Don’t let the current warm snap distract you, it might be early August but winter is still a thing here in SA. All it takes is one cold front to drive us back under multiple blankets wanting nothing more than to consume carbs and warm drinks while our completed-episode count ticks ever higher.
Streaming video services like Showmax, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video have made spending hours on the couch on a cold day the easiest thing in the world. The most difficult choice you will have to make is whether you have to leave the blanket to get snacks and what to watch while you’re under it. We can’t help you brave the trip to the kitchen but we can assist with the second bit. Here are nine of the best shows you can binge on Showmax this August.
If you’re hoping to get every bit of information that Marvel is pumping out across various platforms, you’re going to want to cram all of Cloak and Dagger into your frontal lobe as soon as possible. That’s not just because the story of Tyrone Johnson (also known as Cloak) and Tandy Bowen (the Dagger in this little equation) is a great one to sit the family around. The pair of unlikely ‘heroes’ are linked together by an explosion in their past, a past that shows up again when Tyrone and Tandy meet several years later and awaken superpowers in each other. Cue figuring out how their abilities work, trying to avoid the police and other authorities, eventual villains and a second season. Which hasn’t been filmed yet, so don’t get too excited. But there are also several call-backs, cameos, and shout-outs to other Marvel properties to be found here. If you’re still paying attention after Infinity War, you will want to collect all the links in preparation for the next major Marvel get-together.
Siren is a drama with a slight difference – we’ve seen vampires and werewolves get their own series, now it’s time for the mermaids to have their shot. Siren revolves around a young woman named Ryn, who is in search of her sister in the town of Bristol Cove. Ryn isn’t what she seems to be on the surface, basically working out to being the Christopher Nolan version of The Little Mermaid’s Ariel. Yup, mermaids are real and they walk among us – when they haven’t been captured by military types and experimented on. That state of affairs doesn’t make Ryn very pleased and those in her immediate orbit, marine biologist Ben Powell (whose family has a history with these mythological creatures), various fishermen and a collection of Bristol Cove residents, have to deal with the aftermath.
You’re only young once, except when you’re young a second time. You know, you lie about your age, pretend to be 26 instead of 40, get a new job and a new social circle and have to maintain the lie on order to keep your employment. That’s the premise of Younger, which sees 40-year-old Liza Miller passing herself off as a woman in her mid-20s in order to secure a job at a publishing company. There are, of course, issues on both sides of the age aisle. Comedy, drama, lies, truths, making it up as you go along… yep, that all sounds like adulthood to us. The best bit for hardcore binge enthusiasts? All five seasons of Younger are available only on Showmax, which should be enough to last you through a substantial snowstorm. Or at least a few weeks.
More from the Marvel stable, Marvel’s Runaways, only available on Showmax, is based on the comic run of the same name. Six teenagers get together and find out that their collective parents are all part of a villain’s organisation called The Pride. The ‘rents are criminals, wizards, mutants, aliens, or just plain old evil and the youngsters decide to nick some of their parent’s gear and put a stop to them. The adults don’t catch on immediately and even if they had, can’t just commit filicide en masse, since having six children up and vanish is a bit of a giveaway. This leads to more than a few tense moments – as well as some very awkward dinners. Having the superhero and supernatural aspects of the show surrounded by school drama and teen angst makes it very watchable indeed. The dinosaur? The dinosaur is just an added bonus.
Put a bunch of lawyers on the screen, whether they are steadfastly defending the innocent or misbehaving back in the office (two different shows, by the way), and you’re almost assured of a hit. Suits, which has been going since 2011, is no different. Following along with Mike Ross, who manages to get a job at a law firm despite not actually being qualified to do the job he’s in, Suits puts viewers into a world of high-powered lawyering. Think corporate mergers, internal partner politics, huge amounts of money being thrown around, deceit, dating and romance issues, and of course, everyone in very well-tailored suits. Or garments of some kind. Sometimes. With seven seasons available, this is another one for the long-term bingers, assuming you haven’t been paying attention since Season One.
Do you really need a reason to watch the fifth season of Vikings on Showmax? Do you really need a reason to rewatch seasons one to four at the same time? The sons of Ragnar, Queen Lagertha, civil war, Floki going places, blood, pain, murder, and fire… it’s all just life in Vikings. If you’re looking for a show along the lines of Game of Thrones but without the dragons and more of a historical emphasis (and arguably a whole lot more violence), you’ve come to the right place. There are nigh-on sixty hours of norsemen and –women to watch right now, with another 10 hours (the second half of season five) appearing later on this year. Oh, yes, and the show has been renewed for a sixth season as well. It really is time to watch it all again.
It’s always fun to watch Brian Cox being intense on camera. When he’s portraying the patriarch of a family and the head of a family-owned media company who is supposed to be stepping down from his post and doesn’t fulfil those expectations – then there’s going to be sparks flying. Venture into the world of the Roy family, a family with more money than is good for them, as they turn on each other in search of… well… money. If you think that money will solve all your problems, Succession might serve to remind you that it’s probably going to create a few new ones as well. Catch Season One exclusively on Showmax and keep an eye out for Season Two – Succession has just been renewed for another round.
Here’s something a little shorter for binge-watchers. The Crossing is a sci-fi series set in and around Oregon and Seattle, Washington. A group of people wash up on the shores of the small town of Port Canaan. Far more of them perish at sea, having drowned. Those who survive have a remarkable story to tell – they’re fleeing a war that takes place 180 years in the future. An almost unbelievable claim but one that starts to seem more likely when people with strange abilities are found. It’s a tad unfortunate that The Crossing was cancelled by its parent company but hey, it is entirely possible that it’ll be picked up by someone else and resurrected. In the meantime, binge this (probable) sci-fi once-off, only on Showmax.
All these shows are available to watch right now on Showmax, and you can get a free trial to test out the service before paying anything. And if you have DStv Premium then you get Showmax for free. Find out more »
