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.

In the Bleak Midsummer

Happy end of June! That means that the year is roughly halfway through and it's time to cobble together a list of the year's best TV so far. From obvious favorites like Succession and Barry to under-the-radar favorites like Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi and Happy Valley, Angie Han and I broke down 10 of our favorite shows of 2023 thus far. It's a list that's timed perfectly for a holiday weekend and for a July that's slightly lacking in promising programming. (Angie stopped by last week's  TV's Top 5 podcast to chat about the list.)

Ticket to Pride

HBO has capped off June with a pair of Pride-themed documentaries, both available now on Max with David Rooney's seal of approval. Rooney calls Taylor Mac's 24-Decade History of Popular Music (pictured), a complex intermingling of history (with a focus on all things LGBTQA+), personal memoir and 240 years of music, an "extraordinary theatrical happening." Stephen Kijak's  Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed  plays like a more conventional version of Mark Rappaport's Rock Hudson's Home Movies in exploring the clashes and occasional intersections between Hudson's public and professional lives. It's funny and tragic and amusingly raunchy, and Rooney praises the poignant way it handles the last chapter of Hudson's life. One problem? The documentary is going to make you want to watch a lot of Hudson films that aren't easily streamable, though Giant is eternally on Max.

Sixpence None the 'Witcher'

This weekend is dominated by returning shows that you're probably already aware of. The Witcher kicks off its third season — the last with Henry Cavill in the lead role — on Netflix. Jack Ryan kicks off its fourth season — its last, full-stop — on Amazon. I'm a season behind on Max's Warrior, but I really enjoyed the first season of the martial arts-infused period drama, and Alan Sepinwall over at Rolling Stone says the long-delayed third season was worth the wait. And while it's less likely to get the hype, or to be noticed at all, I'll always say nice things about Ten Year Old Tom, Steve Dildarian's animated Max comedy, which returns in fine form if you happen to vibe with Dildarian's droll, embarrassment-laden sensibility.

And We're Glad[iator] Glad[iator] Glad[iator] That You're Alive/ And We're Glad[iator] Glad[iator] Glad[iator] That You'll Arrive

Did we do something very right or something very wrong to be treated to TWO multi-part documentaries about American Gladiators in less than a month? Neither Ben Berman's The American Gladiators Documentary (available on ESPN+) nor Tony Vainuku and Jared Hess' Muscles & Mayhem  (available on Netflix) is perfect, but together they capture some of why the original series (available in bits and pieces on YouTube) was so popular. If, however, you're in the mood for different, non-American gladiators, Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning Gladiator is on Paramount+, while Starz's Spartacus, returning at some point after the studios agree to properly pay writers, is on Starz OnDemand. And if you're in the mood for a different, non-gladiatorial, type of American — it is a holiday weekend after all — Disney+ is rolling out Hamilton Sing-Along, even though you can always just watch the original version and sing along as best you can.

Honoring Alan Arkin

Alan Arkin, who died this week at 89, did everything and did it well. A Tony winner for Enter Laughing in the first act of his career, an Oscar winner for Little Miss Sunshine and an Emmy nominee for The Kominsky Method (both available on Max) in the marvelous and extended final act, Arkin was an exceptional comic star, a subtle dramatic weapon, an anti-establishment Everyman and a capable romantic lead. Some of his best earlier roles — The In-Laws, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter and Catch-22  — aren't streaming, but you can have quite the Arkin marathon this weekend, starting with The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming on Tubi and Pluto. From there, you can't go wrong with Argo (Tubi/Max), Glengarry, Glen Ross (Amazon), Slums of Beverly Hills (Max), The Rocketeer (Disney+), Gross Pointe Blank (MGM+) and the telefilm Escape from Sobibor (Tubi) among many others.

Honoring Julian Sands

More than six months after he went missing in the Mount Baldy wilderness, British thespian Julian Sands was confirmed dead this week at the age of 65. Sands was a versatile actor who used his florid diction and classical good looks to play romantic heroes and terrifying villains with equal aplomb. Any viewing tribute to Sands should begin with the Merchant-Ivory classic A Room with a View, streaming on Max. Tubi is the home to an amusingly diverse assortment of Sands films, including Ken Russell's Gothic, as well as Impromptu and End of Summer. And I recommend Warlock , streaming on Amazon, not because it's a great film but because Sands and Richard E. Grant's commitment to elevating a loopy horror premise is often a wonder to behold.