New TV and Streaming This Week: 17–23 August 2026

A guide to the biggest new series and season premieres for TV and streaming landing on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+ and NOW TV in the UK next week.

Late August is shaping up to be a genuinely varied week for UK viewers, with a new DC detective drama, a starry Hulu import, a beloved animated comedy’s long-awaited return, and one of British television’s most-loved new crime dramas all landing within a few days of one another. We combed through the release schedules for Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, Paramount+ and NOW TV, plus a look at BBC iPlayer given its enormous reach in the UK, to put together this rundown of what is actually worth clearing space in your watchlist for between 17 and 23 August 2026. It is a week that leans heavily on returning favourites rather than a flood of brand-new titles, but there is still plenty for crime fans, sci-fi devotees, animation lovers and families alike. Amazon Prime Video’s UK slate is comparatively quiet this particular week, with its last major original, the Jack Reacher-starring Reacher series four, having already dropped a few days earlier on 12 August and no new headline series scheduled until later in the month, so it does not feature among the picks below. Everything else, however, is fair game, and there is more than enough here to fill your evenings.

1. Lanterns — NOW TV / Sky Atlantic

Platform: NOW TV and Sky Atlantic (HBO)    |    Premieres: Monday 17 August 2026

The week’s most anticipated premiere is Lanterns, HBO’s long-gestating take on DC’s Green Lantern mythology, which arrives on NOW TV and Sky Atlantic in the UK from 2am on 17 August. Rather than a conventional superhero romp, the series has been pitched as a grounded, weather-beaten detective story in the vein of True Detective, following veteran Green Lantern Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and rookie recruit John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) as they investigate a murder in the small town of Rushville, Nebraska. What starts as a routine local case gradually reveals extraterrestrial and cosmic implications that stretch far beyond the American heartland, forcing the two very different Lanterns to reconcile their contrasting approaches to justice and duty. The supporting cast is stacked with serious dramatic talent, including Kelly Macdonald, Nathan Fillion, Garret Dillahunt, Ulrich Thomsen and Laura Linney, and reviews out of its US premiere have praised the show’s patience and willingness to prioritise character and atmosphere over spectacle. For anyone who found recent DC screen output too broad or effects-driven, Lanterns looks like a deliberate change of pace, and it needs an NOW Entertainment & HBO Max Membership to watch.

2. Furious — Disney+

Platform: Disney+ (Star)    |    Premieres: Monday 17 August 2026, with new episodes weekly

Also touching down on Disney+ in the UK from 17 August is Furious, the acclaimed Hulu crime thriller that has been quietly building a reputation as one of 2026’s sharpest new dramas since it began airing in the US. Created by Elizabeth Meriwether and loosely inspired by the 1987 film Black Widow, the series stars Emmy Rossum as Alice Black, an FBI agent obsessively pursuing a calculating and elusive female serial killer. As the investigation deepens, the boundary between hunter and hunted becomes increasingly blurred, and the show has been praised for turning what could have been a straightforward cat-and-mouse premise into a much more morally tangled character study. Rossum anchors the series alongside Lola Petticrew, Scoot McNairy, Quincy Tyler Bernstine and Jake Lacy, with the first two episodes directed by Brian Kirk. UK viewers will be able to catch up with the first three episodes immediately before new instalments land weekly, giving newcomers a chance to jump in before the story reaches its later, more twist-heavy stretches.

3. Futurama — Season 14

Platform: Disney+ (Hulu content hub)    |    Premieres: Monday 17 August 2026

Fans of Matt Groening’s beloved sci-fi comedy have another reason to celebrate this week, as Futurama’s fourteenth season begins streaming on Disney+ in the UK from 17 August. The ten-episode run brings back the full core voice cast, with Fry, Leela, Bender and the rest of the Planet Express crew navigating what the official synopsis teasingly describes as ‘a nonstop onslaught of swaggering space pirates, lab-grown meats, sexy scams… plus the shocking return of Dr Zoidberg’s lost love.’ It is classic Futurama territory: absurdist science-fiction plotting used as a springboard for surprisingly sharp emotional beats, alongside the show’s usual barrage of sight gags and background jokes for eagle-eyed rewatchers. The season’s UK arrival lands it neatly alongside its US premiere window, and with extended-length specials, including a Christmas outing, already confirmed for the future, this looks like a strong new chapter for a series that keeps finding fresh ways to justify its many revivals.

4. Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi

Platform: Disney+    |    Premieres: Wednesday 19 August 2026

Star Wars: Visions continues to expand its anthology format this week with The Ninth Jedi, a new instalment arriving on Disney+ on 19 August that follows young Jedi-in-training Lah Kara as she continues her instruction under the mysterious Margrave Juro. Framed as an epic journey of self-discovery, the story follows Kara and Juro’s small fellowship of aspiring Jedi as they embark on a dangerous quest to save Kara’s father, weaving in the visually distinctive animation style that has made the Visions strand a fan favourite since its debut. Where the main Star Wars saga has increasingly leaned on established characters and familiar eras, Visions has carved out space for smaller, more experimental stories that explore the galaxy’s mythology from unexpected angles, and this latest chapter looks set to continue that tradition with a tale that is as much about mentorship and grief as it is about lightsabers.

5. Average Joe — Season 2

Platform: Paramount+    |    Premieres: Wednesday 19 August 2026

Paramount+’s action-comedy Average Joe returns for a second run on 19 August, picking up with Deon Cole’s put-upon everyman hero as an unexpected new threat, connected to the Russian mob, puts his family directly in the firing line. The globe-spanning season sends the cast from Pittsburgh all the way to South Africa, mixing the show’s established blend of fish-out-of-water comedy with higher-stakes espionage plotting than the first season attempted. The original run built a strong reputation among subscribers and critics alike for balancing genuine laughs with surprisingly well-choreographed action, and the second season’s broader canvas suggests Paramount+ is keen to build the show into one of its flagship originals. It is a solid pick for anyone after something lighter than the platform’s crime and prestige dramas, without sacrificing the twists and set pieces that keep a thriller-comedy hybrid feeling fresh.

6. Ludwig — Series 2

Platform: BBC One and BBC iPlayer    |    Premieres: Thursday 20 August 2026

Rounding out the week is one of the most eagerly awaited returns on British terrestrial television: Ludwig series two, which airs on BBC One from Thursday 20 August, with the first three episodes dropping simultaneously on BBC iPlayer. The cosy crime hit follows reclusive puzzle-setter John ‘Ludwig’ Taylor as he continues posing as his missing twin brother James in order to help Cambridge Police crack seemingly impossible cases, all while quietly working the investigation into James’s disappearance in the background. The new season deepens the show’s central mystery through the eyes of Ludwig’s sister-in-law Lucy, who remains entangled in the search for answers about James’s fate, giving the season’s central puzzle-of-the-week format an emotional throughline that made the first run such a surprise word-of-mouth success. Given how much of a breakout hit the first series became for the BBC, expectations for this second run are high, and it looks poised to be one of the most talked-about British dramas of the autumn.

Also New: CoComelon — The Melon Punch

Platform: Netflix    |    Premieres: Monday 17 August 2026

Netflix’s own new arrival this week skews considerably younger than the rest of the list. The Melon Punch, a new preschool series set within the hugely popular CoComelon universe, lands on the platform on 17 August, continuing the franchise’s colourful, music-driven approach to early years entertainment. While it will not trouble the more adult-skewing premieres above for critical column inches, CoComelon remains one of the most-watched properties on Netflix globally, particularly among households with toddlers and young children, and any expansion of the universe tends to move the needle for the platform’s family viewing numbers. It is a useful reminder that a genuinely varied release week on UK streaming rarely means the same thing to every household, and that the biggest audience for any given Monday might well be under the age of five rather than settling in for a prestige detective drama.

All release dates and times are based on UK scheduling information available at the time of writing and may be subject to last-minute changes by broadcasters and streaming platforms.