Game of Thrones returns, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman makes TV dreams come true, and Marvel unleashes a new green superhero: our August streaming picks.
What does August bring? We present the ten most interesting TV series that are starting this month on Netflix, Amazon, Apple TV+ and Co.
1. Sandman
Neil Gaiman is a specialist in fantasy material of a special kind. This has not escaped the heads of the streaming services. After the novels “Good Omens” (1997) and “American Gods” (2001) were processed into series, it is now Gaiman’s graphic novel “Sandman”‘s turn. Like so many of the British author’s stories, this one takes a wild journey through space and time, centered on Dream (Tom Sturridge), who rules the dream world. Netflix, 5. August
2. A League of their Own
With all major league baseball games canceled in the United States during World War II to allow athletes to sign up for action in Europe, a savvy manager creates a women’s professional baseball league. This will exist from 1943 to 1954. 20 years ago, Penny Marshall’s sports melodrama “A Class of Its Own” with Geena Davis, Tom Hanks and Madonna told the story of the league and its players. The eight-part series “A League of their Own” reinterprets the story and focuses on the confrontation with sexual identity and racism. Amazon, 12. August
3. State of the Union
Writer Nick Hornby (“High Fidelity”) and filmmaker Stephen Frears (“The Queen”) continue their collaboration. As in the first season of State of the Union, each episode features the ten-minute wait of a man and woman waiting for their couples therapy appointment. The result is a wonderfully laconic and melancholic relationship drama in which Patricia Clarkson and Brendan Gleeson now play the leading roles. ARD media library, August 12
4. The Tourist
What am I doing here? And why are these men after me and want to kill me? The Tourist follows a man (Jamie Dornan) who is left with no recollections of his former self after a car accident in the Australian outback, but quickly realizes his life is in grave danger. The ambitious grotesque thriller was produced by ZDF with the BBC, HBO and the Australian streaming service Stan. ZDF media library, August 12
5. She-Hulk
Replenished from the inexhaustible reservoir of superhumans in the Marvel Universe: Tatiana Maslany (“Orphan Black”) plays the lawyer Jennifer Walters. She is the cousin of Bruce Banner, also known as The Hulk, and after receiving a blood transfusion from him, she is transformed against her will into a giant, green-skinned superwoman. As in the Avengers films, Mark Ruffalo plays Bruce Banner, and Tim Roth also stars as the super villain Monster Abomination. Disney+, 17. August
6. Bad Sisters
Just because the series creators were able to persuade the great PJ Harvey to re-record Leonard Cohen’s “Who by Fire” as the theme song, “Bad Sisters” has to be loved. It tells the story of the five Garvey sisters who are suspected of having murdered the eldest sister’s intolerable husband together. The wonderfully vicious Irish comedy thriller is based on the Belgian series Clan. Apple TV+, 19. August
7. Cleo
Jella Haase is Kleo – a top East German spy who is arrested by the Stasi in 1987 after the murder of a businessman from the West and in 1989 witnesses the fall of the Wall in prison. When she is released after the reunion, Kleo sets out to find the people who betrayed her back then. Spy thriller with 80s charm. Netflix, 19. August
8. Surfside Girls
The fantasy series is based on Kim Dwinell’s graphic novel of the same name. The adventure story, told in a child-friendly way, is about the schoolgirls Jade and Same, who come across ghosts and a cursed pirate treasure in a surfer’s paradise in California during the summer holidays. Apple TV+, 19. August
9. House of the Dragon
After umpteen fantasy series that were traded as potential successors have come and gone since the end of “Game of Thrones”, the first branch of the fantasy blockbuster series is now starting: “House of the Dragon” tells the story of the house of Targaryen and plays 200 years before Game of Thrones. Sky, 21. August
10. DMZ
August is Comic Adaptation Month. Like “Sandman”, “She-Hulk” and “Surfside Girls”, the dystopian series “DMZ” works on a comic. In a bleak future after a second American Civil War, paramedic Alma “Zee” Ortega (Rosario Dawson) searches for her daughter in lawless Manhattan. Sky, 24. August
