WHAT WE CAN’T WAIT TO WATCH
My Favorite Shapes By Julio Torres
The Saturday Night Live writer behind memorable sketches such as Wells For Boys, Papyrus and The Actress brings his love of design, toys, interior monologues and futuristic genre aesthetics to bear on his first comedy special. More “sit down” than “stand up,” My Favorite Shapes finds the El Salvador-born comedian plucking various objects off an industrial conveyor and showing them off, Home Shopping Network style. Expect plenty of deadpan digressions and sly political takes on pop culture and other existential concerns. Torres is having a breakout summer – HBO just picked up his horror-comedy Los Espookys, co-created with Ana Fabrega and Fred Armisen, for a second season. Too bad it’s not airing on HBO Canada or Crave. August 10
A Black Lady Sketch Show
This show is a television milestone: it’s the first sketch comedy series to feature a cast and writers room of all Black women. Created by comedian Robin Thede and exec-produced by Issa Rae, the late-night series’s core cast of Thede, Ashley Nicole Black, Gabrielle Dennis and Quinta Brunson will play hundreds of characters over six episodes. The stacked list of guest stars includes Rae, Patti LaBelle, Angela Bassett, Lena Waithe, David Alan Grier and Garrett Morris, among many others. We’re definitely expecting an onslaught of GIFs. August 3
On Becoming A God In Central Florida
The dark comedy series starring Kirsten Dunst has bounced around between AMC and YouTube Premium before landing on Showtime. (The Favourite director Yorgos Lanthimos was briefly attached to direct.) Dunst plays a mininum-wage-earning water-park employee living in suburban Orlando in 1992 who signs up for a cultish pyramid scheme and ends up buying in a little too hard. The cast also includes Canadian Screen Award-winning actor Théodore Pellerin, Gossip singer Beth Ditto, Silence Of The Lambs star Ted Levine and Dunst’s Melancholia co-star Alexander Skarsgård. August 25
Succession (season 2)
The recent Emmy nominations were too hung up on Game Of Thrones to notice the incredible ensemble cast in HBO’s vicious corporate satire Succession, which got zero notices. The series stars Brian Cox as the Rupert Murdoch-like owner of a family-run media conglomerate whose adult children are all angling for his throne. It’s like a toxic take on The Godfather except everyone actually hates each other. The first season dispelled any hope that morality or decency would win out in this family. Can’t wait to see what the second season has in store. August 11
The Righteous Gemstones
If you were wondering what new Southern-fried silliness Danny McBride would cook up after Vice Principals, wonder no further: the writer/producer/actor returns with an HBO comedy about a family of televangelists – patriarch Eli (John Goodman), son Jesse (McBride) and grandson Kelvin (Adam Devine) – who are nowhere near as wholesome and upstanding as their globally known brand. And yes, McBride managed to rope in his Vice Principals co-star Walton Goggins – who honed his preaching skills on a couple of seasons of Justified – for a supporting role. August 18
Punk
Produced for the Epix cable network in the U.S., this four-part documentary series from Iggy Pop, designer John Varvatos and Canadian doc producer Derik Murray (and directed by Murray’s long-time collaborator Jesse James Miller) explores the emergence, influence and cockroach-like longevity of punk rock with a trove of archival footage and new interviews with essential players like John Lydon, Debbie Harry, Wayne Kramer, Joan Jett, Viv Albertine, Jello Biafra, Flea, Henry Rollins, Marky Ramone, Exene Cervenka and Penelope Spheeris… as well as the artists they influenced, like Thurston Moore and Dave Grohl. Safety pins optional. August 8
Fox Searchlight
Can You Ever Forgive Me? was one of last year’s most overlooked movies.
SOLID BETS
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Even if you don’t know the first thing about author Lee Israel’s short-lived but very lucrative side hustle as a literary forger, the magnificent performances of Melissa McCarthy (as Israel) and Richard E. Grant (as the aging hustler who becomes her accomplice and enabler) are reason enough to take a chance on Marielle Heller’s acidic biopic. Throw in the vivid re-creation of early-90s Manhattan, the barbed brilliance of Nicole Holofcener’s dialogue and vivid supporting turns from Dolly Wells and Jane Curtin, and you’ve got plenty of reason to catch up to one of last year’s most overlooked movies. August 9
Die Hard With A Vengeance
Die Hard, which is arguably the greatest action movie ever, is coming to Starz. And so is Die Hard With A Vengeance, the silly and ludicrous third entry that remains the most fun and watchable sequel in the franchise. The original’s director John McTiernan (he sat out Die Harder) returned to the franchise in the mid-90s and shook things up by sending John McClane (Bruce Willis) ricocheting through New York alongside Samuel L. Jackson’s Harlem resident Zeus Carver. They play a cat-and-mouse game with Jeremy Irons’s terrorist Simon Gruber, a fun villain and sibling to Die Hard villain royalty. August 2 (with the STARZ add-on)
Unforgiven
Clint Eastwood has made terrible movies. He’s also made great ones and Unforgiven is arguably his masterpiece. The Oscar-winning Western finds Eastwood returning to his own Man With No Name persona, playing a retired gunslinger desperately trying to stay away from alcohol and violence but lured back in for a righteous kill when the bounty is all too needed. So many Westerns preach about the cost of violence. Unforgiven has a sadness and ugliness that really makes you feel it. August 30 (with the STARZ add-on)
The Big Lebowski
This laid-back and goofy stoner comedy went from misunderstood to cult classic to now widely considered as the Coen Brothers’ masterpiece. Jeff Bridges stars as Jeffrey “The Dude” Lebowski, an aging bachelor who sets out to replace a Persian rug that “really tied the room together” after it was soiled by henchman who had mistaken him for a corrupt millionaire with the same name (the “Big Lebowski” of the title). The Dude’s lazy and carefree approach to seeking justice or remuneration – he just wants a new rug – is loopy and hilarious at first, but ultimately tragic as his idealism and hipster righteousness regresses into drunken stupor. August 30 (with the STARZ add-on)
Full list of new titles available in August, by date. The + symbol indicates a TV show or movie that is only available on Crave+ . The * symbol indicates a TV show or movie that is only available with the Starz add-on.
TV SHOWS
August 2
Ape Escapes
Jett (season 1, episode 8)+
The Last Ship (season 5)
Ultimate Ninja Challenge (season 1)
August 3
A Black Lady Sketch Show (season 1, episode 1)+
Love Island (season 1, episodes 15-19)
Love Island Aftersun (season 1, episode 4)
Real Time With Bill Maher (season 17, episode 22)+
August 4
City On A Hill (season 1, episode 8)
Euphoria (season 1, episode 8)+
The Handmaid’s Tale (season 3, episode 11)
Last Week With John Oliver (season 6, episode 19)+
The Loudest Voice (season 1, episode 6)
The Rook (season 1, episode 6)*
Sweetbitter (season 2, episode 5)*
August 5
Divorce (season 3, episode 6)+
Homeland (season 7, episodes 9- 10)
August 6
The Bold And The Beautiful (season 32, episodes 234-238)
August 7
The Beaverton (season 3, episode 3)
August 8
Love Island (season 1, episode 20-22)
Love Island Aftersun (season 1, episode 5)
Punk (season 1)
August 9
Corner Gas Animated (season 2)
Jett (season 1, episode 9)+
Paddington’s Birthday Bonanza
The Stand-Up Show With Katherine Ryan
August 10
A Black Lady Sketch Show (season 1, episode 2)+
My Favorite Shapes by Julio Torres+
Real Time With Bill Maher (season 17, episode 23)+
August 11
City On A Hill (season 1, episode 9)
The Handmaid’s Tale (season 3, episode 12)
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (season 6, episode 20)+
The Loudest Voice (season 1, episode 7)
The Rook (season 1, episode 7)*
Succession (season 2, episode 1)+
Sweetbitter (season 2, episode 6)*
August 12
Our Boys (season 1, episode 1)+
Homeland (season 7, episodes 11- 12)
August 13
The Bold And The Beautiful (season 32, episodes 239-243)
August 14
The Beaverton (season 3, episode 4)
August 16
A Black Lady Sketch Show (season 1, episode 3)+
Blindspot (season 4)
The Jim Jeffries Show (season 3A)
Real Time With Bill Maher (season 17, episode 24)+
August 18
City On A Hill (season 1, episode 10)
The Handmaid’s Tale (season 3, episode 13)
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (season 6, episode 21)+
The Righteous Gemstones (season 1, episode 1)+
The Rook (season 1, episode 8)*
Succession (season 2, episode 1)+
Sweetbitter (season 2, episodes 7 & 8)*
August 19
Our Boys (season 1, episode 2)+
August 20
The Bold And The Beautiful (season 32, episodes 244-248)
August 21
The Beaverton (season 3, episode 5)
August 23
A Black Lady Sketch Show (season 1, episode 4)+
Om Nom Stories (season 3)
Real Time With Bill Maher (season 17, episode 25)+
Tosh.0 (season 11A)
August 25
The Affair (season 5, episode 1)
On Becoming A God In Central Florida (season 1, episode 1)
Power (season 6, episode 1) *
The Righteous Gemstones (season 1, episode 2)+
Succession (season 2, episode 3)+
August 26
Our Boys (season 1, episode 3)+
August 27
The Bold And The Beautiful (season 32, episodes 249-250)
The Bold And The Beautiful (season 33, episodes 1-3)
August 28
The Beaverton (season 3, episode 6)
August 30
The Adventures Of Super Mario Bros. 3
A Black Lady Sketch Show (season 1, episode 5+)
Bong Appetit: Cook Off (season 1)
God Friended Me (season 1)
MOVIES
August 1
New Homeland+
August 2
The Company Men*
Die Hard*
Die Hard 2*
Die Hard With A Vengeance*
Die Hard 4 (Live Free Or Die Hard)*
The House With The Clock In Its Walls+
Mortal Engines*
My Girl*
Nanny McPhee*
Sex Tape*
So I Married An Axe Murder*
The Whistleblower*
August 7
Buzz+
August 8
Love Jacked+
August 9
Blast From The Past*
David Bowie: Finding Fame
Definitely Maybe*
Deliver Us From Evil*
Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner*
Tigerland
Vicky Cristina Barcelona*
You’ve Got Mail*
August 10
A Good Day To Die Hard*
August 14
Alternate Endings: Six New Ways To Die In America+
August 15
The Wrong Patient+
August 16
Bridesmaids*
Body Heat*
Life As We Know It*
Miss Bala+
Single White Female*
Sniper: Legacy*
Take Me Home Tonight*
The Town*
The Wedding Planner*
August 17
August 22
Thicker Than Water+
August 23
22 Jump Street*
I Am Patrick Swayze+
The Perfect Storm*
Role Models*
Snatch*
Woman In Gold*
August 24
Hitsville: The Making Of Motown
August 30
40-Year-Old Virgin*
Backdraft 2+
The Big Lebowski*
Escape Room+
The Family Man*
Killer Joe*
How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World+
Nancy Drew And The Hidden Staircase+
Unforgiven*
