The best new TV shows to stream in October

Searching for a new TV show this month? Personally, I’ve already underlined HBO Max’s juicy British legal drama War and the return of The Lowdown, the off-beat Disney+ comic thriller starring Ethan Hawke. Take your pick from the new series below.

Netflix

My top Netflix recommendation is East of Eden (October 1).

Between this adaptation of John Steinbeck’s 1952 novel and the upcoming Pride & Prejudice, Netflix is really leaning into classic period pieces. Set over 100 years ago in central California, East of Eden is a retelling of the Bible’s Cain and Abel, as two very different brothers – the conservative Adam (Christopher Abbott, Girls) and the rebellious Charles (Mike Faist, Challengers) – grow adversarial. This version was adapted by actress and screenwriter Zoe Kazan (The Plot Against America), whose grandfather, Elia, directed James Dean in the 1955 movie adaptation. She’s realigned the story to centre Adam’s wife, Cathy (Florence Pugh), between the siblings. Prepare for a saga across multiple generations.

Also on Netflix: Josh Hartnett (Trap), who is ageing like a fine wine, headlines the horror-thriller Below (October 8), a Canadian series about a fisherman in a remote Newfoundland town who must rally and protect his family and community when a mysterious sea creature starts terrorising locals. If you’re reminded of this year’s breakthrough hit, Apple TV’s Widow’s Bay, please note that this series is played menacingly straight, with a hint of Jaws and without the mordant humour. Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire) and Charlie Heaton (Stranger Things) co-star.

Having co-starred in January’s The Rip, Netflix’s most successful original film of the year to date, Ben Affleck now co-writes, directs and stars in a new feature, Animals (October 9). The action-thriller sees Affleck as Mark Kimball, a Los Angeles mayoral candidate whose son is kidnapped. To raise the ransom in just hours, Mark and his wife, Abigail (Kerry Washington, Scandal) have to return to parts of their lives they thought they had left behind. There’s no time for couples therapy as the tension reaches a violent break point, with choice commentary on the Kimballs’ predicament supplied by the supporting cast of Gillian Anderson (Trespasses) and Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead).

September highlights: Some questions were answered – and more asked – in the sports documentary Raygun Untold: Breaking Badly.

HBO Max

My top HBO Max recommendation is War (October 2).

Created by George Kay (Lupin, Hijack), this British legal drama is an anthology series: every season unwraps a high-profile case being inside and outside Britain’s courts. The debut instalment follows the bitter divorce proceedings between a tech mogul (Dominic West, The Wire) and a movie star (Sienna Miller, Anatomy of a Scandal), each of whom has hired a high-profile London law firm to win the legal (and reputational) battle. Expect twists, dirty dealings and impeccable accents – the magnificently haughty Pip Torrens (The Crown) plays a lawyer named St. John Smallwood.

Also on HBO Max: After six tense seasons balancing global politics and family life in the Washington D.C. drama Madam Secretary, Tea Leoni is switching gears and starring in the sitcom Newlyweds (October 24). Tapping into second-chance relationships, the comedy stars Leoni as a free-spirited woman who marries a reserved academic (Tim Daly, Leoni’s real-life husband) after a brief courtship. Once the 50-something duo has to combine their very different lives, the humour kicks in. Bonus casting: Jamie Lee Curtis (The Bear) will be regularly appearing to add some comic mayhem.

September highlights: Another triumph for Sharon Horgan, creating and starring in the turning-50 comedy Youth, plus the chaotic LGBTQ+ mockumentary Slo Pitch.

Amazon Prime Video

My top Amazon Prime Video recommendation is Carrie (October 7).

If you pay attention to the horror genre, you’ll know Mike Flanagan is a go-to name. During his stint with Netflix, the American writer and director issued a slew of memorable series including The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass and The Fall of the House of Usher. His first Amazon Prime Video series is an adaptation of Stephen King’s startling 1974 novel about a sheltered high school student, Carrie White (Summer H. Howell, Channel Zero), who becomes the target of bullying as she tries to control her growing telekinetic powers. This is the book’s fourth screen adaptation, but King has been fulsome in his praise of the timely new story calling it “brilliant”. There will be blood.

Also on Amazon Prime Video: Will Love of Your Life (October 14) be the movie that delivers the definitive Margaret Qualley performance? The American actress has been everywhere the last few years, whether serving as the foil to Demi Moore in The Substance’s oozy body-horror or playing the post-apocalyptic girlfriend role in Ridley Scott’s recent misfire, The Dog Stars. This romantic-drama puts Qualley centre stage, playing a Boston nurse who flees a loss to start over in Europe. The different men who pass through the character’s life are played by Gabriel Basso (The Night Agent), Aaron Pierre (Lanterns) and Patrick Schwarzenegger (The White Lotus).

September highlights: The Reacher spin-off Neagley delivered a mix of the familiar and new for the franchise’s fans.

Stan*

My top Stan recommendation is Crystal Lake (October 16).

Hockey mask-wearing killer Jason Voorhees has been a prolific slasher icon, spawning 12 Friday the 13th movies since 1980. A spin-off was probably inevitable, but there are some creative decisions here to take note of. Created by Brad Caleb Kane (It: Welcome to Derry), Crystal Lake is not an origin story for Jason, but rather his mother Pam. It’s a welcome lead role for Linda Cardellini, who has been exceptional in Mad Men, Dead Like Me and most recently DTF St Louis. Her Pam is a mother grieving for her lost son, as her hidden past and future intentions come into question when a pair of strangers seek her out.

Also on Stan: Gnomes (October 8) invites some wonderful comparisons. My current fave is Gremlins meets Gardening Australia. Rife with malicious creatures and cartoonish gore, this Australian comedy-horror is set in a small town where an ancient evil is unleashed, turning garden gnomes into an army of darkness. It’s up to police officers Arnold Kipps (Asa Butterfield, Sex Education) and Ellie Mackay (Megan Smart, Black Snow) to put down this pint-sized uprising. There’s no shortage of familiar comic faces in droll supporting roles, starting with Darren Gilshenan (No Activity) as the local mayor.

The Brits do like an antic crime-comedy that leans into the absurd and the violently exaggerated. The latest contender is Kill Jackie (October 2), a stylised farce about an art dealer with a questionable past. Jackie Price (Catherine Zeta-Jones) decides to strike first when a squad of assassins, The Seven Demons, are hired to eliminate her. Jetting around the world, her terrified lawyer Sam (Daniel Ings, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), in tow, Jackie has to make amends and cross off seven targets. It’s worth noting that co-creator and lead director Damon Thomas handled numerous Killing Eve episodes.

September highlights: Jon Hamm took centre-stage in the tense 1970s drama American Hostage.

Apple TV

My top Apple TV recommendation is Nocturne (October 30).

Liev Schreiber is the latest high-profile actor to headline an elevated genre series for Apple TV. In this six-part crime thriller the Ray Donovan and The Perfect Couple star plays Jonah Lynn, a hollowed-out former soldier and police detective who has retreated to a small town in rural Pennsylvania. When a serial killer (Stephen Graham, Adolescence) starts terrorising the community, Jonah has to decide how much of his old life he’s willing to embrace and whether he’s willing to risk his surrogate daughter, FBI agent Saga Bauer (Zazie Beetz, Atlanta). Don’t be surprised if there are some menacing Silence of the Lambs vibes to this cat-and-mouse game.

Also on Apple TV: You’ve already had one chance to see Small Prophets (October 7). This brilliantly eccentric British comedy from Detectorists creator and The Office star Mackenzie Crook has been on ABC iview following the acclaimed show’s debut on Britain’s BBC. The series which follows a bereft DIY store employee, Michael Sleep (Pearce Quigley, The Gentlemen), who decides some garden shed alchemy might improve his situation is now getting a global signal boost, with Apple TV snapping it up. With Michael Palin (Monty Python’s Flying Circus) as Michael’s dad, the show is an idiosyncratic delight. Don’t miss it a second time.

September highlights: Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson teamed up for the meta-comedy Brothers, while Patrick Brammall was under pressure in the Australian mystery Last Seen.

Binge

My top Binge recommendation is Yaga (October 23).

How weird do you want it? If you’re looking for a Canadian twist on a supernatural-tinged mystery, this folk horror series supplies a small seaside town, a missing heir (Hudson Williams, Heated Rivalry), a ruffled private eye (Noah Reid, Schitt’s Creek) a mysterious academic with a carnivorous taste in men (Carrie-Anne Moss, The Matrix) and rumblings of ancient magic. Creator Kat Sandler (Kim’s Convenience) is adapting her own 2019 play, and, yes, there’s a chance this will scratch the Widow’s Bay itch.

September highlights: A new season of Australian crime drama High Country, supernatural menace and historical crimes in Possession, plus a goodbye celebration for Colin from Accounts.

Disney+

My top Disney+ recommendation is VisionQuest (October 14).

Remember when every supporting character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe got their own series spin-off? Well, this may be the last one. Marvel is once again focused on cinemas, leaving this superhero sideshow as the goodbye. Paul Bettany (Amadeus) returns as the android Vision, an all-power machine turned Avenger, who is now lying low in both the human world and inside his own head, where he inhabits a digital realm. The best attraction in this series created by Terry Matalas (12 Monkeys) is James Spader (The Blacklist) returning as his Marvel AI villain Ultron. The deadpan dynamic between the two tech titans may be VisionQuest’s calling card.

Also on Disney+: I love it when a first-rate series returns with a new season within a year of wrapping its previous instalment. When it debuted last September, The Lowdown (October 15) was an idiosyncratic gem. Reservation Dogs creator Sterlin Harjo astutely tapped Ethan Hawke (The Good Lord Bird) to play Lee Raybon, a high-wire act investigative journalist and historian with a gift for getting into fraught situations. With Tulsa, Oklahoma as the pungent setting, this sly mystery was funny, heartfelt, and knowing. The new episodes come with a must-see addition: the legendary Tommy Lee Jones (No Country for Old Men) will play Lee’s father.

September highlights: Adults solidified itself as one of streaming’s best sitcoms.

Paramount+

My top Paramount+ recommendation is Dexter: Resurrection (October 30).

Television’s original three-body problem, Michael C. Hall’s now storied vigilante serial killer Dexter Morgan returns for the second season of this cheerfully gory sequel. The first batch did a better job of resuscitating the Dexter brand than was expected, as the character surfaced in New York and got back to work trying to make sense of his family lineage and offing the monsters law enforcement seemingly can’t punish. October is the 20th anniversary of Dexter’s debut, and there’s a suitably high-profile set of additions to the supporting cast, as Brian Cox (Succession) plays the New York Ripper while Dan Stevens (Devil in Silver) is the Five Boroughs Killer. Happy hunting!

September highlights: Tom Hardy, Helen Mirren, and Pierce Brosnan brought the star power to London crime thriller MobLand.

ABC iview

My top iview recommendation is Dustfall (October 11).

Anna Torv’s television resume is top-tier: Fringe, Secret City, Mindhunter, The Last of Us and The Newsreader is a terrific collection of peaks. The Australian actor thankfully continues to work locally, headlining this wrenching, timely crime drama set in the Queensland cane fields. Torv plays Tig Pollard, a police detective who returns to her hometown to investigate a horrifying sexual assault, only to unearth a deeper conspiracy and set off tremors from her own past. If that sounds archetypal, take note of creator Dianne Taylor’s own CV: she was one of the voices behind the gripping New Zealand drama After the Party. Having her partner with Torv creates high expectations.

September highlights: The best of British TV – everyday people at their breaking point in crime drama The Cage, versus the cosy-crime whimsy and genuine empathy of Death Valley.

SBS On Demand

My top SBS On Demand recommendation is 70 Up (October 7).

The Up series is one of the landmarks of documentary filmmaking. In 1964, 14 seven-year-olds – 10 boys and four girls – were introduced as a cross-section of British life. Every seven years since, with some absences and departures, the cameras have returned to chart the change in their lives and outlooks. With those former children now retirees looking back on their lives, these two episodes are the final instalment of the series. It’s a bittersweet goodbye to the screen’s greatest longitudinal study both in front of and behind the camera – longtime director Michael Apted passed away in 2021, with Asif Kapadia (Senna, Amy) taking over. SBS On Demand will host all nine previous documentaries if you need to catch up.

September highlights: No show goes to wilder extremes than The Vampire Lestat, a timely return of Elizabeth Holmes drama The Dropout and valuable cultural history from Pellegrini’s: A Melbourne Legacy.

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