Well, the dragons officially landed on HBO Max last Sunday, and if your social feeds look anything like mine, they’re currently boiling over with Targaryens. But nobody can live on dragon fire alone—sometimes you need a palate cleanser, something the family can watch, or a documentary to feed your brain. Happily, HBO Max still has a few tricks up its sleeve for June, with exactly that kind of content.
So, for this week, here are a couple of shows and a movie worth carving out time for beyond the obvious. There’s a surreal, animated comeback nearly a decade in the making, a fiery cooking competition where smoke and flame rule, and a stirring new environmental documentary from an Oscar-nominated filmmaker.
3
Regular Show: The Lost Tapes
Mordecai and Rigby are back for more chaotic adventures
After only ever seeing short clips from this surreal animated show in my Instagram feed over the years, I never actually thought I’d see any new episodes of it. Happily, that has changed. Nearly a decade after it ended, the Emmy-winning Cartoon Network favorite Regular Show, which ran from 2010 to 2017, is back with The Lost Tapes.
A revival from original creator J.G. Quintel, the show once again follows the blue jay Mordecai (voiced by Quintel himself) and Rigby the raccoon (William Salyers), two slacker best friends working as groundskeepers at a local park where the most mundane task somehow spirals into surreal, reality-bending mayhem.
Quiz
HBO Max movies and shows
Trivia challenge
From Westeros to the ER — how well do you know HBO Max’s biggest hits and most talked-about originals?
DramaComedyFantasyMoviesCharacters
In The Pitt, what type of medical facility serves as the primary setting for the series?
Correct! The Pitt is set in a Pittsburgh hospital emergency room and follows the staff through a single grueling 15-hour shift. The show stars Noah Wyle and was created as a spiritual successor to the classic ER.
Not quite. The Pitt takes place in a Pittsburgh hospital emergency room, not a surgery wing or clinic. The show unfolds in real time over one intense 15-hour shift, giving it a grounded, unrelenting pace.
In Hacks, what is the profession of Deborah Vance, the character played by Jean Smart?
Correct! Deborah Vance is a legendary Las Vegas stand-up comedian who reluctantly teams up with a young, struggling comedy writer named Ava. Jean Smart’s performance earned her widespread critical acclaim and multiple Emmy Awards.
Not quite. Deborah Vance is a veteran stand-up comedian — a Las Vegas legend who is forced to collaborate with a younger comedy writer to reinvent her act. Jean Smart won Emmy Awards for the role.
House of the Dragon is a prequel to Game of Thrones — approximately how many years before the events of Game of Thrones does it take place?
Correct! House of the Dragon is set roughly 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones. It depicts the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, a catastrophic conflict over succession to the Iron Throne.
Not quite. House of the Dragon is set approximately 200 years before Game of Thrones, not 50 or 100 years. The series is based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood and covers the Targaryen dynasty at the height of its power.
In the 2025 horror film Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler, what supernatural threat do twin brothers face in the Deep South?
Correct! Sinners features vampires as the central supernatural threat. Ryan Coogler’s film stars Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as the twin brothers, and blends horror with themes of race, music, and history in 1930s Mississippi.
Not quite. The supernatural menace in Sinners is vampires. Director Ryan Coogler crafted the film as a genre-bending horror story set in 1930s Mississippi, starring Michael B. Jordan as twin brothers caught in a terrifying night of violence.
Weapons, the 2025 horror anthology film on Max, was written and directed by which filmmaker?
Correct! Weapons was written and directed by Zach Cregger, who previously broke out with the acclaimed horror film Barbarian in 2022. The anthology follows multiple interconnected stories tied together by a disturbing central mystery.
Not quite. Weapons was directed by Zach Cregger, best known for directing Barbarian. Cregger has quickly established himself as one of the most exciting voices in modern horror, and Weapons continued that momentum on Max.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight is another Game of Thrones prequel series — which character does it primarily follow?
Correct! The series centers on Ser Duncan the Tall, a hedge knight, and his young squire Egg — who is secretly the young prince Aegon Targaryen. The story is based on George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas.
Not quite. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follows Ser Duncan the Tall, a wandering hedge knight, alongside his squire Egg. The show is adapted from George R.R. Martin’s beloved Dunk and Egg novellas set a century before Game of Thrones.
One Battle After Another, the 2025 Max limited series, is based on a novel by which author?
Correct! One Battle After Another is adapted from Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland. The series marks a rare screen adaptation of Pynchon’s notoriously complex work, and generated significant buzz for its ambitious literary source material.
Not quite. The series is based on the work of Thomas Pynchon, one of American literature’s most elusive and celebrated novelists. Adapting Pynchon for television is a rare and ambitious undertaking given the dense, layered nature of his writing.
In Euphoria, what substance addiction is central to the storyline of the main character, Rue, played by Zendaya?
Correct! Rue’s battle with opioid addiction is a core thread running through Euphoria. The show uses her struggle as a lens to explore trauma, identity, and mental health among teenagers, and Zendaya won Emmy Awards for her portrayal.
Not quite. Rue struggles primarily with opioid addiction throughout Euphoria. Creator Sam Levinson drew on personal experience to shape her character, and Zendaya’s raw, emotionally powerful performance earned her back-to-back Emmy wins.
Your Score
/ 8
Thanks for playing!
Their long-suffering boss is Benson (Sam Marin), a literal gumball machine with eyes, with Mark Hamill returning as the yeti handyman Skips. There’s a neat hook with The Lost Tapes, though—every episode is framed as a “lost” VHS tape of an untold adventure, discovered by the lollipop-headed Pops in the afterlife, which cleverly lets the revival add new stories anywhere in the original timeline.
The first run of 10 episodes (Season 1A) landed on HBO Max on June 8, with new ones on the way.
2
BBQ Brawl (Season 7)
Bobby Flay’s smokey competition show continues
I’m a sucker for a good cooking show, and since it’s summer, especially if it has to do with barbecue. Now in its seventh season, BBQ Brawl is Food Network’s stalwart barbecue competition show, and this year it comes with a personal twist. The supremely bingable show draws 12 of America’s best pitmasters and grillers, who are split into teams led by three captains—celebrity chef extraordinaire Bobby Flay, season six’s reigning champ Maneet Chauhan, and Brooke Williamson—who captain their teams through challenges at Star Hill Ranch in Austin, Texas.
This season has a personal wrinkle, though. Williamson, a longtime BBQ Brawl judge, has moved into a competing captain’s chair this season because she and Flay began dating in 2025, making it impossible for them to fairly judge each other. Because of that, two new faces have joined the judges’ table alongside Carson Kressley— renowned chef and author Adrienne Cheatham, and BBQ Brawl season 3 winner Rashad Jones. The trio decides who advances and who heads home, with the last pitmaster standing crowned “Master of ‘Cue.”
If you like cooking shows and smoked, grilled meat, BBQ Brawl is just reliable fun summer TV that’s easy to binge a few and (maybe) hit the ‘cue yourself. New episodes hit HBO Max the day after their Monday Food Network airing, running through early July.
1
The Welcome Table
A hopeful reckoning with climate displacement
The lone documentary on this list, The Welcome Table delivers a dire message, but does it in a way that leaves you feeling hopeful, positive, and with your faith in humanity restored. From Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning filmmaker Josh Fox—best known for the HBO fracking exposé Gasland—The Welcome Table is a feature documentary that takes a sobering look at the effects of global climate migration and climate change, which the doc points out will result in one out of every three people losing their homes.
The Welcome Table isn’t your standard-talking-head-and-archive-footage documentary, though. Fox’s framing is unusual and moving—he builds a 1,000-foot dinner table along a New Orleans levee and invites climate refugees from around the world living through the crisis now, to take a seat and share their stories. Their accounts are harrowing and devastating and include families displaced by the 2018 Paradise wildfires, communities scattered by rising seas, and those ravaged by Hurricane Irma. Their stories are backdropped with live music from New Orleans legends, including jazz singer John Boutté (who wrote the theme to HBO’s Treme) and actor-director John Cameron Mitchell.
The Welcome Table is part sobering climate report, part hopeful celebration of resilience, that will leave you with a few things to think about. It premieres June 23 on HBO Max.
Fun, fire, and faith in humanity
From a talking gumball machine to a show that will make your mouth water to a documentary that delivers hope, these three picks make for a varied week of watching. When you’re done, however, head to How-To Geek’s streaming section for more ideas on your next watch.
- Subscription with ads
-
Yes, $10.99/month
- Simultaneous streams
-
2 or 4
HBO Max is a subscription-based streaming service offering content from HBO, Warner Bros., DC, and more. In 2025, the service re-branded itself as HBO Max after having previously cut “HBO” from its name.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
