

What’s new on Showmax in August 2021
While we’re all glued to our screens watching the Olympics on Showmax Proat the start of the month, there’s plenty to keep you entertained after the closing ceremony. Kaley Cuoco will leaved you charmed in The Flight Attendant, while a Discovery of Witches fans will be doing some Olympic binge-watching themselves when Season 2 drops on the 1st. Then there are the latest seasons of Batwoman, The Flash, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow and Supergirl, plus the horror smash-hit Midsommar to keep you on the edge of your seat.
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Temptation Island SA | Thursdays from 26 August
Showmax Originals’ first international reality TV series format, Temptation Island SA, hits our screens this month, putting a local spin on the Teen Choice-nominated pop culture phenomenon, which has been adapted 25 times and counting.
The ultimate relationship test, Temptation Island South Africa follows couples at a crossroads in their relationship, where they must mutually decide if they are ready to commit to one another for the rest of their lives — or go their separate ways.
Together, the couples experience a luxurious holiday in paradise (aka Knysna), where they live separately – with 20 sexy single men and women who are looking for love. This last taste of the single life is meant to help answer their most difficult questions about their relationship, like, “Are we meant to be?” and “Is there someone better out there for me?”
Afrokaans Film & Television (Survivor SA) is producing the 12-episode Showmax Original, which is hosted by Phat Joe (The Real Housewives of Durban reunion).
International series
The Flight Attendant | Binge from 5 August
HBO comedy-drama The Flight Attendant stars Kaley Cuoco (The Big Bang Theory) as reckless flight attendant Cassie Bowden, who wakes up in the wrong bed, with a dead guy beside her, and no idea what happened.
The Flight Attendant was nominated as Best Comedy Series and Kaley as Best Actress at the 2021 Emmy, Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Awards. At the Emmys, The Flight Attendant is up for seven more awards, including Supporting Actress for co-star Rosie Perez.
The Flight Attendant has been renewed for a second season.
A Discovery of Witches S2 | First on Showmax | Binge from 1 August
Adapted from Deborah Harkness’s bestselling All Souls trilogy, A Discovery of Witches is a vampire-meets-witch story of forbidden love, starring Matthew Goode (Downton Abbey) and Teresa Palmer (Warm Bodies). In Season 2, the star-crossed lovers time walk from the present back to 1590, to hide from the Congregation while Diana learns to control her magic.
Season 2 has an 87% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics consensus praises the leads’ “infectious chemistry” and the show’s “visual splendour.” James Purefoy (Rome) and Sheila Hancock (Unforgotten) join the cast this season.
Your Honor S1 | Binge from 5 August
Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) stars as a New Orleans judge who is forced to confront his own deepest convictions when his teenage son Adam (Hunter Doohan) is involved in a hit and run linked to an organised crime family. As a storm of vengeance, lies and deceit threatens to engulf the entire city, he faces a series of increasingly impossible choices and discovers just how far an honest man will go to save his son’s life.
From the producers of The Good Wife and The Night Of, Your Honor also stars Emmy nominees Hope Davis and Michael Stuhlbarg, and Black Reel winner Carmen Ejogo (The Girlfriend Experience).
The Flash S7 | Binge from 13 August
With his wife Iris missing, Eva McCulloch on the rampage, and Barry fresh out of “flash”, the team has their work cut out for them this season as they wrap up the dangling threads from the abruptly shortened Season 6, before taking on a new story arc kicked off by Abra Kadabra, hellbent on revenge.
The Flash has already been renewed for an eighth season.
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow S6 | Binge from 13 August
DC’s Legends of Tomorrow returns to the show’s sci-fi roots in Season 6 when Caity Lotz (Sara Lance) is abducted by time-travelling aliens.
The series has an 89% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, with Season 6 finally cracking that elusive 100% score. AV Club praises it as a “marvellous, irreverent, stupid-like-a-fox show,” with “oh-thank-god-let’s-have-some-dumb-fun energy,” and says, “Punch aliens! Roll your eyes at Spartacus! Drink a cocoon! Talk about John Constantine’s ass! Do whatever you want, Legends — we’re just glad to see you.”
Supergirl S6 | Binge from 13 August
Multi-award-winning series Supergirl is gearing up for its final showdown. The first seven episodes of the final season are available to binge now, with another 13 (!) due towards the end of the year, since not even superheroes are immune to the global pandemic.
Last season’s cliffhanger means Supergirl (aka Kara Danvers, played by Melissa Benoist) will face her nemesis, Lex Luthor (Two and a Half Men’s Jon Cryer), this season.
Batwoman S2 | Binge from 13 August
The second season of the superhero drama Batwoman swoops onto our screens this month, and with Kate Kane missing in action, a new heroine has to take up the mantle to bring hope to Gotham.
Actress Javicia Leslie (God Friended Me) makes history as the first black actress to play Batwoman in a live-action series, following Ruby Rose’s exit due to a back injury. Javicia’s Ryan Wilder is nothing like Kate Kane, bringing a whole new feel to the series. Athletic, raw, passionate, fallible and even goofy, Ryan is not your stereotypical all-American hero, but she could be exactly what Gotham needs.
Nominated for a 2021 Saturn Award for Best Superhero Adaptation, Batwoman also picked up nominations at the 2020 GLAAD Media Awards and the Queerties.
Movies
Midsommar | First on Showmax | 12 August
In Midsommar, a troubled couple travels to Scandinavia to visit a rural town’s fabled Swedish midsummer festival. But what begins as an idyllic retreat quickly devolves into an increasingly violent and bizarre competition at the hands of a pagan cult.
Florence Pugh (Black Widow) stars alongside Jack Reynor (Strange Angel) and William Jackson Harper (The Underground Railroad).
Written and directed by multi-award-winning director Ari Aster (Hereditary), Midsommar won five 2020 Fangoria Chainsaw Awards, including Best Wide-Release Film, and 21 other accolades around the world.
Pinocchio | 9 August
Pinocchio, based on the beloved tale by Carlo Collodi, stars Oscar winner Roberto Benigni (Life is Beautiful) as the old woodcarver Geppetto whose puppet creation magically comes to life. Naive and curious, Pinocchio tumbles from one misadventure to the next as he is tricked, kidnapped and chased by bandits on his quest to become a real boy.
Directed by BAFTA-winner Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah), Pinocchio was nominated for two 2021 Oscars, for its costume design and makeup and hairstyling.
Freaky | 29 July
Less-than-popular teenager Millie unintentionally switches bodies with the middle-aged serial killer terrorising her town. As the body count rises and the clock ticks down, Millie and her friends have less than 24 hours to stop Murder Barbie before the change becomes permanent.
Starring Kathryn Newton (Big Little Lies) and Vince Vaughn (Wedding Crashers), Freaky’s cast also includes Alan Ruck (Succession).
Freaky won Best Actor in a Horror Movie (Vaughn) at the 2021 Critics’ Choice Super Awards, where the film was also up for Best Horror Movie. Newton was nominated for both Best Actress in a Horror Movie and Best Villain. Produced by triple-Oscar nominee Jason Blum (Get Out) and directed by Christopher Landon (who directed Happy Death Day and wrote four of the Paranormal Activity films).
Run | 23 August
Psychological thriller Run stars Sarah Paulson (Ratched) and introduces Kiera Allen as a homeschooled, wheelchair-bound teenager who begins to suspect her mother is keeping a dark secret from her.
The first female wheelchair-using actress to star in a suspense film since 1948, Allen won the 2021 Spotlight Award from the Hollywood Critics Association. Run also broke records to become Hulu’s most successful original film on its release late last year.
Run has an 88% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with The Hollywood Reporter saying, “Dueling excellent performances from a deranged Sarah Paulson and spunky newcomer Kiera Allen make it hard to look away from the screen, not that the pacing of Chaganty and Sev Ohanian’s script allows much opportunity for distraction.”
Becky | 26 August
In Becky, a teenager’s weekend at a lake house with her father takes a turn for the worse when a group of convicts wreaks havoc on their lives.
Lulu Wilson (Sharp Objects) shines in the title role, with Kevin James (The King of Queens) playing against type as the neo-Nazi villain. Emmy nominee Joel McHale (Community) co-stars.
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