🎥 Binge or Cringe: What to Watch August 2 Through August 7

I am exhausted, and I cannot figure out why. I have blamed the heat, my age and August. I am running out of suspects. Every morning I assume this will be the day I wake up refreshed. Instead I wake up tired from whatever I was apparently doing in my sleep. Yesterday I opened the dishwasher. I looked at the clean dishes and decided we had enough forks to get through the day.

Luckily, television asks very little of me beyond staying awake.

Ted Lasso and Lioness are back. A teenager inherits an island and a sister. A handsome new student may be connected to a serial killer. Eric Goode has found the reptile people. Netflix traps a family inside its own house. This makes my current relationship with the couch seem almost healthy.

I may not know why I am tired. At least I know what we should watch.

Joe is back. This suggests she left work at some point.

Season 3 brings a new threat to the Lioness program. Hidden networks are operating behind the scenes. Foreign agents are closing in. Add in some personal betrayals because the international danger was apparently not keeping Joe busy enough.

The war has now reached every part of her life. Joe is trying to protect the country while keeping her husband and daughters out of the crossfire. Her family has spent two seasons attempting to have a normal home life with a woman who can be called away during dinner to dismantle a terrorist network. At this point they should stop waiting for her to come home and begin forwarding the mail.

Zoe Saldaña returns as Joe. Nicole Kidman is back as Kaitlyn. Morgan Freeman and Michael Kelly also return. Kaitlyn always looks completely composed while asking Joe to do something that could destroy her marriage or get her killed. Kaitlyn can ask someone to risk her life without raising her voice. I lose my composure when lunch moves to 1:30.

Taylor Sheridan created the series. His characters are excellent in a crisis. They can handle a hostage situation. A conversation at home is another matter.

The first two seasons put Joe through undercover missions in the Middle East and a cartel operation backed by China. Season 3 promises enemies who are harder to identify and much closer to home.

🔥 Hot Take: The CIA owes Joe’s family therapy and a housekeeper.

Binge If: You like espionage with real action. It also helps if you enjoy women who can dismantle an international conspiracy before everyone else has found parking.

Cringe If: You need Joe to finish one family dinner before someone arrives with a classified folder.

I had accepted that Ted Lasso was over. I processed the ending. I did the emotional paperwork.

Apple rejected it.

Ted returns to Richmond to coach the Lady Greyhounds. They are a struggling second-division women’s football team. This is a smart way to bring the show back. Ted gets another group of underdogs without everyone pretending the original ending never happened.

The team needs confidence and a better record. Ted will probably begin by discussing football. Ten minutes later everyone will be talking about something her father said when she was twelve. Someone will cry in the locker room. Biscuits will be involved. I will complain that the show is laying it on a little thick and then think about the episode for two days.

Jason Sudeikis returns as Ted. Hannah Waddingham is back as Rebecca. Juno Temple and Brett Goldstein return too. Rebecca will spend the season looking magnificent while everyone brings her problems. Keeley will arrive with three phones and a solution that creates two more.

Roy Kent is still Roy Kent. Honestly, that is enough for me.

Season 3 ended with Ted returning to Kansas to be near his son. Now he is back in Richmond. I assume the explanation will involve parenting and purpose. Possibly barbecue sauce. The season has ten episodes. One arrives every Wednesday through October 7. Weekly episodes are probably for our protection. Ted can find a life lesson in a cup of tea. Ten hours at once could leave us emotionally dehydrated.

🔥 Hot Take: I did not need another season of Ted Lasso. I also did not need half the things I ordered last week. This has never stopped me before.

Binge If: You missed Richmond and still believe a box of biscuits can repair almost any workplace relationship.

Cringe If: You thought the ending should have stayed an ending.

Seventeen-year-old Annie Jacobson has her future planned. Then the grandfather she was never allowed to meet dies and leaves her a remote island in Canada. This is a lot of real estate for someone whose father can still take away her phone.

Annie grew up in New York with her twin brother Connor. She travels to the island hoping to learn more about her mother and the family history nobody has been willing to explain. Once she arrives she discovers her grandfather left behind more than property. He also left behind Ramona, a sister Annie never knew existed.

Most grandfathers leave a watch or a chair nobody wants. This one left an island and an additional child. Annie and Ramona begin trying to understand why they were raised separately. They also have to determine what else the adults have been hiding. Ella Rubin from Anora plays Annie. Amélie Hoeferle plays Ramona. Keen Ruffalo plays Connor. Jeffrey Dean Morgan appears in a recurring role.

The series comes from Megan Park. Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage are also behind it. They produced The O.C. and Gossip Girl. They know how to build a world filled with beautiful teenagers and adults who could have prevented years of trouble by telling the truth at breakfast.

🔥 Hot Take: In teen television nobody inherits a sensible mutual fund and a reliable Honda.

Binge If: You miss the days when The O.C. gave attractive teenagers problems requiring therapy and waterfront property.

Cringe If: Your first thought about a private island is who handles the plumbing.

Los Angeles in 1981 should be an excellent place to be a wealthy high school senior. You have a nice car. Parents are rarely home. Nobody can track your location.

Unfortunately there is also a serial killer. Bret is an eighteen-year-old aspiring writer at an elite private school. His comfortable life begins to unravel when Robert Mallory arrives. Robert is handsome and charming. He also lies about his past. Bret begins to suspect he may be connected to the Trawler. The Trawler is a serial killer targeting young people across Los Angeles.

The sensible response would be to stay away from Robert.

Bret chooses obsession and surveillance. He is also attracted to him. This complicates the investigation. Handsome people have been interfering with sound judgment since people first developed cheekbones.

The series is based on Bret Easton Ellis’s semi-autobiographical novel and was adapted by Ellis with Ryan Murphy. Igby Rigney plays Bret. Homer Gere plays Robert while Kaia Gerber plays Bret’s childhood friend Susan.

I am a huge Bret Easton Ellis fan, which may not be something I should admit quite so enthusiastically. I have read all of his novels and completely dig his vibe. Evidently beautiful people behaving terribly in Los Angeles is one of my literary interests. The casting only makes it more irresistible. The children of Richard Gere and Cindy Crawford have ended up in the same fictional 1980s high school. Somewhere, an old issue of People magazine has become sentient.

FX is warning viewers not to trust the hot new guy. Television has spent decades making sure we do anyway.

🔥 Hot Take: A mysterious past is not always intriguing. Sometimes it means you should arrange your own ride home.

Binge If: You like psychological thrillers about privileged teenagers who mistake danger for chemistry.

Cringe If: You think a possible serial killer is reason enough to cancel the pool party.

Eric Goode has moved on to reptiles. I was hoping he might take a break and make something about a bakery. Goode made Tiger King and Chimp Crazy. His new five-part documentary enters the illegal world of exotic reptile collecting. Rare snakes and lizards are being traded for enormous amounts of money. Smugglers move them across international borders. Collectors insist they are protecting the animals and federal agents would like a word.

Goode knows this world personally. He began collecting reptiles as a child and became involved with people inside the trade. Later, he founded the Turtle Conservancy. Goode is not simply observing this world from the outside. He knows the appeal firsthand and how easily fascination can become something much harder to defend.

The series follows traffickers and collectors. It also follows zoo employees and law enforcement officers. Everyone believes his relationship with the animals is special. The animals seem to have been left out of the meeting.

I thought Tiger King taught me everything I needed to know about men who build their identities around dangerous animals. Then came Chimp Crazy. Now there are snakes.

The first episode also has a Philadelphia connection through Hank Molt and the Philadelphia Reptile Exchange. Apparently my hometown’s local history includes more than cheesesteaks and political corruption. We were also a center for reptile smuggling. It is nice to have range.

🔥 Hot Take: Somewhere a woman is discovering that the locked room in the garage does not contain golf clubs.

Binge If: You are fascinated by people who see a venomous reptile and think, “I’d love that as a pet.”

Cringe If: You hate snakes. I do. Trust me, one episode will have you suspicious of the toilet.

Season 2 ended with Jackie telling Cole she loved him while she was still involved with his brother Alex. Alex overheard the conversation just as an ambulance arrived to take their father George to the hospital.

Season 3 begins exactly where we left off. George is dealing with his medical crisis. Jackie feels guilty. Cole feels guilty. Alex has learned that his girlfriend is in love with his brother. The entire family needs a licensed professional.

The boys respond by choosing hobbies that require waivers. Alex joins a professional rodeo team. Cole gets involved in drag racing after a driver notices his natural ability behind the wheel. The Walter family has already had one ambulance outside their house. I guess they found the experience reassuring.

Jackie tries to focus on something besides the brothers. She begins developing a community space for Silver Falls. She is also still hoping to become student body president. This would be an impressive amount of extracurricular activity even without the romantic drama happening at the ranch.

Then Eliot arrives from New York. Eliot is handsome and charming. He also knew Jackie before she moved to Colorado. His arrival pulls her toward her old life and possibly into another romance. Two Walter brothers were not creating enough paperwork so Netflix has added a third applicant.

I would normally say the Walter family needs a bigger house. I no longer believe the size of the house is the issue.

🔥 Hot Take: Jackie should choose neither brother and spend one semester completing her homework.

Binge If: You are already emotionally invested in which Walter boy is standing closest to Jackie beside a fence.

Cringe If: You cannot remember which brother she loves or why everyone in Silver Falls seems determined to keep the local ER busy.

Greta Lee and Wagner Moura play Ann and Jason. They are the parents of a family of four who wake up to discover they have been sealed inside their home. The doors will not open. The windows cannot be broken. Something outside seems determined to keep them there. As their food and supplies begin to diminish the family has to figure out what happened. They also have to decide how long they can survive on whatever is already in the house.

Ann and Jason try to keep their children calm while the house slowly changes from a place of safety into a trap. The family has no idea who sealed them inside or why. Greta Lee is always worth watching. Wagner Moura has already proved in Narcos that he can hold your attention while everyone around him is in serious danger.

I have spent years arranging my life so I can complete almost every task without leaving my house. Netflix has finally identified the weakness in my plan.

It is also the rare home emergency that cannot be solved through Instacart and a very detailed note for the shopper. My first concern would be water. My second concern would be food. My husband’s first concern would be why I had ordered six kinds of mustard and no batteries. We would be fully prepared for sandwiches and absolutely nothing else.

🔥 Hot Take: The threat outside may be terrifying. The family will really turn on one another when someone admits to finishing the good cereal.

Binge If: You like watching an ordinary home slowly become the last place anyone wants to be.

Cringe If: Everyone in your house gets mean when they’re hungry.

That’s the week.

I was hoping that by the time I finished this list, the water and coffee would have kicked in. Instead, I have developed a very efficient route between the couch and the bathroom.

The energy has not arrived. The watchlist has.

For now, I am calling that progress. I have seven shows, a couch and enough forks to get through dinner.

What are you watching first?