CBS All Access
Star Trek: Lower Decks
The animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks follows the support crew on one of Starfleet’s least important ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos, in 2380. Ensigns Mariner, Boimler (Jack Quaid), Rutherford and Tendi have to keep up with their duties and their social lives, often while the ship is being rocked by a multitude of sci-fi anomalies.
Starring: Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Eugene Cordero, Noël Wells
Quick Thoughts: It’s quite cool that there are two Star Trek shows on now led by Black women.
Premieres August 6th
Amazon
World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji
From the creator of Survivor, 66 teams descend upon Fiji to compete in the most epic global adventure race ever attempted. Bear Grylls hosts this 11-day expedition that pushes competitors to their physical and emotional limits. For the veteran teams the goal is to win – but for most, the dream is to finish and prove to themselves and the world, that they can prevail in the World’s Toughest Race.
Starring: Bear Grylls
Premieres August 14th
Apple TV+
Ted Lasso
An American football coach moves to England when he’s hired to manage a soccer team – despite having no experience. With cynical players and a doubtful town, will he get them to see the Ted Lasso Way?
Starring: Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, Jeremy Swift, Phil Dunster, Brett Goldstein, Brendan Hunt, Nick Mohammed
HBO Max
Ravi Patel’s Pursuit of Happiness
The series follows Ravi Patel as he travels the world seeking answers surrounding life’s universal questions. At each stop throughout this comedically heartfelt journey, Patel is joined by a friend or family member, with whom he shares a big conflict or question about life. He travels to Mexico with his parents to discuss retirement and aging; Japan with his wife to explore parenting and gender roles; Korea with his entrepreneur friend to confront their issues with work/life balance; Denmark with his Muslim friend to explore an immigration crisis not unlike ours here in America. Driven by an obsession to constantly learn and grow, the series offers an unfiltered look at Ravi’s personal struggles with each topic and the earnest comparison of social norms domestic and abroad.
Starring: Ravi Patel
Premieres August 27th
Peacock
Hitmen
Best friends Jamie and Fran are trying to make their way in the world with only each other to rely on. They also just happen to kill people for a living. Fueled by their antics and frivolous bickering, each job inevitably gets derailed, leading them into bizarre misadventures, full of oddball characters and unexpected dilemmas.
Starring: Mel Giedroyc, Sue Perkins, Asim Chaundry, Sian Clifford, Jason Watkins
Quick Thoughts: Regardless of the overall quality, whichever Sky One executive that went “Mel and Sue should star in a show where they do murder” feels like my kind of people
Premieres August 6th
Five Bedrooms
Five singles meet at, of all places, the singles’ table at a wedding. After several bottles of champagne, they decide to pitch in and buy a house together. Five singles buy a house together – what could go right? It’s a grand social experiment with one glaring problem: they’ll have to actually live with each other. All while journeying together through disasters, life-turning crises, and moments of love, joy and heartbreak.
Starring: Kat Stewart, Stephen Peacocke, Doris Younane, Katie Robertson, Roy Joseph, Kate Jenkinson, Hugh Sheridan
Premieres August 13th
Quibi
The Fugitive
Mike Ferro is an innocent man on the run, desperate to clear his name. Clay Bryce is the determined cop trying to track him down. Let the chase begin.
Premieres August 3rd
Sex Next Door
Sex workers Holiday, Endza, Cayenne, and Jessie give clients intimate experiences ranging from the pleasurable to the painful. In the process, they give a deep dive into their personal lives.
Premieres August 3rd
About Face
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley gets up close and personal with icons of the beauty world.
Starring: Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
Premieres August 10th
Mapleworth Murders
From the creative minds behind SNL and Late Night with Seth Meyers comes Mapleworth Murders, a hilarious whodunnit written by and starring Paula Pell and John Lutz, and featuring a “who’s who” of guest suspects and victims. It all leads to a bigger question: why the hell are there so many murderers in one town?
Starring: Paula Pell, John Lutz, Haley Magnus, J.B. Smoove, Andy Samberg, Annie Mumolo, Ben Warheit, Chris Parnell, D’Arcy Carden, Drew Tarver, Fred Armisen, Ike Barinholtz, Jack McBrayer, James Anderson, Jimmy Carlson, Mary Holland, Maya Rudolph, Nicole Bye, Pam Murphy, Patton Oswalt, Terry Crews, Tim Meadows, Tina Fey, Wanda Sykes
Quick Thoughts: Awww. I’d like to watch a Paula Pell Miss Marple/Murder She Wrote knockoff featuring all the comedy people. This may have been the show that prompted my “where do Quibi shows go when it dies?” question. Also is that a Groma Hummingbird typewriter she’s using? Pretty.
Premieres August 10th
Nice One!
A game show of jovial joking. Ron Funches hosts comedians as they compete to compliment some pretty bad subjects. If they don’t have something nice to say, they can GTFO.
Starring: Ron Funches, Rhea Butcher, Fortune Feimster, Pete Lee, Taylor Tomlinson, Guy Branum, Solomon Georgio, Brent Morin, Moshe Kasher, Ahmed Bharoocha, Megan Gailey, Matt Rogers, Zack Fox, Finesse Mitchell, Aida Rodriguez, Pete Holmes, Riki Lindhome, Chris Hardwick, Jen Kirkman, Dusty Slay, Nore Davis, Matteo Lane
Quick Thoughts: *sigh* Did we not all agree to banish Chris Hardwick to that one giant plinko show?
Premieres August 24th
This Joka
Will Smith invites a diverse lineup of comics to explore the nature of comedy and its unique ability to bring people together. Watch stand-up sets, intimate interviews with Smith and the comics, and docu-style moments backstage and around Las Vegas.
Starring: Will Smith, Baron Vaughn, Megan Gailey, Punkie Johnson, Sean Patton, Rosebud Baker, Shane Torres, Clayton English, Christi Chiello, Vanessa Gonzalez, Martin Urbano, Sam Tallent, David Gborie, Jackie Fabulous, Chris Estraded, Rell Battle, Daphnique Springs, George Wallace, Demi Adejuyigbe, Shawn Wasabi
Premieres August 31st
Wireless
A 21 year old finds himself stranded off a snow covered Colorado road on New Years Eve armed with his quickly dying phone.
Starring: Tye Sheridan
Premieres August 31st
Netflix
Connected
In Netflix’s new documentary series Connected science reporter and host Latif Nasser hopscotches around the planet to tease out the subtle and surprising ways that we are all inextricably linked to one another and our world. He discovers how everything from the air we breathe, the selfies we post, and even the poop we poop can be traced back to catastrophic shipwrecks, fraudulent elections, and even distant galaxies. From the microscopic to the telescopic to the kaleidoscopic, this show will make you see the world around you in a whole new way.
Premieres August 2nd
Immigration Nation
In the groundbreaking six-part documentary series Immigration Nation, acclaimed filmmaking team Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau offer an unprecedented look at the processes, pitfalls and pain of immigration in America. Shot over the course of three years, Schwarz and Clusiau capture the daily workings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, activists, lawmakers, attorneys and a wide swath of undocumented immigrants, from desperate recent arrivals to longtime residents to deported U.S. military combat veterans. With an unrelenting flow of migrant workers continuing across the U.S. border, the pressure on ICE to enforce the administration’s zero-tolerance policies puts immigrants in the crosshairs. But how do we fix a system that seems beyond repair? How do we apply common sense to something that’s evolved from one of humanitarian concern to an us-versus-them political flashpoint? Has the story of America – the one that inspired our own immigrant relatives to risk death for a better life – been rewritten so broadly that the “land of the free” is a luxury afforded now only to a few?
Premieres August 3rd
World’s Most Wanted
Heinous criminals have avoided capture despite massive rewards and global investigations. This docuseries profiles five of the world’s most wanted.
Premieres August 6th
Tiny Creatures
Tiny Creatures magnifies some of the world’s smallest wildlife, finding that bigger isn’t always better. In every episode, immerse yourself in a different ecosystem and see the drama that unfolds right at our very feet. The docu-series is narrated by Mike Colter and directed by Emmy-winning cinematographer Jonathan Jones (Planet Earth II).
Starring: Mike Colter, Various Smol Creatures
Premieres August 7th
Teenage Bounty Hunters
Rebelling against their buttoned-up Southern community, sixteen-year-old fraternal twin sisters Sterling and Blair Wesley team up with veteran bounty hunter Bowser Jenkins for an over-the-top adventure as they dive into the world of bail skipping baddies and suburban secrets while trying to navigate high school drama — love, sex, and study hall.
Starring: Maddie Phillips, Anjelica Bette Felini, Kadeem Hardison
Premieres August 14th
