11 of the best TV shows to watch this October

From an adaptation of Jilly Cooper’s sex-and-scandal-filled novel to a superhero movie-making satire and the return of Netflix’s gripping political drama.

Sophie Turner, still best known as Sansa Stark on Game of Thrones, stars as the real-life 1980s jewel thief Joan Hannington in a series based on Hannington’s memoir I Am What I Am. As a single mother just out of a bad marriage, Hannington turned to a life of crime, starting out with what became a signature move: swallowing diamonds. Ouch, but also lucrative. The show is full of 1980s colour and fashion as Joan uses various disguises to slip in and out of jewellery stores, and becomes a player in London’s crime world. Some real-life names have been changed, but writer Anna Symon (Mrs Wilson and The Essex Serpent) had the cooperation of Hannington herself.

Joan premieres 29 September on ITV and ITVX in the UK and 2 October on The CW in the US 

Armando Iannucci, creator of the classic satires Veep and The Thick Of It, is known for humour. Sam Mendes, director of films including 1917 and Skyfall, is not. But together (along with writer Jon Brown) they concocted this comedy about the behind-the-scenes chaos of a film crew making a superhero movie, with Mendes directing the first episode. Daniel Brühl plays the director, an arty type slumming to make Tecto, about a guy whose superpower is creating earthquakes. The main character, though, is the put-upon assistant director played by Himesh Patel, who tries fruitlessly to keep things under control. Richard E Grant also appears as a theatre actor who looks down his nose at the film while wearing the cheesiest costume, a purple and gold tunic with a cape. “In the UK, you can’t move without bumping into an actor who has spent the last 18 months trapped in a small green room pretending to wrestle with aliens and being paid very well while going quite mad,” Iannucci told The Hollywood Reporter.

The Franchise premieres 6 October on HBO and Max in the US and 21 October on Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK

Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna were boyhood friends in Mexico even before starring in Y Tu Mamá También 23 years ago, and have often been producing partners since. They are together again on screen in this story of a one-time champion and now struggling boxer Esteban Osuna (García Bernal), known as La Máquina or The Machine. Luna, in heavy prosthetics, plays his best friend and manager, Andy Lujan, a man who has had so many cosmetic procedures he looks botoxed to within an inch of his life. Andy is determined to give Esteban one last fight, but the criminal underworld may get in the way. This is Hulu’s first Spanish-language series, and anyone who saw García Bernal and Luna present in Spanish at the recent Emmy awards will know what the language means to them. “Spanish is our homeland,” García Bernal told Vanity Fair.

La Máquina premieres 9 October on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK

Ella Purnell has been stranded in the woods after a plane crash in Yellowjackets, and survived in a post-apocalyptic world in Fallout, but she takes fate into her own hands as the title character in this dark comedy. Purnell plays Rhiannon, a wallflower who was bullied at school, is now underestimated at the office, and generally fed up with being viewed as a little mouse. Exploding in a burst of Carrie-level rage, she becomes a serial killer. The show is based on a series of novels by CJ Skuse. The tagline on the cover of the first book sets the tone and says it all: “The last person who called me Sweetpea ended up dead.”

Sweetpea premieres 10 October on Starz in the US and Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK

The great Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men, Roma) writes and directs all seven episodes of this high-profile drama starring Cate Blanchett as a woman whose secret past might be exposed. Blanchett plays Catherine Ravenscroft, a respected journalist, and Kevin Kline is her neighbour, Stephen Brigstocke. His wife, Nancy (Lesley Manville) recently passed away, leaving behind a supposedly fictional manuscript that portrays a scandalous, thinly-veiled Catherine. As the series flashes back and forth in time to replay events from the past, it raises the timely issues of truth and perception. Will Stephen publish the book and destroy Catherine’s life? How much reality is there in the fiction? Sacha Baron Cohen plays Catherine’s husband, and Kodi Smit-McPhee is their troubled son in the series, based on Renée Knight’s 2015 bestseller. As always, Cuarón’s visuals promise to be stunning, with cinematography by his frequent collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity) and Bruno Delbonnel (Amélie).

Disclaimer premieres 11 October on Apple TV+ internationally

He may be in a supporting role, but Harrison Ford continues to give us some of the funniest line deliveries and wry glances on television in this returning dramedy, one of 2023’s best, which picks up where the last season left off. The scene-stealing Ford plays Paul, a therapist in practice with Jimmy (Jason Segel) whose unconventional approach had led one of his patients (Heidi Gardner) to push her husband off a cliff, which is why he has to visit her in prison. Closer to home, Paul deals with Parkinson’s disease, his relationship with Julie (Wendie Malick), and trying to steer Jimmy away from his many bad choices. Jessica Williams returns as Jimmy’s late wife’s best friend whom he has been having an affair with, and Luke Tennie plays Sean, the patient with PTSD who lives with him. Brett Goldstein (Ted Lasso), who created the show along with Ted Lasso co-creator Bill Lawrence and Segel, pops up on screen this season too, as a character whounsettles Jimmy.

Shrinking premieres 16 October on Apple TV+ internationally

As recently as last year, Jilly Cooper was still turning out her popular, pulpy novels, releasing her latest, Tackle! at the age of 86. Rivals is based on her 1988 book, the second in the well-named Rutshire Chronicles series, and is full of her trademark mix of sex, money and chicanery, with hints of Dallas and Dynasty-era soapiness. David Tennant plays Lord Tony Baddingham, the director of Corinium television, and Alex Hassell (season one of The Boys) plays his neighbour and rival, the rakish Tory politician Rupert Campbell-Black. Aidan Turner plays Declan O’Hara, a TV presenter who regrets making a deal with Corinium, and Danny Dyer (EastEnders) is Freddie Jones, a self-made millionaire who doesn’t fit in with the aristocrats. The trailer has champagne corks popping and Turner with a retro moustache. “We have so much sex on our show, we have to have two intimacy coaches,” Turner has said. “Two!”

Rivals premieres 18 October on Hulu in the US and on Disney+ in the UK

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant created what seems like a foolproof template in 2001 with the original British series The Office. A dozen subsequent versions from different countries have followed, including nine seasons of the US show, but never before a female boss. This Australian instalment takes care of that, with comedian Felicity Ward as Hannah Howard, the managing director of packaging company Flinley Craddick. Every familiar character has a counterpart. The obsequious Gareth (UK)/ Dwight (US) is a woman here, and Hannah pats herself on the back for supporting female employees, saying with perfect David Brent cringiness, “Oh, my back hurts from carrying all my sisters, all the time. Oww.” There is an Australian Tim-and-Dawn (UK)/ Pam-and-Jim (US). And the mockumentary format remains, with one character saying to the camera, “This is a proper HR nightmare.” It always is.

The Office premieres 18 October on Amazon Prime internationally, excluding the US

This Halloween-timed satire is set in the late 1980s, a more innocent – or gullible – time, when parents worried that their Goth children were actually influenced by the devil. Julie Bowen (Modern Family) and Anna Camp (Pitch Perfect) head the game ensemble as residents of small-town Happy Hollow, where some high school students in a flailing garage band try to capitalise on the Satan trend. They brand themselves as a heavy metal group that sounds like a breakfast cereal, Deth Krunch, and are soon suspects in crimes around town, including murders. Bruce Campbell, of the Evil Dead franchise, is also in the cast, and his presence is enough to hint at some devilish activity. Is Satan’s influence real, or is Bowen’s character paranoid when she sees his face appear in the glass of her microwave, only to have the tomato sauce inside explode?

Hysteria! premieres 18 October on Peacock

We know that Billy Crystal can play a therapist in a comedy. He was the doctor who helped Robert De Niro’s mob character through his anxiety in Analyze This (1999) and Analyze That (2002). But this time he’s serious in a psychological thriller that takes a supernatural turn. Crystal plays Eli Adler, a child psychologist whose wife (Judith Light, seen in flashbacks) has recently committed suicide. One of his patients is Noah (Jacobi Jupe), a boy who turns out to have a mysterious connection to Eli’s past. Rosie Perez is also in the cast. Apple TV+ isn’t giving away much more than that, but maybe Crystal’s name is enough to pique interest. The show was created by Sarah Thorp, who wrote the Gerard Butler-Jennifer Aniston film The Bounty Hunter. Oscar-winning screenwriter Eric Roth (Forrest Gump) is among the writers and executive producers.

Before premieres 25 October on Apple TV+ internationally

Keri Russell returns as Kate Wyler, the US Ambassador to the UK, in a show that ended with an explosion and a cliff-hanger. Did the car bomb that went off kill her husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell), whom she was very close to divorcing? Netflix itself has given up this spoiler: Hal lives, and Sewell is back along with David Gyasi as the UK Foreign Secretary, whose simmering personal chemistry with Kate is unmistakable and tantalising. Allison Janney guest stars as the US Vice President, who arrives in London worried that Kate is after her job. Kate never did want to be the Ambassador. This always engrossing show continues to explore the back-channel manoeuvres on both sides of the US-UK special relationship, smartly combining politics and melodrama. Kate has learned that the UK Prime Minister himself was behind an attack on a British aircraft carrier, and grapples with that knowledge while navigating her rocky marriage.  

The Diplomat premieres 31 October on Netflix internationally