Whether you’re looking for a new streaming obsession or waiting patiently for a fave series to return, August promises some big wins for audiences. We’re talking a couple of criminal docuseries, two animated adaptations of your fave cinematic heroes, and new seasons of Industry and Only Murders in the Building.
Scroll to add these hotly anticipated titles to your watchlist, and get notified as soon as they’re ready to stream. You wouldn’t wanna miss a minute of criminal simians, 80s cyborgs, or Emily in Paris‘ OTT outfits.
Bad Monkey
A severed arm is found in Southern Florida. A cop-turned-restaurant-inspector (Vince Vaughn) takes up the case. A monkey is…somehow involved. Created by the TV juggernaut who brought us shows such as Scrubs and Ted Lasso, this raucous crime comedy series promises mystery-solvin’ thrills delivered with an irreverent, Hawaiian shirt-wearing attitude. The setting—of the swampy “Floating-Human-Body-Parts Capital of America”—offers plenty of eccentricity, and Vaughn is an inspired pick to play the comic cop set to find a solution.
Batman: Caped Crusader
The best Batman stories centre the grouchy emo hero’s detective work, so this brand new animated series is onto something clever by turning back the clock to show a more retro Gotham. Hamish Linklater voices Bruce Wayne/Batman, his film noir roots more strongly on display as he faces off against the usual rogues gallery of costumed weirdos: Two-Face, Harley Quinn, Catwoman (Christina Ricci!) and more. A nice reset without the big stakes that burden each new Batman movie reboot—the latest film’s director Matt Reeves is a producer on this show.
Cowboy Cartel
A hunch can lead one into the most unexpected—and dangerous—of places. In this energetic docuseries, FBI rookie Scott Lawson makes a dark discovery underlying US horse racing, and connections to deadly Mexican cartels. The money laundering operation uncovered by one man will take the entire bureau’s might, and presumably some good luck, to wrap up without anyone getting got by mysterious hitmen. It’s all pretty clearly inspired by the success of fictional series with similar south-west, criminal underbelly grit. But it’s the real details of Lawson’s account that’ll be worth tuning in for.
Emily in Paris: Season 4
You already know whether you’re gonna watch another whole season of this frothy, wish-fulfilment rom-com series, right? Clarisse Loughrey’s column on the last season is well worth a read if you’re in two minds, ending on the plea to “let people have their silly, French fancies”. This next chapter offers more of the same—fashion, flirtation, cultural faux pas—and “beacoup drama”, as Lily Collins’ blessed fish-out-of-water makes some bold moves to get everything she wants from the city—and the man—of her dreams.
Industry: Season 3
Long overshadowed by Succession, this other HBO series about cutthroat weirdos battling it out in sleek office spaces now has more space to shine. It’s set in the aftermath of the 2008 GFC, following the unscrupulous upstarts of fictional international finance corp Pierpoint & Co as they scheme and backstab their way to the top. This is a loud, rude show, with just as many four letter words and bad people as the aforementioned hit—but with perhaps a touch more empathy, even as this third season surely sees our moneyed protagonists stepping on each other’s faces to grab at the throne.
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: Season 2
Amazon’s big, eye-wateringly budgeted gamble on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien marches on into its sophomore season, with Sauron now a main player and Middle Earth on the brink of calamity. Everyone in the show’s expansive, expensive setting is threatened by his promise to bind the world in darkness; the gentle Harfoots, industrious and loveable dwarves, and even the brave elf Galadriel (Morfydd Clark), who has a devastating personal connection to the mysterious baddie. If you felt season one took too long to reach that awesome siege in its final episodes, prepare for a bigger and badder follow-up chapter.
Only Murders in the Building: Season 4
“Now a major murder picture”, the latest season of this sweet and starry comedy series heads to Hollywood, where our trio of unlikely podcasting buddies are seeing their story get adapted into a feature film. Meryl Streep, hilariously cast as a bad actress in season three, is back, plus new famous faces Zach Galafianakis, Molly Shannon, Eugene Levy and Eva Longoria—but nothing can beat the chemistry of the show’s triple act, Martin, Short, and Gomez. Bizarrely, Only Murders has somehow wound up inhabiting a niche of its own when it comes to contemporary comedy TV; grown-up but not too stuffy, broad but specific in its characterisations.
TERMINATOR ZERO
The last few attempts to reboot James Cameron’s iconic 1980s action franchise have been, um, glitchy at best. At worst, they put us at risk of totally forgetting what made those two, GOAT-ed original films so exceptional. Perhaps shifting the Skynet saga from live action into the realm of anime could inspire some fresh ideas, even if the new show’s plot follows a familiar tried-and-true arc. We’ve seen what happens when a futuristic dystopian soldier heads into the past to stop an AI apocalypse, a few times now, but I bet you’ve never seen it in glorious hand-drawn form.
The Umbrella Academy: Season 4
The bonkers Netflix superhero show with an unimpeachable cast of weirdos returns, giving the dysfunctional Hargreeves kids one last batch of episodes to wrap things up. You don’t have much time to whizz back and check out the first three seasons—nor to check in on the nutty Gerard Way comic books that inspired the show. But now that we know the very last episode is titled “The Beginning of the End”, it looks like longtime fans can expect a big, satisfying wrap-up for Viktor, Luther, Klaus and the rest.
Each of the show’s previous instalments has maintained a pretty solid rating on Rotten Tomatoes, even as events sprawled across time (that trip back to Dallas, 1963?) and the wackiest of superpowers. Let’s hope Netflix can stick the landing.
Worst Ex Ever
A follow-up to Netflix’s docuseries Worst Roommate Ever, which spilled the dirt on terrible roomies on a spectrum from the irritating to the outright homicidal. This time, the stakes are arguably far higher, with heartbroken victims sharing their testimonies of monstrous relationship breakdowns—through animated interludes, bodycam footage, and talking head interviews. We do not encourage you to get back in touch with that ex of yours who really wasn’t so bad, but these four, hour-long episodes will sure paint the bastard in a slightly more flattering light.
