What I’ve Been Watching This August: Surprises, Disappointments and Shows I’m Starting to Give Up On

August, LPC Studio and a Lot of Things to Watch

August has been a little different around Los Postcréditos. There have been fewer podcasts and fewer articles than usual, but there is a pretty good reason for that: a huge part of my time has been going into the development of LPC Studio, an app built around pretty much everything we have been doing with movies and television over the years.

The idea is simple to explain and considerably harder to build. I want to take the features I enjoy from different entertainment apps, bring them together, adapt them to the way I actually watch movies and shows, and create something that also makes the entire Los Postcréditos workflow easier. Programming definitely isn’t my natural habitat, so getting there has been an adventure, but what we’re building is starting to look genuinely exciting.

And while all of that has been happening, I obviously haven’t stopped watching things. So this feels like the perfect time to open the Timeline and go through everything that has crossed my screen lately. There have been a few surprises, some major disappointments and, perhaps most importantly, a couple of shows that are starting to make me wonder whether I’ve simply had enough.

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Deep Water: Ana de Armas and Ben Affleck Can Only Do So Much

Let’s start with Deep Water, starring Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas. There really isn’t much to celebrate here. This is the kind of movie you can throw on without giving it your full attention, watch for a couple of hours and probably forget about not long after the credits roll.

The biggest issue is obvious: remove the erotic and sexual component and there isn’t much of a movie underneath. Affleck and de Armas have chemistry, and their relationship creates enough curiosity to keep things moving for a while, but the story surrounding them feels surprisingly thin.

It isn’t unwatchable. It can even be entertaining in stretches. But with two stars capable of considerably more, it’s hard not to feel like we’re watching a movie that relies far too heavily on attraction and provocation to disguise how little else it has to offer.

Evil Dead Rise Understands Exactly What Horror Should Feel Like

My reaction to Evil Dead Rise couldn’t be more different. This is much closer to the kind of horror I want: stressful when it needs to be, brutal when it gets the opportunity, unapologetically gory and smart enough to throw some dark humor into the madness.

More importantly, it understands that horror isn’t just about putting blood on the screen. Sound design and visual effects do a huge amount of work here, creating an experience that constantly feels uncomfortable and unpredictable. There is always that sense that something truly awful could happen at any moment.

And then, quite often, it does.

Horror movies also tend to get hammered when it comes to audience ratings, so seeing one of these movies receive a relatively solid response is always worth noting. For me, though, the verdict is much simpler: green light. If you enjoy aggressive, bloody horror that isn’t afraid to have some fun with itself, this one is absolutely worth watching.

Furious Is Finally Giving Emmy Rossum Something to Work With

Furious is finally doing something I’ve been asking for since its opening episodes: letting Emmy Rossum loose.

Ever since Shameless, I’ve considered Rossum an actress who becomes particularly compelling when she’s given emotionally demanding material. She has an incredibly expressive face and doesn’t need huge speeches to communicate what a character is going through. The last few episodes have finally started taking advantage of that, and the show is considerably better because of it.

I still want more from Jake Lacy. We’ve already seen what he can do when he’s given complicated material, but this series hasn’t used him nearly as much as I hoped it would. There are reasons for that within the story, of course, and there are still episodes remaining, so perhaps we’ll get more before the end.

Furious isn’t an extraordinary show. It doesn’t need to be. It gives me enough each week to keep coming back, and right now Emmy Rossum is easily its strongest reason to stay.

A Small Christmas Movie With an Interesting Idea for Parents

One of the smaller movies I’ve watched recently was a very modest Christmas story that probably has more value in the conversation it can create than in the movie itself. The production is incredibly simple, much of it takes place inside a house, and nobody appears to have thrown a huge budget at it.

But the subject is interesting: that moment when children begin to lose their belief in the magic surrounding Christmas.

When do you tell them certain things? When have they already figured them out? Should you protect that little bit of magic for another year? The movie plays directly with those questions, which makes it potentially useful for parents approaching that particular stage.

I’d probably place its ideal audience somewhere around eight to ten or eleven years old, although every child is obviously different. As a movie, it’s pretty limited. As a way of opening a conversation that eventually has to happen in most families, however, it has more value than I expected.

Lanterns: Wait, Did DC Actually Get This Right?

Two episodes into Lanterns, I’m starting to lower some of the defenses I had before the premiere. The first episode was good, but DC has burned us far too many times for me to celebrate after a single hour of television.

The second episode changed things a little.

There’s a personality beginning to emerge here, and while it’s obviously a completely different show, I’m getting some of the same feeling I had when Peacemaker proved that DC could still produce something distinctive when the right people were involved.

There is plenty of time for everything to fall apart. This is DC, after all, and recent history gives us more than enough reasons to remain cautious. But after two episodes I can finally say something I wasn’t sure I’d be saying before the premiere: I genuinely want to see where Lanterns goes next.

For a DC project, that’s already a victory.

Special Ops: Lioness Is Still Playing in Another League

Special Ops: Lioness remains one of the strangest success stories in my personal viewing habits. On paper, it contains almost everything that would normally push me away: military operations, espionage, counterintelligence and plenty of unapologetic American bravado.

And yet I love this show.

We’re already into the third season, and the obvious danger is repetition. New mission, new enemy, slightly different location, same basic machinery. But Lioness continues to make that machinery work. The scenario changes, the conflict evolves and the characters are strong enough to make another variation on the formula feel worthwhile.

The cast obviously helps. Zoe Saldaña leads an incredibly strong ensemble, and the level of talent involved consistently elevates material that could easily become excessive in a weaker production.

At this point, there isn’t much hesitation on my part. Lioness remains one of the shows I’m enjoying the most and one of the easiest recommendations I can make right now.

Dr. Death Is Good, but It Never Hit Me as Hard as It Wanted To

I liked Dr. Death. Both seasons tell separate stories, both have enough substance to maintain interest, and both benefit from actors I genuinely enjoy watching.

The second season has the added advantage of Mandy Moore, an actress I will probably always associate with This Is Us, one of my favorite television shows and a series that managed to hit me emotionally in ways very few others have.

Maybe that’s partly why I expected Dr. Death to affect me more than it did.

The stories are disturbing. The human consequences are obvious. The show pushes its dramatic elements very hard, and intellectually I understand exactly why these cases are so horrifying. Emotionally, however, something never quite connected.

That doesn’t make Dr. Death a bad series. Far from it. But there’s a meaningful difference between recognizing that something is well made and actually feeling what the show desperately wants you to feel.

The Shards: Beautiful on the Outside, Increasingly Empty Inside

If we’re talking disappointments, The Shards is becoming one of the biggest. That’s particularly frustrating because the expectations surrounding this project were considerably higher.

Visually, there is very little to criticize. The costumes, locations, atmosphere and period recreation are excellent. You look at this world and immediately believe it. The problem begins when you stop admiring the packaging and start asking what the story is actually doing.

This is supposed to have the threat of a serial killer hanging over it, yet several episodes in, that element still feels far less important than it should. There isn’t enough tension, there aren’t enough meaningful developments and the central narrative rarely feels like it’s moving with any urgency.

And this is a limited series. That’s important. There isn’t an endless amount of time available to eventually find the story.

Could the final stretch improve dramatically? Absolutely. But even if it does, it’ll have a difficult time erasing the feeling that too much of the early run was spent creating an incredible atmosphere without giving us an equally compelling reason to care.

Silo: What Happens When a Good Show Stops Being Interesting?

Silo might be my clearest example of television fatigue right now. I loved the first season. There was mystery everywhere, a fascinating world to discover and enough unanswered questions to make the next episode feel necessary.

The second season started giving me a sense of repetition.

Now, during season three, I’ve reached a much more dangerous place: I’m starting not to care what happens.

That’s one of the worst things that can happen between a show and its audience. It doesn’t mean Silo has suddenly become poorly made. Visually, it’s still impressive. Its universe still contains interesting ideas. But this season is spending much more time exploring what happened before the silo and what exists beyond the immediate story that originally hooked me.

I understand why. Expanding the mythology makes sense. Eventually, you need to explain how this world came to exist.

But when a show called Silo starts making me more aware of everything happening outside the silo than the people and conflicts within it, my interest begins to disappear.

I no longer desperately need answers. The series has already told me most of what I originally wanted from it, and everything after that is beginning to feel like we’re circling a mystery whose greatest impact has already passed.

House of the Dragon and My Problem With an Ever-Expanding World

I’m experiencing something similar with House of the Dragon, although for completely different reasons. I enjoyed the first season partly because it felt like a more concentrated version of Game of Thrones. Fewer families, fewer names to remember, fewer simultaneous storylines and a central conflict that was easier to follow.

But inevitably, the world keeps expanding. More characters arrive, relationships become more complicated and we’re slowly moving toward the kind of enormous narrative structure that eventually exhausted me in the first place.

And then there are the dragons.

Complaining about dragons in a series called House of the Dragon might sound ridiculous, but that’s exactly the issue. If the defining element of a story isn’t particularly interesting to you, it’s going to be incredibly difficult for the rest of the show to turn you into a passionate fan.

I can recognize the production value. I can appreciate the performances and the big moments. But personally, I’m finding fewer reasons to get excited about where this story is heading.

Looking: Sometimes Delivering What You Promised Is Enough

Finally, there’s Looking, a show I can now judge as a complete experience. It never became something extraordinary, but it accomplished exactly what I expected from it.

There’s action, recognizable actors, enough momentum and enough entertainment to get from beginning to end without much trouble. Anya Taylor-Joy does her job, the other familiar faces do theirs, and the series never really pretends it’s trying to reinvent television.

Would I recommend it as one of the year’s essential shows? No.

Would I recommend it to someone who wants something straightforward, entertaining and easy to watch? Absolutely.

Sometimes that’s enough.

A Different August Before Things Speed Up Again

Looking back at everything I’ve watched lately leaves me in a surprisingly mixed place. Evil Dead Rise has been one of the most enjoyable surprises, Lioness continues to prove that a great show can make me enjoy genres I normally wouldn’t seek out, and Lanterns is slowly accomplishing something I considered unlikely: making me cautiously optimistic about DC again.

On the other side are The Shards and especially Silo, two very different examples of how a show can lose me. One has an outstanding presentation but isn’t doing enough with the story that should be driving everything. The other has simply reached the point where I feel like I’ve already received the answers and experiences I originally came for.

And while the movies and shows keep coming, a major part of this August is about preparing what comes next. LPC Studio is being built to bring this entire universe together: what we’re watching, what we want to watch, ratings, recommendations and much of what we already do every day through Los Postcréditos.

If you’d like to test LPC Studio while it’s still being built, join the Los Postcréditos Telegram group and ask for access. This is exactly the stage where feedback matters most, because an idea from someone testing the app today could become a feature tomorrow.

August may look a little quieter from the outside.

Behind the scenes, it’s probably one of the busiest months we’ve ever had.

See you on the site, hear you on the podcast and, very soon, hopefully see you inside LPC Studio too.

Related reading: the original Spanish version of this viewing diary.

If you share the concern about once-promising shows becoming exhausting, read our analysis of when long-running series should end.

For a broader look at what is and is not working in today’s crowded TV landscape, read our analysis of modern streaming series and the shows worth watching.