Series Snapshot ~ 8/13/2026

By: [email protected] on Thu, 08/13/2026 - 14:35

Welcome to the Series Snapshot, a weekly deep dive into the shows topping the streaming charts.

Netflix’s true-crime docuseries The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare takes the top spot again this week, as it receives ongoing praise and positive reviews. The series examines the high-profile investigation surrounding the tragic murders of four young college students at University of Idaho in 2022, and arranges the events within a narrative structure to help viewers grasp its timeline. College Nightmare has also benefited from a sudden shocking real-world twist; prime suspect Bryan Kohberger pleaded guilty in 2025 to avoid a death penalty, but now in prison, recently petitioned to reverse this plea, claiming his innocence and alleging his former legal team pressured and misled him. Despite the notoriously difficult hurdles of overturning a sworn guilty plea, courts have assigned Kohberger a new legal team to process his requests, thrusting the case back into the news cycle and overlapping with College Nightmare’s peak relevance. College Nightmare has also earned respect from true-crime fans for bucking the sensationalism of the genre, which all too often glorifies violence, and instead focuses on the victims and families, a deliberate choice by director Skye Borgman.

Hulu’s new thriller series, Furious continues to rake in outstanding reviews from most publications, including a few perfect scores. Furious comes from New Girl creator Elizabeth Meriwether and follows FBI agent Alice Black (Emmy Rossum) as she tracks down serial killer Catherine (Lola Petticrew). Furious’ universal acclaim comes from its nuanced exploration of female rage, standout lead performances and tight pacing. Furious avoids cliches, and its serialized format allows a deeper psychological exploration of its characters, who enjoy bitingly realistic dialogue. The series was also notably not released as a binge drop, but with weekly installments, which has built anticipation as audiences percolate week to week. A season finale is slated for August 31st, and Meriweather has expressed interest in continuing the series should Hulu greenlight, which seems likely at this point. Furious also stars Jake Lacy and Scoot McNairy, and is based on the 1987 film, Black Widow.

HBO’s House of the Dragon completed season three with its final episode last Sunday, and achieved a perfect run as the platform’s most-watched series every single week since its premiere on June 21st. The finale was met with enthusiastic praise from fans; because season two’s ending was a major fizzle, leaving viewers wanting more. However, the recent finale was a satisfying payoff packed with spectacular, dynamic battle sequences that left several characters’ fates in question. Some book purists felt differently, that the finale deviated too much from the source material, but some are impossible to please. Season four is already in the writer’s room, and has an expected release for 2028, but in the meantime, George R. R. Martin fans can look forward to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms which will air sometime in the first half of 2027. House of the Dragon stars Emma D’Arcy, Matt Smith, Steve Toussaint, Olivia Cooke, Tom Glynn-Carney, and Ewan Mitchell, and was created by George R. R. Martin and Ryan Condal.

At Amazon Prime Video, Ride or Die steps aside for a new young adult mystery series, Sterling Point, which takes the top spot this week. Sterling Point is about two seventeen-year-old twins, Annie (Ella Rubin) and Connor (Keen Ruffalo) Jacobson, who inherit a private island in Canada from their estranged grandfather. The two begin to explore the island, and as the series unfolds, discover family secrets that change their lives forever. Sterling Point released its full season of eight, roughly fifty-minute episodes in a binge drop, and has earned a number of excellent reviews. The series, while aimed at teens, has a TV-MA rating, which allows for more realistic, unsanitized dialogue, themes and scenes, and this air of maturity sets it apart from other YA projects. A second season has not yet been greenlit, but creator Megan Park recently confirmed she has mapped out several storylines should the series get the go-ahead for more. Sterling Point also stars Amélie Hoeferle, Jay Duplass, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Missi Pyle.

Ted Lasso returned with its fourth season on August 5th, immediately unseating Silo as AppleTV’s top watched series of the week. The smash-hit feel-good soccer series has undergone a soft-reboot; season four picks up three years after the end of its previous season, and sees Ted, now working at a grocery store, recruited to coach women’s soccer team, The Lady Greyhounds, in the UK. Another big change for this season is overall tighter pacing, going from twelve episodes in seasons two and three, to just ten, and shortening episode runtimes from over an hour, to about fifty minutes. This quick pacing keeps the plot moving and focused, and works well for Ted’s new challenges such as the harsh financial reality of running a women’s sports team. The new season was immediately embraced by fans and critics, who view it as an exciting return to form. New episodes release every Wednesday with a finale October 7th. Ted Lasso stars Jason Sudeikis, Hannah Waddingham, Juno Temple, Jeremy Swift, and Brett Goldstein, and was created by Jason Sudeikis, Bill Lawrence, Brendan Hunt, and Joe Kelly.

For Disney Plus, a new FX horror-thriller, The Shards takes the top of the chart as Pompeii dwindles in viewership. The Shards comes from the creative team of mega-producer Ryan Murphy and Bret Easton Ellis, author of American Psycho and Less than Zero. Based loosely on Ellis’ own life, with fictional embellishment, The Shards is set in 1981 Los Angeles, and follows the privileged social life of seventeen-year-old Ellis (Igby Rigney) as a serial killer, “The Trawler” begins murdering local teens. Ellis becomes convinced that a newcomer to his clique, Robert (Homer Gere), is secretly The Trawler, and his paranoia causes him to obsess over proving it to be true. Reviews thus far are extremely polarized, with a wide range of scores from fans and critics- par for the course with a Ryan Murphy project. Many agree the series nails the ‘80s nostalgia, but others bemoan “nepo-baby” casting. Additionally, the series is based on the Ellis’ 2023 novel of the same name, but fans of the book are annoyed at the need to drag the story out into multiple seasons, feeling it would have functioned better as a one off limited series. The Shards follows a unique release format, dropping either one or two episodes simultaneously each Wednesday night. The Shards also stars Kaia Gerber, Charlie Tahan, and Evan Rachel Wood.