Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of July’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)
New to Amazon Prime Video
‘Batman: Caped Crusader’ Season 1
Starts streaming: Aug. 1
In 1992, the animator Bruce Timm cocreated “Batman: The Animated Series,” which appealed to kids and to older comic book fans with its combination of punchy crime stories, 1940s-Hollywood-inspired imagery and colorful costumed villains. Timm is back on the creative team (with Matt Reeves, J.J. Abrams, Ed Brubaker and others) for the new series “Batman: Caped Crusader,” which looks and feels a lot like the old show, albeit a degree or two more adult. Hamish Linklater takes the place of Kevin Conroy as Batman, channeling Conroy’s deep voice and dry humor for some episodic stories set in the early days of the superhero’s career, when the Gotham gangs are running the city.
‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2
Starts streaming: Aug. 29
This visually dazzling fantasy series returns for a second season, continuing to tell the story of how and why the magical and destructive rings in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Lord of the Rings” novels came into existence. Season 1 functioned a little like a mystery, as Middle-earth’s various races — elves, humans, dwarves, Harfoots and others — tried to determine what had become of the Dark Lord Sauron, who had torn their world apart and then disappeared. The villain’s whereabouts was revealed in the season finale; and now in Season 2, “The Rings of Power” will cover the ways his re-emergence sows distrust and dissension among the factions who once stood against him. This season will also bring in some bits of Tolkien lore unseen in “The Lord of the Rings” movies, including an appearance by the fan-favorite Tom Bombadil (Rory Kinnear), a very old and sublimely gracious soul.
Also arriving:
Aug. 1
“Influenced” Season 1
Aug. 5
“Judy Justice” Season 3
Aug. 8
“60 Day Hustle” Season 1
“The Mallorca Files” Season 3
“One Fast Move”
Aug. 15
“Jackpot”
Aug. 22
“Classified” Season 1
Aug. 26
“No Gain No Love”
New to AMC+
‘Ghostlight’
Starts streaming: Aug. 30
A critical favorite, this slow-burning drama is about a sullen, temperamental construction worker named Dan (Keith Kupferer), who makes a surprising, spontaneous decision to join a local theater troupe that is preparing to mount a production of “Romeo and Juliet.” Inspired in part by the company’s resident diva, Rita (Dolly de Leon), and in part by the play’s themes, Dan begins to come of his shell after an extended period of grief that has also affected his relationship with his wife (Tara Mallen) and daughter (Katherine Mallen Kupferer). (They are also his actual wife and daughter.) The movie’s writing-directing team of Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson withhold the details of the movie family’s trauma for a while, so that the audience can first appreciate the power of theater for its own sake, before exploring the ways it can be transporting.
Also arriving:
Aug. 2
“Divinity”
Aug. 8
“Kennedy, Sinatra, and The Mafia”
Aug. 9
“Force of Nature: The Dry 2”
Aug. 12
“Frankie Drake Mysteries” Season 3
Aug. 15
“Wisting” Season 4
Aug. 16
“Dancing Village: The Curse Begins”
Aug. 19
“Under the Vines” Season 3
Aug. 22
“Fifteen-Love”
Aug. 23
“Hell Hole”
Aug. 26
“Sommerdahl Murders” Season 5
Aug. 27
“Horror’s Greatest” Season 1
New to Apple TV+
‘The Instigators’
Starts streaming: Aug. 9
Longtime friends and occasional creative collaborators Matt Damon and Casey Affleck team up again for this caper comedy, playing two hapless thieves whose plan for one life-changing heist goes horribly awry. The thieves kidnap a psychiatrist (Hong Chau), who tries to talk them through the reasons they are the way they are. Doug Liman (“Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” “The Bourne Identity”) directs a cast that also includes the stellar character actors Ving Rhames, Alfred Molina, Michael Stuhlbarg, Ron Perlman and Paul Walter Hauser. Expect a blend of wry humor and slam-bang cops-and-robbers action, with the Boston backdrop offering some local color.
‘Bad Monkey’ Season 1
Starts streaming: Aug. 14
The “Scrubs” and “Ted Lasso” producer Bill Lawrence brings his gentle and humane comic sensibility to a detective story, based on a Carl Hiaasen novel. Vince Vaughn plays Andrew Yancy, a former cop who got bounced from both the Miami and the Key West police departments for rule-bending and insubordination. When a severed arm gets fished out of the ocean by tourists, the stubbornly curious Yancy does some freelance investigating and ends up butting heads with both a shady real estate developer (Rob Delaney) and his own former employers. Following Hiaasen’s lead, Lawrence and his writers fill “Bad Monkey” with lots of colorful Florida characters; and in keeping with Lawrence’s other shows, this one is heavy on playful banter.
Also arriving:
Aug. 9
“Yo Gabba Gabbaland!” Season 1
Aug. 23
“Pachinko” Season 2
New to Disney+
‘OceanXplorers’ Season 1
Starts streaming: Aug. 19
The Oscar-winning director and oceanography enthusiast James Cameron serves as the host and narrator for this National Geographic docuseries, which follows the scientists and explorers of the research program OceanX. For each episode, a team of filmmakers joins the OceanX team aboard their high-tech vessel, which is equipped with the kind of computers, sensors and deep-sea submersibles necessary for mapping the seafloor, observing sharks, studying ecosystems and the like. “OceanXplorers” features eye-catching imagery that is common to modern nature documentaries, though it’s just as interested in the people aboard the ship and their passion for what lies underwater.
Also arriving:
Aug. 2
“Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures (Shorts)” Season 2
Aug. 8
“Are You Sure?!” Season 1
Aug. 14
“Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures” Season 2
New to Hulu
‘Only Murders in the Building’ Season 4
Starts streaming: Aug. 27
Although Season 2 of this clever and charming mystery comedy was enjoyable enough, the show really found its footing again in Season 3. The series’ creators John Hoffman and Steve Martin did this by defying their own title and spending more time outside the upscale New York apartment complex where the faded TV star Charles (Martin), the Broadway director and trouble-magnet Oliver (Martin Short) and their true crime fan neighbor Mabel (Selena Gomez) record their hit podcast. The season ended with a new murder: the shooting of Charles’s longtime TV body double, Sazz (Jane Lynch). This fresh mystery will send our heroes out to Hollywood for Season 4, where they will also get involved in a movie about their lives, starring Eugene Levy, Zach Galifianakis and Eva Longoria.
Also arriving:
Aug. 2
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes”
Aug. 3
“Suitable Flesh”
Aug. 7
“Dance Moms: A New Era” Season 1
“No Way Out: The Roulette” Season 1
“The Zone: Survival Mission” Season 3
Aug. 12
“Solar Opposites” Season 5
Aug. 14
“La Chimera”
“The Tyrant” Season 1
Aug. 15
“Smile”
Aug. 16
“Immaculate”
Aug. 20
“Muslim Matchmaker” Season 1
Aug. 22
“Reasonable Doubt” Season 2
Aug. 24
“The New York Times Presents: Lie to Fly”
Aug. 28
“After Baywatch: Moment in the Sun”
New to Max
‘Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes’
Starts streaming: Aug. 3
One of Elizabeth Taylor’s greatest performances was as herself: the scandal-prone Hollywood star whose moments of happiness and misery were widely publicized by a judgmental press to a fascinated public. Nanette Burstein’s documentary “Elizabeth Taylor: The Lost Tapes” gathers clips from Taylor’s movies alongside pictures and articles from old fan magazines, then pairs them with audio from an extensive 1964 interview previously locked away in the actress’s archives. Although the conversation has an intimate quality, Taylor can’t tamp down her eloquence and charisma even in a casual setting. While covering Taylor’s marriages and her multiple Oscar-winning pictures, Burstein also explores the tension between a carefully crafted image and a messy personal life.
Also arriving:
Aug. 6
“Hard Knocks: Training Camp With the Chicago Bears”
Aug. 8
“Taken Together: Who Killed Lyric and Elizabeth?”
Aug. 11
“Industry” Season 3
Aug. 16
“Rick and Morty: The Anime”
Aug. 18
“Chimp Crazy”
Aug. 25
“City of God: The Fight Rages On”
New to Paramount+
‘Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Season 1
Starts streaming: Aug. 9
The 2023 animated movie “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” was an unexpected delight. It captured the look and feel of Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman’s original comic book series, while also giving its martial-arts-loving mutant heroes a jolt of goofy adolescent energy. The new TV series “Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” has a somewhat different animation style — akin to a ’90s syndicated cartoon — but retains the film’s voice-cast and vibe. The stories here are meant to be smaller-scaled, focused more on the individual characters than the team; but like its predecessor, this show mainly wants to capture how complicated it can be to be a superhero, a high schooler and a reptile.
Also arriving:
Aug. 5
“One Life”
Aug. 6
“PD True” Season 1
Aug. 11
“SEAL Team” Season 7
Aug. 26
“Sasquatch Sunset”
Aug. 27
“Breathe”
New to Peacock
‘Homicide: Life on the Street’ Seasons 1-7
Starts streaming: Aug. 19
One of the 1990s’ most critically acclaimed network television dramas finally comes to streaming. Based on a book by the Baltimore crime reporter David Simon (who later created “The Wire”), “Homicide: Life on the Street” follows a group of overworked police detectives striving to overcome Baltimore’s institutional failures and their own cynicism to bring justice to murder victims. Over the course of seven seasons, the cast at various times featured such heavyweight actors as Melissa Leo, Jon Polito, Ned Beatty, Giancarlo Esposito, Yaphet Kotto and Richard Belzer (who went on to play the same character for over a decade on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”). The series’ M.V.P., though, was Andre Braugher, whose turn as the brilliant and diligent Detective Frank Pemberton was always must-see TV.
Also arriving:
Aug. 8
“Mr. Throwback”
Aug. 9
“The Bikeriders”
Aug. 15
“Bel-Air” Season 3
Aug. 23
“The Killer”
Aug. 29
“Gary”
“Here Come the Irish”
Aug. 30
“The Fall Guy: The Extended Cut”
Read More: The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Amazon, Disney+, Hulu and More in August
