Welcome to August—only a few more weeks until Halloween! Yes, it’s a bit of a jump, but I’ve had enough of the heat, and I’m now declaring summer over. Where’s the nearest Spirit Halloween store?
This week’s What to Watch picks include Premier League soccer action, Neil Gaiman’s long-awaited Sandman series, the returns of Reservation Dogs and Beavis & Butt-Head, Predator prequel Prey, and LGBTQIA+ horror flick They/Them. Crank the A/C and get watching!
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What’s premiering this week
Industry | HBO, HBO Max | Drama
Season 2 premiere, Monday, August 1: British series Industry debuted nearly two years ago and now returns “in a post-COVID world” (HBO’s words, not mine). The sex-and-drugs-and-high-finance drama follows a group of young London investment bankers fighting for their place in the market and their professional lives. Adding to the pressure this season is new U.S. management (ugh, Americans) and a new back-to-the-office-or-else policy (ugh, offices).
Premier League | USA, Peacock | Sports, soccer
Coverage begins Friday, August 5, 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT: The 2022–2023 Premier League season will consist of 380 matches—whoa. Competing teams: Arsenal, Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brentford, Brighton & Hove Albion, Chelsea, Crystal Palace, Everton, Fulham, Leeds United, Leicester City, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United, and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
What to watch on Netflix this week
Clusterf**k: Woodstock ’99 | Netflix | Documentary, music
Docuseries premiere, Wednesday, August 3: HBO’s Woodstock ’99: Peace, Love, and Rage documentary covered this muddy ground a year ago, but Netflix’s matter-of-factly-titled Clusterf**k: Woodstock ’99 docuseries is an hour longer—hence, better? The three-part doc promises previously unseen film footage and new interviews with the artists who were there when the concert devolved into fiery chaos. The Fyre Festival had two docs, so why not?
The Sandman | Netflix | Drama, fantasy
Series premiere, Friday, August 5: Neil Gaiman’s revered DC Comics series The Sandman has been in “development hell” since the ’90s, never gaining traction as a movie or TV adaptation—until now. The epic tale of Morpheus (Tom Sturridge) looking to regain rule over his kingdom after 100 years in captivity also had to rewrite its Lucifer (Gwendoline Christie, Game of Thrones) since the original was spun off into his own TV series (that would be Netflix’s Lucifer).
What to watch on Hulu this week
Reservation Dogs | Hulu | Comedy, drama
Season 2 premiere, Wednesday, August 3: Last year’s surprise Hulu/FX hit Reservation Dogs initially made headlines for its majority Indigenous North American cast and crew. It also received much-deserved notice as simply a damned funny comedy about the misadventures of teens Elora (Devery Jacobs), Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), Cheese (Lane Factor) and Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) stuck in Nowheresville, Oklahoma. Two of 10 episodes drop August 3.
Prey | Hulu | Action, sci-fi
Movie premiere, Friday, August 5: After all the movies, crossovers, comics, and videogames of the Predator franchise, all that was left to explore was a prequel (or maybe a breakfast cereal). Prey goes to the pre-extreme, 300 years ago, pitting young Comanche warrior woman Naru (Amber Midthunder) against the aggro alien on the Great Plains of America. Don’t expect to see it in a movie theater, though: Prey is a Hulu-exclusive release, as per the Disney overlords.
What to watch on Prime Video this week
The Outlaws | Prime Video | Comedy, drama
Season 2 premiere, Friday, August 5: Not to be confused with the ’70s Southern rock band of the same name, The Outlaws is a British comedy about seven ex-criminals (including Christopher Walken and Stephen Merchant) working together in mandated community service. Things go hilariously sideways when they discover a bag of money belonging to far more dangerous criminals than themselves. Fun fact: In Britain, The Outlaws airs as The Offenders.
Thirteen Lives | Prime Video | Drama, thriller
Movie premiere, Friday, August 5: Remember the 2018 story of a boys’ soccer team trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand? Simpler times. Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives is a dramatized take on the tale, starring Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgerton. The film was released on a limited basis in movie theaters in July (gotta get that Oscars eligibility), and currently sits at 85% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Claustrophobics be warned: the watery cave scenes are intense.
W2W wildcards of the week
Mike Judge’s Beavis & Butt-Head | Paramount+ | Animation, comedy
Series premiere, Thursday, August 4: After the surprisingly not-terrible Beavis & Butt-Head Do the Universe movie in June, the re-revived Beavis & Butt-Head series finally arrives as Mike Judge’s Beavis & Butt-Head (he’s earned the top billing). B&B, both still voiced by Judge, are as dumb as ever but now displaced from the ’90s to 2022 in order to better mock modern culture and music (we’ve earned the mocking). Now do Ren & Stimpy, Paramount+.
They/Them | Peacock | Drama, horror
Movie premiere, Friday, August 5: Slasher flicks set at camp are nothing new—but a slasher flick set at an LGBTQIA+ conversion camp? Genre-flipper! As if the psychological “deprogramming” torture of camp leader Owen (Kevin Bacon) isn’t enough, the queer and trans campers also have to protect themselves from a mysterious killer who’s taking them out one-by-one. Bacon told Deadline that They/Them is “scary . . . empowering, and, for a horror movie, it’s touching.”
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