New TV and Streaming This Week: 10–16 August 2026

The middle of August brings a genuinely varied crop of new arrivals to UK screens on TV and Streaming this week, spanning five of the country’s biggest platforms. Viewers can choose between a starchy Australian period drama on Netflix, the return of one of Amazon’s most reliable action heroes, a nostalgic Disney Channel sequel finally reaching streaming, a historic season of mixed martial arts talent-spotting on Paramount+, and a low-budget New Zealand sci-fi comedy making its Sky and NOW debut. Below is a rundown of five of the biggest new titles landing across Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+ and NOW TV this week, along with what each one is about and why it might be worth your time.

Netflix: My Brilliant Career (from Wednesday 13 August)

Netflix’s big drama offering this week is My Brilliant Career, a six-part reimagining of Miles Franklin’s beloved 1901 Australian novel of the same name. Set in the outback at the turn of the twentieth century, the series follows Sybylla Melvyn, a headstrong and fiercely ambitious young woman who dreams of becoming a published writer at a time when women were expected to marry young and disappear into domestic life. Rather than accept the fate her financially struggling family has planned for her, Sybylla resists a string of marriage proposals, choosing instead to chase her literary ambitions even as the people around her insist she is being reckless.

The story sends her to Caddagat, her grandmother’s grander estate, where she is drawn into a world of courtship she never wanted, encountering two very different suitors along the way: Harry Beecham, a charming young farmer with land of his own, and Frank Hawden, an Englishman under pressure to marry in order to secure his inheritance. Sybylla treats the whole experience as material, gathering material for the novel she is determined to write, but the closer she gets to her suitors the harder it becomes to keep her ambitions and her heart separate. It is a coming-of-age story with a distinctly modern sensibility grafted onto a classic setting, and early previews suggest it leans into the humour and stubbornness of its heroine rather than playing purely as heritage drama.

Amazon Prime Video: Reacher Season 4 (from Wednesday 12 August)

Alan Ritchson returns as Lee Child’s famously oversized drifter-detective in the fourth season of Reacher, adapted from the thirteenth novel in the book series, Gone Tomorrow. The season opens with Reacher noticing a distressed woman on a late-night subway train whose behaviour matches the warning signs of a suicide bomber. When his attempt to help ends in tragedy, Reacher is pulled into the psychological fallout and finds himself drawn into a sprawling conspiracy that reaches into the upper echelons of government and law enforcement.

Working alongside local police while shadowed by undercover operatives and ruthless political players, Reacher has to unpick a plot that is far bigger, and far more personal, than it first appears. The show has shifted the setting from the novel’s original New York backdrop to Philadelphia for this run, though the broad shape of the story reportedly sticks close to the source material. The first three episodes drop together on 12 August, with the remaining five released weekly, building to a finale in mid-September. Fans of the earlier seasons’ mix of blunt-force action and slow-burn conspiracy should find plenty to like.

Disney+: Camp Rock 3 (from Friday 14 August)

Sixteen years after the original Camp Rock films turned the Jonas Brothers into Disney Channel royalty, Camp Rock 3 finally arrives on Disney+ a day after its Disney Channel premiere. The plot brings the band, now performing as Connect 3, back to the summer camp where their careers began after losing their opening act ahead of a major reunion tour. Desperate to find a replacement, they return to Camp Rock to scout for the next big musical talent among this year’s campers.

What follows is a fresh ensemble of young performers competing for the coveted opening slot, with all the rivalries, alliances and budding romances that fans of the franchise will expect. It is unashamedly nostalgic programming, aimed squarely at viewers who grew up with the earlier films as much as a new generation of Disney Channel regulars, and the Jonas Brothers’ involvement should guarantee a fair amount of attention regardless of critical reception.

Paramount+: Dana White’s Contender Series, Season 10 (from Tuesday 11 August)

For sports and combat fans, the week’s most significant streaming move is Dana White’s Contender Series relocating to Paramount+ for its landmark tenth season. The format is simple but effective: promising fighters from around the world are handpicked to compete in one-night showcases at the UFC’s Apex facility in Las Vegas, with UFC president Dana White and the organisation’s matchmakers watching closely. Impressive performances, rather than wins alone, can earn fighters a coveted UFC contract on the spot.

Since launching in 2017, the series has produced more than three hundred UFC contracts and helped launch the careers of several eventual champions. Season ten marks the show’s first run on Paramount+ after nine seasons elsewhere, and the first of ten Tuesday-night episodes airs on 11 August, with all five bouts streaming live.

NOW TV / Sky: Warren’s Vortex (from Monday 10 August)

Rounding out the week is Warren’s Vortex, a six-part science fiction comedy from the team behind Wellington Paranormal, making its Sky Comedy and NOW debut. The show follows Warren Harrison, an unremarkable suburban dad who has quietly owned an interdimensional vortex in his garden shed for almost twenty years, using it mainly as an unconventional way to get rid of lawn clippings rather than for anything more adventurous.

Everything changes when his teenage daughter Lucy is accidentally sucked through the portal on her eighteenth birthday. Warren dives in after her, and the pair find themselves bouncing between increasingly strange alternate versions of their own home and neighbourhood as they try to find their way back. The premise gives the show room to reinvent its setting every episode while keeping the father-daughter relationship at its core, and its pedigree suggests a deadpan, low-key style of comedy rather than big spectacle.

Final Thoughts

Whether your taste runs to period drama, hard-edged action, family-friendly nostalgia, live sport or sci-fi comedy, this week’s UK streaming schedule has a genuine spread of options. With My Brilliant Career, Reacher, Camp Rock 3, Dana White’s Contender Series and Warren’s Vortex all launching within a few days of each other, it is a reminder of just how much new content UK viewers now have to choose from across a handful of platforms in any given week.