August bring the premieres of three new Australian and New Zealand series and seasons to the US and beyond, with additional titles added to streaming and linear channels.
For updates about shows from Australia and New Zealand added to US linear TV and streaming channels throughout the month, see the Down Under TV Viewing Guide.
Programs and dates are subject to change without prior notice.
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NATIONAL PREMIERES
Good Grief: Season 2 (NZ)
In the new six-episode season of this irreverent Kiwi comedy, millennial sisters Ellie and Gwen Goode (played by real life sisters Eve and Grace Palmer, the series’ co-creators and co-writers) have set off on very different paths since inheriting their grandfather’s Loving Tributes funeral home (in Season 1). Ellie embraces her inner girlboss, with all the ill-fitting pantsuits, amateur TV ads, and plumber liaisons that entails.
Meanwhile, Gwen spends five months DJing in Bali and reappears unexpectedly in New Zealand to discover their mother has a new boyfriend and she’s been kicked out of the family home. So Gwen moves in with Ellie, takes up the job of social marketing for Loving Tributes, and embarks on a childish prank war against their mother’s new partner. As family tensions escalate at work and at home, Ellie must decide whether to intervene or let Gwen grow up all by herself.
Good Grief: Season 2, a Sundance Now Original, premieres in its entirety in the US, Canada, and the UK on Thursday, August 4, exclusively on Sundance Now and its digital channels, including Sundance Now on Amazon, as well as the AMC+ streaming bundle and AMC+ on Amazon. The new season’s North American broadcast premiere will include two episodes on Wednesday, August 17, at 11 PM ET, on IFC, with new episodes airing weekly.
Darby and Joan (AU)
Emmy® Awards nominee Bryan Brown (The Thorn Birds, Breaker Morant) and Emmy® Awards winner Greta Scacchi (The Player, Emma) star in this lively Australian road trip drama as Jack Darby and Joan Kirkhope. He’s a retired Australian homicide detective who’s taken to the open road with his dog, Diesel, to flee his past; she’s a recently-widowed English nurse who’s on a reluctant pilgrimage to find answers about her husband’s mysterious death.
These two couldn’t be more different — the low-key, ruggedly charming Aussie and the tightly-wound, yet warm, witty, and determined Englishwoman — but when they collide in the Australian outback and become drawn into a series of unexpected mysteries, this unlikely investigative duo soon realize the most intriguing puzzle they face is each other.
Filmed in Queensland, the series explores the world of the real-life phenomenon of “grey nomads,” retirees who leave behind their comfortable homes to set out for adventure on the endless roads of Australia. It also shines a light on often unseen areas of the continent — from isolated coastlines, to lush hinterland, to small communities in the Outback — where myriad fascinating characters move through a world where everyone seems to be searching for something or trying to escape something. Danger and secrets lurk for those who bother to look… but can you find yourself in the middle of nowhere?
Darby and Joan, an Acorn TV Original, premieres in the US and Canada with its first two episodes on Monday, August 8, exclusively on Acorn TV and its digital channels, including Acorn TV on Amazon. New episodes of the eight-episode season will debut in pairs through August 29.
Bump (AU)
This Aussie comedy-drama series follows Olympia “Oly” Chalmers-Davis (Nathalie Morris, One Lane Bridge, Almost Paradise), a 17-year-old overachiever who knows exactly where she’s going and has her life plotted out for the next decade. She shares an ambitious 10-year plan with her best friend, Reema (Safia Arain, Amazing Grace, Brace), which includes getting top grades, studying international relations at university, working for the UN, and saving the world. And of course her boyfriend, Lachie (Peter Thurnwald, King Kong: Skull Island), the son of a doctor (natch), ticks all the right boxes.
One day Oly collapses in agony at school and is sped to hospital in an ambulance, accompanied by her mother, Angie (Claudia Karvan, Love My Way, The Secret Life Of Us). Both are stunned to learn that Oly is in labor. Blindsided and deep in shock, Oly rejects the baby entirely. In her mind, if she doesn’t acknowledge the baby, then she doesn’t have to acknowledge how her life has irrevocably changed — or that the baby’s father is not her boyfriend but Santiago “Santi” Hernandez (Carlos Sanson, Jr., Mr. Inbetween, Legacies), the laid-back son of Chilean soccer coach Matias (newcomer Ricardo Scheihing-Vasquez), aka Angie’s major work crush.
Already renewed for a second season, the series costars Angus Samson (Fargo, Party Tricks) as Angie’s husband, Dom, and Paula Garcia (Little White Lies) as Matias’s wife, Rosa.
Bump: Season 1 premieres in the US on Thursday, August 11, at 8 PM ET, on The CW. Streaming of each episode will be available the day after broadcast on cwtv.com.
NON-PREMIERE PROGRAMS BEING ADDED TO LINEAR TV
The Doctor Blake Mysteries: Seasons 3 & 4 (AU)
After returning to his hometown of Ballarat in 1959 to serve as the town’s GP and Police Surgeon, and after solving numerous murder mysteries (in Seasons 1 and 2), former WWII POW Dr. Lucien Blake (Craig McLachlan, Deep Water, Packed to the Rafters, Rescue Special Ops) continues to investigate crimes while ruffling feathers and upsetting the status quo in Seasons 3 and 4. He is also forced to deal with mysteries and issues, as well as love, in both his personal and professional life, including learning things about his deceased mother, discovering the truth about his presumed-dead wife, coming clean to housekeeper Jean (Nadine Garner, City Homicide), and working with a brusque new boss (Craig Hall, A Place to Call Home) who tries to pull the reins in on Blake.
The Doctor Blake Mysteries: Season 3 begins airing Thursday, August 11, at 8 AM ET, on Ovation TV, followed by the start of Season 4 on Thursday, August 25, at 8 AM ET.
NON-PREMIERE PROGRAMS BEING ADDED TO STREAMING SERVICES
So Vam (AU)
This horror drama centers on Kurt (Xai), an outcast in a conservative town who dreams of moving to the city to be a famous drag queen. When he is kidnapped by a predatory old vampire and killed, Kurt is rescued just in time to be resurrected by a gang of rebellious vampires who feed on bigots and abusers.
So Vam begins streaming via SVOD on Tuesday, August 23, exclusively on Shudder and its digital channels, including Shudder on Amazon, as well as the AMC+ streaming bundle and AMC+ on Amazon.
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Did you miss any of the new shows from previous days, weeks, or months? Check the Down Under TV Viewing Guide and Archives to find out.
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For details about the August premieres of shows from the UK, Canada, and Ireland, visit The British TV Place. For info about the debuts of original-language, English-subtitled programs from Europe, visit The Euro TV Place.
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