By James Mandell

Ever since cable execs figured out that summer re-run season was the perfect time to launch original programming, the corporate game o’ thrones has breathed new fire into June TV. And with AMC, Netflix and Amazon following HBO and Showtime’s lead, the bar’s been raised with entertaining, high-quality choices. Here are five titles, all available for streaming, one way or another.

Sense8

First, turns out hangin’ with your doppelganger is like, complicated. Directed by the Wachowskis (The Matrix), Sense 8 is an expensively produced worldwide jaunt that connects eight seemingly random people together with an eerily immersive sensation of experiencing one another’s current state of mind, as they telepathically transfer crucial knowledge and skills. Gorgeously shot, massively scored and intriguingly edited to gradually coalesce, it’s a sumptuous, gender-bending unpuzzling.

Silicon Valley

On HBO GO, there’s the insider funny Silicon Valley.  Amplifying the longstanding Big Bang geekfest concept, this one focuses on an incubator ranch house peopled by brilliant social misfits trying to develop a game changing compression algorhythm they’ve unfortunately named Pied Piper. From the bong-smoking proprietor to the deer-in-headlights coders to the megalomaniac competitors and self-absorbed billionaire angel funder, it’s one droll and clever mega-gaffe after another. And don’t miss the Season One ender, with its insane dick-length measurement theory equation that lasts half the episode, running dead serious as they whiteboard the variables.

HAPPYish

It’s HAPPYish on Showtime (seems to be the season for ”ish”). Here’s an upper-middle class family; dad a hap-LESS ad agency creative director, mom a frustrated artist, and six-year-old son a cross-dressing Frozen princess non-stop Disney song machine.  The title refers to this intelligent couple’s frantic search for meaning in a punishing modern world, fraught with Gen Y, grade school and personal booby traps. Sarcasm, anger management, frazzled logic, steering wheel screaming – very funny snapshots, as long as it ain’t you. Big laughs, big self-identification for anyone creative.

https://youtu.be/KJ1hGJuSdGQ

UnReal

UnReal, on Lifetime (!) is a killer spin on The Bachelor shows that women swoon for, but wait: Fictionalizing the behind-the-scenes hijinks of the cast and crew of a Hunk-vs-25-rabid-girls contest, it skewers the lot. Contestants, producers, crew — everyone is engaged in tearing each other to shreds, be it on-or-off camera. Personally, I can’t bear to watch that rose-presentation crap, but this send-up of exactly that? Horrifyingly delicious! Innocent bystanders and production plotters alike go for the jugular, leaving road kill as they desperately manipulate one another into a creating a hit “reality” show steeped in a patchwork of personal hell. Meanwhile, all the hunk wants to do (and does) is get laid. Now that’s entertainment.

Halt and Catch Fire

And finally, we’ve begun a new season of Halt and Catch Fire, the terrific AMC series about race to develop the personal computer. I’m surprised that more guys haven’t latched on to this fictional drama based on the real history of the PC and Mac in the early 80’s. An edgy, moody cast portrays an upstart garage hardware and MMOG pirate co, frantically racing to beat the majors in the dash to the next innovation, framed in the real history of the moment, 14-baud modems blazing. Intense relationships, tortured souls, coding binges and brilliant minds vs power-mad businessmen. Gripping and terrifically written, start with the first season, which is simply great dramatic TV.

Oh, and those summer blockbusters? Ain’t about to go all Jurassic on ya. Enjoy your favorite genres and the popcorn along with. Right now, Entourage is in theaters and it’s surprisingly banal, misogynistic and vague. If you’re a fan of the series, it’s more like a special episode with lots of celebrity cameos meant to somehow give it significance. Better suited to cable in a couple months. Which is where all the good stuff is right now, anyway.

What to Watch Post-Thrones