Every month, we’ll tell you about new TV shows to hit terrestrial and cable channels, as well as streaming sites in Singapore. We’ll also highlight the television shows that you’ve got to be home (or on your phone) to catch every month.
Overview of new TV shows in August
August brings a motley mix of shows to us. We have oddball comedies like Ballers and Insecure coming back to screens, as we ll as an assortment of Korean dramas like Lovely Horribly and Familiar Wife. If you’re a Simpsons fan, then you’ll be delighted to know that Matt Groening’s series, Disenchantment, premieres in August as well. Channel 5 also has some interesting fare in the form of 20 Days.
Ballers (Season 4) (13 Aug, Mondays 10am and 11pm)
HBO (StarHub TV Ch 601)
In Season Four, Spencer Strasmore (Dwayne Johnson) and Joe (Rob Corddry) take their skills to Los Angeles as they look to expand their roster and horizons in the world of action sports.
Woah Dwayne Johnson has certainly aged. While we don’t see much evidence of his comic timing in the trailer, we can usually see his comedy potential in the past shows he’s done, whether it’s through reaction shots or that bewildered look. Thankfully, it looks like the latest season of Ballers will manage to be edgy without being vulgar. That’s a tough line to toe, but one that we’re sure The Rock will be ready to handle.
Lovely Horribly (14 Aug)
Viu
Philip and Eul-Soon were born at the same time and they seem to share fate. If one person is happy, the other person is unhappy. Philip has all the good luck in their fate and he is a top star. On the other, hand, Eul-Soon has all the bad luck and she works as a drama series screenwriter. They begin to work together for a drama series and mysterious things take place around them.
All writers like to watch shows about them, so Lovely Horribly sounds like a fun premise to start on. Although the English translation of the title sounds like it could have been more carefully thought out, it does moderate our expectations of the drama. As long as Eul-Soon doesn’t churn out the sort of nonsensical, melodramatic drivel that the writers of Descendant of the Sun did, we’re sure she’ll be a delightful and witty character, like all writers are.
Disenchantment (17 Aug)
Netflix
Princess duties call, but she’d rather be drinking. Free-spirited Bean exasperates the king as she wreaks havoc with her demon and elf pals.
It feels like a Disney drama dressed up in modern humour, what with its inspirational message and subversion of common tropes. There’s sure to be plenty of fantasy references in Disenchantment, and it’s exciting to see what Matt Groening has lined up for a medieval drama! He’s already gone to the future and back (with Futurama) and this will be an amusing new genre to explore.
Cocaine Godmother (24 Aug, Sat 10pm)
Lifetime (Singtel TV Ch 302, StarHub TV Ch 514)
At the age of 17, Griselda Blanco, made her way to the U.S. with a fake passport with her first husband Carlos (Carlos Rodriguez). Living in Queens with her three sons (Dixon, Matteo Stefan; Osvaldo, Spencer Borgeson; Uber, Jose Julian), Griselda became enticed by the money the drug world offered, and quickly became embroiled with local drug runners. Griselda masterminded the use of beautiful women, the elderly and children as the mules and created false-bottom suitcases to smuggle cocaine from Colombia.
After all the focus on Pablo Escobar, it’s time that we take a look at another drug kingpin instead. It seems to be a fresh new tale with a different spin on the tale of a druglord’s rise to power that covers fresh territory amidst a familiar background. What sort of internal conflict will Blanco face in this dramatisation of her life story?
Terrestrial
Channel 5
20 Days (13 Aug, Mondays 10pm)
Cable
HBO (StarHub TV Ch 601)
Ballers (Season 4) (13 Aug, Mondays 10am and 11pm)
Insecure (Season 3) (13 Aug, Mondays 10.30am and 11.30pm)
Lifetime (Singtel TV Ch 302, StarHub TV Ch 514)
Cocaine Godmother (movie) (24 Aug, Sat 10pm)
Streaming
Netflix
Flavors of Youth (movie) (4 Aug)
Ghoul (movie) (24 Aug)
Disenchantment (17 Aug)
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (movie) (17 Aug)
The Innocents (24 Aug)
Ozark (Season 2) (31 Aug)
Amazon Prime Video
Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan (Season 2) (31 Aug)
Viu
Familiar Wife (2 Aug)
Voice 2 (12 Aug)
Lovely Horribly (14 Aug)
This article was first written for and published on Yahoo Singapore.
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I’m a television scriptwriter who’s written for popular shows like Lion Mums, Crimewatch, Police & Thief, and Incredible Tales. I’m also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. You can find me on social media as Optimarcus and on my site.
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