‘Big Bang’s Sci-Fi ‘Stuart’ Spinoff, Trekking to ‘Strange New Worlds,’ Return to ‘Ransom Canyon,’ ‘Criminal Mind’s Finale

Matt Roush
9 Comments

The Big Bang Theory spins off again with the sci-fi comedy Stuart Fails to Save the Universe, starring Kevin Sussman as the nerdy comic-book owner Stuart Bloom in a multiverse Armageddon. For more traditional science fiction, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds beams in for a fourth season. Netflix‘s sudsy Ransom Canyon returns for a second year. Criminal Minds: Evolution wraps its season with a showdown between reformed serial killer Elias Voit and his super-fan nemesis.

'Stuart Fails to Save the Universe' Season 1 poster, HBO Max, premieres July 23, 2026.
HBO Max

Stuart Fails To Save The Universe

Series Premiere

The Big Bang Theory is the gift that keeps on giving. The hit sitcom’s latest spinoff isn’t a prequel like Young Sheldon and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage but a leap into a dystopian sci-fi future, a “multiverse Armageddon” caused by hapless comic-book store owner Stuart Bloom (nerd supreme Kevin Sussman) when he breaks a quantum device built by Big Bang’s Sheldon and Leonard that creates dimensional rifts and other cosmic mayhem. Because he broke it, Stuart now has to fix the universe, and in this inventively meta and often hilarious sci-fi comedy, he jumps from one bizarro world to another with girlfriend Denise (Lauren Lapkus), droll geologist Bert (Brian Posehn), and pain-in-the-neck Barry Kripke (John Ross Bowie) along for the wild ride. That next big bang you hear could be the boom of sustained laughter. (See the full review.)

Anson Mount as Captain Pike in Season 4, Episode 1, of 'Star Trek: Strange New Worlds,' Paramount+, premieres July 23, 2026.
Jan Thijs/Paramount+

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

Season Premiere

For fans of more traditional sci-fi action, you can’t do better than this classic Trek spinoff, set aboard the Enterprise in the years before Kirk (occasionally portrayed by Paul Wesley) took the helm. As the fourth season opens, Capt. Pike (Anson Mount) and the crew are sucked into an interstellar storm field that takes them millions of miles, even years, away from Federation space. The ensuing adventure threads elements of Jurassic Park into a cosmic wartime conflict that sheds new light on humanity’s origins. In other words, another day on the job. No wonder Pike is resisting taking Admiral April (Adrian Holmes) up on a possible promotion. Who’d want to leave this bridge?

Josh Duhamel as Staten and Minka Kelly as Quinn in Episode 203 of Ransom Canyon Season 2.
Jeff Neumann/Netflix

Ransom Canyon

Season Premiere

From space opera to soap opera: The sudsy, sexy, neo-Western drama returns for a second season, setting up a classic love triangle when Quinn (Friday Night Lights‘ Minka Kelly) returns from her concert-pianist gig in New York City to her cozy Texas hometown with a suave new boyfriend, Oliver (Ben Robson), which makes things complicated regarding her reunion with smitten widowed rancher Staten Kirkland (Josh Duhamel), who officially has the best fake name on TV among other notable assets. Their respective families get more complicated with the arrival of Patricia Clarkson (Sharp Objects) as Quinn’s mother, Claire, and Steve Howey as Staten’s half-brother, Levi.

Zach Gilford as Elias Voit — 'Criminal Minds: Evolution' Season 19 Finale
Michael Yarish/Paramount+

Criminal Minds: Evolution

Season Finale

Reformed serial killer Elias “Sicarius” Voit (Zach Gilford) has broken out of prison, and peeved FBI Director Ray Madison (Clark Gregg) authorizes a “shoot to kill” order against the wishes of his BAU team. They know Voit’s only target is his malicious super “Fan” aka demented criminology prof James Crowley (Justin Kirk), who’s been threatening Voit’s family. In the Season 19 (fourth in the Evolution spinoff era) finale, the BAU tracks both Voit and Crowley to try to avert a lethal showdown, with innocent victims trapped in the “Fan’s” narcissistic web.

Eve Myles and David Morrissey in 'Gone' Season 1, BritBox, premieres July 23, 2026.
James Pardon/Courtesy of BritBox

Gone

Series Premiere

The casting alone compels one to check out this grim six-part British crime drama, with David Morrissey (The Walking Dead) and Eve Myles (Torchwood, Keeping Faith) on opposite sides of a missing-person investigation that soon takes a deadly twist. Myles is DS Annie Cassidy, assigned to be the family liaison officer to rigidly stoic private-school headmaster Michael Polly (Morrissey) and adult daughter Alana (Emma Appleton) when his wife vanishes. Michael seems more agitated about the mud the police are tracking onto his carpet than the fate of his wife, and Annie’s empathy soon turns into suspicion. The series launches with three episodes.

INSIDE THURSDAY TV:

ON THE STREAM:

  • Trigger Point (streaming on BritBox): Bomb disposal ace Lana Washington (Vicky McClure) never stops rushing toward danger, and in the thriller’s Season 3 finale, she once again comes face to face with the so-called “construction killer” as he targets his final and most personal victim.
  • The Idaho Murders: A College Town Nightmare (streaming on Sundance Now and AMC+): A new true-crime documentary revisits the investigation into the 2022 murders of four University of Idaho students and the ensuing manhunt.
Criminal Minds: EvolutionRansom CanyonStar Trek: Strange New WorldsStuart Fails To Save The Universe



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  1. J

    Jena

    I can see that the Stuart Fails to Save the World show might be fun (all those characters are good), but it's on a network I have no interest in supporting.

    1. A

      Arben70

      I saw this weekend’s Patience last night. Was it the introduction of more background intrigue and the foster-dad figure holding back information that bugged you, or something in the case? I enjoyed the eerie colors in the secret part of the greenhouse.

      1. J

        Jena

        Actually, I'm still a bit peeved by the previous episode of Patience, especially the part when she--out of the blue, as far as I could tell-- handed Elliot a 'contract' or bunch of rules, or whatever that was, and said, "here's mine, where's yours?" Again, as far as I could tell, such a thing had never been discussed before between them, and suddenly she's offended when he acts surprised and says perfectly normal things that surprised people say. Yes, of course, she may not be totally clued in to every type of social interaction or expectation, but surely she shouldn't be surprised that suddenly handing someone a 10-page document about their relationship might throw that person for a loop. (Just as it would throw her for a loop, if the roles had been reversed.) And in this most recent episode, Patience said she saw Elliot "with someone else," but the only thing I saw was him talking to another CSI person--a work-related consult in a work-related setting. Unless I missed something??

        Also, I'm going to be very nit-picky here, but I just want to rip that backpack (rucksack) off Patience's shoulders, and put her into some pants that actually cover her ankles. Also, does she even still work in the archives/file room? I know we see her there from time to time, but she's always working on the "case of the week," and not doing whatever it is that she used to do (delivering files to other officers, upon request, etc.).

        For some reason this site is cutting off my comment so I'll end now.

        1. J

          Jena

          I was going to add that it seems at some times Patience interacts just fine with people outside her 'circle,' doesn't seem freaked out, etc., but at other times suddenly she gets upset. Sometimes I feel like she should be more particular when looking for advice on how to deal with situations.

          (I don't know why the site suddenly cut off my comment earlier, and wouldn't let me type anything new. Hopefully just a temporary glitch.)

          1. A

            Arben70

            You’re not wrong about her interactions, although having family and friends on the spectrum I can attest that the variation isn’t wrong per se; the show just needs to call it out since there’s so little story time on screen.

        2. A

          Arben70

          Yeah, I think I mentioned the contract last week, although she did give the guy overnight to come up with one — I was just as frustrated with him, even though of course he’d be taken aback, for not calmly saying that she knows they approach things differently and he’s not opposed to going over rules with her but needs more time to gather his thoughts. Maybe I should correct that to frustrated with the show itself. And I do agree how the reduction in time spent in the archives is noticeable. I believe the co-worker is the young woman visiting her guardian / parents’ old friend / whatever in this episode with either sincere news to share or some ulterior motive.

          1. J

            Jena

            Oh, did Patience mention the contract to Elliot before she gave it to him? If so, I didn't catch that. And yes, I think both Patience and Elliot have to remember that they may each need to take a second to think before they react to the other person. I'm sure he wouldn't have been opposed to discussing the contract with her, but he was taken by surprise and reacted without thinking. And she (if she did not mention such a thing to him beforehand) should have realized that, since he's NT, he might not think or perceive the situation the same way that she does.

            And I can't believe I forgot to mention the Mystery Woman!! She apparently didn't fool Patience's guardian (?) when she said she was a friend of Patience & Elliot's, as he said, "why are you lying to me?" It certainly did look like she was a nefarious character, with an ulterior motive. It's just hard to imagine what it could be.

            1. A

              Arben70

              No, I recall that Patience read something about drawing up rules or a contract and sprang it on Elliot, telling him to look it over and give her his counteroffer (not the actual phrase used, I don’t think, but...) the next day, which is obviously this surprising, abrupt development; I just wish the show had him be less reactionary in the moment and more calmly explain how he didn’t see this coming and might need more than overnight to wrap his head around it, because even though they have particularly good reason to be talking past one another in a way given the neurotypicality vs. neurodivergence it feels like lesser sitcom-plot misunderstanding.

  2. A

    Arben70

    I’m no longer surprised when a series I don’t recall hearing about before returns for a new season, even when it’s not on a super-niche platform, but everything about Ransom Canyon sounds hilariously like a TV show made up kind-of tongue-in-cheek within the world of another TV show.