Five Netflix series to keep an eye out for in August
August is looking unusually decent for Netflix, which, let’s be honest, is a relief, because there are only so many times you can scroll through the homepage and put on the same old series again. This month, at least, there seems to be enough going on to make the whole business of choosing something less painful.
It all kicks off rather quickly. Ricky Gervais’ Alley Cats arrives on August 7th, as does the Korean comedy Our Sticky Love, and then The Ribbon Hero follows the next day. You must be joking, really; that is quite a lot to drop on people before the first proper weekend has even got going.
The rest of the month does not exactly take its foot off the pedal, either. My Brilliant Career lands on August 13th, and Tires is back for a third season later on, which means there should still be something new knocking about once the early-August rush has died down.
So, where on earth do you start? Fair question. We have gone through the lot and picked five series that look genuinely worth keeping an eye on.
Five Netflix series to keep an eye out for in August
Outer Banks Season 5 (August 20th)
By the looks of it, the Pogues are finally into their final season with very little left to lose, which is saying something when you consider how often these people have nearly drowned or been shot at. This time, they are after the Blue Crown and revenge following the last chapter’s devastating events. Their home is wrecked, and the group is grieving.
The show now has a more difficult job than sending everyone after another piece of treasure. It has to decide what a proper ending looks like for characters who have spent years chasing freedom. Mind you, expecting the Pogues to behave sensibly would be asking a bit much. Somebody will trust the wrong person, and somebody will produce a plan held together by blind optimism. You couldn’t make it up, although, in fairness, that has always been part of the fun.
My Life with the Walter Boys Season 3 (August 6th)
You must be joking if you thought Jackie’s life might have settled down after season two. Cole told her he loved her, and she admitted she felt the same. The only problem was that Alex overheard the conversation while still involved with her. Then, before anyone had time to deal with that particular disaster, Will turned up in a panic because something had happened to George. Honestly, most families would be exhausted by one of those problems, but the Walters apparently prefer to have everything go wrong at once.
Season three picks up with Jackie still caught between the brothers, although there is more going on than the love triangle, thank goodness. Alex joins a rodeo team, while Cole may have stumbled across a new future after a racing driver spots his ability behind the wheel. The show was originally pitched as Dawson’s Creek crossed with Friday Night Lights, and, well, there you go: that explains the romantic chaos. Netflix has already ordered season four, so the new episodes are unlikely to tie every loose end.
One Hundred Years of Solitude: Part 2 (August 5th)
Adapting Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude was always going to be a bit of a tall order, and yet Netflix has reached the second half without making a complete hash of it. Part two returns to Macondo as the Buendía family enters a messy period, with the railway bringing the banana trade into town and the outside world beginning to interfere in ways that are not exactly helpful. In Macondo, something dreadful is usually waiting just around the corner.
The final eight episodes move the story towards a new generation of Buendías, while political unrest becomes harder for the family to ignore. History begins repeating itself, because of course it does, and the series goes further into the idea that the family may be trapped by patterns it cannot recognise until it is too late. It is demanding television, mind you.
Love Is Blind: UK Season 3 (August 19th)
Talking to somebody through a wall sounds fairly harmless, doesn’t it? As if! Love Is Blind: UK returns with Matt and Emma Willis overseeing another group of singles who must form relationships in the pods and decide whether to become engaged before meeting face-to-face. Once the couples leave that controlled setting, the ordinary problems arrive, and that is generally where the wheels begin to come off. What on earth could possibly go wrong after agreeing to marry a person you have never actually seen?
Netflix has already renewed the British edition for season four, which suggests the experiment is doing rather well, even if some of its couples are not. Matt and Emma remain a good fit as hosts because they are married themselves and know well that getting engaged is the easy bit. Living together is another matter entirely.
Mourinho (August 11th)
José Mourinho has spent almost all of his career telling people exactly what he thinks, whether they asked or not, so giving him an entire Netflix documentary was always going to be lively. The three-part series looks back at his rise through European football and the methods that turned him into one of the game’s most successful managers. The trophies matter, obviously, but here is the thing: people are just as interested in the arguments and the press conferences where he appeared to be having far more fun than everyone else in the room.
Would you believe it, Mourinho has already appeared in a Netflix series. He featured in The Playbook: A Coach’s Rules for Life, although this documentary gives him considerably more time to revisit his career on his own terms. For crying out loud, nobody expects Mourinho to spend three episodes admitting he might have been wrong. Even people who rarely watch football may enjoy this doc.