The Best TV Shows and Movies to Watch This Week: Adam Driver's Annette, Nicole Kidman's Nine Perfect Strangers

This week has already seen a few premieres (Heels, Bachelor in Paradise, which is somehow in its seventh season) and a finale (The White Lotus, which wrapped up its first season on Sunday), but it's not even halfway over yet. Still to come are the premieres of Nicole Kidman's Nine Perfect Strangers, Awkwafina is Nora From Queens Season 2, and a new Sandra Oh show, The Chair. These things and more (and by "more" I mean two movies that both look very strange for very different reasons) top our list of recommendations for what you should watch over the coming days.

Our list of editors' picks for the week of August 15-21 is below, but if that's not enough and you're looking for even more hand-picked recommendations, check out our picks for last week or sign up for our free, spam-free Watch This Now newsletter that delivers the best TV show picks straight to your inbox. You can also look at our massive collection of recommendations, as well as our list of suggestions of what to watch next based on shows you already like.

Heels

Series premiere Sunday at 9/8c on Starz
In Starz's new drama series, Stephen Amell and Alexander Ludwig play brothers, which is a piece of news that should delight a very specific group of people, who come from a wrestling family. After the death of their father, they're left in charge of his wrestling promotion business, and as you can imagine, their fractured relationship really gets in the way of their ability to do that. Critics are saying it has a Friday Night Lights vibe, both in its emotional heft and the fact that you don't have to be a wrestling fan in order to enjoy the show. [TRAILER]

Bachelor in Paradise

Season 7 premieres Monday at 8/7c on ABC, next day on Hulu
Yup, this again. TV's biggest superspreader event returns after two long years. [TRAILER]

The White Lotus

Season 1 finale Sunday at 9/8c on HBO, HBO Max
There's no show I've enjoyed more this summer than The White Lotus, Mike White's upstairs/downstairs social satire set at a Hawaiian resort, and while I'm so sad to see it wrap up its first season (HBO just renewed it for a second), I can't wait to finally find out whose dead body we briefly saw being loaded onto a plane in the series premiere. There are a lot of other stories to wrap up, too: Will Rachel (Alexandra Daddario) leave Shane (Jake Lacy) after, um, less than a week of marriage? What's going to happen to Armond's (Murray Bartlett) job? Where did poor Kai (Kekoa Kekumano) go after running away with Nicole's (Connie Britton) bracelets, and what does Olivia (Sydney Sweeney) know about Paula's (Brittany O'Grady) involvement? Now, while I care about all of those plot points getting resolved very much, I must point out once again that the million-dollar question is... who the hell is going to die?! [TRAILER]

Nine Perfect Strangers

Series premiere Wednesday on Hulu
Nicole Kidman and David E. Kelley just can't stop adapting Liane Moriarty novels into very dramatic miniseries. This latest one is not very Big Little Lies-y at all, for the record. Instead, it's set at a wellness resort hosted by Masha (Kidman, doing an accent and wearing a wig, as is her wont), who has invited nine strangers on a 10-day retreat that promises to help them deal with their own personal demons. From there, things kind of start to spiral out of control. Kidman is joined by a stacked cast that includes Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, Bobby Cannavale, Regina Hall, and a whole lot of other famous people. Between Nine Perfect Strangers, Old, and The White Lotus, it appears that this is the summer of the sinister resort vacation.

Awkwafina is Nora From Queens

Season 2 premieres Wednesday at 10/9c on Comedy Central
Awkwafina's post-college, pre-adulting series with whiffs of bong smoke returns for a second season after a criminally underrated first, continuing Nora's hustle to survive from one day to the next by doing the least amount of work as humanly possible while slowly realizing that the world is moving past her. Yep, Nora's getting older! But not more mature. In addition to being one of the funniest looks at millennial malaise since Broad City, Nora features TV's greatest tri-generational combo in Awkwafina as Nora, B.D. Wong as Nora's father, and the irrepressible Lori Tan Chinn as Nora's K-drama loving grandmother, who smash Asian stereotypes into fine dust. Season 2 takes things to even more absurd-yet-sharp heights, with this week's two-episode premiere featuring dream sequences and time travel. -Tim Surette [TRAILER]

Annette

Friday on Amazon Prime Video
If you care at all about film festivals, you've probably already heard of Annette, but if you haven't, listen carefully: This is a musical where Adam Driver, speaking in an even lower register than usual, plays Henry, a stand-up comedian who falls in love with Marion Cotillard's Ann, an opera singer. Their relationship declines after the birth of their mysteriously prodigious daughter Annette, and from there it seems to become A Star Is Born by way of Marriage Story, but with a touch of surrealism. It looks like a fast-paced, hallucinatory rollercoaster that I can't wait to ride. [TRAILER]

The Chair

Season 1 available Friday on Netflix
Sandra Oh is starring in another TV show, which means everything is once again right with the world. Oh plays Dr. Ji-Yoon Kim, the newest (and first woman) Chair of the embattled English department at a swanky university. She navigates both professional and personal struggles, and crushes on a professor played by Jay Duplass, which is very relatable. Some trivia for you: Game of Thrones creators D.B. Weiss and David Benioff are executive producers on the show, and actress Amanda Peet created it. [TRAILER]

Reminiscence

Friday on HBO Max
I'm obsessed with how bananas this movie looks and I'm obsessed with its incomprehensible trailer. Hugh Jackman plays a guy who regularly uses technology that allows him to relive his past, all because he wants to search for his long lost love, played by Rebecca Ferguson. This movie includes government conspiracies, violent crime, and it's set in a dystopian version of Miami. Also, it's directed by Lisa Joy, who co-created Westworld, which should explain why you probably feel a little confused reading this. [TRAILER]