What To Watch This Week: Stream Our Top 6 TV and Movie Picks (Aug. 3–9)

This week’s “What To Watch” picks include the long-awaited fourth season of “Ted Lasso” (Apple TV), the new Ryan Murphy horror/thriller “The Shards” (FX and Hulu), and the reptile version of “Tiger King” called “Monsters of God” (HBO Max).

We’re also plugging Ricky Gervais’s adult animation series “Alley Cats” (Netflix) and two horror movies — “Big Baby” and “Evil Dead Burn” — to rent via video-on-demand (VOD). Let’s hit the couch!

“Big Baby” | VOD | Horror

Movie, Tuesday, Aug. 4: Let’s kick off the week with a touch of class. (If you didn’t already read the irony in that statement, do it now.) Coming from Spider One (Powerman 5000 frontguy and Rob Zombie’s brother), “Big Baby” is a slasher movie where the hulking killer with (of course) gore-worthy grudges wears a crying baby mask. That’s pure poetry, people, and it’s all I need to know before watching it. I don’t need a teaser trailer (see left), or reviews, or internet word-of-mouth. Just show me this sketchy splatterfest while I cheer, “Cry more, Big Baby! Kill for daddy!”

If the movie rules (in either the traditional or so-bad-it’s-good sense), I want credit for sniffing out a future classic. But if it stinks like a dirty diaper, I was warned — and so were you.

“The Shards” | Hulu | Drama

Series premiere, Wednesday, Aug. 5, 9 p.m. (ET): In this latest Ryan Murphy joint, he adapts Bret Easton Ellis’s semi-autobiographical 2023 novel. The book/series follows a teenage version of Ellis (Igby Rigney) during his senior year at a posh LA school circa 1981, when a new kid’s arrival coincides with a serial killer’s rampage. Wes Bentley, Graham Campbell, Kaia Gerber, Homer Gere, and Evan Rachel Wood also star. FX is doing two-episode drops weekly (except for Aug. 19, which will have only one ep).

“Ted Lasso” | Apple TV | Comedy, drama

Season 4 premiere, Wednesday, Aug. 5: Okay, who besides me is high-fiving their chosen deity (praise TV!) that we’re getting another season of this hilarious, heartwarming show about an ostensible wanker (American) football coach leading a soccer team in England? I recently started rewatching Season 1 and fell immediately in love with the show all over again. I just hope the quality carries over to the new, three-years-in-the-making fourth season. This time around, our weirdly wise hero (Jason Sudeikis) brings his uniquely inspirational coaching style back to Richmond, where he’ll lead a women’s soccer team. One episode drops weekly through October 7.

Monsters of God | HBO, HBO Max | Documentary

Limited series premiere, Thursday, Aug. 6: Remember how Eric Goode’s “Tiger King” and “Chimp Crazy” took us into the idiosyncratic, often dangerous, world of exotic pet owners? In this five-episode docuseries, Goode turns cameras on his own pet fascination, reptiles, and the “dark and gonzo” billion-dollar world of exotic animal smuggling. He gives us an unprecedented peek into the hobby and industry, following breeders, collectors, herpetologists, and venomologists who keep everything from little lizards to 15-foot Malaysian king cobras to huge crocodilians. We get to learn the motivations behind these characters, who face government regulations, health risks, law enforcement agencies, and smugglers/traffickers daily — all in the name of conservation, freedom, love, medicine, vanity, and cold, hard cash.

“Alley Cats” | Netflix | Animation, comedy

Series premiere, Friday, Aug. 7: How many adult animated series about cats do we need? Well, if the internet taught us anything, it’s that we love cats and raunchy humor. Ricky Gervais, creator and star of “Alley Cats,”certainly learned that lesson. The show follows a posse of potty-mouthed pussycats who have and give, respectively, “Nine lives, zero fucks.” The debut season has six 15-minute episodes that binge-drop today.

You wanna hang out with “Ted Lasso” in this upcoming fourth season? Get you some Apple TV ($12.99/mo.).

You wanna watch people play with king cobras in “Monsters of God”? You’ll need an HBO Max subscription ($10.99–$22.99/mo.).

You’ll need a Hulu subscription ($11.99–$18.99/mo.) to stream “The Shards”.

You can watch “The Shards” live (on FX) or stream it later with a Hulu + Live TV subscription ($88.99–$99.99/mo.).

To watch “Alley Cats,” you’ll need a Netflix subscription ($8.99–$26.99/mo.).

Prime Video is a great place to rent films like “Big Baby” and “Evil Dead Burn” on demand. No subscription required.

A YouTube TV subscription ($82.99/mo.) includes FX so you can watch “The Shards” live.