The Runarounds
Prime Video from Monday, September 1st
The TV ashtray is overflowing with series about fictional bands, from The Partridge Family to The Young Person’s Guide to Becoming a Rock Star and We Are Lady Parts. Here’s another one, about a group of US high-school graduates whose dream is to make it big in the music biz. Apparently this entails dressing in cowboy boots, cut-off denims and punky T-shirts and posing around a big Cadillac. The series follows the young hopefuls over a busy summer as they rehearse, record, fall in and out of love and chase their rock‘n’roll dreams. The show’s USP is that the stars are not just actors playing musicians: the producers – the same crowd who made The Outer Banks – put together an actual band for the series, and they’ve already played gigs.
Only Murders in the Building
Disney+ from Tuesday, September 9th
When they launched their crime comedy series, back in lockdown, Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez probably didn’t expect they’d be still going strong five years later, but the amateur sleuthing trio are back with their fifth series. At this stage the murder rate in the Arconia building might challenge even Cabot Cove, from Murder, She Wrote. In this new series, Lester, its beloved doorman, has been found dead, and Charles, Oliver and Mabel suspect he may have been murdered. Their investigations take them deep into the dark heart of the city, and soon the Mob have the trio in their crosshairs. But an even greater danger is in store: a bunch of billionaires who’ll stop at nothing to protect their wealth.
The Girlfriend
Prime Video from Wednesday, September 10th
Is it a good idea to bring your new girlfriend home to meet your mom? Most Irish mammies either think no girl is good enough for their precious little prince or wonder why any self-respecting young lady would go out with a liúdramán like you. Rich and successful Laura (Robin Wright) is not an Irish mammy, but when her darling son, Daniel (Laurie Davidson), arrives with the beautiful Cherry (Olivia Cooke) in tow, Laura suspects this interloper may be a scheming, social-climbing gold-digger. Is she Daniel’s dream girl or a potential nightmare?
The Breslau Murders
Disney+ from Friday, September 12th
In the east German city of Breslau in 1936, a killer is on the loose. The Third Reich is not too happy about this, as the eyes of the world are on Berlin, which is hosting the 11th Olympic Games. The last thing they need is a brutal, sensational murder stealing the show. It’s up to Breslau’s unconventional police commissioner, Franz Podolsky, who is of Polish origin, to put aside his hatred of the Reich and catch the killer before they strike again. But time is not on his side.
RM Block
The Morning Show
Apple TV+ from Wednesday, September 17th
Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon kick up more sparks in the fourth series of the drama set in the studios of a popular Manhattan morning-news programme. Aniston, who plays The Morning Show’s cohost Alex Levy, and Witherspoon, as news anchor Bradley Jackson, are working in a very different environment since the merger between the UBA and NBN networks. The broadcasters have to navigate new work practices and a new reality where AI, deepfakes, conspiracy theories and corporate skulduggery threaten to undermine fact-based reporting. As usual, The Morning Show is packed with stars, including Billy Crudup, John Hamm, Mark Duplass and Greta Lee, plus new arrivals Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Irons.
Black Rabbit
Netflix from Thursday, September 18th
Jude Law stars as Jake Friedkin, who runs a popular New York restaurant and VIP lounge called Black Rabbit. The business is on the cusp of becoming the jewel of Big Apple nightlife, but when Jake’s wayward brother, Vince (Jason Bateman), returns to the family business, he brings a heap of trouble with him. Soon everything they’ve worked hard for is in danger of collapsing like a badly made soufflé. Will their brotherly bond save the business or destroy it?
Slow Horses
Apple TV+ from Wednesday, September 24th
The best spy series on television is back for a fifth series – and if you think that’s good news, Apple TV+ has confirmed that it has already greenlit a sixth and seventh series based on the novels by Mick Herron. Gary Oldman returns as the slovenly, irascible and utterly brilliant Jackson Lamb, who heads the team at Slough House, MI5’s dumping ground for spies who have screwed up. But Lamb is not about to let his slow horses go out to pasture: under his cantankerous guidance the team set out to give the big guns at the intelligence agency’s Regent’s Park HQ a run for their money and outsmart them in the spying game. This series is based on the novel London Rules, which finds Lamb and his team trying to find the connections between a series of bizarre occurrences around the city. As things get more complicated, Lamb and his team must follow London rules – cover your back – if they’re to stay alive.
House of Guinness
Netflix from Thursday, September 25th
Have you ever sat drinking a pint and thought, ‘You know what, the story of the Guinness family would make a great TV series?’ Steven Knight, the Peaky Blinders writer, had that thought – and he has turned the story of one of Ireland’s greatest dynasties into an epic tale of sibling rivalry and ambition as the heirs to the world’s largest brewery battle to keep Guinness as the country’s number-one tipple and grow it into a global brand. It’s like Succession with a creamy head. The eight-part series, set in Dublin and New York in the 19th century, begins with the death of Sir Benjamin Guinness, who has made the brewery a huge success. His four adult children – Arthur, Edward, Anne and Ben – are tasked with taking over the brand, but the siblings are a wild bunch, with a huge lust for life, and you never know what they’re going to do next. The cast includes Anthony Boyle, Louis Partridge, Emily Fairn, Fionn O’Shea, James Norton, Dervla Kirwan, Michael McElhatton, Niamh McCormack, David Wilmot and Jack Gleeson.
Wayward
Netflix from Thursday, September 25th
Welcome to Tall Pines, an idyllic village where the mysterious Evelyn Wade runs an academy for troubled teens. When cop Alex Dempsey moves to the town with his wife, Laura, he encounters two young people – Abbie and Leila – who are trying to escape the school. What’s really going on at Tall Pines Academy, and is Evelyn a caring guardian or a prison-camp commandant? As Alex delves deeper into the secrets of Tall Pines, he finds himself caught in a battle between two generations, and between truth and lies. Toni Collette stars as Evelyn, with Mae Martin, who also created the series, as Alex.
The Savant
Apple TV+ from Friday, September 26th
You need nerves of steel and brains to burn if you’re going to infiltrate online hate groups and prevent them from carrying out atrocities. Enter the Savant, an undercover investigator with a talent for getting close to the United States’ most dangerous extremists and uncovering their plans to disrupt civil society and undermine democracy. Jessica Chastain stars in a tense eight-part thriller based on the real-life story of a woman, known as the Savant, who was the subject of a magazine article headlined “Is it possible to stop a mass shooting before it happens?”
