October TV Preview (2023)

tbd Everything Now

Miniseries
Premieres October 5 on Netflix

Formerly known as The Fuck It Bucket—a less generic title, sure, but a lot harder to put on a billboard—this eight-part British dramedy finds a teenager (Sophie Wilde, recently of Talk to Me and Tom Jones) emerging from a hospital stay for treatment for anorexia to find out that her friends have been busy living their lives without her. Hoping to catch up on the experiences she's been missing, she begins tackling her bucket list. Fans of the recently concluded Netflix series Sex Education could find Now to be the show that fills the void.

tbd Loki (Season 2)

Returning superhero series
Premieres October 5 on Disney+

Streaming weekly, the six-episode second season of the Tom Hiddleston-led Marvel series kicks off with a premiere directed by the duo of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Moon Knight, Something in the Dirt). Season 1's Owen Wilson, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Tara Strong, and Eugene Cordero are among the other familiar faces, while new cast members this season include Ke Huy Quan (who really is turning out to be everywhere all at once) and Rafael Casal.

tbd Lupin (Season 3)

Returning foreign/drama series
Premieres October 5 on Netflix

Netflix's hit French thriller starring Omar Sy as a modern-day "gentleman thief" modeled after the classic literary character Arsène Lupin last aired (in two separate installments) in 2021, and was immediately picked up for a third season. That third season finally arrives in October when seven new episodes stream on Friday. The action picks up with our hero thief in hiding but hoping to make a risky return to Paris to reunite with his family.

tbd Our Flag Means Death (Season 2)

Returning comedy series
Premieres October 5 on Max

Early reviews are excellent for the second season of Max's 18th century pirate rom-com that comes from People of Earth creator David Jenkins and producer/director Taika Waititi. The latter is also among the returning stars of Flag—he plays Blackbeard, one of many characters based (very) loosely on real historical figures—along with Rhys Darby, Ewen Bremner, Nat Faxon, Leslie Jones, Joel Fry, and more. The new season, which also features guest appearances by Bronson Pinchot and Minnie Driver, further explores the budding romance between Blackbeard and Darby's Stede Bonnet following their Season 1 breakup. Three episodes (including two directed by Jenkins) stream on launch day, with two more arriving weekly through the end of October.

tbd The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial

Streaming movie
Premieres October 6 on Paramount+ With Showtime
Premieres October 8 on Showtime (cable)

The final film directed by the late William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) is also the latest feature film adaptation of Herman Wouk's Pulitzer Prize-winning WWII novel The Caine Mutiny. That book previously spawned Stanley Kramer's 1954 hit film adaptation and Wouk's own play based on that novel. The latter is the touchstone for Friedkin's film, though the director has re-set the events of the story in the 21st century Persian Gulf. Kiefer Sutherland, Jake Lacy, Jason Clarke, Monica Raymund, Jay Duplass, and the late Lance Reddick star. Reviews were fairly positive when Caine Mutiny premiered at the Venice Film Festival in early September.

tbd Fair Play

Streaming movie
Premieres October 6 on Netflix

Also receiving a limited theatrical release (starting September 29), the feature debut from director Chloe Domont stars Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) and Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) as a newly engaged New York couple who work at the same cutthroat financial firm. When one of them gets promoted, their relationship is thrown into turmoil. Netflix acquired the film at Sundance—where reviews were very positive—for a 2023-high $20 million.

tbd Moonlighting (Seasons 1-5)

Old series (but new to streaming)
Premieres October 10 on Hulu

One of a handful of classic, groundbreaking TV shows from the 1980s that has never been available to stream anywhere—blame music licensing issues—Moonlighting will finally be available to watch this month when when all five seasons (67 episodes) begin streaming on Hulu, newly remastered in HD. The dramedy stars Cybill Shepherd as Maddie Hayes, a wealthy former model who, after her embezzling accountant leaves her bankrupt, finds herself trying to make a living with the one asset she has left: a detective agency once purchased as a tax writeoff. Her wisecracking partner? That would be Bruce Willis, in his breakout, Emmy-winning role. (He would go on to film Die Hard in the middle of Moonlighting's highly viewed run on ABC.) Curtis Armstrong and Allyce Beasley also star, while the many familiar faces in guest roles include Mark Harmon, John Goodman, Whoopi Goldberg, Virginia Madsen, Tim Robbins, Richard Belzer, Demi Moore, and even Orson Welles (in what would be his very last performance anywhere).

Often listed among the best shows of the 20th century, Moonlighting was known for its fast-paced dialogue and its frequent experiments with genre and form, including an episode based on Shakespeare and frequent fantasy and music sequences. (For what it's worth, it's also part of the Remington Steele Cinematic Universe.)

tbd The Fall of the House of Usher

Miniseries
Premieres October 12 on Netflix

Mike Flanagan's latest Netflix horror series, following The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Midnight Mass, and The Midnight Club, is an eight-part adaptation of the works of Edgar Allan Poe—not just the titular short story but also additional Poe works, all re-set in the present day and centered on a wealthy pharmaceutical-industry family that is absolutely, 100% not the Sacklers. Bruce Greenwood (a late replacement for the fired Frank Langella), Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell, Mark Hamill, Henry Thomas, Annabeth Gish, Zach Gilford, Michael Trucco, Katie Parker, Rahul Kohli, and Carl Lumbly star, while Flanagan and Michael Fimognari split directing duties.

tbd Frasier

New(-ish) comedy series
Premieres October 12 on Paramount+

The latest classic sitcom to be revived for the streaming era is Frasier, the Cheers spinoff that originally ran for 11 seasons on NBC beginning in 1993. Returning from that series (and Cheers before it) is Kelsey Grammer as psychiatrist and tossed salads/scrambled eggs fan Frasier Crane, who has now relocated back to Boston from Seattle. A few other familiar faces will appear in guest roles, including Bebe Neuwirth as Lilith and Peri Gilpin as Roz, but the bulk of the main cast will consist of newcomers including Jack Cutmore-Scott as a now-grown Freddy Crane (Frasier and Lilith's son) and English TV veteran Nicholas Lyndhurst as Frasier's friend and colleague. (Don't expect to see David Hyde Pierce's Niles or Jane Leeves' Daphne, as the two actors passed on the reboot.) The first two episodes—directed, like almost every episode of Cheers and over 30 episodes of the original Frasier by TV legend James Burrows—stream on launch day and will also get a broadcast airing on CBS on October 17th.

tbd Goosebumps

New horror/comedy/anthology series
Premieres October 13 on Disney+ and Hulu

Originally ordered by Disney+ but now also available on Hulu, the latest series adaptation of R.L. Stine's YA horror novel franchise follows a previous four-season Fox Kids adaptation in the 1990s. This new version comes from Nick Stoller and Rob Letterman; the latter also directed a recent feature film adaptation of Goosebumps. Justin Long, Rachael Harris, Miles McKenna, Will Price, Ana Yi Puig, Zack Morris, Isa Briones, and Rob Huebel star. The first five (of 10) episodes stream at launch on both services, and the first two episodes will also air that same night on cable's Freeform.

tbd John Carpenter's Suburban Screams

New reality/horror/anthology series
Premieres October 13 on Peacock

Either this is (a) footage of director John Carpenter driving out to Burbank and then screaming at the top of his lungs, or, more likely, (b) a six-episode narrative/reality hybrid that explores real-ish frightening tales from "seemingly perfect American hometowns" through a combination of firsthand accounts from the people who experienced these horrors, archival footage, and dramatic re-enactments shot in classic horror-movie style. Carpenter produces the series, composes the theme music, and directs one episode.

tbd Lessons in Chemistry

Miniseries
Premieres October 13 on Apple TV+

Adapted from the best-selling novel by Bonnie Garmus, the 1950s-set Apple original stars Brie Larson as a new single mother whose ambitions of becoming a scientist are thwarted by a male-dominated society. So she uses her new platform—as host of a television cooking show—to shake up the patriarchy. Stephanie Koenig, Aja Naomi King, and Patrick Walker also star, while the series adaptation comes from The Office writer Lee Eisenberg (working without his usual partner Gene Stupnitsky).

tbd Everyone Else Burns

New(-ish) comedy series
Premieres October 19 on The CW

Are we actually recommending something on the new no-budget version of The CW? We are as surprised as you are! But this British import received excellent reviews when it first aired on the UK's Channel 4 in January. The comedy stars Simon Bird (The Inbetweeners, Friday Night Dinner) as the head of a family that has joined an apocalyptic religious sect in Manchester, England.

tbd The Pigeon Tunnel

Streaming documentary
Premieres October 20 on Apple TV+

Errol Morris directs a profile of the life and career of former British spy David Cornwell. Doesn't ring a bell? Cornwell later became much better known as a spy novelist writing under the pen name John le Carré. The film, which spans six decades and is based on le Carré's own best-selling memoir of the same name, includes the final interview given by the author prior to his death in 2020.

tbd Fellow Travelers

Miniseries
Premieres October 27 on Paramount+ With Showtime
Premieres October 29 on Showtime (cable)

Showtime's eight-part limited series is an adaptation of Tomas Mallon's 2007 novel from Emmy- and Oscar-nominee Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia, Homeland). The drama traces the decades-spanning romance between Hawkins (Matt Bomer) and Tim (Jonathan Bailey) across four politically charged decades beginning in McCarthy-era Washington during the 1950s. Chris Bauer and Allison Williams also star.

tbd Five Nights at Freddy's

Streaming movie
Premieres October 27 on Peacock

The first film adaptation of the 2014 videogame debuts on Peacock the same day it opens in theaters. Will it be cinema's first good videogame adaptation? Probably not, but it could be one of the wildest. Josh Hutcherson heads the cast of the Blumhouse production, which centers on the overnight security guard at a Chuck E. Cheese-like pizza parlor. If you think that's an easy job, well, you haven't noticed that the restaurant's creepy animatronic characters are walking around under their own power.

tbd The Gilded Age (Season 2)

Returning series
Premieres October 29 on HBO and Max

Thanks to the two industry strikes and Warner Bros. cutbacks, HBO has been so bereft of new content that it has resorted to running documentaries on Sunday nights, typically its home for prestige programming. That changes at the end of October when costume drama The Gilded Age returns for the start of its eight-episode sophomore season after a 17-month absence. Sort of an American counterpart to Downton Abbey (from the same creator, Julian Fellowes, though set several decades earlier in the 1880s), the series follows members of various social classes in New York City. The sprawling cast—which is somehow considerably bigger this year—includes Carrie Coon, Taissa Farmiga, Jack Gilpin, Cynthia Nixon, Morgan Spector, and Christine Baranski, among others.

Additional content by Keith Kimbell.