August kicks off with a surprisingly stacked calendar. Over the next seven days, we're getting a classic time-travel TVB revenge saga with two of Hong Kong's biggest stars, Bret Easton Ellis adapting his own chilling 1980s prep-school novel for Netflix, a pair of K-dramas serving very different romantic flavors, and a national-park crime procedural that feels like a breath of fresh wilderness air.
Whether you're looking for an all-weekend binge or a slow-burn weekly release, here are the premiering shows actually worth your screen time — ranked by live audience interest on incoming.
What's Premiering August 1–7
The Shows Worth Your Time
1. Mrs. Revenge (Aug 3, TVB) — The Hong Kong Vengeance Drama Building Serious Buzz
- Genre: Drama / Time-Travel Revenge
- Network / Streaming: TVB · TVB Anywhere
- Release Schedule: Mon–Fri, 25 episodes
- Cast: Samantha Ko, Kenneth Ma Kwok-Ming, Ben Wong Chi-Yin, Hera Chan, Matthew Ho
The setup drops you straight into the deep end: Keung Hang-yu is battling terminal cancer, dealing with a cheating husband, and watching her best friend pull the strings. Then she gets poisoned. But instead of dying, she wakes up five years in the past with her health restored, her marriage intact, and a complete blueprint of every betrayal waiting for her.
Time-travel revenge is a specialized subgenre that Hong Kong TV practically perfected, and Mrs. Revenge has the casting to make it land. Samantha Ko has been building toward a lead like this for years, and Kenneth Ma brings exactly the right kind of surface charm to make his betrayal believable. These two have natural on-screen chemistry from previous TVB productions, and the show leans into that history rather than ignoring it.
If you've missed classic TVB primetime melodramas that keep you yelling at the screen every night, this is your next obsession.
2. The Shards (Aug 5, Netflix) — Bret Easton Ellis Adapts His Own Serial Killer Novel, All 8 Episodes at Once
- Genre: Psychological Thriller / Crime
- Network / Streaming: Netflix
- Release Schedule: All 8 episodes drop August 5
- Cast: Igby Rigney, Homer Gere, Graham Campbell, Hayes Warner
Bret Easton Ellis (American Psycho, Less Than Zero) rarely hands his work over to Hollywood without heavy oversight. For The Shards, he took full control, scripting all eight episodes himself from his acclaimed 2023 novel. Set in 1981 Los Angeles, the series follows a fictionalized 17-year-old Ellis at an exclusive prep school as a serial killer called "The Trawler" begins targeting teenagers in the neighbourhood.
Igby Rigney, who played Ben in Midnight Mass and earned considerable attention for it, steps into the lead as the young Bret. The 1981 Los Angeles period detail gives the show a distinct visual identity, and with Ellis writing every episode, the adaptation doesn't sand down the novel's darker edges.
It's dark, explicit, and uncompromisingly Ellis. Easily the most distinctive premiere on the calendar this week.
3. Our Sticky Love (Aug 7, ENA / Viki) — Jung Hae-in Returns to Rom-Com Territory
- Genre: Romance / Comedy
- Network / Streaming: ENA · Viki (international)
- Release Schedule: Fri–Sat, 12 episodes
- Cast: Jung Hae-in, Ahn Ha-young, Heo Sung-tae, Jeon Bae-soo
After heavy dramatic turns in D.P. (which hit Netflix's global top 10 both seasons) and Snowdrop, Jung Hae-in is finally back in full romantic-lead mode. The setup: a ruthless star prosecutor loses her memory after an accident. When she wakes up, a warm-hearted boxing coach claims to be her fiancé and convinces her to recover at his gym.
What could have been a standard amnesia trope gets elevated by the pairing. Ahn Ha-young steps into her first major lead role after years of supporting parts, and the prosecutor-versus-boxer dynamic gives the relationship more friction than most rom-com setups. Expect shifting power dynamics and the kind of slow-burn pacing that makes weekend K-dramas so bingeable.
Full details: Our Sticky Love →
4. Anna Pigeon (Aug 7, Paramount+) — Tracy Spiridakos Trades Chicago PD for National Park Mysteries
- Genre: Crime / Mystery / Procedural
- Network / Streaming: Paramount+
- Release Schedule: Weekly, 10 episodes
- Cast: Tracy Spiridakos, Tricia Helfer, Paulina Alexis, Kim Coates
- Based on: Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon novel series (19 books, 1993–2021)
After eight seasons on Chicago P.D., Tracy Spiridakos finally gets a show built around her. Anna Pigeon is a former NYPD detective who leaves city life behind to become a U.S. National Park ranger — and discovers that murders happen in the wilderness too.
Adapting Nevada Barr's long-running novel series gives the show a rich foundation and 19 books' worth of stories to draw from if the audience shows up. Moving the procedural format into cinematic natural environments gives Anna Pigeon a visual identity that sets it apart from every other cop show currently on the air. Tricia Helfer and Kim Coates in supporting roles give it solid genre credibility.
5. My Bias, My Boss (Aug 3, Viki) — The K-Drama Rom-Com for Anyone Who Loves an Idol-Industry Setup
- Genre: Romantic Comedy / Workplace
- Network / Streaming: Viki
- Release Schedule: Mon–Tue, 12 episodes
- Cast: Kang Hoon, Kim Hye-jun, Cha Woo-min, Yuna
An ultra-dedicated fangirl lands a job at a fashion label co-founded by her lifelong idol, immediately hides her identity, and gets assigned directly under a cold, demanding executive who is very much not the person she came there to see. My Bias, My Boss is a love triangle dressed up in fashion industry aesthetics, and it knows exactly what it is.
Kang Hoon has been delivering scene-stealing supporting work in A Time Called You and Snowdrop for years — this is his first proper lead, and the show was built to put him there. Kim Hye-jun, coming off A Shop for Killers, brings a sharper edge than the typical bubbly K-drama female lead. Lighthearted, witty, and custom-built for rom-com fans.
Full details: My Bias, My Boss →
Quick Picks: Also Premiering This Week
These three didn't make the main five, but depending on what you're into, one of them might actually be your pick of the week.
Star Wars: Visions Presents — The Ninth Jedi (Aug 5, Disney+, 9 episodes) is the one for Visions fans who've been waiting for this since 2021. The original short was 17 minutes and somehow managed to feel like the most complete Star Wars story in years — a young girl, a lightsaber, a forest full of danger. Expanding it into a full series is either the best idea or a risk that could unravel everything that made the short work. Worth watching to find out which one it is.
Ricky Gervais: Alley Cats (Aug 7, Netflix) is exactly what it sounds like if you know Gervais: no apologies, no softening, probably thirty minutes longer than it needs to be, and at least two bits you'll be thinking about the next day. His last special Armageddon was his most personal. Whether this one goes darker or lighter is the only real question. Friday night watch.
Operation Safed Sagar (Aug 7, JioCinema) is for viewers who want something that actually happened. The 1999 Kargil air campaign was one of the most tactically complex operations in modern South Asian military history, and with Jimmy Shergill and Dia Mirza attached, this has the cast to carry the weight of that story. Six episodes is the right length — enough to breathe, not enough to drag.
Which One Should You Watch First?
Depends entirely on the kind of week you've had.
If it's been a lot and you want something that rewards patience — Mrs. Revenge is the move. The time-travel setup takes an episode to click, but once it does, you'll be watching two episodes at a time without noticing. The kind of show you put on at 10pm and suddenly it's 1am.
If you want to sit with something that genuinely unsettles you — go to The Shards first. It drops all eight episodes at once on Tuesday, which means you can go as deep as you want in one sitting. Ellis wrote every word of it himself, and that shows. It doesn't feel like an adaptation. It feels like a confession.
For a Friday night with nothing planned, Our Sticky Love is easy to start and genuinely hard to stop. Jung Hae-in in rom-com mode is comfort viewing that still has enough friction to stay interesting. Start episode one and see how far you get.
Anna Pigeon is the show for when you want procedural satisfaction without a city backdrop. National park settings, a lead finally getting the vehicle she deserves, and source material deep enough to keep it going for seasons if it finds its audience. Good for a Sunday when you want something that feels substantial without being heavy.
And if you just want something fun that doesn't ask anything of you — My Bias, My Boss is there. Kang Hoon has been a supporting-cast gem for years. Watching him carry a lead is its own kind of payoff.
Browse all upcoming TV shows →
Frequently Asked Questions
What major TV shows are premiering the week of August 1–7, 2026? The week's biggest premieres include Mrs. Revenge (TVB, Aug 3), My Bias, My Boss (Viki, Aug 3), The Shards (Netflix, Aug 5), Star Wars: Visions Presents — The Ninth Jedi (Disney+, Aug 5), Our Sticky Love (ENA/Viki, Aug 7), Anna Pigeon (Paramount+, Aug 7), and Ricky Gervais: Alley Cats (Netflix, Aug 7).
Is The Shards based on real events? Partly. Bret Easton Ellis was a teenager attending a private prep school in Los Angeles in 1981, and The Shards draws directly from that period of his life — the setting, the social world, and several character details are autobiographical. The serial killer storyline is fictional. Ellis has described the novel as his most personal work, which is part of what makes the adaptation unusual: he wrote all eight episodes himself, so nothing got filtered through a second pair of hands.
Is Our Sticky Love based on a webtoon or novel? Our Sticky Love is an original screenplay, not adapted from a webtoon or novel. The show is produced by Studio S (the same studio behind My Royal Nemesis), with a script written specifically for the ENA / Viki platform.
Has Jung Hae-in done romantic comedies before? Yes, and that track record is a big part of why Our Sticky Love has built early interest. His breakout romance roles came in Something in the Rain (2018) and One Spring Night (2019), both of which ran to international audiences on Netflix. He later shifted to heavier dramatic work in D.P. (2021–2023) and Snowdrop (2021). Our Sticky Love is his return to the lighter, relationship-driven format he's most associated with internationally.
Is Mrs. Revenge available with English subtitles? Yes. Mrs. Revenge streams on TVB Anywhere, which provides English subtitles for international viewers. TVB Anywhere is available as an app on iOS, Android, and smart TVs, and covers most regions outside Hong Kong.
Is Anna Pigeon based on a book series? Yes. The Paramount+ series is adapted from Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon mystery novel series — 19 books published between 1993 and 2021. The novels follow the same character across different national park settings, which gives the show a built-in anthology structure if it runs beyond a first season.
What is the Incoming Hype Score? The incoming Hype Score is a 0–100 index measuring real audience engagement — Wikipedia pageviews, YouTube trailer plays, and watchlist activity — updated daily. The shows above are ranked by their current score among all upcoming TV series on the platform.