On the cover of this month’s exclusive luxury New York magazine, DuJour, multi-talented Australian actor Rose Byrne is talking up her back-to-back Apple TV+ comedy series and reveals she’s taking a summer break with her sons and husband in the big smoke.

As the last series of her hit show, Physical, is set to air – as well as Platonic, co-starring Seth Rogan, which launched last month – Byrne says she’s “taking a break after having done jobs continuously”.

Balmain-born Byrne, 43, who shares two children, Rocco, 7, and Rafa, 5 with actor Bobby Cannavale (Nine Perfect Strangers), is, for now, enjoying city life in Brooklyn.

The Aussie export has mastered the comedy genre with films including Bridesmaids, Neighbours and Spy – she’s also starred in drama, horror and family films, worked on limited series and admitted to DuJour she’d like to get back on stage for some live theatre.

For now, she’s “enjoying the role of being a mum, and … having a nice [US] summer”.

But for Physical fans, this is sadly the last season of the show, so clock it in as season three launches on August 2.

Set in the idyllic but fragile beach paradise of sunny 1980s San Diego, Physical follows Sheila Rubin (Byrne), who transforms from a quietly tortured housewife to a dominant fitness entrepreneur.

She gets out of an unsatisfying marriage to Danny (Rory Scovel), fosters a dangerous relationship with real-estate mogul John Breem (Paul Sparks), and faces her own demons relating to self-image.

Apple TV+ head of programming Matt Cherniss describes Byrne’s portrayal of Shelia as “fearless, moving, and often very funny”.

Aerobics saves her. And this is her last chapter in her story.

As the streaming giants continue to battle for audience share, here’s a taste of what you can watch, when you want … as long as you’re a subscriber.

Sigourney Weaver stars as June Hart in The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. Photo: Prime Video

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

Prime Video, August 4

Based on Holly Ringland’s best-selling novel of the same name, this is the story of Alice Hart who loses her parents in a mysterious fire when she is just nine years old.

Starring Hollywood icon Sigourney Weaver – who plays Alice’s grandmother June at Thornfield flower farm – the series was filmed in Australia and spans decades of what has been described as an “enthralling family drama”.

The seven-part series also stars Asher Keddie, Leah Purcell, Alycia Debnam-Carey and Frankie Adams.

Science’s Greatest Mysteries

Foxtel on Demand, Binge, August 5

Over six one-hour episodes, this series examines some of the biggest riddles facing scientists today.

Exactly how old is our universe? Why are the two sides of our Moon so different? How did iron from space end up next to the body of Tutankhamun?

“Each film in this series tackles a single question, visiting the cutting-edge labs running mind-bending experiments and meeting the dedicated scientists searching for answers,” reads the official synopsis.

Vesper

Paramount+, August 10

Described by Variety as a “dazzling and strikingly designed futuristic fairytale”, this dystopian Indie movie scored a 91 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes.

After the collapse of the Earth’s ecosystem, Vesper, played by Raffiella Chapman is determined to apply what she knows about science (she’s described as a biohacker) and tinkers away in a grubby lab, splicing DNA to figure out how to unlock Citadel seeds or grow her own edible plants.

But the project has to take a back seat to survival, as she tries to feed herself and her paralysed father, Darius (Richard Brake), with whatever she can glean or scrounge from their lethal environment.

Decider likens the feature to The Hunger Games: “The citadels, though we never really see inside them, seem very reminiscent of Panem’s Capitol, but it’s implied that only the wealthiest people can enjoy life inside them while the rest of the world starves”.

Red, White & Royal Blue

Prime Video, August 11

Anything with Uma Thurman (Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction) has to be worth at least a look, and this time she gets to play the first woman President of the United States.

Based on Casey McQuiston’s critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller, the story goes that Thurman’s son, Alex Claremont-Diaz sparks a feud with Britain’s Prince Henry – over what we’re not quite sure – but when forced into a staged ‘truce’ by their respective parents their icy relationship unexpectedly thaws out.

Both boys are handsome, charismatic, enjoy international popularity and suddenly their icy relationship unexpectedly begins to thaw into a tentative friendship and leads to something deeper.

Nolly

Foxtel on Demand, Binge, August 15

Over three one-hour episodes, UK drama Nolly, starring Helena Bonham Carter, explores the all-powerful reign, and fall from grace, of the inimitable Noele Gordon, a TV legend and Queen of the Midlands.

Noele (or Nolly to her friends) was a legend in her own lifetime.

As flame-haired widow Meg Richardson in the long-running soap opera Crossroads, she was one of the most famous people in Britain.

Then in 1981, at the height of the show’s success and the peak of Nolly’s fame, she was axed without ceremony, without warning and with no explanation.

With the boss’s words “all good things must come to an end” ringing in her ears, Gordon found herself thrown out of the show that was her life for more than 18 years.

Tweet from @KandaharMovie

Kandahar  

Prime Video, August 18

Gerard Butler is back in another action-packed get-me-out-of-here thriller.

No, he’s not reprising his heroic Secret Service agent Mike Banner role in the franchise Olympus Has Fallen, London Has Fallen and Angel Has Fallen (and yes, there’s an upcoming Night Has Fallen).

This time, Butler plays an undercover CIA operative named Tom Harris, who is assigned to the Middle East bureau.

An intelligence leak dangerously exposes his classified mission and reveals his covert identity.

Stuck in the heart of hostile territory, Harris and his translator must fight their way out of the desert to an extraction point in Kandahar, Afghanistan, while eluding the elite special forces hunting them.

Lots of car chases, bombs, fight scenes.

Harlan Coben’s Shelter

Prime Video, August 18

This is the story of Mickey Bolitar, whose sudden death of his father leads him to start a new life in Kasselton, New Jersey.

Mickey quickly finds himself tangled in the mysterious disappearance of a new student at his school, Ashley Kent, which leads to uncovering unimaginable secrets within their quiet suburban community.

With the help of his friends, the inventive Spoon, and secretive Ema, Mickey pulls back the sleepy facade of Kasselton to reveal a dark underbelly that may hold the answers to decades of disappearances, deaths, and legends – and perhaps even Mickey’s own complex family history.

The Sixth Commandment

Foxtel on Demand, Binge, August 24

Critics and reviewers are giving the thumbs up to this four-part BBC One British true-life crime TV drama series.

Based on the true story of the Buckinghamshire Maids Moreton Murders between 2014 and 2017, it traces how the meeting of an inspirational teacher Peter Farquhar (Timothy Spall), and student Ben Field (Éanna Hardwicke), who bonded over their love of books and involvement with the Church of England, set the stage for one of the most complex and confounding criminal cases in recent memory.

Wanted: The Escape Of Carlos Ghosn

Apple TV+, August 25

This is the story of CEO-turned-fugitive Carlos Ghosn and his relentless climb to the top of the corporate ladder, shocking arrest, and unbelievable escape that stunned the world.

Inspired by the acclaimed book, Boundless, by The Wall Street Journal reporters Nick Kostov and Sean McLain, the series features in-depth access to all of the key players in the saga, including Mike Taylor, the former Green Beret who orchestrated Ghosn’s escape, and the man in the middle of it all, Carlos Ghosn.

For the first time, he tells his side of this ongoing, global news story, from start to finish.

Far North

Paramount+, August 29

This is an exclusive new series for Paramount+.

When a Tongan-Australian gang does a deal with one of the
biggest drug cartels in the world for half a tonne of meth to be
smuggled to New Zealand shores, a $500 million fortune awaits
them.

All they have to do is pick up the drugs.

Far North is a saga of screw-ups, as everyday people strive to foil
an international drug cartel’s largest-ever drug deal in the Pacific;
the cops’ trip themselves up; and gangsters chase a payday with
zero discretion – leaving a trail of wreckage you can see from
space.

Iñaki Godoy as Monkey D Luffy in season 1 of One Piece. Photo: Netflix

One Piece

Netflix, August 31

Based on Japan’s highest-selling manga series in history by Eiichiro Oda, One Piece is an eight-part legendary high-seas adventure.

Oda’s manga series was first published in 1997 and has sold more than 460 million copies worldwide.

It has also been adapted into an anime series, video games and a series of feature films in Japan.