In doing our civic duty to minimise our outdoor activities this August, here’s our list of top 8 shows to watch in the comfort of our homes:
For Netflix-Fans
The Chair
While waiting for Killing Eve to be back with its fourth and final season, here’s another show to give us a dose of the beloved Sandra Oh. Oh plays Ji-Yoon Kim, the first woman of colour to become chair of Pembroke university’s English department.
While grappling with the challenges of managing a failing department. Ji-Yoon struggles to meet the dizzying demands and high expectations of the old and new staff. Her promotion complicates the relationships in her life, as she clashes with co-workers, who were her friends before she became chair, and struggles to balance being a single mother and a caretaker to her elderly father. To make matters worse, she is asked to discipline a fellow professor, whom she has feelings for.
Exploring the themes of racism and the discrimination against women in power, The Chair will be released on Netflix on 27 August.
The Kissing Booth 3
This ridiculously bad young adult rom-com has been critically panned since the first film of the franchise. And yet, against all odds, it’s back again for a third film. Elle Evans (Joey King) spends her last summer before college with her childhood best friend Lee (Joel Courtney) and her boyfriend Noah (Jacob Elordi) at their family beach house. But unbeknownst to the two brothers, Elle has a big decision to make. She has to decide whether to go attend Berkeley college with her best friend or to join her boyfriend at Harvard in the fall. As Elle is put in the difficult position of disappointing one of the two people she loves most yet again, here’s to hoping that after three films, the characters have matured enough to let her make her own choices.
The third and final instalment of The Kissing Booth series will premiere on Netflix on 11 August.
He’s All That
TikTok star Addison Rae and rising teen heartthrob Tanner Buchanan star in this gender-swap remake of the 90s hit teen classic, She’s All That. Rae plays Padgett Sawyer, a popular teen who seeks to avenge herself after a humiliating fallout with her boyfriend. An influencer specialising in makeovers, Padgett bets that she can transform an unpopular, anti-social classmate (played by Buchanan) into a prom king, only to wind up falling in love with him.
The premise is nothing new but the stunning chemistry that Rae and Buchanan showed during the MTV awards leaves us something to look forward to. He’s All That will premiere on Netflix on 27 August.
For K-Drama Addicts
Lovers of the Red Sky
vThis starstudded young cast promises a swoon-worthy experience, with popular actors Kim Yoo-Jung and Ahn Hyo-seop headlining the drama. Adapted from the eponymous novel by Jung Eun-gwol, Lovers of the Red Sky is a fantasy romance historical drama about the only female painter in the Joseon dynasty, who was briefly recorded in historical records. Kim Yoo-Jung plays Hong Chun-gi, who was born blind but recovered her sight miraculously. The first female painter to enter Dohwawon, Chun-gi impresses Joseon with her extraordinary aesthetic insight and technique, as she unravels her terrible fate and finds love with Ha Ram (Ahn Hyo-seop), a blind astrologer who reads the sky and constellations.
Lovers of the Red Sky will premiere on 23 August and is available for streaming on Viu.
Lost/ Human Disqualification
This thoughtful melodrama tells the story of ordinary people who have worked hard all their lives, in hopes of seeing the light at the end of their tunnel. But as they enter a downhill road in life during their middle-age years, they become disillusioned and overwhelmed by despair, causing them to lose their sense of self.
Jeon Do-yeon stars as Bu-Jeong, a ghostwriter who wants to write an original work in her own name, but is left without hope when she encounters a disappointing failure. Leading man Ryu Jun-Yeol plays the role of Kang-Jae a man who grew up poor and desires to be rich. He runs a service company to take on different roles required by clients. As the two jaded hustlers face the end of their youth, they lose their will to live on, but find comfort and romance in one another, gaining strength through each other.
The premiere of Lost will be delayed to 3 September due to the Tokyo Olympics, and it will be available for streaming on iQIYI.
D.P
As South Korea shares our country’s system of having men serve two years in the army, our Singaporean NS men should find this series relatable. D.P stands for deserter pursuiter. Starring rising star Jung Hae-in as private Ahn Jun-ho, the drama shows the journey of a ragtag crew of military police tasked with the mission of arresting those who desert the army. While the trailer shows a series of comedic moments, the drama also tells emotional stories revealing the painful reality endured by enlistees during their compulsory call of duty.
D.P premieres on 27 August on Netflix.
Hometown Cha-cha-cha
2019’s hit K-drama Start-Up had everyone falling for actor Kim Seon-ho, who has since been offered a plethora of leading roles. This cheery rom-com is a fine light watch to look forward to. Set in the quiet seaside village of Gongjin, Hometown Cha-cha-cha tells the story of a practical dentist (Shin Min-ah) who abandons her fast-paced life in the city to start afresh, unexpectedly sparking a budding romance with the village chief and resident handyman, Hong Du-sik. While she is described as a perfectionist at work who is sloppy in her daily life, he has a warm-hearted but tsundere personality and their contradictions make them all the more lovable, giving us another reason to root for this cute couple.
Enjoy the simple life, with Shin Min-a and Kim Seon-ho in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha, which premieres on 28 August on KBS2.
For Cinephiles
The Suicide Squad
After an earlier Suicide Squad film in 2016 was panned by critics, fans were pretty disillusioned by the quality of scripts presented by DC. Still, Margot Robbie is a pretty convincing Harley Quinn, having led her Birds Of Prey film to positive reviews, and DC Films have taken another chance on this dark and exciting story.
In exchange for lightened sentences, the ragtag crew of incarcerated villains operate under orders from Amanda Waller, imprisoned convicts at Belle Reve penitentiary are sent to the island nation of Corto Maltese to destroy Jotunheim, a Nazi-era prison, and a laboratory that conducts experiments on political prisoners. With quippy lines and a far more daring characterization for its villains, here’s to hoping that DC Films gets it right with The Suicide Squad this time around.
The Suicide Squad comes to theatres on 5 August. While it is advised that we stay at home, we had to mention The Suicide Squad for all the DC fans out there, and we recommend that you watch it from the safety of your couches, as it is available for streaming on HBO Max from 6 August.
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