David Farnor | On 02, Sep 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.

September may mean going back to school, but there are plenty of other returns to keep you distracted from homework, be it Top Boy or Disenchantment, and some new gems worth swotting up on, including Criminal, Marianne, The Politician and The Capture.

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

A Confession

Written by the ever-excellent Jeff Pope, this true crime drama tells the story of how Detective Superintendent Steve Fulcher, played by Martin Freeman (StartUp, The Hobbit, Sherlock, Fargo), deliberately breached police procedure and protocol to catch a killer, a decision that ultimately cost him his career and reputation. Set in Swindon, Wiltshire, A Confession details the disappearance of 22-year-old Sian O’Callaghan in March 2011. On a night out with girlfriends, Sian left a nightclub in Swindon Old Town to walk the 15 minutes home to boyfriend Kevin Reape, played by Charlie Cooper (This Country). Worried for her safety, Kevin reports Sian missing when she fails to come home in the early hours or respond to his increasingly frantic texts. The result is a gripping, sensitively written, quietly melancholic watch.

The Capture

In this ‘post-truth era’, can we really believe what we see? When Shaun Emery’s (Callum Turner) conviction for a murder in Afghanistan is overturned due to flawed video evidence, he returns to life as a free man with his young daughter. But when damning CCTV footage from a night out in London comes to light, Shaun’s life takes a shocking turn and he must soon fight for his freedom once again. Written and directed by BAFTA winner Ben Chanan, The Capture is an acutely timed thriller that looks at a troubling world of fake news and the extraordinary capabilities of the intelligence services.

Taskmaster: Season 9

Greg Davies will once again place himself in the Taskmaster throne for a glorious ninth reign over a bunch of hopeful contenders – accopmanied by Little Alex Horne, his ever-popular personal secretary. The five fresh and funny comics anxiously hoping that their attempts at task completion will gain favour are David Baddiel, Ed Gamble, Jo Brand, Katy Wix and Rose Matafeo. This quintet of creative contestants will face a vast array of simple yet complicated tasks that they must try to perform competently and without making themselves look foolish.

The Loudest Voice

Russell Crowe is almost unrecognisable in this seven-part miniseries following the rise and fall of Roger Ailes, the founding father of Fox News. A cast including Naomi Watts, Sienna Miller and Seth MacFarlane star alongside Crowe in a fascinating insight into how Ailes, with the weight of his media empire behind him, helped form the modern Republican party. All will be episodes available on-demand following Episode 1’s broadcast.

The Spy

Sacha Baron Cohen stars in this new series about Israel’s most prominent spy Eli Cohen, who in the beginning of the 60s operated undercover in Syria. His unprecedented infiltration into the top military and political echelons changed the face of the Middle East but came at a very high personal cost.

State of the Union

Rosamund Pike and Chris O’Dowd star in this delightful, bittersweet comedy from director Stephen Frears. Across 10 10-minute episodes, the comedy follows Louise and Tom (Pike and O’Dowd), who meet in a pub immediately before their weekly marital therapy session. With each successive episode, we piece together how their lives were, what drew them together and what has started to pull them apart. Hornby explores the complexities of marriage with his inimitable honesty and humour.

Terrace House: Tokyo 2019-2020

Japan’s answer to Love Island returns once more with another season that promises respectful resolutions of calm conflict and mature communication in the face of domestic tensions. A breath of reality TV fresh air.

The I-Land

Kate Bosworth stars in Netflix’s sci-fi thriller, which sees 10 people wake up on a treacherous island with no memory of who they are or how they got there. They set off on a trek to try to get back home and soon discover this world is not as it seems. Faced with the I-Land’s extreme psychological and physical challenges, they must rise to their better selves — or die as their worst ones.

Top Boy: Season 3

After being forced to flee his East London housing estate, a former kingpin returns home to take back his throne in this revived drama, previously aired on Channel 4, starring Ashley Walters and Kane Robinson.

Temple: Season 1

Mark Strong, Carice van Houten and Daniel Mays star in an emotionally complex and darkly comic Sky Original based on the critically-acclaimed Norwegian drama Valkyrien. Daniel Milton (Strong) is a surgeon who, driven by personal tragedy, operates an illegal clinic deep below London’s Temple tube station for those who either wish to remain outside the system, or for those desperate enough to seek treatment unavailable through conventional means. Aided by disgruntled underground worker Lee (Mays) and guilt-ridden medical researcher Anna (van Houten), Daniel’s dangerous and unpredictable clientele test his morality to the limit. But if it means he can save the person he loves, it will all be worth it.

Undone: Season 1

From acclaimed creators Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg (BoJack Horseman) comes Undone, a ground-breaking and genre bending animated series about a young woman’s complex journey to unlock her past and solve the mystery of her father’s death.

Marianne: Season 1

A famous horror writer is lured back to her hometown discovers that the evil spirit who plagues her dreams is now wreaking havoc in the real world, in Netflix’s scary new French horror.

American Horror Story: 1984

The hit anthology-horror series returns for another nail biting series. Having survived an Apocalypse, a Murder House and a witches Coven, it’s hard to guess what American Horror Story will do next, but this time around the ensemble cast is throwing it back to the classic 80s camp-style slasher genre.

Disenchantment: Part 2

Matt Groening’s likeable adult animated comedy fantasy takes us back to the crumbling medieval kingdom of Dreamland, where we follow the misadventures of hard-drinking young Princess Bean, her feisty elf companion, Elfo, and her personal demon, Luci.

Criminal: Season 1

Netflix’s groundbreaking procedural crime drama comprises 12 stories set in 4 different countries: France, Spain, Germany and the UK. It takes place exclusively within the confines of a police interview suite. This stripped down, cat-and-mouse drama focuses on the intense mental conflict between detectives and suspects. In the UK, the regular cast includes Katherine Kelly, Lee Ingleby, Nicholas Pinnock, Mark Stanley, Rochenda Sandall and Shubham Saraf, with guest stars for the episodes including David Tennant, Hayley Atwell, Youssef Kerkour, and Clare-Hope Ashitey.

The Circle: Season 2

Channel 4 is logging back into The Circle this year for a second season of the groundbreaking reality series. Taking Big Brother into the modern age, the series sees contestants living in a single building but never meeting, instead communicating through a social media platform – allowing each one to present a true or fictional version of themselves, or just someone else altogether. With Emma Willis stepping into the host shoes, Season 2 will add a new live show every Friday and a higher prize of £100,000. Episodes will air at 10pm on weeknights for three and a half weeks.

Mary Kills People: Season 2

This dark, provocative drama follows Dr. Mary Harris (Caroline Dhavernas), an overworked single mother and ER doctor, who lives a double life helping terminally ill patients with assisted deaths. So far Mary has managed to stay under the radar but her double life is getting complicated. When her world starts to unravel, Mary realizes she’s going to have to fight dirty if she’s going to stay in the killing game. Also starring in the series are Jay Ryan as Joel, one of Mary’s terminally ill clients, but a mutual attraction blurs the lines of their doctor-patient relationship; and Richard Short as Des, Mary’s trusted partner in crime.

New Amsterdam: Season 2

Inspired by the oldest public hospital in America, New Amsterdam is a unique medical drama that follows the brilliant and charming Dr. Max Goodwin (Ryan Eggold, BlackkKlansman), the institution’s newest medical director who sets out to tear up the bureaucracy and provide exceptional care. Dr. Goodwin must disrupt the status quo and prove he will stop at nothing to breathe new life into this understaffed, underfunded and underappreciated hospital and return it to the glory that put it on the map.

Glitch: Season 3

Back for a third season of spooky thrills, this Australian zombie drama follows a police officer in the small country town of Yoorana, who finds life turned upside down when six recently deceased residents return from the dead in perfect health.

Transparent: Musicale Finale

The Transparent ‘Musicale Finale’ takes the beloved series to new heights as a dazzling movie fantasia inspired by the classic musicals that shaped a culture. When the Pfeffermans face a life-changing loss, they begin a journey hilarious and melancholy, brazen and bold. As they face this new transition, they confront grief and come together to celebrate connection, joy, and transformation.

The Politician

Ryan Murphy’s first Netflix series follows Payton Hobart (Ben Platt), a wealthy student from Santa Barbara, California, who has known since age seven that he’s going to be the President of the United States. But first, he has to navigate the most treacherous political landscape of all: Saint Sebastian High School. To get elected Student Body President, secure a spot at Harvard, and stay on his singular path to success, Payton will have to outsmart his ruthless classmates without sacrificing his own morality and carefully crafted image. The dark satire boasts a cast that includes Gwyneth Paltrow, Jessica Lange, Zoey Deutch, Lucy Boynton and Bob Balaban.

The Good Place: Season 4

NBC’s fantasy series, about an ordinary woman (Kristen Bell) who is wrongly sent to a pleasant afterlife and must hide in plain sight from its architect (Ted Danson), returns for its fourth and final run. Expect heavenly things.

World on Fire: Season 1

Written by Peter Bowker (Eric and Ernie, Blackpool) and produced by Mammoth Screen, the epic seven-part series is a gripping retelling of the first year of WWII, told through the intertwining fates of ordinary people drawn from Britain, Poland, France, Germany and the United States. Bringing those stories to life is an impressive cast that includes Helen Hunt, Lesley Manville and Sean Bean.

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