebration for Freedom, a concert with Jill Scott, Questlove, Killer Mike, Mickey Guyton and more. Also on Sunday, BET has a few topical specials, including The Power of Juneteenth  and The Recipe: Juneteenth, ESPN has the less-topical Omitted: The Black Cowboy and Netflix, which doesn't typically premiere documentaries on Sundays, has Civil: Ben Crump. Alternatives: Reflect on the legacy of slavery and liberation with Amazon's exceptional Underground Railroad or the classic Roots (on HBO Max),or go wildly far afield and watch a marathon of the terrific  Sherman's Showcase on IFC.

To Viktor Go the Spoilers

Season three of Netflix's The Umbrella Academy premieres next Wednesday (June 22) and, as so often seems to be the case with the dysfunctional superhero team-up series, The Umbrella Academy finds itself in the shadow of Amazon's The Boys, as well as the genre's general proliferation. I happen to think both shows are highly flawed, but I'm growing to be more and more appreciative of how The Umbrella Academy manages to be edgy and satirical and iconoclastic, but also has an unvarnished, unironic sense of whimsy and blatant silliness. The new season is worth checking out in part for how the series and star Elliot Page handle his character's transition to Viktor going forward. It's atypically sincere and sentimental, yet feels narratively organic.

Shut Up and Sundance

It's mid-June and much of the country is settled in for typical summer heatwave, so maybe this is a good weekend to pump up the AC, put on a shiny, puffy coat and pretend it's Sundance. Despite a brutally bad title, Cooper Raiff's Cha Cha Real Smooth won the Audience Award and will be debuting on Apple TV+.  Our John DeFore called it a "confident step" for writer-director-star Raiff. Hulu is premiering  Good Luck to You, Leo Grande , another Sundance release with a very bad title, this one carried by an Emma Thompson performance our Leslie Felperin calls "impossible to resist." Or you can watch The Worst Person in the World, the fantastic Oscar-nominated film that debuted at Cannes in 2021 — Oscar snubbed Renate Reinsve was a deserving best actress winner there — and also screened at Sundance. It's new on Hulu!

Spiderhead, Spiderhead, Does Whatever a Spiderhead Does

So many movies on streaming this weekend!  And they're definitely not all Sundance-y. Netflix is premiering Spiderhead, featuring Chris Hemsworth, Miles Teller and Jurnee Smollett, a darkly comic piece of semi-sci-fi that our Frank Scheck calls "imaginative fun" until its too-familiar climax. Our Sheri Linden appreciated the "welcome twist" of HBO Max's Cuban-infused remake of  Father of the Bride. Definitely skip Paramount+'s Bryan Cranston/Annette Bening vehicle Jerry & Marge Go Large, though. Our David Rooney calls it an "utterly toothless, glorified Hallmark movie."

Honoring Philip Baker Hall

Beloved character actor, Seinfeld guest star and Paul Thomas Anderson regular Philip Baker Hall died this week at the age of 90. One of those consummate pros who made everything he was in better, regardless of how small the role, Hall should have been nominated for an Oscar for Anderson's Hard Eight, available OnDemand for Showtime subscribers. You can also stream Anderson/Hall collaborations Magnolia (Paramount+) and Boogie Nights (HBO Max). Hall's work in Fox's short-lived The Loop isn't available to stream, but his season three  Seinfeld episode "The Library" is on Netflix. And for something a bit different from Hall's TV résumé, the poignant "My Love" episode of HBO's Room 104 is on HBO Max.

This Week's THR Staff Pick

Executive editor, news, Patricia Mays raves, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’m very late to this party. To anyone else also behind in your binge watching, I highly recommend Inventing Anna . Beyond the intriguing real-life (well, sorta – Shonda Rhimes humorously reminds us in every episode that some parts are “totally made up”) con-artist story of fake heiress Anna Delvey (Julia Garner) and glimpse inside the glitzy world of the uber wealthy (that would, unfortunately, not be me), equally fascinating is the journalist character Vivian Kent (Anna Chlumsky). Vivian is relentless in her efforts to unravel Anna’s story and find her own redemption, all supported by a delightfully entertaining cast of familiar Hollywood faces playing curmudgeonly writers banished to 'Scriberia.' Their smart, witty banter alone is worth watching."