The 5 New and Under-the-Radar TV Shows You Can’t Miss In August
Photo Courtesy of Prime Video TV Lists list
Well, friends, we are going into the second month of the Screen Actors Guild strike and the fourth month of the Writers Guild strike. And, sadly, there currently doesn’t seem to be an end in sight. With basically the entire industry at a standstill, networks and streaming platforms are scrambling to fill out their line-up. And one thing has become very clear: There are a lot of reality shows, game shows, and documentary series in our future.
But thanks to the previous work of writers and actors, we still have quite a few scripted shows to look forward to this August. This month we will be talking about the third season of Only Murders in the Building, which features Meryl Streep and Paul Rudd, and comes to Hulu on August 8th. Heartstopper returns to Netflix for a second season on August 3rd. The long-awaited Ahsoka premieres on Disney+ on August 23rd. We will also be taking a look back on shows you may have missed during the deluge of new content we have experienced over the last few years. Something tells me we are all going to have time to catch up.
But as always, we don’t want you to miss a thing. Here are the five new, under-the-radar shows you can’t miss this month.
1. The Big Nailed It Baking Challenge
Stars: Nicole Byer, Jacques Torres, Erin Jeanne McDowell and Robert Lucas
Premiere Date: August 4th on Netflix
Nicole Byer and Jacques Torres are back in this 10-episode Nailed It spinoff. Ten wannabe bakers come together in the hopes of winning $100,000. The difference this time is that they have actual professionals available to help them. Baking expert Erin Jeanne McDowell and cake artist Robert Lucas are at the ready with advice. Not that the contestants are prepared to listen. “Looks like some of you are starting to use buttercream on your cakes, which Robert hasn’t really demonstrated yet,” McDowell good-naturedly admonishes at one point. The contestants all have a healthy sense of humor, especially about themselves. “My goal when I bake is basically don’t make anybody throw up,” says one contestant.
2. Superfan
Stars: Keltie Knight, Nate Burleson, Kelsea Ballerini, Gloria Estefan, Little Big Town, LL COOL J, Pitbull and Shania Twain
Premiere Date: August 9th at 9 p.m. on CBS
Everyone has that one star they love. Now a lucky few have the opportunity to put their celebrity devotion to the test in this CBS show, which turns pop-culture knowledge into a game. First up, LL Cool J (star of NCIS Los Angeles, which just ended its 14-season run last May) looks for his biggest fan. The episode starts off with each of the five contestants making their case that they are LL’s biggest supporter. They’re competing for a prize package curated by the man ladies love himself. It’s such a fun celebration of devoted fandom, and LL is a good-natured sport about the whole thing. He clearly has a great deal of affection for his admirers. Future celebrities include Kelsea Ballerini, Gloria Estefan, Little Big Town, Pitbull, and Shania Twain. In a twist I’m sure CBS could not have predicted, winners are determined by a live Twitter vote or, should I say, a live X vote.
3. Telemarketers
Premiere Date: August 13th at 10 p.m. on HBO
No matter how hard you’ve tried—putting your phone number on a do-not-call list, unlisting your phone number, hanging up—you still receive these calls. Someone calling on behalf of a police or firefighter charity asking for donations. If you thought something wasn’t quite right about these calls, you were right. This three-part docuseries, from executive producers Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie, and Danny McBride, follows Sam Lipman-Stern, who began working for Civic Development Group, a New Jersey based telemarketing company, when he was just 14 years old. He soon realized that not much of the money he was collecting was actually going to any charity. The series, which will also be available to stream on Max the day after air, follows Lipman-Stern and his colleague Pat Pespas as they work to blow the whistle on the whole corrupt industry.
4. Harlan Coben’s Shelter
Stars: Jaden Michael, Constance Zimmer, Adrian Greensmith, Abby Corrigan, Sage Linder, Brian Altemus, Missi Pyle, Tovah Feldshuh and Antonio Cipriano
Premiere Date: All eight episodes premiere August 18th on Prime Video
Based, as the title would suggest, on the first Mickey Bolitar book in author Harlan Coben’s trilogy, this Prime Video series follows high school student Mickey Bolitar (Jaden Michael), who comes to live with his aunt (Constance Zimmer) in Kasselton, New Jersey after the sudden death of his father. On his first day at his new school, Mickey befriends a girl who has also lost a parent. Mickey soon learns not everything is as it seems in this seemingly-idyllic New Jersey suburb, and he’s pulled into a mystery far beyond anything he ever expected as decades of long held secrets begin to unravel. The series marks the first time Harlan Coben, whose previous television shows have streamed on Netflix, has collaborated with Prime Video. Coben is the author of 34 novels and has over 80 million books in print.
5. Wanted: The Escape of Carlos Ghosn
Premiere Date: All four episodes premiere August 25 on AppleTV+
The truth, as the saying goes, is stranger than fiction. And this four-part documentary series is a doozy. Carlos Ghosn was a lauded automobile executive, known for saving Nissan from bankruptcy and earning the nickname “Mr. Fix It.” But in 2018, the “rock star chairman” was arrested in Japan for gross misuse of corporate assets, which kicked off his elaborate escape from the country. Mike Taylor, the former Green Beret who helped Ghosn escape and Carlos Ghosn himself both participate in the docuseries. At the beginning of the series, it asks “Is Carlos Ghosn a victim or a villain?” This series, inspired by the book Boundless by Nick Kostov and Sean McLain, aims to answer that question.
Amy Amatangelo, the TV Gal®, is a Boston-based freelance writer and a member of the Television Critics Association. She wasn’t allowed to watch much TV as a child and now her parents have to live with this as her career. You can follow her on Twitter (@AmyTVGal).
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