What to Stream This Month

Find our streaming recommendations for the previous and following months.

Do you ever wish you could binge-watch your favorite PBS programs? If you’re a member you already can; if not, it’s easy to join. With WTTW Passport, members can watch a huge library of PBS and WTTW programming on-demand on any streaming device. To learn more about WTTW Passport, check out our dedicated site. You can activate or sign up for Passport here.

Each month we’ll bring you a few Passport picks. This August, catch up on two popular series, one drama and one comedy, before they return with new seasons. Plus travel to majestic corners of the globe as the summer winds to a close, and take an in-depth look at education in Chicagoland as children begin to return to school.

Poldark

The popular remake of the Masterpiece classic series, about the moody Ross Poldark, his wife Demelza, and all the dramatic relationships and events that surround them, returns at the end of next month. Catch up on the previous season now, either by binging or an episode at a time. The first two episodes of last season are available to stream for everyone, but Passport members can watch all three seasons in full.

If you need help remembering who’s in love with and who hates whom, we’ve got recaps for the third season. Curious how the current series stacks up to the old one from the late ‘70s? Compare the hairstyles and costumes here.

The Durrells of Corfu

Speaking of exciting returning shows, The Durrells in Corfu also comes back late next month. Travel to the idyllic Mediterranean island a little sooner by streaming both previous seasons and enjoy some animal-filled, characterful hilarity.

Find our recaps for the previous season here, and learn about the real people depicted in the series here.

Kingdoms of the Sky

Already wishing you had had more time to travel this summer, now that the season is winding to a close? Travel with the BBC and PBS to three of the world’s greatest mountain ranges – the Andes, Himalayas, and Rockies – in this stunning series, and learn about the people and animals that survive there.

Check out some fantastic photography from the series while you’re at it – maybe it will inspire a future trip.

Earth’s Natural Wonders: Life at the Extremes

If you need more far-flung places, this three-part series takes you to some of Earth’s most forbidding landscapes and introduces you to the incredible people who make their homes there. At the very least, it will really make you appreciate the late summer weather here.

Central Standard

This web series from WTTW follows five eighth graders from across Chicagoland as they prepare for high school, a notoriously difficult and fraught process – for the 2014-15 school year, 16,828 students applied for 3,200 available positions in the esteemed Chicago Public Schools selective enrollment high schools. As children prepare to return to school this month, take an in-depth look at the high stakes world of education in Chicago.