The end of summer can be a barren landscape for TV, whether it’s because vacationing cuts into couch time or networks and streamers tend to stash their best new releases for the fall.
But late August is as good a time as any to try out some shows and movies that might have been overlooked during other parts of the calendar.
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Here are a few streaming options to check out:
Serengeti III
Now in its third season, BBC’s wildlife documentary narrated by actress Lupita Nyong’o weaves dramatic storytelling into the time-honored natural history format. For viewers grounded in hard science and people who will only take their animal lessons from David Attenborough, “Serengeti” requires a bit of a leap of the imagination. Filmed on a private reserve in Tanzania, one of East Africa’s most biodiverse savanna regions, the show captures stunning footage of numerous species. Its real selling point is the innovative use of drones and other camera techniques to get rare glimpses of animal behavior. The stories can get a bit heavy-handed to drum up emotional reactions, but the drama is meant to foster empathy with the trials of life and survival the animals face.
The third season of the series hits Max on Aug. 25.
Room
It’s a bit unfortunate that 2015’s “Room” is so near in name to “The Room,” Tommy’s Wiseau’s cult classic melodrama that’s known for being endearingly horrible. In 2017, “The Room” went mainstream with a film adaptation of the book “The Disaster Artist,” making it easy to get it jumbled with “Room.”
In this gripping drama starring Brie Larson, viewers must imagine how motherly love and hope could persist amid the claustrophobia and trauma of captivity. Larson plays a woman who’s been held in a filthy shed for seven years, including five she spent raising a son she had as a result of being raped by her captor. Based on a novel by Emma Donoghue, “Room” paints a believable picture of how a mother and growing child would find ways to cope in this situation — and how they eventually might plot an escape.
“Room” is now streaming on Netflix.
Untold: The Murder of Air McNair
In 2000, Steve McNair and the Tennessee Titans came within a yard of winning Super Bowl XXXIV in a game remembered for one of the most thrilling championship finishes in NFL history. McNair was a perennial star who was named co-MVP with Peyton Manning in 2003. His life was tragically cut short in a shooting that was ruled a murder-suicide on the Fourth of July in 2009.
Fifteen years later, the investigation into McNair’s death is examined in a new volume of Netflix’s “Untold” documentary series. McNair was 36 when he was killed by his 20-year-old girlfriend, Jenni Kazemi, who had purchased a gun the night before the shooting at a condo in downtown Nashville. The documentary looks at various circumstances surrounding the shooting and pays tribute to McNair through interviews with those close to him, including former Titans head coach Jeff Fisher.
The documentary is now available to stream on Netflix.