Q Wave’s Watchlist: July 2026
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X-Men ’97 (Disney+)
The most acclaimed superhero show on television is back, and it’s not easing into its second season. X-Men ’97 picks up right after the chaos of its finale, with the team scattered across time. One group lands in ancient Egypt, another stays put in the 1990s, and a third gets thrown thousands of years into the future. Their only goal is to find their way home and stop Apocalypse before he becomes the threat they already know he turns into.
What makes this season work is how it uses that fractured structure. Each episode tends to follow one splintered group, which keeps the pacing tight and gives the sprawling cast room to breathe. Even with new faces like Sabretooth and Psylocke joining the roster, nobody feels like filler. The original voice cast returns, and the animation still looks far better than most of what the live-action Marvel films have managed lately.
Early reviews have been strong, calling it a more refined version of what already made the first season great. The three-episode premiere drops July 1, with new episodes weekly through mid-August. If you fell off the broader Marvel universe at some point, this is the rare entry that earns the hype on its own terms.
You’d like this if you enjoyed: X-Men: The Animated Series, Invincible
Runtime: 9 episodes
Genre: Animation, action
The Hawk (Netflix)
Will Ferrell is finally headlining his own comedy series, and he’s doing it as a washed-up golf legend who refuses to admit his best days are gone. In The Hawk, Ferrell plays Lonnie “The Hawk” Hawkins, the world’s top golfer back in 2004, now decades past his prime and chasing one final major to complete a career Grand Slam. His body is telling him to retire. His ex-wife and his son, golf’s current golden boy, agree. Lonnie does not.
The setup gives Ferrell exactly the kind of role he’s best at, a man whose confidence has wildly outlived his ability. Around him is a deep bench of comedic talent, including Molly Shannon as his estranged wife, Jimmy Tatro as his rising-star son, and Luke Wilson, Fortune Feimster, and Chris Parnell filling out the ensemble. The PGA Tour signed on as a partner, so the golf world itself is woven into the joke.
Behind the camera, the pedigree is just as strong, with Rian Johnson among the executive producers and Ferrell co-creating. It’s his first proper TV comedy after years of film work, and the trailer suggests the same broad, committed silliness that made his movies stick. All ten episodes arrive July 16, which makes this an easy weekend binge.
You’d like this if you enjoyed: Eastbound & Down, Ted Lasso
Runtime: 10 episodes
Genre: Comedy, sports
Lucky (Apple TV+)
Anya Taylor-Joy leads this slick crime thriller as a con artist whose carefully built life comes apart in a single bad night. When a multimillion-dollar heist goes sideways, Lucky is forced to run, hunted at once by the FBI and a crime boss who wants his money back. Based on Marissa Stapley’s bestselling novel, the series follows her as she tries to outpace both while reckoning with the criminal past she thought she’d left behind.
The appeal starts with the cast. Taylor-Joy anchors it, surrounded by Annette Bening, Timothy Olyphant, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, and William Fichtner, which is a lot of firepower for a single limited series. It comes from the team behind The Morning Show and The Last Thing He Told Me, with Reese Witherspoon producing, so it carries the polished, propulsive style Apple tends to favor for this kind of story.
The novel earned a reputation as a fast, twist-heavy page-turner, and the adaptation seems built to keep that energy moving. The first two episodes land July 15, with the rest rolling out weekly through August 19. If you want something tense and stylish to carry you through the back half of summer, this is a strong bet.
You’d like this if you enjoyed: Sharper, Ozark
Runtime: 7 episodes
Genre: Crime, thriller
Elle (Prime Video)
Twenty-five years after Legally Blonde, the franchise is heading backward in time. Elle is a prequel that drops us into the high school years of Elle Woods, long before Harvard Law and the bend-and-snap. Set in 1995, it follows a sixteen-year-old Elle after her family uproots from Bel-Air to Seattle, where her sunny, pink-clad optimism collides head-on with the city’s grunge-era gloom.
Newcomer Lexi Minetree steps into the role Reese Witherspoon originated, and the resemblance is uncanny enough that it’s been a talking point on its own. Witherspoon produces through Hello Sunshine, and the series leans on nostalgia for anyone who grew up with the films while pitching itself to a younger crowd meeting Elle for the first time. Despite the comedy label, it apparently leans into more dramatic, vulnerable territory than expected, with a season-long mystery running underneath.
Worth a note of caution: early reviews have been mixed, with critics split on whether the prequel justifies itself. Still, the IP is strong and the goodwill is real, so this may land better with fans than with critics. All of season one arrives July 1, and a second season is already confirmed.
You’d like this if you enjoyed: Legally Blonde, Sex Lives of College Girls
Runtime: 8 episodes
Genre: Comedy, drama
The Dink (Apple TV+)
Pickleball has officially arrived in the mainstream, and now it has its own movie. The Dink stars Jake Johnson as Dusty Boyd, a washed-up former tennis prodigy reduced to coaching unruly kids at his father’s struggling country club. Desperate for his dad’s approval, Dusty backs the old man’s crusade against the sport taking over the club, until an injury sidelines his tennis game and pushes him, reluctantly, onto a pickleball court.
What starts as rehab turns into something he didn’t expect: he’s actually good, and he actually enjoys it. With help from his new partner Candace, played by Mary Steenburgen, Dusty finds himself torn between his father’s approval and the game that’s quietly giving him a second act. It’s a familiar underdog shape, but the cast does a lot of the lifting.
And what a cast. Ed Harris plays the disapproving father, Ben Stiller turns up as the doctor who prescribes pickleball in the first place, and Patton Oswalt, Chloe Fineman, and real tennis legends Andy Roddick and John McEnroe round things out. Stiller also produces, which tells you the comedic sensibility you’re in for. The Dink premieres July 24 as a one-off film, making it a low-commitment, easy summer watch.
You’d like this if you enjoyed: Happy Gilmore, Dodgeball
Runtime: 1 hour 42 minutes
Genre: Comedy, sports