Mandatory Streamers: HBO’s Succession returns for a dramatic second season
Welcome to Mandatory Streamers, our latest column covering the best new streaming content coming your way every week! For the week of August 5, HBO’s Emmy and Golden Globe-nominated Succession, starring Brian Cox and created by Academy Award nominee and showrunner Jesse Armstrong, is returning for its second season this Sunday, picking up where the first season dramatically left off. Check out the best shows debuting and returning online this week as well as the latest renewal announcements below, and be sure to visit our mother site Mandatory by clicking here!
HBO
Succession, Season 2 Premiere: This densely layered drama that looks inside the megalomaniacal Roy family and their massive media empire. Much like the first season, the second seems ripe with inter-family backstabbings, betrayals, and double-crossings. Season 2 follows the Roy family as they struggle to retain control of their empire, and while the future looks increasingly uncertain, it is the past that threatens to ultimately destroy them. The second season will launch on Sunday, August 11.
Netflix
GLOW, Season 3 Premiere: Inspired by the short-lived, but beloved show from the ’80s, GLOW tells the fictional story of Ruth Wilder (Alison Brie), an out-of-work, struggling actress in 1980s Los Angeles who finds one last chance for stardom when she’s thrust into the glitter and spandex world of women’s wrestling. In addition to working with 12 Hollywood misfits, Ruth also has to compete with Debbie Eagan (Betty Gilpin) a former soap actress who left the business to have a baby, only to be sucked back into work when her picture-perfect life is not what it seems. And at the wheel is Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron), a washed-up, B-movie director who now must lead this group of women on the journey to wrestling stardom. The third season will head to Vegas on Friday, August 9.
Wu Assassins, Series Premiere: The action crime series starring Iko Uwais will focus on martial arts with supernatural elements. Set in San Francisco’s Chinatown, the 10-episode series written and executive produced by John Wirth (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles; Falling Skies) will begin streaming on Netflix on Thursday, August 8.
Acorn TV
My Life is Murder, Series Premiere: Lucy Lawless (Xena: Warrior Princess) stars in this contemporary Australian detective drama as retired cop Alexa Crowe. With her old boss (Bernard Curry) regularly asking for her insight on cold cases and a young police data-analyst (Ebony Vagulans) eager to be mentored — whether Alexa wants to or not — Alexa can’t seem to stop solving crimes. The new series will launch on Acorn TV on Monday, August 5.
Renewals
Carnival Row, Season 2: Ahead of the series debut on August 30, Amazon Prime Video has officially renewed their upcoming Neo-Victorian fantasy series starring Cara Delevingne and Orlando Bloom for a second season. The show is a fantasy-noir set in a neo-Victorian city called Burgue. Mythical creatures fleeing their war-torn homeland have gathered in the city, and tensions are simmering between citizens and the growing immigrant population. The growing population of supernatural beings struggles to coexist with humans — forbidden to live, love, or fly with freedom.
13 Reasons Why, Season 4: Netflix has renewed their drama for a fourth and final season that is set to debut next year. In Season 3, which launches on August 23, eight months have passed since Clay, Tony, Jessica, Alex, Justin, and Zach prevented Tyler from committing an unthinkable act at Spring Fling. The stakes are raised as the consequences of even the most well-intended actions can alter a life forever.
Trinkets, Season 2: After more than a month since its series debut in June, Netflix has officially renewed their teen drama series for a second and final season with Sarah Goldfinger set as the showrunner. Starring Brianna Hildebrand, Kiana Madeira, and Quintessa Swindell, the series will be returning on 2020.
Atlanta, Season 4: FX’s hit series has been given an early renewal for Season 4. The FX original is a Golden Globe and Primetime Emmy award-winning show, with Donald Glover receiving accolades for acting and directing. FX confirmed that both seasons three and four of the series will film back-to-back starting next spring, making the gap between the two seasons likely shorter than previous seasons.
Snowfall, Season 4: Less than a month after the premiere of the third season of the well-received crime drama, FX has given a fourth season order to the John Singleton co-created Snowfall, which will premiere sometime next year. The third season is currently airing new episodes every Wednesday night.
City on a Hill, Season 2: Showtime has renewed their crime drama starring Kevin Bacon and Aldis Hodge for a second season ahead of the first season’s finale on August 18. In the early 1990s, Boston was rife with violent criminals emboldened by local law enforcement agencies in which corruption and racism was the norm — and then it all changed in what was called the “Boston Miracle.” In this fictional account, driving that change is assistant district attorney Decourcy Ward (Hodge), who comes from Brooklyn and forms an unlikely alliance with a corrupt yet venerated FBI veteran, Jackie Rhodes (Bacon). Together, they take on a family of armored car robbers from Charlestown in a case that grows to involve and ultimately subvert, the entire criminal justice system of Boston.
