Territory
Dynastic drama in the top end of Oz
Streaming: Netflix, from Thursday October 24
Anna Torv (The Newsreader, The Last of Us) stars as Emily Lawson, who must try to hold together the family cattle-farming dynasty in Australia’s Northern Territory after the suspicious death of its patriarch. She has to face down everything from rival cattle barons to desert gangsters, billionaire mining moguls and indigenous elders who want their land back. It’s all about grand scale: the show’s publicity observes that the series’ fictional Marianne Station was inspired by the real-life Anna Creek Station, which is larger than some countries. New Zealanders Sara Wiseman and Jay Ryan are among the cast in the six episodes of the first series of what is already being described as Netflix’s answer to Yellowstone.
Before
Spooky thriller with a Hollywood icon
Streaming: Apple TV+, from Friday October 25
Billy Crystal executive-produces and stars in this psychological thriller about a child psychiatrist who loses his wife, then encounters a troubled boy whose obsessions seem to have a haunting connection to his own past. Crystal recently told Hollywood Reporter the series is “dark and it’s strange and it’s wonderful”, adding that “at this point in my career, to be able to grow and stretch and do something new, is very exciting for me.” Also stars Judith Light (Transparent), Jacobi Jupe (Peter Pan & Wendy) and Rosie Perez (The Flight Attendant).
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band
Touring with The Boss
Streaming: Disney+, from Friday October 25
Springsteen reconnected with his long-time screen collaborator Thom Zimny (they’ve made 14 films together) for this project, which follows the Jersey rocker’s first world tour in six years and looks back at the history of the man and his band. “I saw an emotional story,” Zimny said in an interview for the film’s premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, “a story about a band returning after the world shut down, when there were no live performances, a band full of history.” The concert scenes in the trailer look magnificent, the 75-year-old Springsteen seems vibrant, and fans won’t want to miss it.
Gino’s Italy: Secrets of the South
Man alone in search of food
Screening: TVNZ 1, 8.05pm, from Saturday October 26
Streaming: TVNZ+
Chef Gino D’Acampo announced this year that he was signing off from the blokey, popular Road Trip series with Gordon Ramsay and Fred Sirieix – but he already had this up his sleeve. In Secrets of the South, D’Acampo explores the southern Puglia and Basilicata regions of his native land on boats, bikes and horseback, rediscovering their food traditions and flirting with their nonnas.
Dynamo Is Dead
Man underground
Screening: TVNZ 1, 8.30pm, Sunday October 27
Streaming: TVNZ+
The British stage magician Dynamo doesn’t exactly stage his own death here but he does arrange for himself to be buried alive as part of a ritual to shake off his old stage name and re-emerge as Steven Frayne as he was christened. The two-hour special is structured around his conversations with an array of celebrities – from Dave Chappelle to Demi Lovato, Tony Hawk and Coldplay – about maintaining mental health and coming back from adversity while in the public eye. And of course he performs a bewildering magic trick with each of them.
Trump’s Heist: The President Who Wouldn’t Lose
Democracy in difficulty
Screening: TVNZ 1, 8.25pm, Monday October 28
This documentary – titled as it premiered on UK Channel 4, rather than Stopping the Steal, as it appears on HBO Max – tells the story of Donald Trump’s refusal to accept that he had lost the 2020 US presidential election and the consequences that followed, all the way to the events of January 6. Remarkably, it does so largely through the accounts of Trump’s fellow Republicans, who came under pressure to engineer a result. It’s directed by Dan Reed (Leaving Neverland).
Lioness
The threat goes on
Streaming: Prime Video, from Monday October 28
“There’s no such thing as a moral war,” Joe (Zoe Saldaña) intones at the beginning of the trailer for season two of Lioness. “There’s survival and there’s surrender.” The return of Taylor Sheridan’s spy thriller sees the CIA’s battle against terror move closer to home and the team recruits a new Lioness operative to infiltrate a previously unheralded threat. “Do you love your country?” demands Joe of the recruit who will do the job. “Your country needs more.” Expect plenty of action.
The Swarm
When the sea rises
Streaming: TVNZ+, from Tuesday October 29
What if the ocean, having endured so many indignities, bit back? That’s the premise of this globe-spanning thriller based on Frank Schätzing’s sci-fi novel of the same name. The big-budget (€40 million) eight-part German co-production employs some familiar tropes in drilling down into the fear of ecological collapse. Its chief protagonist, Charlie Wagner (Leonie Benesch), is a rule-bending renegade as well as a marine scientist. But reviews of the series have generally been positive, not least for its sheer visual spectacle.
Spent
A model and her money are parted
Streaming: ThreeNow, from Wednesday October 30
Michelle de Swarte, star of the unconventional 2022 horror-comedy The Baby, drew on her experiences as a fashion model to write this six-part series. She plays the lead as Mia, a 38-year-old catwalk model whose career is winding down but whose spending is not. She gets lectured by her accountant and, although she doesn’t want to admit it, she’s basically broke and homeless. The Guardian praised both Spent’s comic chops and its “emotional heft” and declared it “an astonishingly accomplished debut”.
The Diplomat
The dance continues
Streaming: Netflix, from Thursday October 31
US ambassador Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) finished the first season of The Diplomat with a big problem: the realisation that the deadly attack that destroyed a British ship was less likely to be the work of a rival foreign power than of the British prime minister. But how can she act on that knowledge when she’s in the UK and who – apart from her nearly ex-husband Hal (Rufus Sewell), who survived the explosion at the end of the first season – can she even trust? In the dance of diplomacy the pace is picking up.
Murder Mindfully
Droll, dark and German
Streaming: Netflix, from Thursday October 31
Björn Diemel (Tom Schilling) is the self-described “Cinderella” of his top-flight law firm with a brutal mob boss for a client. In pursuit of inner peace and work-life balance, he signs up for a mindfulness seminar and emerges with some unexpected new tools – murdering included. But he’s calm and that’s what matters. A German production adapted from the hugely popular novel series by Karsten Dusse.
Citadel: Diana
Italian spin-off of big-budget spy series
Streaming: Prime Video, from October 10
The six episodes of Prime’s 2023 Russo brothers-produced tech-spy thriller Citadel cost $300 million to make and it didn’t win the critical plaudits that budget might lead you to expect. The Italian-language Citadel: Diana is the first of a planned series of international spin-offs (the Indian version, Citadel: Honey Bunny, debuts on November 7). Matilda De Angelis stars as Diana Cavalieri, an undercover agent for the independent spy agency Citadel, who has been stuck as a mole in the enemy syndicate Manticore since it destroyed Citadel eight years earlier. When she glimpses a way out, it means trusting the most unlikely of allies.
Disclaimer
Fact vs fiction thriller
Streaming: Apple TV+, from October 11
With Disclaimer, Cate Blanchett looks to be shifting into the book-based television domestic thriller territory where Nicole Kidman has pitched her tent since Big Little Lies. It’s also a rare small-screen excursion for Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón. His adaptation of Renée Knight’s 2015 mystery bestseller is the first product of a deal signed with Apple TV+ in 2019. His past films, including his Harry Potter film Prisoner of Azkaban or PD James’s Children of Men, show he’s good with books but he’s certainly stretching things out on Disclaimer. He’s managed to get seven episodes – all scripted and directed by him – from 350 or so pages. Mostly set in London, it’s the tale of award-winning documentary maker Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett) who finds a guilty secret of hers from decades past has been revealed in a novel by an unknown author and which threatens to destroy her marriage to Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen). The cast also includes Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville and Kodi Smit-McPhee and the series had a big-screen debut at the Venice Film Festival in August to decent reviews. It debuts with two episodes then one a week.
Teacup
Strange things happen in rural Georgia
Streaming: TVNZ+, from October 11
This show comes with the name of horror heavyweight James Wan (Saw) attached as producer and is loosely based on Robert McCammon’s 1988 novel Stinger. The people of a rural Georgia community are faced with a mysterious entity and must work together to save themselves. Advance publicity has been scant – in keeping with the theme of mystery – but we do know that it stars Yvonne Strahovski (The Handmaid’s Tale), Scott Speedman (Grey’s Anatomy), Rob Morgan (Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty) and Chaske Spencer (Banshee) – and that the showrunner is Ian McCulloch (the writer of Yellowstone, not the singer of Echo and the Bunnymen).
The Restaurant That Makes Mistakes
All right with getting it wrong
Screening: TVNZ 1, 7.30pm, from Monday October 14
Streaming: TVNZ+
The second season of the show that puts people living with dementia in charge of a restaurant has a particular focus on young onset dementia. Research suggests that as many as one in 10 people living with dementia are under 65, and that many of them are still of working age, with mortgages and children to care for. The 10 volunteers include a former lawyer, a scientist, an engineer, a journalist and Kiwi rugby league legend Kevin Tamati, who is living with Alzheimer’s. The show depicts the challenges they face on the job, but also looks at how working in the restaurant affects their family lives. Chef Ben Bayly oversees it all at his downtown Auckland restaurant Origine.
Funny Woman
Onwards and upwards for Sophie
Streaming: Neon, from Wednesday October 16
The second season of Funny Woman stretches beyond the source material of Nick Hornby’s novel Funny Girl and finds Sophie (Gemma Arterton) enjoying the life of a 60s sitcom star – and even becoming a singer. There’s still drama to be had in her personal life, including qualms about the status of her relationship with her producer Dennis (Arsher Ali) and the return of the mother who abandoned her as a child. The social revolutions of the era provide a backdrop.
Shrinking
Still working it out
Streaming: Apple TV+, from Wednesday October 16
Season two of Shrinking seems set to pick up right where the first concluded, with Jimmy (Jason Segel) aware that his daughter Alice (Lukita Maxwell) is worried that he may tip back into grief. Meanwhile, his colleague Paul (Harrison Ford) is still grappling with his Parkinson’s diagnosis and his client Grace is in custody after pushing her husband off a cliff. Eagle-eyed viewers of the season trailer may notice that series co-creator Brett Goldstein (who played Roy Kent in Ted Lasso) turns up on screen himself.
Dinosaur
The comedy of autism
Screening: Three, 8.05pm, from Thursday, October 17
Nina (Ashley Storrie) is a 30-something Scottish autistic woman who is comfortable with her life working as a palaeontologist and living with her sister and best friend Evie (Kat Ronney) – until Evie announces that she’s getting married. Storrie herself is autistic and the BBC show has been generally welcomed as an authentic portrayal of autistic experience – she told an autism website that playing an “unmasked autistic person” was “liberating and beautiful”. The comedy itself is warm and frequently raucous.
N00B
Sex and Gore
Screening: Three, 8.40pm, from Thursday, October 17
Streaming: ThreeNow
It’s 2005 and the students at Gore College are getting to grips – sometimes literally – with their own sexuality and the internet. When First XV star Nikau (Max Crean) is outed as gay, his social capital collapses and he’s forced to find a new friend group among the freaks. Creator Victoria Boult adapted this TV comedy from her hit TikTok series, which has racked up more than 1.5 million views since it debuted online in 2022. The sexual content is fairly robust and younger viewers are advised to consider whether this is something their parents are ready for.
The Office Australia
A new branch
Streaming: Prime, from Friday October 18
Talk about your trans-Tasman brain drain – the Aussie version of the workplace comedy invented for the BBC by David Brent and Stephen Merchant in 2001 has rather a lot of Kiwis on its staff, both in front and behind the camera. Jackie van Beek and Jesse Griffin bring their experience on their teacher comedy Educators as directors on the show. Among the cast are Edith Poor (as the show’s resident officious Gareth or Dwight), Jonny Brugh, Lucy Schmidt, and Josh Thomson, as the strait-laced man from HR. The David Brent branch manager role is played by Australian comedian Felicity Ward, who, as Hannah Howard, is the first woman in charge in a dozen-plus versions of The Office – including the Emmy-winning US one with Steve Carrell – made around the world since the original.
Rivals
The “bonkbuster” queen adapted for screen
Streaming: Disney+, from Friday October 18
This shag-tastic adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s 1988 Rutshire Chronicles novel doesn’t stint on the romp. David Tennant (Doctor Who) is bent TV baron Tony Baddingham, Alex Hassell (His Dark Materials) is notorious rake Rupert Campbell-Black and Aidan Turner (Poldark) is host Declan O’Hara, who finds himself at the centre of a bidding war. Things go up a notch when Rupert sets his sights on Declan’s daughter. The show does not take itself remotely seriously and, judging by the trailer, everyone appears to have a great time camping it up as much as possible.
Hysteria!
A devil of a time
Streaming: TVNZ+, from Friday October 18
A horror-comedy set in the “satanic panic” years of 1980s America. When a high school quarterback disappears, a group of outcasts decide to cash in on the buzz by rebranding themselves as a satanic metal band – but it soon all gets a bit real. Writers Matthew Scott Kane and David A. Goodman have described it as a riff on the “generational fear” that cycles around in American culture, whether it’s about devil-worship with guitars, or pronouns and TikTok. “Growing up is scary,” they advise. “So is parenting.”
Matlock
Septuagenarian lawyer with an agenda
Screening: TVNZ 1, 8.25pm, from Tuesday October 22
Streaming: TVNZ+
A reboot of the vintage 1980s legal drama that starred Andy Griffith as criminal defence attorney Ben Matlock. This time it has Oscar winner Kathy Bates in the lead as Madeline “Matty” Matlock, a brilliant legal veteran who returns to the workforce because, she says, she needs the money. She sets about surprising her younger colleagues with her Perry Mason-style legal victories, but by the end of the first episode it becomes clear that she has another motive for signing on with this particular firm. Reviews in America have been overwhelmingly positive, especially about Bates’ performance. Bates, meanwhile, says this is her last gig before retiring.
The Gold
The heist that made history
Screening: Rialto, 8.30pm, from Tuesday October 22
A series created by celebrated Scottish screenwriter Neil Forsyth (Guilt) and inspired by the 1983 Brink’s-Mat robbery, in which six armed men broke into a security depot near London’s Heathrow airport and made off with £26 million worth of gold bullion they hadn’t even known was there. It was at the time the biggest robbery in British history. Hugh Bonneville plays Brian Boyce, the steely police detective who led the investigation into the robbery and the international money-laundering scheme that followed. Writing in the Times, Hugo Rifkind hailed The Gold as “more than just the story of Brink’s-Mat. It also manages to be the story of 1980s London, of Yuppification, of new money, of the last conflicted gasp of a white working-class criminal fraternity.”
Gold Diggers
Anarchic comedy in the Aussie goldrush
Streaming: TVNZ+, from October 1
Both meanings of “gold digger” are in play here: it’s set in an Australian gold-rush town and its protagonists are two sisters, Gert (Claire Lovering, Wellmania) and Marigold (comedian Danielle Walker), who have fled the slums of Sydney and are on the hunt for newly rich husbands, “preferably old, so they die soon”. The comedy is earthy and there are no pretences to historical accuracy (many of the jokes seem to involve transposing modern issues into the 1800s), but its sole season so far has been praised for its headlong energy.
Last Days of the Space Age
Once upon a time in the West
Streaming: Disney+, From October 2
In 1979, as Western Australia celebrated its 150 years since becoming an official British colony, bits of Skylab falling out of orbit provided some confetti to the celebrations just ahead of the Miss Universe pageant being held in Perth. The period is the backdrop to this eight-part drama about six weeks in the intertwined lives of three families living in a Perth cul de sac, all with teenage kids pondering their futures. The latest effort for international streamer Disney+ to deliver some Australian programming, it stars some familiar Aussie faces, including Radha Mitchell and Jesse Spencer as a married couple who find themselves on either side of a picket line at the company where they work, the strike affecting the reliability of the city’s power supply. Deborah Mailman stars as a neighbour who is also in a relationship with the Mitchell character’s widowed father, played by Scottish import Iain Glen. The show comes with abundant period touches and a jukebox soundtrack and there’s even a subplot involving Miss USSR, her KGB minder and a local TV producer.
Brilliant Minds
Streaming: Neon from October 2
Oliver Sacks might be the world’s most recognised neurologist, but his life and works have largely resisted adaptation. This new series might be a larger-than-life dramatisation for US network television, but it is inspired by Sacks’ books The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars. Zachary Quinto plays Dr Oliver Wolf, whose unusual brain leads to unconventional approaches to his patients’ neurological difficulties. “This idea of how far he is willing to go to honour his patients, to help them rediscover some degree of integrity and dignity in their lives – I was fascinated by the dynamics of that storytelling,” Quinto told Deadline.
Marie Antoinette
Lavish, pretty, sexy
Screening: Rialto, 8.30pm, from October 2
This eight-part drama series was commissioned by the French network Canal+ to fill the gap left by the conclusion of the highly successful Versailles. It aired in France and the UK in 2022, but you can catch up in the knowledge that a second season has been commissioned. Writer Deborah Davis (The Favourite) conjures Marie (Emilia Schüle, Berlin Station) as a sassy, playful, modern young woman making her way through the misogynistic intrigue of the French court. The Guardian called it “hugely entertaining”, and the Church Times found it lavish, but said that “as drama, never mind accurate history, it is a great disappointment, the lightest confection, devoid of nourishment”.
Where’s Wanda?
Dark German comedy
Streaming: Apple TV+, from October 4
The trailer for this, Apple TV+’s first German-language series, defaulted to overdubbed English dialogue, so you may have to fiddle with the settings if you want to hear the original German actors with subtitles. It’s a darkly comedic, somewhat meta series in which a German couple set out to find their 17-year-old daughter, who disappeared and has been missing for months. Despairing of the police, they get hold of surveillance devices – and start finding things they didn’t expect. Although the cast are all well known to German audiences, lead writer Oliver Lansley (creator of Flack) is British.
The Franchise
On the blockbuster factory floor
Streaming: Neon from October 7
Screening: Soho, 7.30pm, from October 10
This British sitcom about the harried crew on a big studio superhero movie franchise comes from Armando Iannucci and Sam Mendes, who directs the first episode. Its cast includes Richard E Grant and Daniel Brühl, who have had roles in the Marvel universe, as well as Himesh Patel (Yesterday), Jessica Hynes (Twenty Twelve, W1A). Interestingly, it’s made for HBO, whose parent company Warner Bros Discovery has a very spotty record with superhero movies in recent years.
Human Error
A murder investigation becomes a can of worms
Streaming: ThreeNow, from October 8
A new crime drama from the people who brought us Underbelly. Leeanna Walsman (Wentworth, Underbelly: Badness) plays Detective Holly O’Rourke, who leads a homicide investigation team. What at first looks like an open-and-shut murder case – a suburban Melbourne mum shot in a gangland hit – develops into a threat to her career and her personal life as she discovers that a fellow officer had a motive to murder the victim. Things begin to spiral. Early reviews across the Tasman have been positive.
Starting 5
Inside basketball
Streaming: Netflix, from October 9
The latest in Netflix’s stream of inside-sport documentaries focuses on basketball. It follows the 2023-24 NBA season through the eyes of five of the league’s biggest players: Jimmy Butler (Miami Heat), Anthony Edwards (Minnesota Timberwolves), Domantas Sabonis (Sacramento Kings) and Jayson Tatum (Boston Celtics) – and the legendary Laker, LeBron James. James’ own screen production company is behind the show, in partnership with Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground.
Joan
Game of stones
Screening: Vibe, 8.30pm from October 9
Streaming: Neon from September 30
Picked early on by the Guardian as a potential 2024 “banger” and also “a whole lot of full period glam”. Anna Symon, who wrote Mrs Wilson and The Essex Serpent, turned her pen to Joan Hannington’s 2004 memoir I Am What I Am: The True Story of Britain’s Most Notorious Jewel Thief. It’s a ripper of a tale, in which Joan leaves behind a violent marriage to professional crook Boisie Hannington (Frank Dillane, son of Stephen) and rises from petty crim to “highly talented diamond thief and criminal mastermind”. Such was her success, she became known as The Godmother. Game of Thrones’ Sophie Turner transforms into Joan, sporting a number of disguises and a good deal of 80s fashion.
See our guide to other recent new shows in the September, August, July, and June viewing guides.
