Welcome to the hottest month of the year everyone, so when you’re not enjoying some lounging time, please beat the heat by staying indoors. There’s a lot premiering, new and old, to wet your appetites. Top choices include Jessica Biel’s return as a series regular on television for the first time in eleven years, Matt LeBlanc’s last hurrah, spoofs galore, and the most anticipated return for an animated show in two decades (woo-ooo!). Below you’ll find our combined list of shows premiering in the month of August. Take some time to enjoy these shows before the onslaught of the fall television season.
-The Sinner (August 2-USA)
Just when I think television can’t surprise me, along comes a series like The Sinner. There hasn’t been an onscreen drama that defies the conventional mystery in this way since Gone Girl. Jessica Biel plays Cora Tannetti, a normal suburban mom who, without warning, stabs a stranger on the beach while enjoying some free time with her family. The kicker is that she has no idea why she did it, and seems to have no connection to her victim. In her first return to television since her early 7th Heaven days, Biel digs into the levels of confusion, normalcy, and chaos of the bloody day, everything that led up to it, and every devastating feeling that follows. Likewise, Bill Pullman is not your typical detective investigating a small town case. His biggest super sense is simply that he refuses to give up and explore every minute detail of the mystery, no matter how unimportant it seems on the surface.
-The Guest Book (August 3-TBS)
TBS is upping their comedy game with a new show from Greg Garcia, the creator of My Name is Earl. Anthology series are all the rage now, and it seems like everyone is wising up to answering the question “If these walls could talk, what would they say?”. At the Froggy Cottage, the walls don’t need to talk. The guests write down their deepest, darkest, most inappropriate stories of their time at the cottage for the owners and future tenants to see. It’s especially nice to see those who think they are normal be proven completely and utterly wrong.
-Comrade Detective (August 4-Amazon)
If The Americans and The Interview mixed together to make a spoof Communist baby series, this would be it. Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt star/dub the characters of a 1980s detective series which aired in Cold War Romania. From the trailer, it’s intended to be one of Tatum’s favorite television shows, as he has it shipped to himself on a video cassette. What kind of nostalgia does this show hold that brings Tatum to tears? You’ll have to watch and see.
-Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later (August 4-Netflix)
This is one of those series you have to binge-watch with a LOT of popcorn simply because it’s going to be a huge smile on your face, so much so that by the end you may have what I like to dub ‘chipmunk cheeks’ from excessive smiling. Go back in time to the year 1991, when we never forgot our fellow campers and camp counselors and they never forgot each other. Ten years later the entire gang returns (sans Bradley Cooper, whose role will be filled by Parks and Recreation alum Adam Scott due to scheduling conflicts) for a reunion, but also to save the camp. There are too many names to tick off for why you should be excited for this particular reunion, so just watch the trailer.
-Ray Donovan (August 6-Showtime)
Once again desperately in need of a fresh start, Ray takes a job as working for Sam Winslow, the head of a major Hollywood studio and played by the legendary, recently Emmy-nominated Susan Sarandon. For the first time it seems like things are better than they’ve ever been, as even on the home front there is peace. Of course that means things are about to blow up. Liev Schreiber and the rest of the cast is teasing a major event that blows up the Donovan family early in the season and profoundly changes Ray. Other major players added to Season 5 are Kim Raver and Lili Simmons, who may play into said major event and the aftermath.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYwVPi13qd4
-Chesapeake Shores (August 6-Hallmark)
Hallmark’s rosy series with just the right amount of appropriate family dysfunction returns in early August. The series initially began with Abby uprooting her big city life to return to the small town she grew up when her sister needs to be saved from bankruptcy. What Abby doesn’t know is that by the end of the season, most of her family will relocate back to Chesapeake, and the package might include her ex-husband. All of this comes upon her reunion with her first love Trace, who was on the verge of being arrested at the end of the last season. When Season 2 premieres some time will have passed and we’ll get to see how many of the O’Brien’s did in fact come home, how Trace and Abby are doing as a couple, and what new songs Jesse Metcalfe will be serenading to us.
-Difficult People (August 8-Hulu)
Julie and Billy are difficult to everyone but each other, and it’s delightful to watch. Do you know what else is delightful to watch? Watching them rope others into their hilarity, and seeing it rub off on those in their orbit. The most promising candidates include Julie’s Mom Marilyn (My Big Fat Greek Wedding‘s Andrea Martin) and Billy’s new love interest Todd (new cast member John Cho).With a slew of guest stars rolling in for Julie and Billy to throw their two cents in about, how can you not be binge-watching the first two seasons already?
-Atypical (August 11-Netflix)
Nobody’s normal. If you don’t already know that, it’s the mantra you should be singing once you see this show. Autism is being discussed more and more on television, but this is the first series that is going to tell the story from the perspective of the teenager with autism. Even better, it’s not going to focus on the disability itself, since a disability does not define a person. That point is going to come across right away, as teenager Sam just wants to date, and his peers have a better perspective on his feelings than some of the adults in his life. This isn’t the serious, weepy drama about the boy who has trouble fitting in. This is a story about a boy, with just a few less social filters, who is trying to navigate the normal awkwardness of being a teenager.
-DuckTales (August 12-Disney XD)
DUCKTALES, WOO-OOO! I’m not sure anything else needs to be said. Sure, I could go on about the enormity of David Tennant voicing Scrooge McDuck, or about joy we all had watching this show as kids, or about the giddiness of this sing-along. Honestly though, the material and the booming anticipation speaks for itself. WOO-OOO!
-Marlon (August 16-NBC)
The Wayans brothers will never stop working in Hollywood, and this latest show from Marlon Wayans shows why. Marlon is about a normal, dysfunctional, nuclear family, but the parents just happen to be divorced. Marlon and his ex-wife Ashley become better parents and a more stable family by not being together. Wayans draws from his own experience co-parenting with his ex-wife for the show, bringing a more mature, modern take on divorce. The show doesn’t shy away from the awkward moments with both the parents and the kids, giving equal amounts of time to those characters as they figure out what their new normal is.
-Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce (August 17-Bravo)
Abby and company have fresh new ideas when Season 4 premieres. Season 3 was about breaking free of the things that were holding them back, including their own denial. It’s going to be incredibly fun to see Abby and Barb go into business together on the heels of Abby’s new book, at least until their boss personalities clash. If you think things will get messy between the two friends, we can’t imagine they’ll get much simpler when you add in Denise Richards, who will recur as a big Hollywood star the women are courting for their website. The kicker? She’s also dating Abby’s ex Will. That’s not going to be awkward at all. But hey, nothing good comes easy. If anyone knows that, it’s Abby.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHXz0Dtubf4
-The Defenders (August 18-Netflix)
The most dysfunctional, opinionated (yes, that’s the adjective I’m going with) group of superheroes finally comes together against a common enemy. Jessica Jones, Danny Rand, Matt Murdock, and Luke Cage team up against Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver), who is going to use the foes and friends you already know against the begrudgingly unified unit. they’ll have to figure out that there’s a difference between being thrown together by circumstance, and choosing to work as a team.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_6J9BqgonU
-Halt and Catch Fire (August 19-AMC)
In its fourth and final season, Halt and Catch Fire doesn’t as much wrap up the characters we know, but rather takes stock of where they are and where they are going. It’s not clean, as business with this high of stakes rarely is. To help with that, the show will introduce new characters and new faces to characters you’ve already seen. Veep’s Anna Chlumsky will have a major role as Dr. Katie Herman, who comes onto the scene with more than what she reveals on the surface. We’ll also be introduced/reintroduced to the Clark kids, who may take after their parents in more ways than one. It’s no longer about the creation, but how the creation changes you.
-Episodes (August 20-Showtime)
Matt LeBlanc returns as the still more conceited version of Matt LeBlanc. The good news is that in Episodes‘ final season, Matt seems to be doing a little bit better than when we last saw him, at least financially. He’s now come to be known as the game show guy, while Beverly and Sean have to suffer through even more of the absurdities of Hollywood. Can the strange, masochistic threesome find true success before the series comes to its end?
-The Last Ship (August 20-TNT)
They thought they’d won the war, they thought they’d completed their mission, but they were wrong. When season four premieres, Captain Tom Chandler is called back from his peaceful life by a coming plague. The Red Flu was not defeated, it simply manifested into the Red Rust. The only means of sustaining life on the planet is being held for ransom by a madman, so it’s up to the crew of the USS Nathan James to save the world. This means that their reluctant leader can no longer bury his head in the sand, because he’s being called back to duty.
-The Tick (August 25-Amazon Prime)
The one superhero missing from screen is finally here! The Tick is a fun, charismatic, aloof superhero needed to not only save the world, but lift our spirits as well. No more rugged and brooding heroes, no more apathetic and crude heroes. We finally have a real life hero who is the epitome of everything both loved and hated about men in masks and tights saving the city. Plus, his antenna move independently from the rest of his body. That’s always fun, right?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiFF18KblJ0
-Disjointed (August 25-Netflix)
Are you missing your Weeds-fix years after the series ended? Fear not because Kathy Bates is here to save the day! While we’ll miss her when the latest season of American Horror Story premieres without her this fall, we’re excited to see her take up her next role, which fits her like a glove (or in this case, a comfortable kimono). Bates plays Ruth, the hippie owner of a marijuana dispensary who knows her business and her product very well. It’s a family business she takes pride in working side-by-side with her son. Bates is already comedic gold, so I can’t imagine not being thoroughly entertained once you add a little bit of the green stuff.
Enjoy August! One more month and the real chaos of the fall television season will be upon us.
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