Summer 2026 unleashes an avalanche of series, almost all of which draw on our collective memory: prequels, reboots, and adaptations of cult films. A brief overview of a season dedicated to nostalgia, platform by platform.
The Little House On The Prairie
On Netflix, Michael Landon's cult classic series is reborn after half a century. Rebecca Sonnenshine delivers a grittier, more thoroughly researched version: gone is the idealization, replaced by the harsh realities of pioneer life in the Osage region of Kansas, rather than Walnut Grove. The Ingalls family faces hardship and land disputes. The audience has embraced it, and a second season has already been commissioned.
Lucky
On Apple TV, Jonathan Tropper's miniseries reunites Anya Taylor-Joy six years after The Queen's Gambit . She plays a repentant criminal whose past catches up with her, alongside Annette Bening and Timothy Olyphant. Just seven episodes, but a perfect showcase for her magnetic presence.
Prisoner
On Canal+, Matt Charman's thriller, the screenwriter of Bridge of Spies , unveiled at Canneseries, puts Tahar Rahim on the run: a former elite assassin turned inconvenient witness, he flees with the agent in charge of his transfer, Izuka Hoyle, hunted by a sprawling criminal network and corrupt authorities. Two strangers with nothing in common, a shared instinct for survival, six episodes tailor-made for a high-speed chase.
Pompeii: Tom Hiddleston travels back in time
On Disney+, the only offering to escape fiction, this three-episode docu-fiction blends reconstructions and archaeological investigation to relive the last hours of the city, before Vesuvius buried it in 79 AD. Tom Hiddleston serves as a guide, and the series puts forward a disturbing thesis: many victims could have survived.
One constant runs through this harvest: television feeds on its own memory and that of cinema. One might lament this constant rehashing; but when recycling takes the form of Anya Taylor-Joy or Tahar Rahim, one is surprised to find oneself forgiving. Nostalgia, too, is a genre—and a thriving one.
