The Mallorca Files
From Sunday, August 4th, Prime Video
A comedy crime drama featuring a mismatched pair of detectives solving murders on a sun-drenched Mediterranean island: why didn’t someone think of this one before? Miranda and Max are the crime-fighting odd couple flirting and bickering their way through a series of luxury settings on the Balearic island of Mallorca. She’s a straight-shooting Brit detective; he’s a wisecracking, laid-back German. Their boss is the crusty but benign Ines, who says things like “Now get out of here and catch that killer!” Season three promises treasure hunts, arson, kidnapping and murder, with Miranda and Max’s personal tensions threatening to boil over in the summer heat.
The Umbrella Academy
From Thursday, August 8th, Netflix
It’s the final season of the bonkers sci-fi superhero series, and good luck tying up all the plot twists and timeline shifts over the past three series. Series four has the potential for more mind-blowing mayhem, as the Hargreeves family patriarch, Reginald, returns from the dead and dictates a new timeline, while the Hargreeves siblings lose all their powers – not very convenient when several new enemies are out to destroy them. Oh, and the world is about to end, so that needs to be averted. The Irish actor Robert Sheehan returns as Klaus Hargreeves.
[ Robert Sheehan: 'I was a contrarian f**ker, I thought it made me seem more-edgy'Opens in new window ]
Bad Monkey
From Wednesday, August 14th, Apple TV+
Vincent Vaughn produces and stars in this Florida-set comic crime yarn based on the bestselling – and very funny – novel by Carl Hiaasen and featuring a cast of misbegotten characters plus one misbehaving simian. Vaughn plays Miami detective Andrew Yancy, who has been demoted because of his own bad behaviour and is now a health inspector going around restaurants in the Florida Keys. When a tourist on a fishing trip catches a human arm, Yancy sees his chance to regain his old job by solving the case. The starry supporting cast includes Rob Delaney, Michelle Monaghan and Scott Glenn. Let’s hope it fares better than the movie adaptation of Hiaasen’s novel Striptease.
Emily in Paris
From Thursday, August 15th, Netflix
Lily Collins returns as the American expat learning all about life, love, food and fashion in the French capital, and there are a few big questions on everyone’s lips: Will Emily and Gabriel finally get together? Will Gabriel’s restaurant finally earn a Michelin star? Will Mindy and her band finally make it to Eurovision? And will Emily finally learn to speak French? She may have to change the settings on her language-learning app for this fourth series, as she’s about to be whisked off to Rome for a large chunk of the story. But don’t fret: according to the actor, “Emily’s heart will always remain true to Paris”. That’s a relief.
Pachinko
From Friday, August 23rd, Apple TV+
This epic family drama based on the bestselling novel by Min Jin Lee has earned huge acclaim – plus 11 prestigious awards. Season two continues the tale that sweeps across four generations of a Korean family and traverses Korea, Japan and the United States. The story revolves around Sunja (played at different ages by three different actors), who grows up in Japanese-occupied Korea in the early 20th century and then moves to Osaka as a teenager to begin a new life, but finds herself living an old story of discrimination against and exploitation of Korean immigrants.
[ Pachinko by Min Jin Lee: a masterpiece of empathy, integrity and family loyaltyOpens in new window ]
Only Murders in the Building
From Tuesday, August 27th, Disney+
The podcasting, crime-fighting, wisecracking trio of Charles, Oliver and Mabel are back – and the murders just keep coming. This time, however, our heroes are heading into unknown territory: the Arconia’s west tower. Will Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez still have the comedic chemistry to carry them through a fourth season of this popular series? Don’t write them off just yet. As our heroes try to process the shocking ending of season three, their investigations take them all the way to Hollywood, where a film about their podcast is being made.
Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power
From Thursday, August 29th, Prime Video
The most expensive TV show of all time returns for a second series, and the dwarves of Prime Video have been busy mining more gold to cover the costs of the lavish sets and stunning visuals that LOTR fans expect. With luck they’ll have a few bob left over to polish up the storyline, which went a bit all over the place in series one, and work on the Harfoots’ Oirish accents. Rings of Power has been a huge success for the streaming giant, drawing in more than 100 million viewers and driving more sign-ups than any of its other shows. As series two begins, Sauron (Charlie Vickers), who has returned and ensconced himself in Mordor, sets out to create the rings of power that will bind all peoples of Middle-Earth to his evil will. Galadriel (Morfydd Clarke) has already been fooled by Sauron, but will she get fooled again? And will the mysterious Stranger (Daniel Weyman) – who we all know is Gandalf – finally don his wizard’s robes?
Kaos
From Thursday, August 29th, Netflix
Stay with me on this one. Here’s an epic tale of Greek mythology, set in the modern-day US, with Jeff Goldblum as Zeus, the supreme being, resplendent in leisure suit and plimsolls, and with a cruel and capricious nature. Janet McTeer is Zeus’s wife (and sister), the goddess Hera; Nabhaan Rizwaan is their delinquent son, Dionysus; and Killian Scott is Orpheus, who also happens to be the world’s biggest rock star. The dynamics of this dysfunctional family threaten the existence of humanity, and when Zeus finds a wrinkle on his forehead suggesting he may not be so all-powerful, the whole globe suffers. It’s a metaphor for the way the world’s power is in the hands of the 1 per cent of billionaires and oligarchs, so sit back and enjoy as these gods fall from grace.
Unstable
From Thursday, August 29th, Netflix
Rob Lowe returns as eccentric, self-centred biotech entrepreneur Ellis Dragon, with his own son John Owen Lowe playing Ellis’s put-upon offspring Jackson, in the second series of this dynamic family sitcom. Series one ended with Ellis narrowly avoiding being thrown off the board of his own company, but, having blown up his rival’s car, he faces time in jail. So he starts training for a possible stay in prison (turning off the hot water in the shower) and prepping Jackson for possible succession in the business by setting him some unorthodox challenges.
Breathless
From Friday, August 30th, Netflix
What would you get if Grey’s Anatomy were directed by Pedro Almodóvar? I don’t know, but here’s Netflix’s first Spanish hospital drama, set in Valencia, and focusing on the lives, loves and passions of the medical staff at Joaquín Sorolla hospital. The doctors, nurses and staff work at a frenetic pace to save lives, but with luck they’ll have a bit of time for their own messy lives. In the midst of all the emergency-room chaos, a distinguished patient arrives at the hospital, increasing tensions over public versus private medicine, and sparking disruptive industrial action.
