August streaming guide, from House of The Dragon to The Bear
More than a dozen new shows are vying for streaming gold – but only one is House of the Dragon, the long-awaited and highly anticipated prequel to Game of Thrones.
August is poised to be a huge month for television - and we’re not just talking the packed schedule but some of the biggest budget projects seen on the small screen. And casting a dragon-shaped shadow over it all is the prequel that we’ve all been waiting for.
Ever since the final season of Game of Thrones aired and divided the internet, television networks have been searching for the next fantasy juggernaut. Netflix tried its luck with Shadow and Bone, Prime Video with Wheel of Time (and, next month, with a $465 million Lord of the Rings prequel).
Disney+ of course has its various Star Wars properties including The Mandalorian and Andor, coming later in August. Some have proven stylish and well-told series, while others have been chaotic, shambolic messes. It could turn out, however, that the successor to Game of Thrones is in fact ... more Game of Thrones. We will know for certain in only a few short weeks, when HBO’s Westerosian prequel House of the Dragon debuts in Australia on Foxtel and Binge. This time, the action is set 200 years before the battle for the Iron Throne that transformed television. There are - we can safely reveal - more dragons in this iteration. And yet much of this series will feel familiar.
There are Targaryens aplenty, including one Daenerys-esque princess played by Australian Milly Alcock as a child and Emma D’Arcy as an adult, a court crawling with scheming social climbers and a kingdom on the brink of civil war. In essence, this is Game of Thrones exactly as you remembered it. And if there’s been a Game of Thrones shaped hole in your life these past years – we hazard a guess that’s a yes for many of us – then House of the Dragon is poised to be a next generation television sensation.
Let’s talk numbers. The original seasons of Game of Thrones used to run to budgets in the vicinity of US$100 million a season. House of the Dragon is costing HBO a reported US$200 million for the first season alone, with many hundreds of millions more for episodes to come. In fact, there’s some lavish budgets in streaming land right now.
Netflix’s The Sandman, streaming this month, has an estimated US$15 million an episode price tag, with a total projected cost of US$165 million, while Andor is rumoured to have the same US$15 million an episode budget as its Star Wars predecessor The Mandalorian. To put it into perspective, Netflix’s The Gray Man, the most expensive movie the streaming platform has ever produced, starring Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans and Bridgerton’s Rege-Jean Page, cost US$200 million. But the prize is clear: Game of Thrones was a show that regularly pulled in more than 44 million viewers an episode globally.
It won Emmys by the handful and raked in viewers in the hundreds of millions. Some of the original producing team including celebrated director Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal are behind the prequel - as well as author George RR Martin. It is the first of many promised Game of Thrones spin-off shows and smartly, follows Game of Thrones’ original formula to the letter: as the line of succession for the Iron Throne is thrown into disarray, our tow-headed Targaryen princess is thrust into the spotlight and palace schemers plot to grab power for themselves. The new cast also includes Matt Smith (The Crown, Dr Who), Olivia Cooke and Ryan Corr.
Bottom line: You’re kidding yourself if you don’t think everyone you know is going to be talking about this show for months. From August 22 on Foxtel and Binge.
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Industry
Billions meets Succession in this cult HBO series, which premiered in 2020 before returning for a second season this month. Set in a high-octane London investment bank, Industry follows a group of new graduates trying to make their way in a cutthroat finance world. Drama and dirty deals ensue. From August 2 on Binge
Reservation Dogs
From creator Taika Waititi comes the second season of Reservation Dogs, a coming-of-age comedy following four First Nations teenagers in rural Oklahoma as they try to make their dream of moving to California a reality. There’s a lot of heart and soul in this series, which is hinged upon the chemistry of its four young leads – Devery Jacobs and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai are the standouts – as well as some smart, nuanced writing. From August 6 on Binge
The Sandman
Netflix is hoping for big things from The Sandman, its star-studded and lavish adaptation of the classic Neil Gaiman comic. Fans have often called The Sandman unadaptable and, well, it does have a wild story: Dream, also known as Morpheus, king of the Endless – a group of proto-Godlike creatures including Death, Desire and Despair – emerges from a century-long captivity with a desire to unite his kingdom and restore order to the land. Tom Sturridge stars as Dream, with co-stars including Jenna Coleman, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Stephen Fry and David Thewlis. Gwendoline Christie stars as Lucifer, aka the ruler of Hell. It’s all very twisted and occult-y and very, very heavy on lore. From August 8 on Netflix
A League of Their Own
Nothing is sacred when it comes to reboot culture, and that includes the classic Tom Hanks, Geena Davis – and Madonna! – baseball film A League of Their Own. The movie has been rebooted by Prime Video into a new miniseries, co-created by, and starring, Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson. We have faith in Jacobson as a comedic talent, and in the fact that she has committed to telling a new story with new characters, following the formula laid out in the original, which premiered some 30 years ago. Starring alongside Jacobson is The Good Place’s D’Arcy Carden and Nick Offerman. From August 12 on Prime Video
Never Have I Ever
There are no shortage of coming-of-age dramas on Netflix these days, from Sex Education to Heartstopper, but Never Have I Ever might be one of their best. Created by Mindy Kaling and starring Maitreyi Ramakrishnan in a star-is-born performance, this story of a young Indian American woman making her way through high school returns for its third and penultimate season this month. Ramakrishnan’s character Devi is ultra charming and one of our favourite Young Adult heroines in recent memory. Any time spent in her company is a delight. From August 12 on Netflix
Five Days at Memorial
Set against the backdrop of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, Five Days at Memorial is part hospital drama, part disaster tale and completely gripping. Vera Farmiga stars as Dr Anna Pou, presiding over thousands of patients trapped in a New Orleans hospital as storms rage, floodwater rises and life or death decisions take place every minute. For fans of other real-life stories including Dopesick and Chernobyl. From August 12 on AppleTV+
She-Hulk
The latest Marvel miniseries is a legal procedural about a highly skilled – and highly powerful – attorney at law: She-Hulk. Orphan Black’s Tatiana Maslany is the titular She-Hulk, with a supporting cast that includes Jameela Jamil, Renee Elise Goldsberry and Tim Roth. He-Hulk Mark Ruffalo is set to make an appearance in the show, as is Doctor Strange’s scene-stealing Benedict Wong. Marvel fans will no doubt go along for the ride, but the buzz on this one is minimal, especially given there are bigger releases in the fandom space still to come this month. From August 17 on Disney+
Life After life
Since premiering in the UK earlier this year, the adaptation of the best-selling Kate Atkinson novel has received rave reviews and a solid viewership. The four episodes will debut on Britbox this month, starring New Zealand actor Thomasin McKenzie (Last Night In Soho, Jojo Rabbit) as Ursula Todd, a woman whose experiences rebirth after rebirth, with alternate life paths unfurling and marking the major events of the 20th century. A big, glossy adaptation of a big, beloved book, perfect for a weekend binge. From August 18 on Britbox
Bad Sisters
Comedic genius Sharon Horgan has signed a deal to produce series with AppleTV+ and this is the first taste of what’s to come, a darkly comedic series about a group of sisters who are banded together by a family tragedy – and which leads them in a new, action-packed direction. If that sounds teaser-y, you’re not wrong. Details of the plot of this series are still scarce, but the talent involved is phenomenal: Horgan stars alongside Eve Hewson, Brendan and Brian Gleeson, Claes Bang and Ann-mariee Duff. A soundtrack and theme tune was written by PJ Harvey. This is serious – and seriously funny – television. From August 19 on AppleTV+
The Patient
The Gleeson family member not starring in Bad Sisters – Domhnall – is appearing in The Patient, a twisted psychological thriller about a therapist held hostage by a serial killer. Gleeson stars as the killer while Steve Carrell will play the psychotherapist. From August 30 on Disney+
The Bear
The television hit of the year thus far is The Bear, an eight episode series set in a flailing Chicago sandwich shop presided over by talented young chef Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and his protege Sidney (Ayo Edebiri) as they try to save the business. What sets The Bear apart isn’t the elegant staging – one episode takes place in a single take, as the camera moves through the kitchen over the course of a particularly gruelling service – or the lived-in feel of the various staff members and their idiosyncrasies and hangups. Oh no, it’s that the year’s best show thus far might also be its sexiest, even without a whisper of sex to be seen. Carmy, with his forearm tattoos and grease-tousled hair has found himself the Internet’s new boyfriend with all the fervour previously felt for Fleabag’s Hot Priest, despite never even once approaching the hint of a kiss onscreen, proving that sometimes the sexiest thing is doing nothing at all. From August 31 on Disney+
Andor
Much like Disney’s Marvel television franchises, its Star Wars offering keeps expanding. New this month – hot on the heels of big success Obi-Wan Kenobi and, late last year, another series of The Mandalorian – is Andor, a prequel to Rogue One (itself a prequel to A New Hope, are you keeping up?) starring Diego Luna and Stellan Skarsgard. A second season is already in the works, which will bring the timeline up to date with the events of main canon. Given Rogue One’s status as one of the most critically acclaimed new Star Wars projects, as well as Luna’s onscreen charisma as the rebellion leader Cassian Andor and legendary Bourne Identity writer Tony Gilroy taking on the role of showrunner, this project comes with high expectations. From August 31 on Disney+