TV series to chill with in August

Heat got you down? Humidity driving you nuts? Here are some series to chill with in August while the world around you burns

Best Medicine – August 4, Netflix

Based on the long-running British comedy-drama series Doc Martin, Best Medicine tells the story of Dr Martin Best, a brilliant Boston surgeon who abandons his prestigious career after developing a fear of blood.

Still wanting to practice medicine but with no obvious way forward, he decides to become the general practitioner in a small fishing village where he spent his childhood summers. Being a big-time doctor, however, comes with a certain detachment from patients and a touch of aversion towards the plebs. Trying to remain cold and impersonal doesn’t fly with the colourful locals, who do their best to disrupt the new doctor’s life.

This was originally a Fox show and is being streamed on Netflix through a third-party agreement, and it is not certain that it will be available in Cyprus.

Ted Lasso Season 4 – August 5, Apple TV

Here’s the good thing about returning series: if you don’t like the new direction they have taken, you can always pretend it didn’t happen.

The lovable, feel-good, folksy coach is back to bring joy and a ray of sunshine into a bleak world. Jason Sudeikis returns as Ted Lasso, the clueless football coach who didn’t understand the sport but understood people.

Three years after the events of Season 3, Lasso returns to Richmond, this time to coach a second-division women’s football team, giving the series a fresh group of players, problems and motivational speeches involving biscuits.

The original cast all return, with the exception of Phil Dunster, who plays Jamie Tartt, due to scheduling issues.

To be perfectly honest, I’m a bit torn on this one. Sure, I love seeing Ted Lasso return but can they recreate the magic of the previous three seasons?

One Hundred Years of Solitude: Part 2 – August 5, Netflix

Last December, Netflix set out to do what was said to be impossible: adapt Gabriel García Márquez’s masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude, a book long considered unfilmable.

The streaming behemoth rose to the challenge and gave viewers an excellent first part, which was critically acclaimed and warmly received by audiences. Now, it is time for the final step: wrapping up the series with the second part of the Buendía family saga.

Seven episodes arrive on August 5. Netflix is then withholding the eighth and final episode until August 26, presumably to give viewers three weeks to study the Buendía family tree.

Monsters of God – August 6, HBO Max

Here’s the only pitch I need for a documentary: from the people who brought you Tiger King and Chimp Crazy. Sold.

Filmmaker Eric Goode returns with another potential monster hit offering an inside look at the billion-euro world of exotic reptile smuggling. It follows collectors, traffickers, breeders and federal agents through a trade driven by the desire to own increasingly rare and dangerous animals.

Monsters of God has received rave reviews from critics so far.

Reacher Season 4 – August 12, Prime Video

Jack Reacher returns for another season of walking into dangerous situations, solving complicated conspiracies and clearly demonstrating that violence is sometimes the answer. Depending on the question.

The hulking modern-day knight in shining armour this time finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy in New York City. Everything begins when he encounters a distressed stranger on the subway, a woman who appears to be on the verge of doing something monstrous.

Reacher is based on the books by Lee Child, and Season 4 adapts his 13th novel, Gone Tomorrow.

Lanterns – August 17, HBO Max

Talk about desperately needing a win. After the major flop that was Supergirl, the newly rebooted DC Universe needs to come back with a hit to prove that Supergirl was a fluke rather than a sign of a franchise beginning to crumble.

Kyle Chandler plays veteran Lantern Hal Jordan, while Aaron Pierre stars as John Stewart, a new recruit learning to wield one of the most powerful weapons in the universe. Rather than immediately sending them into a gigantic battle in space, the series places the pair inside a dark, Earth-based murder investigation in the American heartland. Director James Gunn has described it as a True Detective-style mystery.

Dark Matter Season 2 – August 28, Apple TV

I’ve said it here before: Apple TV is where you want to go for excellent sci-fi series. Dark Matter premiered in 2024 and went on to become a hit, telling the story of a physicist who is forced into an alternate reality.

Starring Joel Edgerton, the series follows its protagonist as he tries to return to his family while making sense of the world around him.

Season 2 continues the story, as discovering the truth behind the paths to alternate realities becomes a deadly obsession.