David Farnor | On 03, Oct 2019

Netflix. Amazon Prime Video. BBC iPlayer. NOW. Walter Presents. 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.

October see the nights getting darker, but there are plenty of shows to keep you busy with the lights on indoors, from the return of The Walking Dead to the debut of Watchmen, BBC One’s Giri/Haji and RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.

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

The Magicians: Season 4

The entertainingly warped fantastical drama goes straight to Amazon Prime for its fourth season, as we continue to follow the students of Brakebills in the series based on Lev Grossman’s novels.

Carmen Sandiego: Season 2 – 1st October

The stakes are higher than ever for Carmen Sandiego as V.I.L.E. unleashes a host of dastardly new villains while A.C.M.E. closes in.

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK

The TV phenomenon arrives on UK shores with 10 queens from across the country competing to impress RuPaul, Michelle Visage, Graham Norton and Alan Carr, and guest judges Maisie Williams, Geri Horner, Jade Thirlwall, Michaela Coel, Andrew Garfield, Cheryl and Twiggy. New episodes arrive weekly at 8pm on Thursdays.

Catherine the Great: Season 1

Starring multi-award-winning Dame Helen Mirren, this new Sky original focuses on Russia’s longest ruling female empress in the turbulent final years of her life. The most powerful female monarch in history, Catherine is famed across the world for her scandalous affairs and sexually liberal attitudes.

Goliath: Season 3

Billy Bob Thornton returns as washed-up lawyer Billy McBride for a third season of Amazon’s legal drama. This season, the unexpected death of an old friend leads Billy to take a case in the drought-stricken Central Valley where he comes face-to-face with a new Goliath: a billionaire rancher (Dennis Quaid) and his sister (Amy Brenneman). As Billy and his team pursue the truth, old enemies and personal demons resurface, forcing him to confront his own mortality.

Raising Dion: Season 1 – 4th October

A young boy struggling to control his newfound powers. A single mom fighting the odds to keep her son safe. Secrets, conspiracies, mysteries, all dangerously swarming around one family…

Big Mouth: Season 3

It’s time to get your PhD in Puberty.

Swamp Thing – 4th October

Swamp Thing follows Abby Arcane as she investigates what seems to be a deadly swamp-born virus in a small town in Louisiana but soon discovers that the swamp holds mystical and terrifying secrets. When unexplainable and chilling horrors emerge from the murky marsh, no one is safe.

Mr Robot: Season 4 – 7th October

The fourth and final season of Mr. Robot will take place over the 2015 Christmas holiday and will be filled with hacking, splashed with blood and answer the series’ most pressing questions.

The Walking Dead: Season 10 – 7th October

Season 10 of AMC’s long-running zombie hit continues to chart a world without Rick, as the threat of The Whisperers grows.

Rhythm + Flow: Season 1 – 9th October

Cardi B, Chance the Rapper, and Tip “T.I.” Harris are searching for hip-hop’s best, undiscovered talent from Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. Who will scrap their way to the top for a shot at the shine? Episodes 1 to 4 of Netflix’s new competition series land all at once, with the remaining episodes released in two batches of three episodes on Wednesdays.

Riverdale: Season 4 – 10th October

Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge and Jughead return for a fourth season, which is set to kick off with an emotional episode dedicated to the late Luke Perry, who played Archie’s dad, Fred. The cast have hinted that the series will be returning to its roots by focusing on its central quartet’s relationships, but that doesn’t answer the question left by Season 3’s cliffhanger…

Dublin Murders

This dark psychological crime thriller centres on a murder investigation led by ambitious and charismatic Detectives Rob Reilly and Cassie Maddox. When a young talented ballerina who is found dead on an ancient stone altar her death drags up another tragedy that befell this community years before, when three children disappeared into the local woods and only one returned. Starring Killian Scott (Strike) and Sarah Greene (Penny Dreadful), the series is based on Tana French’s internationally bestselling novels, blending the first two into an eight-part run – all adapted by Sarah “And Then There Were None” Phelps.

Giri/Haji

This stylish, new globe-trotting thriller from BAFTA nominee Joe Barton (Humans) follows a detective from Tokyo who scours London for his missing brother, who’s been involved with the Yakuza and accused of murder. Takehiro Hira (Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai), BAFTA and Emmy award winner Kelly Macdonald (Boardwalk Empire, Puzzle), Japanese Academy award winner Yosuke Kubosuka (Go, Silence), BAFTA nominated Will Sharpe (Flowers), Japanese Academy Award winner Masahiro Motoki (Departures), Justin Long (New Girl) and Charlie Creed-Miles (Ripper Street), the result is unlike anything you’ve seen on UK TV.

Living with Yourself: Season 1

Miles Elliott, a man struggling in life, undergoes a novel spa treatment that promises to make him a better person, only to learn he’s been replaced – literally – by a better version of himself. Paul Rudd stars. With Paul Rudd.

Modern Love – 18th October

Inspired by the popular New York Times column of the same name, the series is created by Once and Sing Street veteran John Carney, who writers, directs and executive produced, while Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe, Divorce), Tom Hall (Sensation) and Emmy Rossum (Shameless) all direct episodes.

Looking for Alaska

Charlie Plummer (Lean on Pete) stars in Hulu’s eight-part drama as teenager Miles ‘Pudge’ Halter, who enrols in boarding school, escaping his safe and uneventful world in an attempt to gain a deeper perspective on life. He falls in love with Alaska Young (Kristine Froseth) and finds a group of loyal friends, but after an unexpected tragedy, they must attempt to make sense of what they have been through. Based on John Green’s award-winning coming-of-age novel of the same name.

Watchmen: Season 1 – 21st October

Created by Damon Lindelof, this modern-day reimagining of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ groundbreaking graphic novel about masked vigilantes introduces us to a world where the events of the original text have happened, where Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons) has grown old, and where Rorschach has inspired a movement of resistance.

Dave Gorman: Terms and Conditions

Stand-up comedian Dave Gorman returns to Dave with a brand-new show. Once again Dave will be bringing his trusty screen along but now, in each episode, he will also be joined by three comedy guests as they cast their eye over his latest modern world discoveries, compete in mischievous games and generally try to unscramble the baffling morass of non-stop information that surrounds us in the internet age.

Warrior Women with Lupita Nyong’o

In an epic and revealing journey, Lupita Nyong’o will go in search of a remarkable but little known female army. Warrior Women with Lupita Nyong’o (working title) will see her travel across Benin, West Africa to uncover the remarkable ‘Agoji’ – or as Europeans labelled them, the ‘Amazons’. These were warrior women, in armies up to 4,000 strong, who fought African and European powers alike from the 17th to the 19th centuries in the Kingdom of Dahomey (modern day Benin). She discovers that an army of African female fighters wasn’t mere Marvel fantasy but actually existed.

Daybreak: Season 1

The world is over. So grab your swords and flamethrowers and let’s get this show on the road. Netflix’s new dark comedy is high school, Mad Max-style.

Pennyworth: Season 1 – 25th October

From Warner Horizon Scripted Television, the DC origin series follows Alfred Pennyworth (Jack Bannon – The Imitation Game), a former British SAS soldier in his 20s, who forms a security company in 1960s London and goes to work with young billionaire Thomas Wayne (Ben Aldridge – Our Girl), who’s not yet become Bruce Wayne’s father.

The Accident

Jack Thorne completes his trilogy of timely dramas for Channel 4 (after National Treasure and Kiri). The four-part series is set in the fictional town of Glyngolau and explores a forgotten community devastated by disaster. An explosion on the construction site of a much-needed and sought-after regeneration project in this “left-behind” town claims the lives of many children who have broken into the building site to make mischief. As grief gives way to anger the community finds itself forced to confront difficult truths amid the search for justice. Sarah Lancashire leads an impressive cast that includes Mark Lewis Jones, Sidse Babett Knudsen and Joanna Scanlan.

Pose: Season 2

Ryan Murphy’s groundbreaking US series about the underground world of 1980s ball culture, set at the height of the AIDS epidemic, returns for a much-anticipated, fabulous second season. Sensing that the ballroom scene is on the verge of breaking into the mainstream, Blanca encourages her House Of Evangelista children to follow their dreams. Angel pursues her ambition of becoming a fashion model. Meanwhile, Pray Tell joins an activist organisation fighting for the rights of HIV positive people. Making television history, Pose features the largest cast of transgender actors in series regular roles, as well as the largest recurring cast of LGBTQ actors ever for a scripted series. With all of them excellent and the whole of Season 2 landing on BBC iPlayer after its BBC Two premiere – and the Season 1 box set still available – don’t sleep on one of the best shows of the year.

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