Here's what's worth streaming in August 2024: -2-

After briefly sharing some of its most popular shows with Max last year, AMC is doing a similar thing with Netflix, with seasons of 13 shows coming Aug. 19. Those include "Dark Winds" Season 1-2, "Gangs of London" Seasons 1-2, "Fear the Walking Dead" Seasons 1-8, "Interview With the Vampire" Season 1 and "Monsieur Spade" Season 1. It should give much-needed exposure to AMC, with "Interview With the Vampire," "Dark Winds" and "Monsieur Spade" the real standouts.

Netflix (NFLX) also has the final season of "The Umbrella Academy" (Aug. 8); the teen drama "A Good Girl's Guide to Murder" (Aug. 1); Season 1 of the hit CBS drama "Fire Country" (Aug. 1); the standup comedy special "Joe Rogan: Burn the Boats" (Aug. 3); the state-fair competition series "Blue Ribbon Baking Championship" (Aug. 9); and "Untold: The Murder of Air McNair" (Aug 20), a documentary about NFL star Steve McNair's 2009 murder.

Update: Part 3 of "That '90s Show" has been moved up from its scheduled October release, and will drop all eight episodes on Aug. 22.

On the movie side, there's "Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color" (Aug. 1), a black-and-white version of the stunning, Oscar-winning 2023 film; Zack Snyder's director's cuts of "Rebel Moon Parts 1 & 2" (Aug. 2), if you really hate yourself; "The Union" (Aug. 16), a generic action movie starring Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry about a construction worker who becomes a spy; and "The Deliverance" (Aug. 30), a supernatural horror thriller from director Lee Daniels.

Play, pause or stop? Pause and think it over. There's still a ton there, but the quality is off a notch. This may be a rare month where you can save a few bucks and skip Netflix without missing much.

Hulu ($7.99 a month with ads, or $17.99 with no ads)

The affable comedy/mystery "Only Murders in the Building" (Aug. 27) returns for its fourth season, with the action shifting from New York to Los Angeles as the trio of podcasting sleuths (Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selina Gomez) are getting a movie made about them while also investigating the murder of a stunt double. The who's-who list of guest stars this season includes Meryl Streep, Jane Lynch, Molly Shannon, Eva Longoria, Eugene Levy, Zack Galifianakis, Richard Kind, Kumail Nanjiani and Melissa McCarthy, which could prove to be a distraction if not handled properly. While the past two seasons haven't been able to quite reach the heights of its brilliant first season, this is still a fun series that goes down smoothly.

Hulu also has Season 5 of the animated alien comedy "Solar Opposites" (Aug. 12), Season 2 of the legal drama "Reasonable Doubt" (Aug. 22), and movies like "Casino," "Eddie Murphy: Raw," "Punch-Drunk Love" and "Raising Arizona."

Binge mode: For the recent 10th anniversary of its debut, what better time to revisit FX's toxic-relationship comedy "You're the Worst"? Full of deeply flawed characters, it's a roller-coaster ride of vicious hilarity, uncomfortable bitterness, and yet somehow, also hope and empathy. The AV Club recently listed its 10 best episodes, which offers a good tasting menu for newcomers.

Play, pause or stop? Pause. "Only Murders" is great for comfort-bingeing, but there's not a lot else coming this month.

Paramount+ ($5.99 a month with ads, $11.99 a month with Showtime and no ads)

RuPaul's empire grows with "RuPaul's Drag Race Global All Stars" (Aug. 16), featuring 12 fan-favorite queens from around the world; David Boreanaz is back for a final season of "SEAL Team" (Aug. 11); and everyone's favorite sewer dwellers are back in "Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (Aug. 9), an animated spinoff of the 2023 movie.

On the movie side, there's a lineup that includes "Almost Famous," "City of God" - a good one to watch again ahead of Max's sequel series - "Election" and "The Big Short."

Paramount's (PARA) live sports lineup is also gearing up, with an NFL preseason game between the Cardinals and Broncos (Aug. 25); English Football League games starting Aug. 9 (that's below the Premier League, and yes, that means you'll see Wrexham matches), and Italian Serie A soccer starting Aug. 17; and a full slate of PGA golf, WNBA and NWSL games.

And there are the final episodes of the wonderfully weird supernatural drama "Evil" (finale Aug. 22), which is unfortunately ending its run at the peak of its popularity, as well as the season finale of "Mayor of Kingstown" (Aug. 4).

Play, pause or stop? Stop. "Evil" is fantastic and well worth bingeing. But perhaps wait a month or so for Paramount's sports lineup to really get underway.

Amazon's Prime Video ($14.99 a month with ads, $8.99 without Prime membership, both +$2.99 to avoid ads)

Amazon (AMZN) is finally redesigning the look of Prime Video, with the intention of making it much easier to find shows and movies, and will use generative AI for more personalized search results. That should help viewers navigate what has always been a mess. But the bad news: The homepage will start autoplaying stuff in the background as you browse, which you may want to manually turn off via your settings.

Meanwhile, the Middle-earth epic "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power" (Aug. 29) returns for its second season, with Sauron rebuilding his strength and seeking dominion over humans, elves, dwarves and everything else. The first season had impressive moments, but was agonizingly slow-paced. And with sprawling settings, a dense plot and a multitude of characters who aren't exactly household names, viewers may be hard-pressed to remember what was going on after a two-year layoff. Amazon reportedly has a five-season plan for "The Rings of Power," and Season 2 will supposedly be as ridiculously expensive as Season 1 - which came in around $465 million. But if the show doesn't really take off now, how in the world can Amazon justify three more seasons?

Prime Video's also got a new animated series, "Batman: Caped Crusader" (Aug. 1), a dark and "creepy" throwback take from Bruce Timm ("Batman: The Animated Series"); Season 3 of the courtroom show "Judy Justice" (Aug. 5); and director Paul Feig's latest action-comedy movie "Jackpot!" (Aug. 15), starring Awkwafina and John Cena, about a lottery winner who has to avoid being murdered to cash in her claim.

On the sports side, there's NFL preseason football with the Colts taking on the Bengals (Aug. 22), and a pair of WNBA games (Aug. 15 and 22) and NWSL matches (Aug. 23 and 30).

Play, pause or stop? Stop. "The Rings of Power" has a big hole to dig its way out of, and there's no real reason to believe it can.

Disney+ ($7.99 a month with ads, $13.99 with no ads)

It's a super slow month for Disney+, topped by "Are You Sure?!" (Aug. 8), a travel reality show featuring K-Pop stars Jimin and Jung Kook of BTS as they go on adventures before starting their military service, and Season 2 of the animated kids show "Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures" (Aug. 14).

Play, pause or stop? Stop, if your kids will let you. Sure, there's Disney's (DIS) extensive library to dig into, but there should be more new programming than this.

Need more? Catch up on previous months' picks at What's Worth Streaming.

-Mike Murphy

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08-01-24 1925ET

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