THE BEST MAN: THE FINAL CHAPTERS | Binge from 20 August on Showmax
Based on Malcolm D. Lee’s multi-award-winning film franchise, The Best Man: The Final Chapters catches up with Harper, Robyn, Jordan, Lance, Quentin, Shelby, Candace, and Murch as relationships evolve and past grievances resurface in the unpredictable stages of midlife crisis meets midlife renaissance.
The Best Man: The Final Chapters won the 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Television Movie, Limited Series or Dramatic Special, as well as Best Actor for Morris Chestnut as Lance and Best Supporting Actress for Nia Long as Jordan.
The Peacock Original is also up for a record 18 awards in August at the 2023 Black Reel Awards for Television - the most by any program ever in a single year. This includes acting nominations for Chestnut and Long, as well as their co-stars Terrence Howard, Taye Diggs, Regina Hall, Sanaa Lathan, Melissa de Sousa and Harold Perrineau.
The Best Man: The Final Chapters has a 91% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Variety saying, “For fans of a specific period of Black cinema [black romcoms between 1990 to 2000], Peacock’s The Best Man: The Final Chapters is an epic, end-of-an-era conclusion on par with Avengers: Endgame.”
WINNING TIME: THE RISE OF THE LAKERS DYNASTY S2 | First on Showmax | Mondays from 7 August, express
Season 2 of Winning Time continues to explore the professional and personal lives of the legendary 1980s Los Angeles Lakers basketball team. This season hones in on the period just after the Finals in 1980, building to the first professional rematch of the era's greatest stars: Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) and Larry Bird (Sean Patrick Small).
Season 1 has an 85% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.3/10 rating on IMDb. The series won a 2023 Satellite Award for Best Ensemble: Television, and a Black Reel Award for Best Supporting Actor (for Wood Harris as Spencer Haywood). Season 1 was also nominated for an Emmy for its cinematography; four more Black Reel Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series; and two more Satellite Awards, with Oscar nominee John C Reilly (Chicago, Boogie Nights, Magnolia) up for Best Actor as team owner Jerry Buss and Oscar winner Sally Field (Maniac, Forrest Gump) up for Best Supporting Actress as Jerry’s mother, Jessie Buss.
Season 2’s returning cast also includes Oscar winner Adrien Brody (Asteroid City), Critics Choice Award winner Jason Segel (Shrinking, How I Met Your Mother), and Emmy nominee Gaby Hoffman (Transparent), alongside new cast like Emmy winner Michael Chiklis (The Shield).