As winter enters its final month, the appeal of a night spent in front of the TV is impossible to resist. From August’s standout premieres to recent gems you may have missed and old favourites worth returning to, these are the films and series deserving of a place on your watchlist.
Dark Matter
When & Where to Watch: Season one is available now on Apple TV; season two premieres on 28th August
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Connelly, Alice Braga, Jimmi Simpson, Dayo Okeniyi, Oakes Fegley and Amanda Brugel
Joel Edgerton stars as Jason Dessen, a physicist who is abducted and wakes in an alternate life where he pursued the brilliant career he once gave up for his family. Meanwhile, another Jason has taken his place at home with his wife, sending him through a dizzying series of parallel worlds to find the one that belongs to him before his double makes it impossible to return.
Ted Lasso Season Four
When & Where to Watch: Premieres 5th August on Apple TV
Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt, Jeremy Swift and Tanya Reynolds
Jason Sudeikis returns to Richmond for a fourth season, where Ted swaps the men’s team for a second-division women’s side with plenty to prove. Rebecca, Keeley, Roy and Beard are back too, as the club’s newest underdogs test whether Ted’s relentless optimism can work its magic all over again.
The Whisper Man
When & Where to Watch: Premieres 28th August on Netflix
Starring: Robert De Niro, Michelle Monaghan, Adam Scott, Hamish Linklater, Owen Teague and Acston Luca Porto
When his eight-year-old son is abducted, widowed crime writer Tom Kennedy turns to his estranged father (Robert De Niro), the retired detective who caught the ‘Whisper Man’ decades earlier. The killer is still behind bars, but the new disappearance carries his signature, and the playground rhyme that once terrified a town is being whispered once again.
Marc by Sophia
When & Where to Watch: Premieres 15th August on Neon
Starring: Marc Jacobs, Sofia Coppola and Spike Jonze
Sofia Coppola skips the standard cradle-to-catwalk biography and follows longtime friend Marc Jacobs as he brings his Spring 2024 collection to life. Between fittings, references and runway preparations, archival footage revisits the grunge collection that got him fired from Perry Ellis, his years reshaping Louis Vuitton and the ideas behind his unmistakable work. With more than 30 years of friendship behind the camera, it offers rare access to Jacobs in full creative flight.
Cape Fear
When & Where to Watch: Premieres 31st July on Apple TV
Featuring: Javier Bardem, Amy Adams, Patrick Wilson, CCH Pounder, Lily Collias, Joe Anders and Jamie Hector
Max Cady is out of prison, and the married lawyers who put him there are about to learn how patiently he holds a grudge. Anna and Tom Bowden have a family and a life worth protecting; Cady has nothing but time. His return begins with intimidation, then grows into a campaign designed to turn their lives upside down.
The Shards
When & Where to Watch: Premieres 6th August on Disney+
Starring: Igby Rigney, Homer Gere, Kaia Gerber, Hayes Warner, Graham Campbell, Evan Rachel Wood, Wes Bentley and Jordan Roth
Set against the sun-soaked privilege of an elite Los Angeles prep school in 1981, The Shards centres on a student whose final year is unsettled by the arrival of a magnetic newcomer. Meanwhile, a serial killer known as the ‘Trawler’ is stalking teenagers across the city, and he becomes convinced the two are connected. Ryan Murphy’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’s cult novel is already tipped to be the season’s most addictive new release.
The Tourist
When & Where to Watch: TVNZ+
Starring: Jamie Dornan, Danielle Macdonald, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Damon Herriman, Olwen Fouéré and Conor MacNeill
Run off an empty outback road by a tanker truck, Elliot (Jamie Dornan) wakes in hospital with no memory and the unshakable sense that someone wants him dead. Local constable Helen Chambers helps him piece together the clues, which lead them into a past he may have been better off forgetting.
My Brilliant Career
When & Where to Watch: Premieres 13th August on Netflix
Starring: Philippa Northeast, Christopher Chung, Anna Chancellor, Genevieve O’Reilly, Kate Mulvany and Jake Dunn
Philippa Northeast leads this fresh adaptation of Miles Franklin’s classic novel as Sybylla Melvyn, a headstrong young woman determined to trade life on her family’s drought-stricken farm for a career as a writer. Sent to stay at her wealthy grandmother’s estate, she meets charming neighbour Harry Beecham – an encounter that calls into question the very future she has mapped out for herself.
The Innocent
When & Where to Watch: Netflix
Starring: Mario Casas, Aura Garrido, Alexandra Jiménez, José Coronado, Juana Acosta and Ana Wagener
Nine years after a bar fight ends in an accidental killing, Mateo has served his time and managed to rebuild his life. His wife is pregnant, their new house is almost theirs, and things are on the up until a video arrives that calls into question whether he can trust the woman he shares a life with. As Mateo goes looking for an explanation, his life is once again turned upside down in unimaginable ways.
Bodkin
When & Where to Watch: Netflix
Starring: Will Forte, Siobhán Cullen, Robyn Cara, David Wilmot and Chris Walley
Three podcasters descend on a small Irish coastal town chasing a tidy true-crime story and find something far messier. Part comedy, part mystery, this now-cult Netflix series has real fun skewering the genre it belongs to.
The Last House
When & Where to Watch: Premieres August 7th on Netflix
Starring: Greta Lee, Wagner Moura, Riley Chung, Noah Alexander Sosnowski, Emma Ho and Gabriel Barbosa
Claustrophobia gets a suburban spin in this sci-fi thriller, starring Greta Lee and Wagner Moura as parents who wake to find their home completely sealed. With two children, dwindling supplies and no clue what is keeping them there, the family is forced to settle in for what becomes a much longer ordeal than anyone anticipated.
Safe
When & Where to Watch: Netflix and TVNZ+
Starring: Michael C. Hall, Amanda Abbington, Marc Warren, Hannah Arterton, Audrey Fleurot and Amy James-Kelly
Michael C. Hall finds himself on the other side of the investigation in this Harlan Coben thriller, playing widowed surgeon Tom Delaney, whose teenage daughter vanishes after a party. Her boyfriend is missing too, and Tom’s search through their gated community turns up plenty of suspiciously polished alibis. When a body is found, the case begins reaching much further back than one missing night.
Mare of Easttown
When & Where to Watch: Neon
Starring: Kate Winslet, Julianne Nicholson, Jean Smart, Evan Peters, Guy Pearce and Cailee Spaeny
In Mare of Easttown, the murder of teenage mother Erin McMenamin lands on the desk of detective Mare Sheehan (Kate Winslet), who is already carrying the town’s anger over another girl missing for a year. Part whodunit and part small-town family drama, the case moves through neighbours, relatives and old friends until it becomes impossible to separate the investigation from Mare’s own complicated life.
