What to watch on August 30: TV shows, movies and web series

A science fiction drama TV anthology series, Tales from the Loop is a gripping, superbly shot and well-written piece of entertainment that will delight everyone, but specifically those who liked HBO's Westworld and FX's recent series Devs.

Alexandre Aja's compulsively watchable horror thriller is a blistering ride throughout its slim 87 minute runtime that is scarier than most movies that involves ghosts, monsters and other frightening stuff. Crawl does not have ghosts. It has a father and daughter duo who are struggling to stay alive while being hunted in a basement of a house by two really hungry and crafty alligators.

Directed by Sam Mendes, 1917 is set during World War I. The premise of the film has two men crossing the trenches and passing a message to call off an attack but since that path is extremely dangerous, they have to risk their life to get to the other side. The film appears is shot and edited to look like one take and is a visual marvel.

Steven Spielberg's adaptation of HG Wells' novel of the same name, War of the Worlds sees an invasion by the Martians. Tom Cruise stars as a longshoreman who witnesses the invasion directly. Scores of people are disintegrated by the Martian war machines called Tripods that emerge from beneath the earth. War of the Worlds is a non-stop thriller that never lets up.

They Shall Not Grow Old, a World War II documentary directed by Peter Jackson, is now streaming on Netflix. It is an extraordinary experience, which has rightly earned plaudits around the world. Jackson, best known for directing the Lord of the Rings trilogy, has used modern post-production techniques, both visual and sound, including new voice-acting, and colourisation to bring alive World War II in all its terrible glory.

The Boys is an attack on the very concept of superheroes. This is a world in which superheroes are real, but instead of being symbols of nobility and goodness like the Avengers and the Justice League, they have allowed status and fame to go to their head, and have become violent, sadistic and reckless. The titular vigilantes, with grudges of their own, take it upon themselves to keep the 'supes' in line.

The second season arrives early next month and the show has already been renewed for the third season.

Christopher Nolan’s last film before he became a global household name with Batman Begins, The Prestige stars two of the best ‘star’ actors Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. It is about two competing late 19th century London whose rivalry ends in the greatest trick of them all.

This animated adventure revolves around a misunderstood and ostracised ogre who gets inundated by fairy tale creatures and goes on a quest to get back the quiet he had in his swamp. There are three sequels, and they are pretty good too.

The Lady and the Tramp revolves around a romantic relationship between a female American Cocker Spaniel named Lady who lives with a refined, upper-middle-class family and a male stray mutt called Tramp. The film got a live-action treatment for Disney+, but the original feature is still the real deal.

This Cathy Yan directorial had to move out of the shadow of 2016’s critically panned Suicide Squad. Fortunately, it featured Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, one of the few good things about the original movie, and also a cast of brilliant actors. Coupled with a good story, great dialogue and a flippant tone, the movie was a delight — funny, witty, action-packed and entertaining,

If you wish to explore Chadwick Boseman's work other than Black Panther, 42 is the movie you should watch first. It is a sports film about American baseball player Jackie Robinson (portrayed by Boseman), who helped end racial segregation in professional baseball. Earlier black players could take part in only so-called 'Negro leagues'. The later actor's performance in the film is considered as his career's best. 

There are few good shows on pirates, and Black Sails sits pretty on the top. Although the first season was marred by more talking than action, Black Sails picks up from second, gets better in third, and goes out with a bang with its fourth and final season. The story is the prequel of Treasure Island, classic adventure book by Robert Louis Stevenson.

This one is among the weirder and eccentric shows. Frodo of Lord of the Rings movies, Elijah Wood, plays an everyman whose life is turned into a veritable whirlwind a flamboyantly British "holistic" detective; holistic because he believes everything in the universe to be interconnected. And indeed, he has a seemingly preternatural ability. The feel of the show is like from one of the more strange comic-books from the 80s came to life. The story is loosely based on the writings of the great Douglas Adams.

There is nothing like watching an atmospheric horror show. Supernatural is not one however, but is does have plenty of scares coupled with excellent characters (you could not ask for more developed characters than Winchester brothers) which makes it a solid TV show even if a sort of guilty pleasure.

Based on the amazing book series by British writer Bernard Cornwell, BBC’s The Last Kingdom follows the invasion of Danish vikings of the place that would later be called England. The protagonist is a torn man who loves the viking way of like but is a Northumbrian. His loyalties are so confused that he fights for Alfred (yes, the Alfred the Great) against the people he loves. The title sequence of The Last Kingdom shows a map of England which is being engulfed by a wave but stops just before Wessex - the last kingdom that held out and whose monarch - Alfred - first came up with the idea of England.

Yes, its end was a bummer. But isn't it all about the journey and not the destination? Before HBO's Game of Thrones, based on George RR Martin's fantasy book series A Song of Ice and Fire, went bad, it was one show that brought almost the entire TV viewing population of the world together — almost everybody watched the show and those who did not were driven to watch it to find out the cause of brouhaha.

Based on the British crime drama series of the same name by Peter Moffat, Criminal Justice questions the loopholes in Indian criminal justice system. It stars Vikrant Massey, Pankaj Tripathi, Jackie Shroff, Anupriya Goenka and Mita Vashisht. The original series also inspired a brilliant HBO miniseries starring Riz Ahmed, Michael Kenneth Williams and John Turturro.

Here is the first ever comedy special of arguably one of the greatest stand-up comics ever, wherein George Carlin talks about monopoly, flying in aeroplanes and everything under the sun.

Haven't seen probably one of the best comedy series to ever grace the telly? Perhaps this is the time, when you have all the time in the world. A remake of the British series of the same name, enter the hilarious world of Dunder Mifflin in The Office.

Horror The Terror's season 1 adapts Dan Simmons' 2007 novel of the name. Jared Harris stars as Captain Francis Crozier, Ciarán Hinds as Rear Admiral Sir John Franklin and Tobias Menzies as Commander James Fitzjames. They are all naval officers in a failed expedition to the Arctic. The actual expedition (yes, the novel is a fictionalised account of a real expedition) was led by Captain Franklin (played by Ciarán Hinds in the show) and did not come back. Not one man among 129 who went came back. Dan Simmons's novel gave a supernatural reason behind the doom, so does the series. It is a slow burn horror thriller that ends with a narrative crescendo.

The show that basically kicked off the golden age of television, The Sopranos made the medium the place where exciting content was available. Watch it just for the supreme performance of James Gandolfini, the late actor who was an absolute master at his craft.

Deadwood: The Movie is a sequel film to HBO’s iconic western TV series Deadwood created by David Milch that ran for three seasons from 2004 to 2006. The best part about the movie, like the series, is the writing and acting. The huge cast of talented actors (led by an impeccable McShane) get a chance to shine due to a compelling story and dialogues.

A deliciously funny and really well-written saga, HBO's Succession is a hypnotic watch from start to finish.

Despite its controversial ending, ABC's Lost is still the definitive science-fiction drama show. The series had complex mythology whose details were revealed teasingly, bit by bit. The show also provided ample backstories of major characters through flashbacks that made them more fleshed-out than characters in other epic TV series. .

If your consciousness, practically the real 'you', can be converted to code, then the possibilities are endless, and not all of them pleasant. This is the premise of cyberpunk series Altered Carbon. The second season is streaming now.

This show is a rarity as it even after being an HBO show and good one at that, it did not receive a lot of attention. In The Leftovers, 2% of the world's population simply disappears. You might think 2% is almost nothing, but when it comes to the total number of people in the world, it is a lot. The show revolves around how people are dealing with the aftermath.

Prakash Jha's Aashram starring Bobby Deol starts streaming on August 28. Jha earlier told indianexpress.com, "Everybody is thinking that it’s based on this baba or that godman, but there’s nothing like that. Aashram is actually the story of people’s faith."

Starring Kumud Mishra, Divya Dutta, Akarsh Khurana, Farrukh Seyer, Sharib Hashmi, Ram Singh Charlie has been directed by Nitin Kakkar. The Indian Express' Shubhra Gupta wrote in the film's review, "The film is careful not to descend into too much sadness even as it shows us the sad reality of the outside world which treats clowning as a not-to-be-taken-seriously job, and short people as permanent butts of pathetic jokes." Read More.

Masaba Masaba, starring Masaba Gupta and Neena Gupta, follows the life of this real-life mother-daughter duo as they face their challenges. The show features them in a fictional version of their real-life personalities. Masaba Masaba marks the acting debut of Masaba and starts streaming on Netflix on August 28.