Popwatch planner: Summer heats up with 'Lucy,' 'Manhattan,' and more

After a relatively chill couple of weeks, brace yourself for the return of some more action-pumped summer fare. Lucy, premiering this Friday, promises to inject theaters with some Scarlett Johansson-action prowess, while Manhattan, with a pilot airing on Sunday, will place a bomb right in the middle of family drama. It’s tense stuff, so maybe don’t jump into the action all at once. Take some time to cool down with Woody Allen, or maybe Richard Linklater.

Here’s this week’s pop culture schedule:

SUNDAY 7/20

The Real Housewives of New Jersey, 9 p.m., Bravo

It’s Christmas in New Jersey at the beginning of season six of this Garden State franchise. Also, we hear Milania is back—can she get her own spinoff yet?[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4TLvIWlqCY]

MONDAY 7/21

Hotel Hell, 9 p.m., Fox

Gordon Ramsay shouts at people—now not just in the restaurant business. And though you might already be over the whole Ramsay yelling genre, but we hear the premiere’s got its poignant moments.

TUESDAY 7/22

Boyhood in theaters

Richard Linklater’s multi-year project is starting to open wide after a very successful limited release. Read Chris Nashawaty’s review, then carve out a nice Tuesday night to meditate on your own childhood.

WEDNESDAY 7/23

Extant, 9 p.m., CBS

This week’s episode features a confrontation over Berry’s “distant” behavior, which is good, because this show needs a little more confrontation.

THURSDAY 7/24

Project Runway, 9 p.m., Lifetime

Everyone knows the season premiere is the best time to tune in, because it’s before all the strange designers have left and you can see the really, really weird stuff.

FRIDAY 7/25

Lucy in theaters

You’ll never believe what happens when Lucy starts to use 100 percent of her brain—well, at least if this is anything like Luc Besson’s previous work The Fifth Element. And we’re really hoping it is.

SATURDAY 7/19

Magic in the Moonlight in theaters

A wider release of Woody Allen’s film promises some charming, if not necessarily mind-blowing, supernatural happenings (also, Emma Stone and Colin Firth).

SUNDAY 7/27

Manhattan, 9 p.m., WGN America

Olivia Williams, Thomas Schlamme, and John Benjamin Hickey set up a home near a nuclear testing site in WGN’s new period drama. By all accounts, the show promises to be explosive—even nuclear. And that’s not even half the bad puns we can come up with to describe it.