New to Neon in June

Next month Sky’s Neon will premiere an epic drama series set in post-Caesar Rome that reportedly “fills a gory, horny, Game of Thrones-shaped hole”.

Domina (June 7) went to air this week on Sky One in the UK, where The Guardian damned with faint praise its female protagonists’ perspective on the carnage and backstabbing that followed Caesar’s assassination.

“But on these early signs, it doesn’t seem to do that in a wildly innovative way.”

Creator Simon Burke has likened the Ancient Roman ruling class to the British royal family.

“As with our own royal family, there is a constant tension between private and public life,” he told Radio Times, “but in those times, politics was a life and death affair, so the stakes were rather higher.

“Domina is… authentic history, but it is a compelling behind the scenes take on palace intrigue in the reign of Augustus and his wife Livia, who is less well known.

“Her story however, and her riches-to-rags-to-power story is utterly compelling, and Livia changed the game for Roman women who followed her.”

Neon also will pick up another period drama, S1-3 of Jamestown (June 20), which is set in 1600s Virginia and first streamed here on Amazon Prime Video.

Jessica Biel stars in Limetown (June 16), a 2019 series based on a podcast about a journalist investigating the disappearance of more than 300 people from a neuroscience research centre in rural Tennessee.

Critics were divided over the 10-part series. Rotten Tomatoes summed up the consensus thus: “Guided by an excellent turn from Jessica Biel, Limetown sustains an impressively creeping atmosphere that makes up for its occasionally fuzzy plotting.”

Bump is a 2021 Australian series that Stan commissioned for its streaming service.

“The ups and downs of a high school teen who unexpectedly gives birth are a joy to binge,” said Time Out.

“Rather than leaning on lazy rom-com tropes, Bump is wonderfully grounded in real life while still delighting with the unexpected.”

Neon also will premiere S7 of Love Island UK S7 (TBA) and The Best of Love Island UK (June 25), S1-2 of spy comedy Intelligence (June 9) and Amy Poehler’s animated comedy Duncanville (June 1), S2 of Dave (June 17), S3 of Motherland  (June 24) and In the Dark (June 25), and S2 of A Black Lady Sketch Show (June 26).

Other June highlights will include two Prime attractions, A Living Hell: Apartment Disasters (June 2) and Young Rock (June 4), S1-3 of the religious cult drama The Path that first streamed on Lightbox (June 7), and a bonus episode of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark (June 22).

Here’s the full June TV slate: