All The Cool Stuff Coming To Netflix In August 2024

The surprises in this August’s programming on Netflix may not reach “President Joe Biden declining to seek re-election” levels.  Yet a search through this month’s listings might reveal films or TV shows you didn’t know you needed until now.  See how a dance with their daughters helps incarcerated fathers transition back into society.  Take an off-kilter look at French multiculturalism with a comedy about France undergoing its Obama moment.  If you need some bone-breaking action with your London gang war story, Gareth Huw Evans helms a series that ably scratches that itch.

On top of all that, this month features the final season of “The Umbrella Academy.”  And if economics killed your thoughts of checking out AMC+ offerings, get set to sample a baker’s dozen of some of AMC+’s best prestige series, such as Clive Owen doing an older Sam Spade.

Whether you’re watching Netflix this month because you want to know what finally happens to the Hargreeves kids or are watching because idiot right-wingers are pissed a Netflix head made a big donation to Kamala Harris’ campaign, check out some of the new offerings this month that might be worth your time.

August 1

Breaking And Re-Entering–In this Taiwanese heist comedy, thief Chang Bo-chun and his team of specialists successfully break into smarmy Chen Hai-jui’s bank vault and make off with $1 billion in NT money.  But their joy is short-lived after they learn Chen set them up as part of his plan to embezzle money from the bank and have Chang’s ex-girlfriend Shen Shu-wen blamed for the money’s disappearance.  Now it’s a race against time as the bank thieves need to figure out how to return the money to Chen’s bank and expose the bankster’s corruption.

A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder

Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color–Check out this black and white version of Takashi Yamazaki’s acclaimed take on the king of kaiju.  The end of World War II has left ex-kamikaze pilot Koichi Shikishima suffering from PTSD.  His parents were killed in the bombing of Tokyo and he’s guilt-ridden over failing to do his duty as a pilot.  Now top off Shikishima’s troubles plate with the news that the path of the dinosaur-like creature known as Godzilla will result in a destructive walk through a still-devastated Japan.  Except this Godzilla isn’t the one the former pilot saw during the war.  The big lizard has mutated to become bigger and far deadlier thanks to the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests.    

A Good Girl’s Guide To Murder–In this adaptation of Holly Jackson’s YA mystery of the same name, Emma Myers stars as brilliant high-school student Pippa (Pip) Fitz-Amobi.  Five years ago, the sleepy English town of Little Kitson was rocked by the murder of popular high-school senior Andie Bell and the suicide of her supposed killer, boyfriend Sal Singh.  Pip questions whether Singh really was the killer, and is determined to uncover the truth with the help of the dead boy’s relative Ravi.  But there are certain people in Little Kitson who strongly prefer the investigation of Bell’s death not be reopened.

Mobile Suit Gundam SEED–This award-winning update of the Gundam franchise is set in a future where the galaxy-wide war between the Coordinators (genetically altered humans forced to live in space colonies) and the Naturals (unaltered humans living on Earth who violently hate the Coordinators) has stalemated.  Coordinator and engineering student Kira Yamamoto thought he could live a conflict-free life in the neutral colony of Heliopolis.  But that changes when rogue Coordinators’ ZAFT Le Creuset Team launches a raid on a secret Heliopolis mobile suit factory and steals prototypes of a new generation of these weapons.  Yamamoto will soon find himself embroiled in the war, which includes fighting his old childhood friend Athrun Zala.   

August 7

Secret World Of Sound With David Attenborough–In this new nature documentary miniseries, Sir David Attenborough uses cutting-edge audio technology to examine the many ways animals hear and produce sound.  This might sound like an abstract subject.  But as the episodes reveal, sound is a necessary tool in making such important decisions as where to hunt, who to mate with, and how to call for help.    

Secret World Of Sound With David Attenborough

August 8

The Umbrella Academy Season 4–It’s the final season of Netflix’s adaptation of the comic book series from Gerard Way and Gabriel Ba.  What happened after the timeline reset shuffle that ended Season 3?  Well, the Hargreeves siblings have scattered to the winds…and they have to deal with losing their superpowers too.  Father Reginald is alive, and head of a powerful business empire.  And the mysterious group known as The Keepers have suspicions about the reality they’re living in.

August 9

Inside The Mind Of A Dog–Rob Lowe narrates this documentary which examines the ancient human-dog relationship.  Following a super-trained border collie, a precocious pug, and a rescued mutt, the film will hopefully answer such questions as why dogs chase balls for hours or small dogs think they’re huge.

Mission: Cross–In this Korean action comedy which certainly owes a few DNA strands to “The Way Of The Househusband,” Kang Moo is a former special forces officer who wants to become a good househusband to his wife Mi Sun.  But when Mi Sun mistakenly thinks the former special forces officer is having an affair with the mysterious Hee Joo, this violent crime detective becomes determined to learn the truth about her husband’s past.  Can their marriage survive?

August 10

Romance In The House–Ambitious businessman Byeon Mu-Jin’s personal life unraveled when he prioritized his failed ventures over his family.  As a result, wife Geum Ye-Yeon divorced him and struggled to raise children Mi-Rae and Hyun-Jae by herself.  Years pass and the children grow up.  Mi Rae wants to be someone reliable for her Mom while Hyun Jae has become the family troublemaker.  Now Mu-Jin re-enters the family’s lives.  He wants to reunite with Ye-Yeon.  Mi-Rae utterly hates the idea while Hyun-Jae supports it.  But saying no might be a lot harder than the children think since Mu-Jin owns the villa building where the family lives.

August 14

Daughters

Daughters–One of this month’s must-sees is Natalie Rae and Angela Patton’s Sundance 2024 award-winning documentary.  A Washington, D.C. jail runs a 12-week Date With Dad program.  In this program, incarcerated fathers undergo intense therapy and learn other life skills so they can both strengthen their relationships with their daughters and successfully reintegrate into society after their release.  The highlight of these three months is a dance these program participants have with their daughters.  Can Date With Dad help counteract the ripple effects the fathers’ incarceration has had on their daughters?

They Shot The Piano Player–In Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s animated docudrama, music journalist Jeff Harris (voice of Jeff Goldblum, himself a jazz pianist) becomes fascinated by the music of Brazilian keyboardist Francisco Tenoirio Jr., aka “Tenorio.”  But when his research on Tenorio reveals the piano player disappeared in 1976 Buenos Aires, he’s determined to find out what happened to him.  (Viewers familiar with the political situation in 1970s Argentina will have a pretty good guess at a partial answer.)  Harris will travel around Latin America, interviewing both Tenorio’s surviving family and friends as well as such bossa nova greats as Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso.

Worst Ex Ever Season 1–Blumhouse Television spins off its popular “Worst Roommate Ever” docuseries with this look at previously loving relationships that go really sour after the breakup.  Think betrayals, blood spatter in hallways, murder plots, and other charming things of that nature.  Had this docuseries been made a few decades ago, the logline would have been “real-life ‘Fatal Attraction’ stories…without the misogyny or the bunny boiling.”

August 16

First Man–Damien Chazelle (“La La Land”) recounts the story of how Neil Armstrong (Ryan Gosling) became the first human being to walk on the Moon.  Armstrong volunteers for the Apollo program partly to distract himself from dealing with the pain of recently losing his two-year-old daughter to cancer.  But training for the program means dealing with long hours of inaction and seemingly eternal moments of bone-shaking vibrations.  Meanwhile, the astronauts’ wives deal with the torture of helpless inaction during the mission while African-Americans of the period thought the Apollo program distracted Americans’ attention from the fight for racial equality.

They Shot The Piano Player

Pearl–This prequel to Ti West’s horror hit “X” tells the backstory of that film’s villainess.  In 1918, Pearl (Mia Goth) lives an isolated dreary life on a rural Texas farm while her husband serves in the military.  Her dreams of a life of excitement and stardom turn slowly into a twisted obsession over the next few decades.  Eventually, she becomes determined to kill anyone standing in the way of her achieving stardom.          

The Venture Bros.–The legendary Adult Swim cartoon co-created by Christopher McCulloch and Doc Hammer is back.  Call this series a parody of “Jonny Quest” and other 1960s animated action-adventure series.  It follows the lives and adventures of the Venture family.  The members are:  Dr. Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture (super-scientist father who’s also emotionally insecure and unethical), Hank and Dean Venture (teenage fraternal twins who are well-meaning but also incredibly dimwitted and incompetent) and Brock Samson (secret agent serving as Venture family bodyguard).

August 19

The AMC Thirteen–No, this is not the official title for what Netflix viewers will be getting here.    Basically, AMC has licensed to Netflix for one year a mix of new acclaimed shows never seen by Netflix viewers and series previously streamed on Netflix.  Among the titles that caught this writer’s eye:

Gangs Of London–Gareth Edwards (“The Raid,” “The Raid 2”) helms this action thriller adaptation of the Sony PSP game of the same name.  When powerful London gangster boss Finn Wallace gets assassinated, his hotheaded son Sean Wallace’s efforts to take his father’s place destroys the fragile peace that existed among gangs both domestic and international.  Expect lots of shootouts, backstabbings, and bone-crunching MMA fight scenes.

Monsieur Spade–Scott Frank (“The Queen’s Gambit”) and Tom Fontana (“Homicide: Life On The Street”) puts legendary gumshoe Sam Spade (Clive Owen) in rural 1963 France.  The former hardboiled detective’s long past his prime, and is happily retired in a small village called Bozouls.  But it’s time to get back on the case when old nemesis Philippe Saint-Andre is back in town…and six nuns at the nearby church have just been brutally murdered.

Monsieur Spade

The Terror Season 1–This adaptation of Dan Simmons’ novel of the same name speculates on what happened to Captain Sir John Franklin’s ill-fated 1845 Arctic expedition to locate the Northwest Passage.  The crew of the expedition ships, the HMS Erebus and the HMS Terror, disappeared to never be heard from again.  The series posits that the crewmen went slowly mad from years of being trapped on the ice.  Then again, a mysterious supernatural presence might also be connected to a few disappearances.

UnREAL–This drama co-created by Marti Noxon (“Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro gives the well-deserved stink eye to the making of reality television.  Rachel Goldberg produces the hit reality romance show “Everlasting.”  Behind its fantasies of horse-drawn carriages and hot tubs lie some ugly truths.  Eligible bachelor Adam Cromwell hopes to use this show to repair his image in Britain as a public fool.  Footage gets manipulated so interview confessions get misconstrued.  Personal problems in the contestants’ lives (e.g. an abusive ex-husband) is considered fair game for creating “good TV.”  But Goldberg herself has her own albatross: the show’s an emotionally toxic work environment for her but she’s addicted to being there.      

August 20

Terror Tuesday: Extreme–This anthology series takes stories from the Thai horror radio show “Angkhan Khlumpong” and brings them to life.  Each episode is directed by a different director.  Expect haunted bridal gowns, cursed houses, and more than a few vengeful spirits.  How disconcerted the viewer winds up feeling will depend on how much credence they’ll give to these actual stories phoned in by listeners.

August 22 

Baby Fever Season 2–In this Danish medical series, fertility doctor Nana develops a ton of problems after drunkenly inseminating herself with ex-boyfriend Mathias’ sperm.  As Season 2 opens, Nana finds she hates being on maternity leave with her new two-month-old baby.  To get her old job back, the fertility doctor needs somebody to take care of the baby while she’s at work.  That someone is Nana’s mother, who also becomes the roommate from hell.  Another headache comes from having to compete with (so far temporary) replacement doctor Hampus.

August 29

Represent

Chastity High Season 1–At the exclusive and prestigious Asuran Academy, the students are forbidden from engaging in romantic relationships so that they can focus on their studies.  On top of that, the school principal encourages the teens to spy on each other and broadcast on a website the names of students who are seen together.  Enter the Love Keeper, a girl who’s willing to protect exposed students for a fee.  But what happens when a boy enters the Love Keeper’s life and suggests making her enterprise a real business?

Kaos Season 1–Charlie Covell (“The End Of The F***ing World”)’s new series does a darkly comic take on Greek mythology.  The discovery of a wrinkle on his forehead causes Zeus (Jeff Goldblum) aka King Of The Gods to start becoming paranoiac and see signs that his fall is coming.  Although to be fair, Zeus’ prisoner Prometheus has been implementing a plan to bring down Zeus.  Key to Prometheus’ plan are three disparate humans who have no idea (yet) of the world-saving destiny awaiting them.

Represent Season 2–In this French political comedy, Stephane Ble is an idealistic youth center leader from Paris’ more rundown suburbs who decides to run as a French presidential candidate.  By the end of season 1, Ble unexpectedly wins the race.  But becoming President doesn’t mean smooth sailing for this man from a poorer neighborhood.  Now he faces death threats, protests, domestic problems, and an international gaffe or two.  This might be one of Netflix’s Sleepers of the Month.    

Terminator Zero Season 1–The first animated take on “The Terminator” universe comes courtesy of Production IG (“Ghost In The Shell”).  Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno) is a human soldier from 2022, where humans have been fighting a decades-long war against the rogue AI known as Skynet and its endless machine forces.  In a bid to even the odds, she travels back in time to 1997.  Her job: to protect scientist Malcolm Lee (Andre Holland) as he desperately tries to launch a new AI system (Rosario Dawson) which can compete with Skynet.  But Skynet has sent a Terminator (Timothy Olyphant) to 1997 to stop Lee.