Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of October’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)
New to Amazon Prime Video
‘Citadel: Diana’
Starts streaming: Oct. 10
Last year, Amazon released the first season of “Citadel,” a big-budget action series about a pair of retired spies forced back into service to thwart a dangerous international agency known as Manticore. The idea all along was for the show to anchor a sprawling franchise, which collectively would tell the story of the covert Citadel organization across multiple countries and eras. Now the first of those spinoffs is here: “Diana,” set in Italy in the year 2030, starring Matilda De Angelis as a Citadel agent who has spent so long undercover within Manticore that she has lost touch with her handlers and mission. “Diana” jumps back and forth in time, to show how and why the heroine was recruited into espionage in the first place, along with what happened to Citadel that has left her all alone, deep behind enemy lines.
Also arriving:
Oct. 3
“House of Spoils”
“The Legend of Vox Machina” Season 3
Oct. 8
“Killer Cakes”
Oct. 15
“Beyond Black Beauty”
Oct. 16
“Are You Smarter Than a Celebrity?” Season 1
Oct. 24
“Like a Dragon: Yakuza”
Oct. 30
“Buy It Now” Season 1
New to AMC+
‘V/H/S/Beyond’
Starts streaming: Oct. 4
The “V/H/S” series of horror anthologies have survived the fluctuating popularity of the “found footage” subgenre, in part because the collections have such uncomplicated yet clever organizing concepts. Each film is presented as a set of disturbing home videos, newly discovered and sharing a common theme. The latest edition is framed as an episode of a TV show about cryptids and aliens, which gives the chapters a science-fiction angle. As always with this franchise, the participating filmmakers take creative approaches to their segments, which in “Beyond” includes one about a Bollywood dance number gone awry, one set during a skydiving misadventure, and one moody U.F.O. encounter story written by the ace horror filmmaker Mike Flanagan and directed by his wife, Kate Siegel.
Also arriving:
Oct. 7
“The Night Caller”
Oct. 11
“Daddy’s Head”
Oct. 18
“MadS”
Oct. 21
“Whitstable Pearl” Season 3
Oct. 25
“Azrael”
Oct. 28
“Candice Renoir”
Oct. 30
“The Exorcism”
New to Apple TV+
‘Disclaimer’
Starts streaming: Oct. 11
For his first project as a writer and director since his Oscar-winning “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón tackles Renée Knight’s mystery-suspense novel “Disclaimer.” In a seven-part mini-series, Cate Blanchett stars as Catherine, an acclaimed documentary filmmaker who one day picks up and starts reading a work of fiction that seems to be about her, spilling one of her darkest secrets. Kevin Kline plays a past-his-prime schoolteacher and widower who is partly responsible for getting the book into Catherine’s hands, for possibly nefarious reasons. Cuarón weaves together these two characters’ stories, along with flashbacks to the incident that binds them together. “Disclaimer” has the kinetic and intimate visual style the director is known for, put in service of a story that reveals itself gradually, peeling back layers of memories until it exposes something these people would rather forget.
‘Shrinking’ Season 2
Starts streaming: Oct. 16
Season 1 of this bittersweet sitcom hit the same comic and emotional highs that its co-creators, Bill Lawrence, Brett Goldstein and Jason Segel, have reached in some of their previous series — “Cougar Town,” “Ted Lasso” and “Dispatches From Elsewhere” especially. Season 2 picks up not long after last year’s finale left off, with the oversensitive therapist Jimmy (Segel) reeling from a patient’s attempt to kill her abusive husband. Meanwhile, Jimmy’s colleague Gaby (Jessica Williams) can’t stop coming over to his house for late-night booty calls; and his mentor and boss, Paul (Harrison Ford), is coping with a Parkinson’s diagnosis by sleeping with his neurologist, Julie (Wendie Malick). These are characters who mean well but still make bad choices; and what makes this show so funny and moving is how these eminent psychologists can’t overcome their own weaknesses.
Also arriving:
Oct. 2
“Where’s Wanda?”
Oct. 4
“Curses!” Season 2
Oct. 11
“The Last of the Sea Women”
New to Disney+
‘Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’
Starts streaming: Oct. 25
For the past two decades, the director and editor Thom Zimny has been an archivist for Bruce Springsteen, making documentaries about the Boss’s older and newer albums. Zimny’s latest film bridges those eras. Ostensibly about the 2023 E Street Band tour — the first for the group in six years, and one plagued by various health crises — “Road Diary” also includes footage dating back to the early 1970s, to tell the story of how Springsteen’s live shows became integral to his legacy as an internationally beloved entertainer. Now that the rocker is a septuagenarian — and mostly surrounded by musicians his same age — he and his mates accommodate the challenges of aging and the shadow of mortality to bring fans unforgettable performances.
Also arriving:
Oct. 2
“Mickey’s Spooky Stories” Season 1
Oct. 3
“Witches: The Truth Behind the Trials”
Oct. 11
“Expedition Amazon”
Oct. 15
“Pupstruction” Season 2
Oct. 18
“The Devil’s Climb”
Oct. 18
“LEGO Marvel Avengers: Mission Demolition”
Oct. 19
“2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony”
Oct. 30
“Wizards Beyond Waverly Place” Season 1
New to Hulu
‘What We Do in the Shadows’ Season 6
Starts streaming: Oct. 22
This Emmy-nominated horror-comedy takes the familiar form of a mockumentary, with a camera crew recording the lives (or, more accurately, afterlives) of a small, hapless vampire colony on Staten Island. Each season also has its own crazy arcs: like the vampires opening a nightclub, or the familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillén) trying to become a creature of the night himself. In this final season, as the show’s fans say goodbye to the lusty Laszlo (Matt Berry); his cranky wife, Nadja (Natasia Demetriou); the noble Nandor (Kayvan Novak); and the tedious Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch), these antiheroes themselves will be taking stock of how much — or how little — they’ve accomplished since they arrived in New York centuries ago.
Also arriving:
Oct. 1
“I Wanna Dance With Somebody”
“The Return of Tanya Tucker”
Oct. 2
“Abracadaver”
“Last Days of the Space Age” Season 1
Oct. 3
“Hold Your Breath”
Oct. 7
“Solar Opposites: Halloween Special”
Oct. 8
“Coroner”
Oct. 9
“La Máquina”
Oct. 11
“Mr. Crocket”
Oct. 14
“Family Guy: Halloween Special”
Oct. 16
“Nemesis” Season 1
Oct. 17
“Reginald the Vampire” Season 2
Oct. 18
“Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara”
“Rivals” Season 1
Oct. 21
“Carved”
New to Max
‘The Franchise’
Starts streaming: Oct. 6
The “Veep” creator Armando Iannucci returns to HBO with a new comedy, cocreated by the writer Jon Brown and the director Sam Mendes. The title “The Franchise” refers to a superhero movie universe and the people who are working on one of its lesser spinoffs. Himesh Patel, Daniel Brühl, Aya Cash, Billy Magnussen, Richard E. Grant and Lolly Adefope — all ace comic actors — play the cast and crew members of a film that has to be a box office and a creative triumph while also meeting the demands of a studio juggling the shifting needs of the franchise’s other projects. This series spoofs Hollywood pretensions while also showing real sympathy for anyone who has to make sense of modern big-budget moviemaking.
‘Somebody Somewhere’ Season 3
Starts streaming: Oct. 27
It’s too bad that this funny, humane dramedy is ending with its third season; but honestly, it’s also remarkable that a show this unflashy has lasted as long as it has. Set in the smallish city of Manhattan, Kan., “Somebody Somewhere” stars the brassy cabaret singer and comedian Bridget Everett as Sam, a woman who returns home after her sister’s death and soon realizes that she burned a lot of bridges with her old acquaintances before she moved away. Jeff Hiller plays Sam’s best friend, Joel, who helps her find a place among the community’s other outsiders. The show draws a lot of its humor from the characters’ frustrations with Midwestern conservatism, though the writers and cast also recognize that good people can and do live everywhere.
Also arriving:
Oct. 3
“Gremlins: The Wild Batch”
“Salem’s Lot”
“Velma: This Halloween Needs to Be More Special”
Oct. 10
“Caddo Lake”
“Roller Jam”
Oct. 11
“The Confidante”
Oct. 15
“I Am Not a Monster: The Lois Riess Murders”
Oct. 17
“Louder: The Soundtrack of Change”
Oct. 18
“Maxxxine”
Oct. 23
“Breath of Fire”
Oct. 25
“Trap”
New to Paramount+
‘Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Season 5
Starts streaming: Oct. 24
Season 5 will be the last hurrah for this smart, soulful animated edition to the “Star Trek” TV universe. The show began as a knowing spoof of the franchise’s lore, using the misadventures of four ensigns on a low-ranking Federation support ship as a way to poke fun at the quirks of other “Star Trek” series. But “Lower Decks” quickly became its own kind of high-energy science-fiction saga; and as its heroes Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Boimler (Jack Quaid), Tendi (Noël Wells) and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) have risen through the ranks, their passions and problems have become every bit as involving as any story about Kirk, Picard, Janeway or any other Trek stalwart.
Also arriving:
Oct. 10
“SpongeBob SquarePants: Kreepaway Kamp”
Oct. 15
“FBI True” Season 5
Oct. 25
“Transformers: EarthSpark” Season 3
Oct. 27
“Lioness” Season 2
Oct. 28
“Ezra”
“Treasure”
New to Peacock
‘Teacup’ Season 1
Starts streaming: Oct. 10
The streaming services are leaning hard into spooky season this month, adding scores of new scary movies and TV series. For true horror connoisseurs, one of the most anticipated shows is “Teacup,” an adaptation of “Stinger,” a novel by one of the genre’s best writers, Robert R. McCammon. Yvonne Strahovski plays Maggie Chenoweth, a veterinarian who lives on a rural Georgia farm with her husband, James (Scott Speedman), and their two kids. When the Chenoweths and their neighbors find themselves under siege by a mysterious entity, they soon discover — as is often the case in the more complex horror stories — that the danger they’re facing is exposing their own flaws and weaknesses.
Also arriving:
Oct. 1
“The Mouse Trap”
Oct. 3
“Reggaeton: The Sound that Conquered the World”
Oct. 4
“Didi”
Oct. 6
“Queens Court” Season 2
Oct. 15
“Anatomy of Lies”
Oct. 18
“Hysteria!” Season 1
Oct. 31
“Despicable Me 4”
The post The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Disney+, Amazon, Apple TV+ and More in October appeared first on New York Times.
