Happy weekend! As we prepare for the influx of TV shows to come in November, including major releases like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, there are a few noteworthy entries this week to keep you occupied while you wait.
For genre lovers, there’s Nocturne, Apple TV’s crime drama series starring Stephen Graham, the star and co-creator of Adolescence. There’s also the second season of Dexter: Resurrection, continuing the story of the sympathetic serial killer Dexter Morgan, with Michael C. Hall reprising the role. Balaraw: Blood Island caps things off, with the horror series exploring terrifying Filipino folk tales.
Other noteworthy additions include The Gilded Age, HBO’s smash hit. Written by Julian Fellowes, the creator of Downton Abbey, his new series swaps the UK for the US, following different families in New York City during the late 1800s economic boom of the Gilded Age.
Reality TV and documentary enjoyers have a few picks too, including The Mob, a new reality competition series hoping to cash in on The Traitors’ popularity, and The One About Matthew Perry, a three-part documentary exploring the late actor’s life and his struggles, all through the lens of his time on the set of Friends.
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Nocturne
- Available on Apple TV+
- Genre: Crime thriller
- Episode count: 10
- Cast: Stephen Graham, Zazie Beets, Liev Schreiber
Based on Lars Kepler’s crime novels and riffing on The Silence of the Lambs, Nocturne follows retired homicide detective Jonah Lynn (Liev Schreiber), who comes out of retirement when a young boy thought to be dead reappears. Lynn reopens the case in hopes of finding the boy’s missing sister, with his young protégé Saga Bauer (Zazie Beets) tasked with extracting answers from Jurek Walter (Stephen Graham), the imprisoned serial killer suspected of killing the siblings.
Per our Polygon review:
In Nocturne, the devil is, of course, Jurek. Much like Mads Mikkelsen reimagined Hannibal Lecter as a sophisticated, highly intelligent cannibal serial killer rather than a lunatic, Graham does the same with Jurek, making him feel like Hannibal the Cannibal’s twin. Jurek is smaller and more muscular to fit Graham’s frame, but in retrospect, neither detail matters — Jurek’s presence, felt even when he is absent, is what counts. Graham more than delivers. With every tilt of his head or high-pitched chuckle, you’re left feeling as though someone just walked over your grave.
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Dexter: Resurrection
- Available on Paramount plus
- Genre: Crime thriller
- Episode count: 10
- Cast: Michael C. Hall, Brian Cox, Gabriel Luna
Dexter: Resurrection is the latest iteration of Dexter Morgan’s story (Michael C. Hall), which includes the original award-winning series, a prequel (Dexter: Original Sin), a sequel (Dexter: New Blood), and… a threequel? Resurrection picks up after Dexter’s been shot by his son, Harrison, and follows him to New York City, where he’s trying to reconnect with his son. Meanwhile, his former co-worker, Detective Bautista, begins to track him down. The second season picks up with Dexter navigating a new batch of serial killers and a mid-life crisis.
Per our Polygon season 1 coverage:
By the end of Dexter: Resurrection, pretty much all these characters are dead (only one other member of the serial killer group, played by Eric Stonestreet, manages to survive). It’s a somewhat unsatisfying conclusion for anyone who expected Dexter to face off against a true adversary but instead watched him slice through a buffet a sub-par rivals. However, there’s a chance this could all be corrected in a follow-up season.
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The Mob
- Available on Hulu
- Genre: Reality TV
- Episode count: 8
- Cast: Parker Posey, Harry Jowsey, Debi Mazer
The Mob is yet another celebrity reality competition show. Hosted by the great Parker Posey, the series follows celebrity contestants in an Italian villa as they live out their mob fantasies and hope to earn up to $250,000 in cash prizes.
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The Gilded Age
- Available on HBO
- Genre: Drama
- Episode count:
- Cast: Carrie Coon, Louia Jacobson, Morgan Spector
The Gilded Age is back to fill HBO’s coveted Sunday nighttime slot. The series is set in late 1800s New York, at the start of the Gilded Age, exploring the clash between old money and the new rich industrialists. Season 4 picks up six months after the series’ third season, with Bertha Russell (Carrie Coon) continuing her climb through the echelons of New York society.
5
Balaraw: Blood Island
- Available on Netflix
- Genre: Horror
- Episode count: 6
- Cast: Janine Gutierrez, Charlie Dizon, Agot Isidro
After her mother disappears, a young woman named Sabina (Janine Gutierrez) spends four years searching for her and trying to understand what went wrong. As her life falls apart, she has a breakthrough, traveling to a remote island that might be connected to her missing mother. There, she discovers a strange community.
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A Couple of Lies
- Available on Netflix
- Genre: Psychological thriller
- Episode count: 4
- Cast: Emma Appleton, Fares Fares, Frida Gustavsson
The Swedish series follows two struggling married couples who arrange an online home swap between Stockholm and Sicily to address the problems in their relationship. Once they arrive at their respective vacation homes, the peaceful and dreamy getaway the couples were envisioning transforms into something else. They discover that their new homes are tapped and that they’re being monitored.
7
The One About Matthew Perry
- Available on Netflix
- Genre: Documentary
- Episode count: 3
- Cast: Mary Robertson, Matthew Perry, Mia Perry Bowick
Netflix’s new documentary series explores the life and career of Matthew Perry, who died in 2023 after struggling with addiction for the majority of his life. The documentary features interviews with his half-sister, his close friends, and other members of Perry’s recovery community. Notably, it doesn’t feature interviews or the involvement of any of Perry’s Friends cast members.
8
Dead End Job
- Available on Netflix
- Genre: Horror/Fantasy
- Episode count: 8
- Cast: Lee Jae-wook, Go Min-si, Kim Min-ha
Dead-End Job feels like a product of our times, blending fantasy, horror, and mystery with some of our pressing concerns. The show follows a young man who’s drowning in debt and turns to an agency called Spider Staffing Agency for secretive and strange part-time jobs that conveniently pay really well. The bad news is that the gig involves monsters, ghosts, and all manner of unexplainable things.
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