3 Best all-new Netflix and Prime Video additions for a mid-week binge (Aug 17-21)
Some massive arrivals on streaming this week
Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are in a basically never-ending battle to be not just the best streaming service, but crucially the biggest, and that means that both platforms need constant additions to keep subscribers sated. There's a pretty good chance that you have access to one of those two massive streamers, frankly.
So, each time a week starts, I take a look at everything (and I mean everything) that's being added to these two huge platforms, and filter that long list right down. Below, you'll find the three additions you should know about – rather than the dozens you can safely ignore. They've got trailers and release dates, too, for your convenience.
Outer Banks Season 5
- Streaming on: Netflix from 20 August
Outer Banks is something of a mystery to me – a show that's got all the way to a fifth season on Netflix, and which has a fairly big fanbase. I've never seen it, but having watched multiple seasons' trailers it looks like a really fun treasure-hunting adventure, a bit like The Goonies aged up for a more teenage audience and with quite a lot more edge to it.
The show's heroes, a gang of friends that style themselves The Pogues, are always on the back foot, with nasty forces and law enforcement typically teaming up to try to rob them of their hard-earned treasure, and this seems to be their last hurrah. They'll go out doing what they love – searching for more mysterious lost booty, and having a great time together.
Novak Djokovic: The Wolf in Winter
- Streaming on: Prime Video from 20 August
The world isn't short of magnetic personalities, but when it comes to the sporting arena, we do live in an era of increasingly guarded and media-trained athletes. That's why it could be fascinating to get a proper look behind the curtain at Novak Djokovic, unquestionably one of the all-time greats of tennis, but quite a private individual.
He's got a documentary with Prime Video coming this week, and it promises to give some insight into the psychology of a player who's managed to stay at his peak for an absurd length of time. He's not just an also-ran nowadays, often still penetrating to the late stages of major tournaments, so this could be a really fascinating behind-the-scenes profile for fans of the game.
Blood Sacrifice
- Streaming on: Netflix from 20 August
There's nothing like a good Scandi-noir to get the blood pumping, and Blood Sacrifice could be a great example of the genre done well. It's a whodunnit, effectively, playing out around Stockholm as a serial killer methodically targets police officers for murders then arranges their bodies artfully.
That's enough to make any other police officer nervous, let alone the detective tasked with chasing the killer down with few leads. He'll enlist the help of his father, a retired investigator, and soon find himself drawn into a typically dark and frankly scary game. This looks like it could be a breakout hit, and Netflix's success with previous subtitled shows should stand it in good stead.
