One of the most anticipated returns of the year arrives on Netflix this week. The second season of “Wandinha” is the main highlight of the digital lineup, following the first season’s record as the most-watched English-language series on the platform of all time. Among the new releases arriving until August 9th, “Outlander: Blood of My Blood,” a spin-off from the “Outlander” franchise, also stands out, as well as two animations launched by Disney+: “Eyes of Wakanda,” set in the Marvel universe, and the return of “The King of the Hill,” 15 years after the last episode was aired. The list also includes the second season of “Platonic Loves” on Apple TV+, the British period crime drama “Dope Girls” on HBO Max, and a variety of films ranging from brutal horror to action comedy.
NOW
📺 EYES OF WAKANDA | Disney+
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The new Marvel Studios animation delves into the mythology of the African kingdom of Wakanda in an anthology format. With four episodes, the story spans centuries of history and spirituality, connecting mythical events to the contemporary universe of the “Black Panther” franchise.
Conceived by Todd Harris — a storyboard artist for Black Panther — the animation begins in the Western Bronze Age and evolves into a spy epic with mystical elements, ancient technology, and moral conflicts. The tone is guided by visceral battles, magical rituals, and the presence of the Dora Milaje, along with the elite Hatut Zeraze warriors, tasked with recovering vibranium artifacts scattered around the world.
Unlike other Marvel animated productions, “Wakanda’s Eyes” has been confirmed as an official part of the MCU continuity, with connections to the films. Among the special appearances is a new version of the character Iron Fist, marking a link between previously isolated cores of the MCU.
The voice cast includes Cress Williams (“Black Panther”), Anika Noni Rose (“The Princess and the Frog”), Steve Toussaint (“House of the Dragon”), Patricia Belcher (“Hunger Eyes”) and Winnie Harlow (“The Perfect Find”). The executive production is by Ryan Coogler, director of the two Black Panther films.
📺 DOPE GIRLS | HBO Max
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The new British period series portrays the nocturnal world of Soho in London at a time when women, who became independent during World War I, seek to rebuild their lives as jobs created during the conflict come to an end. Created by Polly Stenham (“Neon Demon”) and first-time writer Alex Warren, the story follows Kate Galloway (Julianne Nicholson, “Paradise”), a widow and indebted mother, who joins dancer Billie Cassidy (Umi Myers, “Bob Marley: One Love”) to open an underground jazz club and illegal substances business in the bohemian neighborhood controlled by the Salucci family.
Meanwhile, Violet Davies (Eliza Scanlen, “The Horrors of Caddo Lake”), one of the first women recruited by the London police, is assigned to infiltrate the club under an alias. Throughout the six episodes, Kate’s and Violet’s storylines intertwine through illegal alliances and confrontations with the local mafia.
The stylized visuals highlight the jazz age’s culture with extravagant costumes, decadent sets, and dreamlike visions, but also contain anachronistic visual effects marked by modern graphics. Released in February in the UK, it was once called the spiritual successor of “Peaky Blinders,” but, except for the criminal theme and the staging at the beginning of the 20th century, it is a completely different production—less linear, more experimental, and with female perspectives.
🎞️ A DAY LIKE THOSE | HBO Max
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The comedy that surprised at the box office in the United States and achieved 93% approval from critics on Rotten Tomatoes follows two friends, played by Keke Palmer (“No! Don’t Look!”) and singer SZA, during a hellish day. To try to avoid being evicted after losing their rent money, the duo gets involved in absurd situations around the city. From dance competitions to improvised sales, the desperate journey to find money is full of adventures, while reaffirming the strength of friendship.
Directed by Lawrence Lamont and written by Syreeta Singleton (both from “Maldito Rap”), the film marks SZA’s film debut and also features Lil Rel Howery (“Get Out”) as the boyfriend of her character.
🎞️ TERRIFIER 3 | Prime Video
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The Christmas horror shows the transformation of the clown Art into Santa Claus, who surpasses himself in his effort to decorate the holiday season with more red. Again written and directed by Damien Leone, the creator of the franchise, the film sees the bloodthirsty Art seeking revenge, hunting down the survivors from the previous movie, the siblings Sienna (Lauren LaVera) and Jonathan Shaw (Elliott Fullam), who supposedly killed him last Halloween. While he is searching for them, the immortal serial killer portrayed by David Howard Thornton begins to kill everyone he encounters, in the most violent and repulsive ways possible.
Independent production, made with a budget of only $2 million, the film surprised by taking first place at the box office upon its release in the United States. Without any marketing budget, it attracted a large audience due to morbid curiosity, after news reports about the first screenings recorded empty theaters and people vomiting in the premiere in the country.
🎞️ APRIL | Mubi
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Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival, the second feature film by Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili revolves around a rural obstetrician who performs illegal abortions for poor women and faces investigations after the death of a newborn under her care.
Obstetrician Nina, played by Ia Sukhitashvili, deals with a community immersed in patriarchal norms. She travels to remote villages to perform her clandestine service, driven by the resentment of childhood trauma. Although addressing a controversial theme, “April” avoids explicit polemical discourses. Instead, Kulumbegashvili constructs a fable about trauma, guilt, and female resistance, without narrative concessions or immediate emotional comfort.
The film is marked by an austere and meditative visual style, with long static shots that create effects of emotional estrangement and a sense of distance between the character and the viewer. The narrative is almost silent and reinforced by symbolic images — including a bizarre, faceless figure that repeatedly appears in the scenes as a possible manifestation of the protagonist’s inner self. The result reaffirms Dea Kulumbegashvili as a unique voice in contemporary cinema, capable of transforming an urgent socio-political theme into a radical artistic experience.
🎞️ A FATHER FOR MY DAUGHTER | VoD*
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Charlotte Regan’s debut film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. This British drama follows Georgie (Lola Campbell, in a revealing performance), a 12-year-old girl who lives alone in a London housing estate since her mother’s death, supporting herself by stealing bicycles and maintaining a deception by convincing social services that she is under the care of a non-existent uncle named “Winston Churchill.”
Georgie’s unstable routine is interrupted by the arrival of Jason (Harris Dickinson, “Babygirl”), a man who claims to be her father and returns to live with her. The family reunion proves tense: he threatens to turn her over to the social assistance system if she doesn’t accept him, and gradually establishes an unstable relationship that triggers emotional crises and silent confrontations.
The film blends social realism with childish fantasy — such as dialogues with spiders and imaginative moments that allude to material and emotional scarcity. The vibrant visual style, with a color palette contrasting with the precariousness of the situation, reinforces the duality between the invented and the real. Despite its sometimes naive tone, the emotional power of the narrative establishes itself as an affectionate and inventive work about childhood loneliness and family reconnection.
🎞️ VIRGINIA AND ADELAIDE | VoD*
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A mix of historical drama and biographical account, “Virginia and Adelaide” brings to the screen the real story of two pioneering women in psychoanalysis in Brazil. Starring Gabriela Correa (“The Pastor and the Guerrilla”) as Brazilian Virginia Leone Bicudo and Sophie Charlotte (“Renascer”) as German Adelheid (Adelaide) Koch, the film portrays the unlikely friendship that founded Brazilian psychoanalysis amid the turbulent 1930s.
German Jewish psychoanalyst Adelaide Koch arrives in São Paulo during the Estado Novo (when President Getúlio Vargas established the dictatorship), fleeing Nazi persecution in her country. Trained by Freud’s circle in Berlin, she seeks refuge and the opportunity to continue practicing psychoanalysis in Brazilian soil, which had not yet had access to this practice. The following year, she meets Virginia Bicudo, a young black sociologist from a modest background, interested in the mysteries of the mind, who would become Brazil’s first non-medical psychoanalyst. The film recounts the significant meeting of these two trajectories: Adelaide, an educated European doctor dealing with the trauma of exile; Virginia, daughter of a railway worker who breaks through barriers of race and gender to enter an elitist field dominated by white men.
Initially, Adelaide takes Virginia as her patient in analysis – she sees her for almost ten years, during a crucial therapeutic process through which Virginia works through personal issues (including the racism she experienced and the early loss of her father) and prepares to become an analyst herself. As the years go by, the two become colleagues and close friends for life. The script emphasizes this evolution, starting with reenacted analyses, with Adelaide on the couch listening to Virginia talk about her dreams and anxieties, and later showing them working together side by side in the founding of the São Paulo Psychoanalytic Society.
Co-directed by young filmmaker Yasmin Thayná (known for the short film “Kbela”) in partnership with veteran Jorge Furtado (from “O Homem que Copiava”), the film chooses to focus on the human and emotional dimension of this relationship, but does not fail to address larger issues subtly, such as racism, antisemitism, and access to mental health. Virginia Bicudo faced double prejudice: being a woman and Black, she was blocked from entering medical school (therefore she graduated as a sociologist) and, even after graduating as an analyst, she faced resistance from the environment. Adelaide, on the other hand, escapes the Holocaust but deals with the authoritarianism of the New State – in a tense scene, agents of Vargas interrogate her, suspecting “subversive” connections, since the regime viewed psychoanalysis with suspicion, considering it a “foreign science.”
SECOND
📺 THE KING OF THE PIECE | Disney+
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The classic Fox series, created by Mike Judge (also the creator of “Beevis and Butt-head”), is back with new episodes after 15 years off the air. The 14th season shows right away how the passage of time has affected the Hill family’s life. The new episodes begin with the return of the now-retired Hank and Peggy to the United States after a period in Saudi Arabia, only to find the town of Arlen, in central Texas, completely different, marked by ride-sharing apps, gender-neutral bathrooms, and the craft beer culture. At the same time, they have to deal with Bobby’s independence, now 21 years old and working as a chef in Dallas.
The season maintains the observational humor that made the show successful, showing the old neighborhood in new social dynamics, without losing its critical essence that confuses casual viewers. After all, the characters are conservative, yet they end up conveying a message as progressive as “All in the Family” in its time, under the same conditions.
The creator Mike Judge returns as the voice of Hank, Kathy Najimy continues voicing Peggy, and Pamela Adlon remains as Bobby, despite her character’s transformation into an adult. Maintaining the female voice for the character was a creative decision that took into account public familiarity. On the other hand, the participation of the rest of the cast took on a somber tone. Luanne, Peggy’s niece, and her husband Lucky disappeared from the story. They will not return to preserve the legacy of their original voice actors, actress Brittany Murphy (1977-2009) and singer Tom Petty (1950-2017), who have since passed away. On the other hand, the troublemaker Dale Gribble returns with the voice of Johnny Hardwick (1958-2023) for six posthumous episodes. In the other episodes, Toby Huss (“Halt and Catch Fire”) takes over the role, no longer voicing Kahn, who is now portrayed by Ronny Chieng (“M3GAN”). Another posthumous voice belongs to Jonathan Joss (1965-2025), who also voiced John Redcorn before being murdered last June. Additionally, jazz musician Chuck Mangione (1940-2025), who appeared as himself in the show, passed away on July 22nd.
American critics received the series’ revival positively, with 100% approval on Rotten Tomatoes, thanks to the balanced approach between the nostalgic tone and the updated perspective on 2025 discussions.
FOURTH
📺 WANDINHA – 2nd SEASON | Netflix
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The streaming phenomenon, the most-watched English-language series on Netflix, returns with new episodes and a new year of Wednesday Addams at Nevermore Academy, now led by the character Barry Dodd, portrayed by Steve Buscemi (“Boardwalk Empire”). The presence of the protagonist continues to make an impact on students and teachers, while new mysteries take shape around her. Between old rivals and new threats, Wednesday must face increasing exposure and a disturbing vision of death.
Logo nos primeiros momentos, the reunion with Enid suggests a brief resumption of the coexistence between colleagues, but the apparent calm falls apart when Wandinha has a premonition about her roommate’s death and sees herself as the main suspect of the crime. This vision becomes the dramatic core of the first part of the second season, leading to the investigation of a new unknown villain — and even zombies. But this is not the only new concern for the protagonist, who also has to deal with the arrival of her younger brother Feioso at the school.
The cast includes the returns of Jenna Ortega (Wednesday), Emma Myers (Enid), Catherine Zeta-Jones (Morticia), Luis Guzmán (Gomez), Isaac Ordonez (Pugsley), Hunter Doohan (Tyler), Joy Sunday (Bianca), Moosa Mostafa (Eugene), Georgie Farmer (Ajax) and Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo (Richie Santiago). Among the newcomers are Thandiwe Newton (“Westworld”), Billie Piper (“Doctor Who”), Noah Taylor (“Preacher”), Christopher Lloyd (“The Addams Family”), Joanna Lumley (“Absolutely Fabulous”), Haley Joel Osment (“The Sixth Sense”), Frances O’Connor (“Annabelle: Creation”), Heather Matarazzo (“Scream”) and a special appearance by Lady Gaga as a teacher, only in the second part, scheduled for September 3.
Production continues under the responsibility of Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (creators of “Smallville”), with Tim Burton (“Edward Scissorhands”) in direction and executive production.
📺 PLATONIC LOVE | Apple TV+
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Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, stars of “Neighbors,” play Will and Sylvia, old friends who reconnect after many years. The original idea was a mini-series, but the positive reception led to new episodes. In the second season, their 25-year friendship is tested by changes in their personal lives, including romantic relationships and work-related issues. The focus is on their attempt to keep their friendship intact despite the challenges of adult life, especially a new relationship of Will’s that threatens the dynamic of the duo, even though Sylvia is already married. The situations explore social discomforts, awkward dinners, and frustrated attempts at maturity, maintaining a comedic tone with physical humor insertions.
The series was Rogen’s first on Apple TV+ before he blew up with “The Studio,” and the second for Byrne, who starred in “Physical.” The two, who played a couple in “Neighbors,” share scenes with Carla Gallo (also from “Neighbors”), Luke Macfarlane (“Friends Like Me”), Tre Hale (“Love and Monsters”), and Andrew Lopez (“It’s Not Going to Work”).
Created by Nick Stoller, director of “Neighbors,” and his wife Francesca Delbanco (“College Friends”), who also share direction and screenwriting.
📺 FAMILY LAW | Universal+
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The Canadian legal drama follows Abigail “Abby” Bianchi (Jewel Staite, “Firefly”), a lawyer who loses her job after an embarrassing drunk video goes viral. Condemned to serve one year of probation, Abby is forced to work at her father’s office, Harry Svensson (Victor Garber, “Alias”), with whom she has a distant relationship, working alongside her half-siblings Daniel (Zach Smadu, “The Expanse”) and Lucy (Genelle Williams, “Warehouse 13”) — a team that mixes personal and professional issues within the context of family law.
In the early episodes, Abby faces her history of addiction while struggling to rebuild her career. She and her siblings deal with cases involving family disputes, adoption, abuse, and sexual diversity, revealing internal tensions in the office that reflect personal conflicts of each character. The relationship with her father becomes significant as she deals with successions, divorces, and professional ethics.
Over three seasons — 30 episodes released until 2025 — the plot develops with a mix of social issues and intimate stories. The drama stands out for its light, ironic, and emotional tone, reminiscent of classic legal dramas such as “L.A. Law,” but with a focus on contemporary family dilemmas. In the fourth season, Abby faces new personal challenges that lead her to a relapse into alcoholism and conflicts with her daughter Sofia (Eden Summer Gilmore, “Nancy Drew”). To make matters worse, her relationship with her father is tested when she is overlooked in the company’s society.
🎞️ The Last Mission | Prime Video
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In his new action comedy, Eddie Murphy (“Beverly Hills Cop 4: Axel Foley”) plays Russell, a veteran employee of a security transport company about to retire, who starts sharing his job with Travis (Pete Davidson, “The Good Place”), an inexperienced new hire. The coexistence between the two is abruptly interrupted by an unexpected robbery led by Zoe (Keke Palmer, “A Day Without a Woman”), a criminal with more complex intentions than just stealing the money in the armored car.
The structure of the comedy follows a day gone out of control, with events that intensify in each sequence. The tension between the characters is driven by chaotic action situations and physical humor, focusing on the contrast between the drivers, who must face not only external threats but also their differences in temperament and experience.
The cast also includes Eva Longoria (“Terra de Mulheres”), Jack Kesy (“Hellboy and the Tortured”), Marshawn Lynch (“Bottoms”), Andrew Dice Clay (“Pam & Tommy”) and Joe Anoa’i (“Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw”). The direction is by Tim Story, known for “Fantastic Four,” “A Night at the Roxbury” and “Cop Out,” with a script by Kevin Burrows and Matt Mider (both from “The Package”).
FRIDAY
📺 PATI | HBO Max
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The Polish drama is a spin-off of “The Condemned,” a series about female prisoners that was a hit in Europe and is also available on HBO Max. The story follows Patrycja “Pati” Cichy (Aleksandra Adamska), a secondary character from the original prison plot, which aired from 2021 to 2024. The spin-off began as a prologue. The first season, released in 2023, showed Pati before her imprisonment, in a vulnerable state—taking care of her siblings and her drug-dependent mother in Puck, without money for rent and facing threats from the local drug dealer Sony, while trying to seek an opportunity at a cooking school.
The second season, with six more episodes, moves forward in time to resume Pati’s journey after her time in prison. In this new arc, she returns to Puck trying to rebuild her life. She faces difficulties in finding a job, reconciles with friends, and continues dealing with the social and emotional consequences of her criminal past. The new arc focuses on the tension between independence and vulnerability, following Pati in her quest for reintegration.
The production maintains a dramatic tone, with a realistic setting and focus on female characters in critical situations, with the narrative centered on emotional rehabilitation after imprisonment.
🎞️ Harvest | Mubi
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The new surreal drama from Greek filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari (“Attenberg”) is an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Jim Crace, set in a fictional village in medieval Scotland. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2024 and unfolds over seven bizarre days, during which the previously isolated rural community is shaken by two simultaneous events: the arrival of a cartographer sent by the Crown, tasked with mapping the local lands, and the entry of new landowners led by a relative of the feudal lord, who are interested in evicting the peasants and converting the fields into pastures for sheep farming. These forced changes represent not only an economic but also a social and symbolic rupture, threatening traditional means of subsistence, community organization, and the collective sense of identity.
The plot takes on more intense contours with the occurrence of a mysterious crime, which serves as a catalyst for arbitrary accusations and disproportionate punishments, promoting an escalation of fear, paranoia, and disintegration. The central character is Walter, played by Caleb Landry Jones (“Dracula: A Love Eternal Story”), a villager who assumes the role of narrator and observer of the moral collapse around him. As the new landowners impose their authority, he witnesses the degradation of values, the emergence of institutional violence, and the loss of autonomy of his people.
Visually exuberant, “The Harvest” combines medieval elements with ritualistic symbolism, creating an aesthetic that dialogues both with folk horror and an allegorical fable about xenophobia and loss of identity. Moreover, the cinematography evokes classical paintings such as those of Bruegel and Turner, reinforcing the artistic tone of the work. The cinematic language marked by contemplation and allegories, however, makes the narrative slow, a typical symptom of European art film.
🎞️ CONFINE | Prime Video
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The claustrophobic thriller explores the boundaries of surveillance and revenge in urban societies. The plot follows Eddie (Bill Skarsgård, known for playing the clown in “It – The Thing”), a financially troubled family man who decides to commit a theft to pay his debts. While trying to steal a seemingly empty luxury car, he falls into a cleverly designed trap set by the vehicle’s owner, William (played by veteran Anthony Hopkins). Eddie soon realizes he is locked inside the car with no possibility of escape, becoming a pawn in William’s hands—a mysterious vigilante who subjects the thief to a perverse game of moral punishments from a distance. As the hours pass, the protagonist faces water deprivation and remotely activated psychological and physical tortures, while the executioner seeks to cruelly punish him for his crime. The increasing tension is sustained by the cat-and-mouse dynamic between the two men, confined respectively in a metal prison and in a judicial obsession.
If the story seems familiar, it’s because it’s a remake of the Argentine film “4×4” (2019), created by the excellent Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat (“Official Competition”), which also already had a Brazilian version: “A Jaula” (2021), with Shay Suede in the leading role. Directed by David Yarovesky – the filmmaker behind the subversive horror “Brightburn: Son of Darkness” – the American version refines the premise of a unique setting, practically limited to the inside of the car, betting on Skarsgård’s intense performance and Hopkins’ relentless voice to drive the suspense.
SATURDAY
📺 OUTLANDER: BLOOD OF MY BLOOD | Disney+
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The attraction derived from the success of “Outlander” expands the universe created by author Diana Gabaldon, exploring the origins of Claire and Jamie Fraser’s families. Set in two distinct time periods—one in 18th-century Scotland and the other in early 20th-century England during World War I—the story follows the forming romances of the Beauchamp and Fraser clans, revealing how their ancestors met and challenged the conventions of their times.
In the episodes, Jamie’s parents are portrayed by Jamie Roy (“Condor”) and Harriet Slater (“Pennyworth”) in a storyline set in the Highlands, still strongly influenced by rival clans. Meanwhile, Jeremy Irvine (“War Horse”) and Hermione Corfield (“Mission: Impossible – Fallout”) play Claire’s parents, who meet amidst the horrors of war and, through a mystical element, end up transported to 1714, bringing Claire’s past closer to Jamie’s long before the couple meets.
Despite the focus on new characters, the series does not abandon the romantic narrative and historical accuracy that characterized the original series, exploring themes such as honor, legacy, and resistance. Even those who have never watched “Outlander” can follow “Blood of My Blood” independently, as the narrative works as a starting point and at the same time echoes events from the main saga.
With executive production by Ronald D. Moore (creator of “Outlander”) and development by Matthew B. Roberts (also coming from the original series), the show maintains the consultancy of Diana Gabaldon and is already in production for its second season.
🎞️ RITAS | Globoplay
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The documentary directed by Oswaldo Santana, with collaboration from Karen Harley, presents a sensitive and multifaceted portrait of Rita Lee. Using archival footage, animations, and visual collages, “Ritas” emphasizes the artist’s own gaze and voice as she narrates memorable episodes from her career, from the beginning with Os Mutantes to her consecration as an icon of Brazilian rock.
The narrative is built from Rita Lee’s last interview and unpublished recordings she made herself, dialoguing with the plurality of her personas. The soundtrack highlights hits such as “Ovelha Negra,” “Lança Perfume,” and “Mania de Você,” along with original score composed by Zeca Baleiro. Presented at the É Tudo Verdade 2025 festival, the film was celebrated for balancing inventive visual resources and fidelity to the free spirit of the honored artist, establishing itself as an emotional document about the artist’s legacy.
* VoD (Video on Demand) releases can be rented individually on platforms such as Apple TV, Claro TV+, Prime Store, Microsoft Store, Vivo Play, and YouTube, among others that function as digital rental services without the need for a monthly subscription.
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