Nine best series to stream on Showmax this August, from S3 of Industry to Fargo S5

Flip Side August 7, 2024

9 minutes read

EMMY NOMINEES GALORE | Binge now

Last year, Showmax had ALL the drama winners at the Emmy Awards, thanks to Succession S4, The Last of Us S1 and The White Lotus S2.

This year, by the end of August, Showmax will be streaming 21 nominees, up for a combined 75 Emmys – with more nominees on the way.

The most nominated series on Showmax is True Detective: Nighty Country, which is up for

19 awards, the most of any limited or anthology series and in fourth place overall.

When the long winter night falls in Ennis, Alaska, the eight men who operate the Tsalal Arctic Research Station vanish without a trace. To solve the case, Detectives Liz Danvers (two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster) and Evangeline Navarro (Kali Reis) will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice.

At the Emmys, True Detective: Nighty Country is up for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, with creator Issa López also nominated for both Writing and Directing. Foster, Reis and John Hawkes are up for Outstanding Lead Actress, Supporting Actress and Supporting Actor respectively.

This makes Night Country the most nominated season of True Detective at the Emmys, as well as the most watched and the best-reviewed, with a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The critics’ consensus there says, “Frighteningly atmospheric and anchored by Jodie Foster and Kali Reis’ superb performances, Night Country is a fresh and frosty variation on True Detective‘s existential themes,” while The Guardian’s 5/5-star review says, “a blazing Jodie Foster makes this show better than ever before.’’

With Night Country recently named one of IMDb’s 10 Top-Rated Shows of 2024 So Far, it’s no surprise HBO has already ordered another season.

Other Emmy nominees on Showmax to catch up on include:

Outstanding Drama nominee The Gilded Age
Outstanding Comedy nominees Hacks and Curb Your Enthusiasm
Outstanding TV Movie nominee Mr. Monk’s Last Case: A Monk Movie
Outstanding Documentary or Non-Fiction Special nominee Albert Brooks: Defending My Life
Outstanding Director: Drama nominee Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty
Outstanding Actor and Supporting Actor: Drama nominee Fellow Travelers
Bob Hearts Abishola, How To With John Wilson, Lawmen: Bass Reeves, Survivor, The Idol, The Regime, The Righteous Gemstones, The Rookie, Warrior, We’re Here.

Emmy-nominated August additions to Showmax include Fargo, The Tattooist of Auschwitz and The Sympathizer – see below.

WEEK TWO: 5-11 August

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON S2 | Binge from Monday, 5 August

“The dragons dance and men are like dust under their feet,” says Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) at the start of the trailer for Monday’s epic S2 finale of House of the Dragon. “We march now towards our annihilation.” As the HBO trailer description on YouTube warns, “There will be no mercy.”

Recently named one of IMDb’s 10 Top-Rated Shows of 2024 So Far, House of the Dragon S2 has an 89% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with its jaw-dropping fourth episode the highest rated yet on IMDb, earning a 9.5/10 rating and widespread comparisons to the Red Wedding episode of Game of Thrones.

Game of Thrones became the most awarded show in the Emmys history, with six entries in The Guinness Book of World Records, but House of the Dragon is living up to that legacy. The Emmy-winning first season was named Best TV Series – Drama at the 2023 Golden Globes and the best-reviewed series of 2022 at Rotten Tomatoes’ Golden Tomato Awards. As Seattle Times says of S2, “House of the Dragon evolves into such smart, thrilling and heartbreaking storytelling that it threatens to become the rare prequel that outshines the original.”

After the S2 premiere helped Max to its most-watched day yet, House of the Dragon has already been renewed for a third season.

WEEK THREE: 12-18 August

FARGO S5 | Binge from Tuesday, 13 August

The previous four seasons of Fargo won six Emmys between them, while the movie that inspired it won two Oscars.

The latest instalment of the acclaimed crime anthology is now up for another 15 Emmys, including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series and Writing and Directing awards for creator Noah Hawley.

This season’s story is set in 2019, when Midwestern housewife Dorothy ‘Dot’ Lyon finds herself in hot water with the authorities and plunged back into a life she thought she had left behind.

Three-time Emmy nominee Juno Temple (Ted Lasso) stars as Dot, with Emmy winner Jon Hamm (Mad Men) as the sheriff who has been searching for her for a long time. Both actors are up for Emmys for their lead roles, with Lamorne Morris (Winston in New Girl) also nominated as Supporting Actor.

Season 5 has a 93% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the consensus says, “A back-to-basics caper populated by the likes of a mesmerising Juno Temple and a thick slice of Hamm, Fargo’s fifth season is a superb return to peak form.”

THE SYMPATHIZER S1 | Mondays from 12 August at 21:00

Based on Viet Thanh Nguyen’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Sympathizer follows a half-French, half-Vietnamese communist spy during the final days of the Vietnam War and into his new life as a refugee in Los Angeles, where he learns that his spying days aren’t over.

Hoa Xuande (Cowboy Bebop) leads a largely Vietnamese cast, with Oscar winner Robert Downey Jr. earning an Emmy nomination for his multiple roles here. The supporting cast includes Golden Globe winners Sandra Oh (Killing Eve, Grey’s Anatomy) and David Duchovny (The X Files, Californication), as well as John Cho (from the Harold & Kumar and Star Trek franchises).

The HBO/A24 co-production is #10 on Metacritic’s round-up of the Best TV Shows (So Far) This Year and has an 88% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Time Magazine says it’s, “ambitious, brilliant television,” and Rolling Stone calls it “wickedly funny [and] deeply moving,” saying, “The Sympathizer turns a bestseller adaptation into a TV tour de force.”

The Sympathizer is co-created by Cannes winners Park Chan-wook (Oldboy) and Don McKellar (Last Night), with Chan-wook, Oscar nominee Fernando Meirelles (City of God) and triple BAFTA winner Marc Munden (Utopia) each directing episodes.

APPLES NEVER FALL S1 | Binge from Monday, 12 August

Based on the bestselling novel by Big Little Lies author Liane Moriarty, Apples Never Fall centres on Stan and Joy, who have sold their successful tennis academy and are ready to start what should be the golden years of their lives. Everything changes when a wounded young woman knocks on their door, bringing the excitement they’ve been missing.

As Joy, four-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening won Best Actress at Series Mania this year, opposite Emmy winner Sam Neill (Jurassic Park) as Stan.

Also look out for Emmy nominee Jake Lacy (The White Lotus) and Alison Brie (GLOW) as their adult children, who are forced to re-examine their parents’ ‘perfect’ marriage as their family’s darkest secrets begin to surface.

HOUSE OF GODS | Tuesdays from 13 August

House of Gods follows the lives of an ambitious Iraqi Australian family grappling with newfound power and privilege when their charismatic patriarch is elected Head Cleric of their local mosque.

As Sheikh Mohammad, Palestinian actor Kamel El Basha won Best Actor at Series Mania in France earlier this year. Award-winning Australian actor, screen-writer and series co-creator Osamah Sami co-stars as Isa, alongside an all Arab-Australian support cast.

The drama series takes us behind the walls of the imam’s family and the community he leads as he rolls out his vision of a modern Islam. But as his grand ambitions become a reality, those closest to him begin to question whether he is acting solely for the greater good or if he is intoxicated by power. A tale of faith, family, secrets and lies, the six-episode series explores the great personal cost of ambition.

“Australia’s House Of Gods started out as The Sopranos in a mosque, channelled Succession and ended up in a category all of its own,” Deadline headlined.

WEEK FOUR: 19-25 August

DEATH S2 | Binge from Monday, 19 August

The first season of Dr. Death was nominated for Best Limited Series at the Critics Choice Awards and Best Horror Series at the Critics Choice Super Awards, among other accolades.

Now the true-crime anthology series is back, this time focusing on “Miracle Man” Paolo Macchiarini, a charming surgeon renowned for his innovative operations. When investigative journalist Benita Alexander approaches him for a story, the line between personal and professional begins to blur, changing her life forever. As she learns how far Paolo will go to protect his secrets, a group of doctors halfway across the world make shocking discoveries of their own that call everything about Paolo into question.

Emmy nominees Edgar Ramirez (The Assassination of Gianni Versace) and Mandy Moore (This is Us) co-star.

Dr. Death S2 has an 80% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As The Daily Beast says, “Dr. Death works by playing on the primal fear of betrayal by those who hold our lives in their hands and choose to play not God but the devil. The fact that there are enough such cases to keep a podcast and television series going is disturbing.”

WEEK FIVE: 26 August-1 September

INDUSTRY S3 | First On Showmax | Mondays from 26 August

Industry S3 is one of Rotten Tomatoes’ Most Anticipated TV Shows of 2024, drawing Succession comparisons from them as “HBO’s other whip-smart and acid-tongued drama that’s really a comedy.”

New cast members this season include Emmy nominees Kit Harington (Jon Snow in Game of Thrones) and Sarah Goldberg (Sally Reed in Barry) as the CEO of a green tech energy company and a portfolio manager respectively.

An insider’s view of high finance, Industry followsa group of young bankers as they forge their identities within the pressure cooker environment and sex and drug fueled blitz of international bank Pierpoint & Co’s London office.

In Season 3, Pierpoint looks to the future and takes a big bet on ethical investing. Yasmin (Marisa Abela), Robert (Harry Lawtey), and Eric (Ken Leung) find themselves front and center dealing with Lumi, a green tech energy company led by Sir Henry Muck (Harington).

Since leaving Pierpoint, Harper (Myha’la) is eager to get back into the addictive thrill of finance and finds an unlikely partner in FutureDawn portfolio manager Petra Koenig (Goldberg).

Industry has an 86% overall critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Season 2 hailed as “the most thrilling show on TV” and an “emergent masterpiece” by The Atlantic; “the first great Gen Z workplace drama” by GQ; “the missing link between Euphoria and Succession” by Vanity Fair; “one of the best workplace series of the 21st century” by The AV Club; and for having “the most exciting performances on television” by Vogue.

THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ | Mondays from 29 August

Inspired by the real-life story of Jewish Holocaust survivors Lali and Gita Sokolov, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is a six-part historical drama based on the bestselling novel by Heather Morris.

Arriving in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1942, Lali (Jonah Hauer-King from The Little Mermaid and World on Fire) is made one of the tattooists charged to ink identification numbers onto fellow prisoners’ arms. One day, he meets Gita (Anna Próchniak) while tattooing her prisoner number on her arm. Under the constant guard of volatile Nazi SS officers, Lali and Gita fall in love and become determined to keep each other alive.

60 years later, the recently widowed Lali (Oscar nominee Harvey Keitel from The Piano and The Grand Budapest Hotel), now in his 80s, meets novice writer Heather Morris (Emmy nominee Melanie Lynskey from Yellowjackets) and finds the courage to share his story, facing the traumatic ghosts of his youth and reliving his memories of falling in love in the most horrific of places.

Among Rotten Tomatoes’ Most Anticipated TV Shows Of 2024, “The Tattooist of Auschwitz puts the dichotomy of the human spirit on full display,” says Variety, “showing the possibility of love and the unimaginable monstrosity that hatred can bring.”

Double Oscar winner Hans Zimmer and Kara Talve have been nominated for two Emmys for their score.

EVERYTHING ON SHOWMAX IN AUGUST:

Showmax has another bumper lineup this August, including:

2024 Oscar nominee May December, starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore
Talk To Me, named Best Horror Movie at the 2024 Critics Choice Super Awards
Evil Dead Rise, the highest grossing film in the franchise
Acclaimed horror comedy The Blackening
The Real Housewives Ultimate Girls Trip: RHONY Legacy
An Emmy-nominated new season of Survivor
Live streams and daily highlights of BBNaija S9, as well as its weekly talk show The Buzz
Four new Showmax Original reality shows, including The Mommy Club: Sugar & Spice
Two new Showmax Original movies: action movie The Butcher’s Soul and raunchcom Eksie Perfeksie
A new Premier League season, starting 16 August