OCTOBER
“Gangs of London” (AMC) – October 1
Once set to premiere on Cinemax before that network gave up on original programming, this crime drama has already premiered to solid reviews and spectacular ratings in the U.K. and is now set to launch stateside on AMC. If its creator can bring some of his kinetic action energy to the small screen every week, this could be the season’s sneakiest hit. Created by Gareth Evans (“The Raid”), this is a modern action series about the criminal underworld in London. Colm Meaney, Joe Cole, Lucian Msamati, and Sope Dirisu star. AMC hopes that American audiences take to this as much as British ones did—they turned it into the second-biggest original drama launch of all time on Sky Atlantic—and the series has already been renewed for a second outing.
“Monsterland” (Hulu) – October 2
Hulu wants to dominate the lives of horror fans in the weeks before Halloween, offering more original spooky programming than anyone, dropping a new anthology film series from Jason Blum (see below), a new film based on three stories from Clive Barker’s “Books of Blood,” and this fascinating project spun from a short story collection by Nathan Ballingrud wonderfully titled “North American Lake Monsters.” A talented team of creators that includes Babak Anvari (“Under the Shadow” and the streaming service’s “Wounds”) will weave eight tales of a world in which mythical creatures like mermaids co-exist with human beings. The cast includes Kelly Marie Tran, Kaitlyn Dever, Mike Colter, Taylor Schilling, Charlie Tahan, and Bill Camp.
“The Good Lord Bird” (Showtime) – October 4
Created by Ethan Hawke and Mark Richard, this mini-series based on the book of the same name by James McBride has been delayed multiple times in the wake of the pandemic, but now finally looks slated to roll this Fall. In this brutal historical drama, Hawke plays the infamous John Brown, an abolitionist leader credited with sparking the fire on the incident that started the American Civil War, an 1859 raid on Harpers Ferry designed to start a slave revolt. The remarkable cast also includes Daveed Diggs as Frederick Douglass, Wyatt Russell, Joshua Caleb Johnson, and Rafael Casal. Albert Hughes directed at least the premiere episode of this 8-part series.
“The Walking Dead: World Beyond” (AMC) – October 4
Created by Matthew Negrete and Scott M. Gimple, this second spin-off of the AMC zombie hit based on the Robert Kirkman graphic novel was ordered as a two-season experience. Each season will consist of ten episodes and the show takes place ten years after the action of the premiere of “The Walking Dead,” that memorable day when the zombie apocalypse changed the face of the planet. It centers on the first generation raised after the end of the world and looks like it could directly tie the original series to the films still planned by AMC because the first preview includes an appearance by the CRM, who took Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) the last time fans saw him. Gimple has said that the series will detail the mysterious Civil Republic of the Midwest and that they will play a “huge part” in the new series. The mythology of this universe seems to grow every year. Here’s the newest chapter.
“Soulmates” (AMC) – October 5
It’s always a pretty good sign when a network is so happy with what they’re seeing in advance of the premiere that they renew a show for a second season before it even launches. Such is the case with this hybrid of science fiction and romantic drama from Will Bridges (“Stranger Things”) and Brett Goldstein (“Ted Lasso”) about a future in which science can tell you the identity of your soulmate. The talented cast hired to play with this high concept includes Emmy nominee Sarah Snook, David Costabile, Malin Akerman, and Betsy Brandt. Each episode features a different and an entirely different story, which should make for an interesting anthology approach to the science of love.
“NeXt” (FOX) – October 6
One of the more interesting possibilities on network television in early 2020 became a Fall offering for FOX after the pandemic forced delay of its publicized premiere. With a pilot directed by Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (“Crazy, Stupid, Love”), John Slattery stars as a tech guru named Paul LeBlanc, who realizes his A.I. has gone rogue and become extremely dangerous. Don’t you hate when that happens? LeBlanc is forced to work with an agent named Shea Salazar (Fernanda Andrade) to stop this out of control technology from destroying the world. Expect a lot of worried staring at phone and computer screens in this network offering from Manny Coto, a former showrunner on “Star Trek: Enterprise” and writer on “Dexter.”
“Welcome to the Blumhouse” (Amazon) – October 6
Yes, the Hulu monthly series of original horror films “Into the Dark” is on hiatus while everyone involved in making movies stays home, but Jason Blum still can’t be stopped. Until “ITD” returns, get your horror fix over at Amazon with this original series of eight films from the hardest working producer in the genre. The man behind too many horror movies to count produced eight original new features for Amazon, and the first four premiere in Amazon in October under the titles “The Lie,” “Black Box,” “Nocturne,” and “Evil Eye.” The talent involved includes Veena Sud (“The Killing”) and Elan & Rajeev Dassani (“Jinn”). The second set of four films will drop in 2021, presuming the state of the world allows their completion.
“The Right Stuff” (Disney+) – October 9
Hollywood used to love its sequels, now it’s never leaving popular intellectual property idling and turning all popular movies into a TV series. So the idea behind 1983’s “The Right Stuff,” Tom Wolfe’s bestselling book, is now the same inspiration behind National Geographic/Disney+’s eight-episode series that looks at the early days of the U.S. Space Program and tells the story of America’s first astronauts, the Mercury 7. Starring Patrick J. Adams and Jake McDorman, “The Right Stuff” is said to be an atypical look at this story and demonstrate, what in retrospect is, the very first reality show. The series examines how ambitious astronauts and their families became instant celebrities in a competition that could kill them or make them immortal.
“The Haunting of Bly Manor” (Netflix) – October 9
Two years after Mike Flanagan rocked the lives of horror fans and gave millions sleepless nights with his massive Netflix hit, “The Haunting of Hill House,” he returns with a follow-up this Fall, but it’s not a traditional second season to what fans experienced the first time, following more of the “American Horror Story” model than just another haunting. Don’t expect to catch up with the characters of “Hill House,” but some of that show’s cast has returned for a fresh new series, this one based on Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw,” which has already been adapted multiple times, most notably in the masterpiece that is “The Innocents.” Flanagan has proven deft at blending his vision with others whether it’s Shirley Jackson last season or his Stephen King adaptations (“Gerald’s Game,” “Doctor Sleep”). Familiar faces returning include Henry Thomas, Kate Siegel, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, and Victoria Pedretti.
“Marvel’s Helstrom” (Hulu) – October 16
You can’t kill Marvel TV. It just goes somewhere else. The Marvel Universe may be done over at Netflix and “Agents of Shield” may be done at ABC, but it’s (kind of) still alive at Hulu in the form of this standalone story within the always-expanding franchise. Daimon (Tom Austen) and Ana Helstrom (Sydney Lemmon) are the children of a powerful serial killer who hunt the worst of humanity in this loose adaptation of the characters from Marvel comics. “Helstrom” was designed to launch a series of Marvel shows at Hulu after the concept was dropped at Netflix—there was to be a “Ghost Rider” show at one point too—but it’s the only program to survive the development process and Marvel Television has been shut down entirely. Still, “Helstrom” couldn’t be killed, and could be an interesting action/comic alternative on a service not really known for that kind of thing.
“The Queen’s Gambit” (Netflix) – October 23
The amazing Scott Frank (“Out of Sight”) adapted the book of the same name by Walter Tevis for this Netflix production that feels destined for the next Golden Globes. Anya Taylor-Joy, Moses Ingram, and Harry Melling star in the story of an orphan who becomes a chess prodigy. Following her arc from the age of 8 to 22, it’s also a story of addiction and will be directed by a man who gave Netflix one of their biggest mini-series hits in the Emmy-winning “Godless.” Adaptations of books by Tevis have made a major impact before in little movies called “The Hustler,” “The Color of Money,” and “The Man Who Fell to Earth.”
“The Undoing” (HBO) – October 25
David E. Kelley (“Big Little Lies”) returns to the prestige HBO mini-series game with this highly anticipated adaptation of the 2014 novel “You Should Have Known” by Jean Hanff Korelitz, directed by the award-winning Susanne Bier (“The Night Manager”). He reunites with the always-great Nicole Kidman, who calls this story of a woman whose life has been turned upside-down “a classic thriller,” although everyone involved is holding their cards close as to what this high-profile offering is actually about. (Even a recently released trailer gives away almost nothing in a wonderful way.) We do know that Kidman plays a successful therapist with a normal, happy life with her oncologist husband Jonathan (Hugh Grant) and a son in private school named Henry (Noah Jupe). A violent death shatters their lives and leads to unearthed secrets. Those are the worst kind of secrets. Edgar Ramirez, Lily Rabe, and Donald Sutherland co-star. Bier directed all six episodes.
“The Mandalorian” (Disney+) – October 30
Not many woulda thunk Jon Favreau‘s “Star Wars“-based Disney+ series “The Mandalorian” would have earned 15 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series and Visual Effects in its first season, but that’s exactly what’s happened this year. That’s a huge boost for the show, and a bigger boost might happen on September 20 on Emmy night. Co-created with Lucasfilm/”Star Wars”/ George Lucas heir apparent Dave Filoni, “The Mandalorian” is essentially a Western, “Bonanza” in space. Each week, the Mandalorian (Pedro Pascal) and Baby Yoda (puppet), bump into new friends and foes, and while entertaining stuff still, the narrative lacks a little. But Season 2 sounds interesting and so as the teases from the end of Season 1 — it appears that Favreau and Filoni are leaning on much of the Mandalorian lore that was fleshed out in Filoni’s “Star Wars: Clone Wars” and “Star Wars: Rebels” animated series. We already know the Dark Saber (shown in ‘Rebels’ & ‘Clone Wars’) will appear and it’s rumored that several key characters from the animated series will appear for the first time in live-action including fan favorite and former Jedi, Ahsoka Tano, as played by Rosario Dawson. That could tee-up many ‘Mandalorian’ spin-off shows, so keep your eyes peeled.
