David Farnor | On 03, Nov 2020

Netflix. Amazon Prime Video. BBC iPlayer. NOW. Walter Presents. Apple TV+. There’s so much TV to watch these days in so many places that it can be hard to keep up. Every month, we boil down what’s on the box to the essentials you need in your streaming queue.

With the month ahead mostly unfolding indoors for many, the TV is not only useful for breaking up the days and nights but also for escaping from reality for a few hours at a time. November brings some highly bingeable options, including the return of The Crown and His Dark Materials, as well as the debut of HBO documentary The Vow and outrageous Ethan Hawke dram The Good Lord Bird.

We’ve sorted through All The TV to bring you your November watchlist – what’s worth watching and where you can find it online in the UK:

Perfect Harmony: Season 1

An Ivy League professor becomes the director of a rural church choir in this comedy starring Bradley Whitford.

Godfather of Harlem: Season 1

Inspired by actual persons and events, Godfather of Harlem reimagines the story of infamous crime boss Bumpy Johnson (Forest Whitaker), who in the early 1960s returned from ten years in prison to find the neighborhood he once ruled in shambles. With the streets controlled by the Italian mob, Bumpy must take on the Genovese crime family to regain control. During the brutal battle, he forms an alliance with radical preacher Malcolm X (Nigél Thatch) – catching Malcolm’s political rise in the crosshairs of social upheaval and a mob war that threatens to tear the city apart

Black Monday: Season 2

Don Cheadle, Regina Hall and Andrew Rannells return in the Wall Street-based comedy set during the 1987 stock market crash. In the aftermath of Black Monday, Dawn and Blair are now the bosses at The Jammer Group, and they quickly learn that heavy is the head that wears the crown. Who will go down for the crash? Who will go down for the murders? Who will go down for fleecing Mo?

Paranormal: Season 1

Refaat Ismail, a cynical hematology professor with a dark sense of humor, has his world turned upside down and his lifelong scientific convictions questioned after he begins to experience paranormal activities. Along with his university colleague Maggie, they enter the paranormal world and try to save their loved ones from the immense danger that surrounds them. The story is based on the best selling thriller novel series with the same name by Ahmed Khaled Tawfik.

The Vow

Describing itself as a “multi-level marketing company”, the controversial group NXIVM claims to offer personal and professional development seminars through its “Executive Success Program”. However, the group has been dogged with claims that it is closer, in truth, to a cult with links to sexual slavery. Inspired by her own experience of attending the group’s seminars, Emmy winning director Jehane Noujaim explores the controversial “self improvement” as legal proceedings are carried out amongst its highest profile members, most notably founder Keith Raniere.

His Dark Materials: Season 2

BBC One’s fantasy epic, based on Philip Pullman’s acclaimed trilogy of novels, returns to pick things up as Lyra goes on to the next step of her journey, opening up the show’s universe for whole new worlds of possibilities. To help explore those and introduce the Subtle Knife, which the second book in Pullman’s trilogy is named after, Season 2 will add several new faces: Simone Kirby as scientist Dr Mary Malone, Jade Anouka as 416-year-old Ruta Skadi and Terence Stamp as Giacomo Paradisi, the bearer of the knife. They join Amir Wilson as Will Parry, who will play an increasingly central role, and Andrew Scott as Will’s father, John.

Dash & Lily: Season 1

Based on the young adult novels, this romantic comedy follows a whirlwind holiday affair that builds as cynical Dash and optimistic Lily trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations all across New York City, finding they have more in common with each other than they would have expected.

Industry

This eight-episode BBC and HBO co-production, with an opening episode directed by Lena Dunham, follows five university graduates – Harper Stern (Myha’la Herrold), Yasmin Kara-Hanani (Marisa Abela), Robert Spearing (Harry Lawtey), Gus Sackey (David Jonsson Fray) and Hari Dhar (Nabhaan Rizwan) – who all aim to make their mark on the world by proving their worth and becoming permanent hires at Pierpoint, London’s most pre-eminent financial institution. In six months’ time, the graduates will have to stand up and say why they should be hired permanently to their desks. The impression they make on clients, the business they bring in and the opinion of their line mangers will all be taken into account. It’s up to each of them to make themselves indispensable…

The Liberator: Season 1

Based on the book The Liberator: One World War II Soldier’s 500-Day Odyssey by Alex Kershaw, this four-part series tells the true story of the bloodiest and most dramatic march to victory of the Second World War: the battlefield odyssey of maverick U.S. Army officer Felix Sparks and his infantry unit, as they fought for over 500 days to liberate Europe. Starring Bradley James, it boasts a jaw-droppingly unique animated format.

Duncanville: Season 1, Part 2

The animated sitcom co-created by Amy Poehler, Mike and Julie Scully (The Simpsons) returns to conclude its first season, following Duncan (Poehler), a spectacularly average fifteen-year old boy, and his immediate family. Duncan can see adulthood on the horizon: money, freedom, cars, girls… but the reality is more like: always being broke, driving with your mom sitting shotgun and babysitting your little sister. He’s not exceptional, but he has a wild imagination in which he’s never anything less than amazing.

The Crown: Season 4

Season 4 picks up in the late 1970s. Queen Elizabeth (Olivia Colman) and her family find themselves preoccupied with safeguarding the line of succession by securing an appropriate bride for Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor), who is still unmarried at 30. As the nation begins to feel the impact of divisive policies introduced by Britain’s first female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (Gillian Anderson), tensions arise between her and the Queen which only grow worse as Thatcher leads the country into the Falklands War, generating conflict within the Commonwealth. While Charles’ romance with a young Lady Diana Spencer (Emma Corrin) provides a much-needed fairytale to unite the British people, behind closed doors, the Royal family is becoming increasingly divided.

Small Axe

Steve McQueen’s collection of films, set from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s, tells several stories involving London’s West Indian community, whose lives have been shaped by their own force of will, despite rampant racism and discrimination. Small Axe is a celebration of Black joy, beauty, love, friendship, family, music and even food; each one, in its own unique way, conveys hard-won successes, bringing hope and optimism for 2020. It kicks off with Mangrove, starring Letitia Wright, which follows nine men and women wrongly arrested and charged with incitement to riot – and the highly publicised trial that ensues. “Steve McQueen’s retelling of the Mangrove 9 case is vital, urgent and passionate cinema,” we wrote in our review.

The Good Lord Bird

Ethan Hawke, Daveed Diggs and Joshua Caleb Johnson star in a humorous, dramatic and historical tapestry of Antebellum America based on the award-winning novel by author James McBride. Told from the point of view of Onion, a newly freed teenager who joins abolitionist John Brown on a holy crusade to end slavery and finds himself part of the famous 1859 raid at Harpers Ferry. An adventure equal parts absurd and tragic, this limited event series spotlights the ever-changing racial, religious and gender roles that make up the American identity.

The Magicians: Season 5

Last season, magic was saved, but at a terrible cost. Now, the show’s ensemble must to learn to navigate a world without one of their number in the final season of the fantasy drama.

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