{"id":530702,"date":"2026-07-03T07:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T07:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530702\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T07:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T07:24:09","slug":"little-house-on-the-prairie-to-trying-the-seven-best-shows-to-stream-this-week-television-radio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/530702\/","title":{"rendered":"Little House on the Prairie to Trying: the seven best shows to stream this week | Television & radio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pick of the week
Little House on the Prairie<\/p>\n

Adapting Laura Ingalls Wilder\u2019s rural Americana novels<\/a> for the streaming era is risky. There\u2019s a readymade audience but the books are so beloved that failing to do them justice won\u2019t be easily forgiven. Alice Halsey plays Laura Ingalls, a sparky pre-teen whose family are setting out on an exciting but uncertain adventure to Kansas to start a new life. But can they simply claim some land, chop down some trees and build a house? It\u2019s not as easy as that, as encounters with wolves, strange neighbours and Native Americans soon prove. This version largely plays it safe: in places, it\u2019s a little grittier than you might expect but it is still a deeply wholesome confection.
Netflix, from Thursday 9 July<\/p>\n

TryingFull of warmth \u2026 Rafe Spall as Jason and Esther Smith as Nikki in Trying. Photograph: Brendan Meadows\/Apple TV<\/p>\n

Nikki (Esther Smith) and Jason (Rafe Spall) aren\u2019t trying to have kids any more. As this breezy sitcom<\/a> returns, they have an adoptive family that is functional and mildly chaotic in equal measure. The arrival of Princess and Tyler\u2019s biological mother, Kat, has sent Nikki spiralling as she worries that her daughter might prefer the company of her less uptight but less responsible \u201creal\u201d mum. Trying hasn\u2019t made it to five seasons for no reason: it\u2019s an edifying representation of the reality of modern family life, and the performances invest the scenarios with warmth and pathos.
Apple TV, from Wednesday 8 July<\/p>\n

Summer \u201936Juicy \u2026 Simon Ehrlacher as Jean and Sofia Essaidi as Eug\u00e9nie in Summer \u201936. Photograph: Fran\u00e7ois Lefebvre\/Netflix<\/p>\n

To the French Riviera for a murder mystery with intriguing undertones of class conflict. It\u2019s 1936 and working-class French people have finally been granted paid holidays. This is an uncomfortable development for the country\u2019s monied elite who must now share their luxury hotels and spotless beaches with the hoi polloi. Into this hotbed of snobbery comes the killing of a local prosecutor, which throws four women from different backgrounds together. It\u2019s a juicy if contrived premise but not helped by the clunkily dubbed English dialogue.
Netflix, out now<\/p>\n

Sparks of TomorrowBand of brothers \u2026 Sparks of Tomorrow. Photograph: Netflix<\/p>\n

The much-loved Kyoto Animation studio returns with an eccentric series that is not necessarily the easiest sell: a story about electrical inventions and the bond between two brothers. In the early 20th century, Kihachi and Seiroku are obsessed with the possibilities of electricity. However, Seiroku is sent to war, takes the brothers\u2019 catalogue of inventions with him and never returns. Can Kihachi recover the catalogue and honour the dreams he had with his brother? His quest involves a love affair and a company that wants the designs for nefarious reasons.
Netflix, from Sunday 5 July<\/p>\n

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Hammerhead Sharks Up Close With Bertie GregoryDeep waters \u2026 Erick Higuera and Bertie Gregory in Hammerhead Sharks Up Close With Bertie Gregory. Photograph: Will West\/National Geographic<\/p>\n

Film-maker and explorer Bertie Gregory is in Mexico\u2019s Pacific waters, venturing deep into the personal space of some of the ocean\u2019s most elusive predators. Hammerhead sharks were once abundant in this region but have been pushed to the brink of extinction. Gregory explores various schemes to protect these magnificent beasts and, eventually, finds a surprisingly large group of them to commune with. The footage he captures is startling and the environmental message unambiguous.
Disney+, from Sunday 5 July<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Not AfraidThe new Stranger Things? \u2026 Yago Andreu as Felipe and Aldo Emiliano Navarro as Miguel in I\u2019m Not Afraid. Photograph: Julieta Horak\/Netflix<\/p>\n

An intrepid gang of small-town youngsters stumble upon something peculiar and can\u2019t resist poking their noses in. If you think this Mexican drama has vague similarities to Stranger Things, you wouldn\u2019t be completely wrong, but it\u2019s a lot earthier and less supernatural. It centres on 10-year-old Miguel, who finds a kidnapped child while looking for a lost football. Obviously, like any sensible boy, he musters a posse of his pals to address the situation but, perhaps inevitably, they\u2019re riding their pushbikes into a dangerously adult situation.
Netflix, from Wednesday 8 July<\/p>\n

Shifting GearsFamily ties \u2026 Tim Allen as Matt and Kat Dennings as Riley in Shifting Gears. Photograph: Raymond Liu\/Disney<\/p>\n

This warm, family-focused sitcom has a very traditional feel. From the moral simplicity of the plotting (everyone is different, but they must learn to get along!) to the slightly intrusive laughter track, it feels like a show that could have been made at any point in the last 50 years. The real gear shift in this second season comes from Tim Allen\u2019s sprightly patriarch Matt. He has a new love interest and is behaving like a teenager. So it\u2019s up to his previously stroppy daughter Riley (Kat Dennings) to keep him in line.
Disney+, from Wednesday 8 July<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pick of the weekLittle House on the Prairie Adapting Laura Ingalls Wilder\u2019s rural Americana novels for the streaming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-530702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}