13 sci-fi and fantasy shows you should watch this summer

The Orville season 3 — June 2 on Hulu

The Orville started as a loving parody of sci-fi series, particularly Star Trek and Star Wars. With Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane at the helm, it’s no surprise that the show is awash in pop culture references.

That angle is still present; you only need to watch a couple of seconds of the footage above to see the influences the show is pulling from. But The Orville has also done the legwork of building up a cast of unique characters and telling their particular stories, even if it’s still taking a lot of cues from other media.

The show used to be on Fox but is switching to Hulu for its upcoming third season, which should allow it more creative freedom. And as you can tell from the trailer, the production values can stand toe to toe with just about anything on TV. This new season will also feature one of the final performances from actor-comedian Norm Macdonald.

The Boys season 3 — June 3 on Amazon Prime Video

No genre is as oversaturated right now as superheroes. That’s where The Boys comes in. In this world, the superheroes are vain, egotistical, and occasionally psychopathic corporate mouthpieces who menace the population and only do something good if their bosses approve it. The most iconic of these characters is Homelander, a homicidal take on Superman who makes every scene he’s in crackle with energy. Our protagonists are a group of non-powered individuals dedicated to taking down him and the corrupt system that supports him.

It looks like that premise might change a bit in the upcoming third season, but by this point The Boys has proven that it has the imagination and guts to get away with any number of crazy plot twists, so I’m willing to go with it and see where things lead.

So yes, The Boys is another superhero show, but it’s one that spits in the face of every other superhero show and movie out there. But don’t worry: if you want some more wholesome superhero entertainment, you have plenty of options: