What are you going to be watching in August? The Spinoff rounds up everything that’s coming to streaming services this month, including Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+, Apple TV+, Neon and TVNZ OnDemand.

Click here to see our listings from July.

The biggies

Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story (on Netflix from August 14)

The original Dirty John was a newspaper feature that became a podcast that became a miniseries starring Eric Bana as charming conman John Meehan and Connie Britton as his mark Debra Newell. With that story concluded, Dirty John is now a true-crime anthology series that “explores the theme of love gone wrong, set against the backdrop of sunny Southern California”, and season two tells the murderous tale of Betty Broderick and her husband Dan, a successful San Diego couple with a violent private life. Starring Amanda Peet and Christian Slater, this is one of those series that benefits from a viewer’s ignorance of the real-life story. Stay away from Google, and prepare to be hooked. / Catherine McGregor

The Koi Boys (on TVNZ on Demand from August 2)

They made it big on The Voice: Australia and followed it up with a best-selling album in New Zealand, but what makes cabaret crooners The Koi Boys really tick?  This heartfelt documentary series follows Kevin, Nuz and Danny as they prepare for an upcoming New Zealand tour, giving viewers an honest and personal insight into their lives and revealing the challenges and trials of making their musical dreams come true. / Tara Ward

Lovecraft Country (on Neon from August 17)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvamPJp17Ds

After Get Out and Us, I would watch anything that has Jordan Peele’s name attached to it. While he’s only involved here as an executive producer, the series still looks like it will be equal parts horrifying and dramatic. I can’t wait. According to Wikipedia (because the trailer kind of reveals nothing), it’s about a young African American man who travels across a segregated United States in the 1950s in search of his missing father. And while the “monster” will almost certainly be racism, it also has Cthulhu in it. HBO has an excellent track record with big budget event television like this, so this is surely one not to be missed in August. / Stewart Sowman-Lund

Peaky Blinders (season 5 on Netflix August TBC)

We’re not supposed to like people who hide razor blades in their flat caps, but let’s make an exception for Tommy Shelby. It’s 1929 and old mate’s been elected to parliament, and season five of this gritty gangster drama will take Tommy Shelby MP on a bumpy ride through a global financial crash, political uprisings and plenty of dodgy deals. Chuck in a pandemic and a baby yak and it’s like looking at 2020 in a mirror. Helen McCrory continues her incredible performance as Shelby family matriarch Aunt Pol, and keep an eye out for Winston Churchill, who bloody loves a late-night chinwag with Birmingham’s meanest mobster. / TW

The notables

Selling Sunset (season three on Netflix from August 7)

Selling Sunset is The Hills for real estate agents, and a new season of this glitzy reality show hits Netflix this month. It follows the lives and loves of a group of real estate brokers working for The Oppenheim Group, as they showcase the finest multi-million dollar Los Angeles properties while fighting each other to secure top commission. You’ll question their professionalism, you’ll wonder why you’re even watching, and yet, you’ll probably hate-binge the entire series in two days straight. / TW

Aggretsuko (season 3 on Netflix from August 27)

Sometimes all you need from a show is the elevator pitch: an anthropomorphic red panda called Retsuko (the title in Japanese is literally Aggressive Retsuko) works in the accounting department of a Japanese trading firm. To vent her anger at her 9-5 grind, she goes to a karaoke bar every night and sings death metal. She tries to change her life with mixed, but funny results. Oh and also: it’s a cutesy cartoon. Aggretsuko is one of those shows that your Netflix algorithm will recommend you for whatever reason, and I strongly endorse checking it out. It’s a lot darker, a lot funnier, and a lot sadder than you think it is. If you’re looking for something to fill that BoJack Horseman shaped hole in your soul, this is where you should start. / Sam Brooks

Death and Nightingales (on Neon from August 27)

It’s 1885, and you’ve just fallen in love with a man you met when you pulled a dead cow out of a ditch. You want to elope and leave Ireland forever, but your plan to poison your father is scuppered when he reveals all the sordid family secrets, which is a definite mood killer. Farm life is no fun in Death and Nightingales, a slow-burn Irish drama starring Matthew Rhys and Jamie Dornan, and based on Eugene McCabe’s best-selling novel. It’s a quiet, dark thriller that weaves the tensions of the Catholic church and sectarian politics into an absorbing story of love, betrayal and revenge, and features some excellent agricultural scenes. / TW

K-Pop Academy (on TVNZ on Demand from August 3)

What if Dance Moms was cool and didn’t have all the child abuse and problematic sexualisation? Well, you get a very different show. In this new competitive reality show on TVNZ’s Heihei channel, New Zealand’s “K-Pop queen” Rina Chae takes 25 contestants and transforms them into K-Pop stars. The show follows a two-week boot camp, where groups and presumably friendships/rivalries (depending on how wholesome the show is) are formed, and it culminates with a live performance. It sounds sweet as all hell, and who doesn’t enjoy some high energy, high stress choreographed competition? Sign me up. / SB

The films

Project Power (on Netflix from August 14)

What if the film Limitless… had limits? That’s sort of the premise for Netflix’s new original film, Project Power, which revolves around a drug that imbues the taker with a superhuman ability but only for five minutes. Jamie Foxx stars as a man whose quest is to rescue his daughter from the people who make these drugs. It’s a rarity for a superhero film in that it’s not based on any previous properties. However, writer Mattson Tomlin is also credited on the upcoming Batman reboot/remake/rewhatever, and it seems to be less a “superhero” film and more a “superpower” film, if we’re being technical. Expect this to be the film that everybody talks about over a weekend, and then forgets when the next film of the week comes along because our brains are mush and this is how we consume films now. / SB

Cats (on Neon from August 23)

Fitting squarely into the so bad it’s good category (or at least the so bad you HAVE to see it category), the 2019 adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical is a curious beast. From the moment its first fear-inducing trailer was released roughly a year ago, the internet spent six months talking almost exclusively about Cats. It has an all-star cast: Idris Elba! Taylor Swift! James Corden! And they’re all weird, terrifying, human-cat hybrids… without genitals! And they’re singing? Am I in a fever dream? Is this a nightmare? When will these cats stop singing? Why is Jason Derulo here?! Cats is messed up and you should absolutely, definitely watch it immediately. / SSL

Jojo Rabbit (on Neon from August 30)

Perhaps less divisive than Cats, Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit still made a splash when it landed in cinemas last year. A comedy about the holocaust with Waititi playing a campy, imaginary Hitler is certainly one way to drum up controversy. And yet, the film made it all the way to the Oscars thanks to its charming cast, cutesy aesthetic and heartfelt message. Co-starring Scarlett Johansson, Rebel Wilson and our very own Thomasin McKenzie, Jojo Rabbit is a touching coming of age story about Nazis (sort of). It manages to balance a very fine line between being insensitive and satirical. If you haven’t seen it yet, not only are unpatriotic but you’ve missed out on seeing a great film. / SSL

The rest

Netflix

August 1

Super Monsters: The New Class

Forrest Gump

Project X

No Strings Attached

Jason and the Argonauts

Rock Star

School of Rock

Man of Steel

The Ring

Legends of the Fall

Little Fockers

Kiss the Girls

Revolutionary Road

North Country

August 2

Connected

August 3

Immigration Nation

August 4

Mundo Misterio

Sam Jay: 3 in the Morning

A Go! Go! Cory Carson Summer Camp

Malibu Rescue: The Next Wave

August 5

World’s Most Wanted

Anelka: L’Incompris

August 6

The Rain: Season 3

The Seven Deadly Sins: Imperial Wraths of The Gods

A Star is Born

August 7

High Seas: Season 3

Selling Sunset: Season 3

Sing On! Germany

Tiny Creatures

¡Nailed It! México: Season 2

Work It

Berlin, Berlin

The New Legends of Monkey: Season 2

Wizards: Tales of Arcadia

Word Up Party

The Magic School Bus Rides Again Kids in Space

August 10

Game On: A Comedy Crossover Event

Little Italy

How to Train your Dragon: The Hidden World

August 12

Greenleaf: Season 5

(Un)Well

August 13

Une fille facile

Overlord

August 14

Teenage Bounty Hunters

3%: Season 4

Dirty John: The Betty Broderick Story

El robo del siglo

Glow-Up: Season 2

Project Power

Octonauts & the Caves of Sac Actun

Honey 2

August 15

Stranger: Season 2

Rita: Season 5

Space Jam

Daddy Day Care

Sniper: Ultimate Kill

The Dark Tower

V for Vendetta

August 17

Crazy Awesome Teachers

Glitch Techs: Season 2

August 19

DeMarcus Family Rules

Crimenes de familia

Love the Way U Lie

High Score

August 20

Biohackers

John Was Trying to Contact Aliens

Great Pretenders

August 21

Hoops

Rust Valley Restorers: Season 3

Lucifer: Season 5

Fuego negro

All Together Now

The Sleepover

August 25

Trinkets: Season 2

Emily’s Wonder Lab

August 26

Do Do Sol Sol La La Sol

Million Dollar Beach House

Rising Phoenix

Vice

August 27

Aggretsuko: Season 3

August 28

Cobra Kai: Season 1-2

I Am A Killer: Released

Origienes secretos

Fearless

Neon

August 1

Big Block Singsong

The Hive

Messy Goes to Okido

Pocoyo

Yes Man

August 2

Louis Theroux: Heroin Town

Louis Theroux: Murder in Milwaukee

Louis Theroux: Trafficking Sex

The Equalizer

Official Secrets

August 3

Ex Machina

New Zealand’s Air Force – Then & Now

August 5

The Last Black Man in San Francisco

August 6

Trust Me I’m a Doctor: Seasons 2-4

August 7

Hooligan Escape: The Russian Job

August 8

Dublin Murders

The Familky

August 9

Last Christmas

47 Meters Down: Uncaged

August 10

Rogue Warfare: Pt 1-3

August 11

Yes, God, Yes

August 12

It’s Suppertime: Season 1

August 14

Huang’s World: Season 1-2

Yvonne Orji: Momma, I Made It!

August 15

Hey Duggee: Season 2

Bluey: Season 1

Thomas & Friends: Season 19

Sharks of the Icy North

Direct from An Asteroid

Fixing a Broken Heart

Fukushima: Five Years Later

Hottest Years

Jason Silva: Transhumanism

Ketamine: Depression

Making Babies

Man’s First Friend

Message from Space

The Eighth Continent: Zealandia

The First Picture of a Black Hole

Tiny House: Living Off the Grid

T-Rex Timeline

Floodgates of Venice

Viking Uprising; Legend of Redbad

August 16

Terminator: Dark Fate

Hotel Transylvania 2

Luce

August 17

Lovecraft Country

Role Models

August 19

The Wedding Year

August 20

The Truth About Antibiotics

The Truth About Calories

The Truth About Getting Fit

August 21

Acceleration

August 22

King Arthur: Excalibur Rising

August 23

Ford V Ferrari

Cats

August 25

Russia with Simon Reeve

Simon Reeve’s Sacred Rivers

Columbia with Simon Reeve

Dolittle

Drive Me To The End

August 27

Death and Nightingales

August 29

Any Bullet Will Do

August 30

Jojo Rabbit

The Goldfinch

TVNZ on Demand

August 1

Keplere

Philharmonia

The Adventures of Danny and the Dingo: Season 1-5

On Surfari

Amber Light

No Dress Code Required

Māori Boy Genius

The Art Star and The Sudanese Twins

Eternite

It’s Only The End of the World

Breathless

Diana: The Night She Died

Motherland

1929: The Year of the Crash

August 2

The Koi Boys

August 3

K-Pop Academy

August 7

The Royals: Seasons 1-4

August 11

Putin: A Russian Spy Story

Surviving Jeffrey Epstein

August 15

Freefall: Season 4

Jumping the Apex: Season 1

August 20

Loading Docs 2020

August 24

Yap Trap

August 26

Casual: Season 1-4

August 30

Coroner: Season 1-2

Disney+

August 7

Howard

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge: Adventure Awaits

The Peanuts Movie

X-Men

Hidden Kingdoms of China

August 14

Ant-Man and the Wasp

The Greatest Showman

The One and Only Ivan

Magic Camp

Zombies 2

India’s Wild Leopards

Jungle Animal Rescue: Season 1

Nature Boom Time: Season 1

Sam’s Zookeeper Challenge: Season 1

Scuba Sam’s World: Season 1

Spaced Out: Season 1

T.O.T.S: Calling all T.O.Ts: Season 1

T.O.T.S: Season 1

Wild Cats of India: Season 1

August 21

Beauty and the Beast

Alaska Animal Rescue: Season 1

Back to the Titanic

Mars: One Day on the Red Planet

August 28

Alice Through The Looking Glass

Fantastic Four

Phineas and Ferb: the Movie: Candace Against the Universe

Amazon Prime

August 1

The Office (UK): Season 1-2

Orphan Black: Season 1-5

24: Season 1-8

The West Wing: Seasom 1-7

David Makes Man: Season 1

August 3

Bandish Bandits

August 7

Jessy and Nessy: Season 1

August 14

World’s Toughest Race; Eco-Challenge Fiji: Season 1

August 15

Misfits: Season 1-5

August 18

Safe House

August 21

Chemical Hearts

August 28

Get Duked!

Apple TV+

August 7

The Oprah Conversation

August 10

Boys State

August 14

Ted Lasso

Acorn TV

August 3

Civil War

Taggart: Season 25

Dr. Finlay: Season 1-4

August 10

Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Season 7-8

August 17

The Aurora Teagarden Mysteries

Murdoch Mysteries: Season 5-6

McCallum: Season 1-2

August 24

Family Business: Season 1

Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Season 9-10

August 31

Taggart: Season 26-27