Welcome to Mandatory Streamers, our latest column covering the best new streaming content coming your way every week! For the week of August 19, Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Kirsten Dunst is conning her way to the top and facing off against cults and pyramid schemes in Showtime’s dark comedy series, On Becoming a God in Central Florida, premiering this Sunday. 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!
Showtime
On Becoming a God in Central Florida, Series Premiere: Set in a small Orlando-adjacent town in 1992, the series follows Krystal Stubbs (Dunst), a minimum-wage water park employee who lies, schemes and cons her way up the ranks of Founders American Merchandise (FAM) — the cultish, flag-waving, multibillion-dollar pyramid scheme that drove her to ruin in the first place, run by the powerful Obie Garbeau II (Levine). Determined to make a better life for herself, Krystal dives deep into FAM and develops a tangled relationship with FAM’s most loyal and fanatical follower Cody (Pellerin), until her business begins to affect those closest to her, including Ernie (Rodriguez), her affable water park boss, and his FAM-skeptic wife Bets (Ditto). The series will premiere on Sunday, August 25.
The Affair, Season 5 Premiere: Season 5 of the psychological drama will chronicle the aftermath of last season’s horrific events and find the characters coming to terms with the consequences of their choices – as they make the realization that if they really want to change their futures, they must first face the past. The new season will launch on Sunday, August 25.
Netflix
13 Reasons Why, Season 3 Premiere: The controversial drama returns for a third season, picking up eight months after the group prevented Tyler from committing an unthinkable act at Spring Fling. Now, Clay, Tony, Jessica, Alex, Justin, and Zach find ways to shoulder the burden of the cover-up together while helping Tyler move toward recovery. But when the aftermath of a tumultuous Homecoming game culminates in the disappearance of a football player and Clay finds himself under police scrutiny, it’s up to a shrewd outsider to steer the group through an investigation that threatens to lay bare everyone’s deepest secrets. Season 3 will begin streaming on Friday, August 23.
HBO
Ballers, Season 5 Premiere: Exploring the glamorous and often cutthroat world of pro football through a group of past and present players striving to stay in the game, Ballers stars Dwayne Johnson as ex-superstar Spencer Strasmore, who has reinvented himself as a financial manager for today’s players. Strasmore will try to stay at the top of his game when the fifth season premiers on Sunday, August 25.
Starz
Power, Season 6 Premiere: The visionary drama straddles the glamorous Manhattan lifestyle of the rich and infamous and the underworld of the international drug trade. Starring Omari Hardwick as James “Ghost” St. Patrick, a man trying to escape his role as a drug kingpin for a legitimized life in the elite of NYC, the sixth season features a final betrayal as Ghost struggles to identify the people he can still trust. Season 6 will launch on Sunday, August 25.
Renewals
RuPaul’s Drag Race, Season 12: VH1 has renewed RuPaul’s Drag Race for a 12th season! The Emmy-winning spinoff series RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars has also been renewed for Season 5. Season 12 of Drag Race will see a new batch of queens competing for the title of America’s Next Drag Superstar, while All Stars Season 5 will reunite prominent contestants of previous seasons for a coveted spot in RuPaul’s Drag Race Hall of Fame.
