Fall is here, which means two things: pumpkin spice is covering everything and there’s a cornucopia of movies and TV shows to consume. The next few months have it all – blockbuster spectacles, awards-season heavy hitters, and a buffet of binge-worthy series engineered to make you say “just one more” until it’s suddenly 3 a.m. Oh, and Stranger Things is finally coming back to test just how much nostalgia Netflix can squeeze out of Hawkins before the portal slams shut. This season, it’s less about “what to watch” than “what not to miss before it gets spoiled on social media.
To help sort through the overabundance of choices, we’ve rounded up the shows and films with release dates worth marking on your calendar.
TV Releases
Chad Powers
Release Date: Sept. 30
Why Watch: Adapted from an Eli Manning-starring sketch done for ESPN in 2022, this show about a disgraced college QB-1 pulling a “Mrs. Doubtfire” to sneak back onto the field seems like a fun sidetrack from star Glen Powell’s cinematic charm offensive. It’s also another chance for him to get goofy with disguises, ala last year’s Hit Man. Will this have the heart and ensemble to be the next Ted Lasso, a show that shares a similar lineage and taste for redemptive character arcs? — Jason Tabrys
Monster: The Ed Gein Story
Release Date: 0ct. 3
Why Watch: Creators Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan have a sort of twisted obsession with digging up the graves of history’s most notorious real-life villains. If their glossy, gore-splattered biographies of killers like Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez Brothers didn’t prove it, the latest installment in Netflix’s Monster anthology series should. It sees Charlie Hunnam transform himself into soft-spoken body-snatcher Ed Gein via one drooping eyelid and an oversized Oedipal complex. Gein earned the nickname “The Butcher of Plainfield” thanks to his inventive mutilation of victims – both living and buried six feet under. The show also touts him as the “blueprint for modern horror” as his exploits inspired everything from The Silence of the Lambs to Psycho. The real question here isn’t, “Will this show be any good?” but rather, “Will Murphy ever give audiences a serial killer who isn’t a bona fide thirst trap?” — Jessica Toomer
Nobody Wants This: Season 2
Release Date: Oct. 23
Why Watch: Rom-coms can fizzle when they stray too far from the thrill of the courtship, but S2 of this Emmy-nominated out-of-nowhere charmer is going to test that theory, following Adam Brody and Kristen Bell’s characters as their relationship hits the next level. As with S1, there will be plenty of opportunities for awkwardness, meddling family members, culture clashes, and adorableness. Here’s hoping there’s more screen time for former Veep and Succession standouts Tim Simons and Justine Lupe, and their mismatched alliance. — Jason Tabrys
IT: Welcome To Derry
Release Date: Oct. 26
Why Watch: The Stephen King bookshelf is often fertile ground for exploration and re-exploration, but it’s not limitless, with results typically tied closely to the individuals wielding the torch. Mike Flanagan and Frank Darabont? Masters at synthesizing King. Can Andy Muschietti (and producers Jason Fuchs and Brad Kane) stretch the IT story past the first two films that he directed and help create something with enough depth and intrigue to keep us coming back for more week after week? Or is Welcome To Derry just going to be an IP curiosity that flames out quickly? Thankfully, Bill Skarsgaard is back to mess with a new cast of kids… and adult viewers who have completely understandable phobias when it comes to creepy clowns. — Jason Tabrys
I Love L.A.
Release Date: Nov. 2
Why Watch: If there’s one thing Rachel Sennott knows, it’s how to mine chaos for comedy. In I Love L.A., which she created, co-wrote, and stars in, Sennott plays Maya, an aspiring talent manager stumbling through a quarter-life crisis the astrology girlies might dub her “Saturn return.” While she’s getting pummeled by the universe, she’s also orbiting a constellation of toxic friends – people just as messy, directionless, and dopamine-starved as herself. Sennott’s fresh off a string of successful indie films – Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, Bottoms, and Shiva Baby – but this show marks her first creative endeavor solo, so expect it to be painfully raw and compulsively watchable. — Jessica Toomer
Pluribus
Release Date: Nov. 7
Why Watch: Little is known about this partial Better Call Saul team reunion between creator Vince Gilligan and series star Rhea Seahorn, but sometimes the names on the title card should be enough. Add to that the concise yet tantalizing show description that promises a story about “the most miserable person on Earth” as she tries to “save the world from happiness” and the promise of Gilligan, who cut his teeth as a writer/producer for The X-Files, returning to the sci-fi genre and Pluribus is one of the most anticipated shows of the season. — Jason Tabrys
Stranger Things: Season 5
Release Date: Nov. 26
Why Watch: Stranger Things is one of the most important shows of this century, but like another series on that list (Lost), it feels like we’ve been waiting for it to close its twisty story for almost as long as it’s been on the air. Does sticking the landing hold ultimate sway over how we remember a show’s complete journey? When’s the last time you thought about Lost or Game Of Thrones without getting a sour taste over their finales? Here’s another one: when’s the last time you thought about Stranger Things without being annoyed by the long gaps in between seasons? They’d better nail this. — Jason Tabrys
Fallout: Season 2
Release Date: Dec. 17
Why Watch: When Prime Video’s irreverent post-apocalyptic adventure returns later this year, its “heroes” will be trading the desert-dusted Wasteland for the neon-soaked ruins of New Vegas. (Warning: any glowing lights are likely radioactive.) The setting change introduces a handful of new villains, from warring factions like Caesar’s Legion and a group of Elvis impersonators known as The Kings, to Justin Theroux’s scheming overlord Robert House – who maybe, probably sparked the end of the world all those years ago. Ella Purnell and Walton Goggins will be back as the mismatched pair hunting down answers to the mysteries that still plague them as they blast their way through the Mojave with those Brotherhood fanatics hot on their trail. This show is one f*cking ride. Jump on now. — Jessica Toomer
Movie Releases
One Battle After Another
Release Date: Sept. 26
What Watch: Leave it to Paul Thomas Anderson to turn Thomas Pynchon’s postmodern literary headache into a political thriller that feels like a chaotic mixtape of revolution war cries, daddy issues, and kung-fu nuns – all set to the squealing tires of one of the most climactic car chases in cinematic history. One Battle After Another follows Leonardo DiCaprio’s Bob, a washed-up radical trying to hide out with his daughter until his crippling paranoia is justified and his past does catch up with them. Add in Sean Penn as a military bulldog named Colonel Lockjaw, Benicio del Toro as a cool and collected dojo owner, and Teyana Taylor stealing scenes by firing off a machine gun while heavily pregnant, and you’ve got the year’s unlikeliest future Oscar-winner. — Jessica Toomer
The Smashing Machine
Release Date: Oct. 3
Why Watch: The hype for this Benny Safdie-led biopic has been massive owing to the shock value of seeing Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson commit to a multi-layered role as Mark Kerr, a real-life successful MMA fighter struggling to navigate his personal life, ambitions, and the physical and emotional toll of his job. We’re eager to see if Johnson is as advertised and at the dawn of a new era as a serious actor, while also wondering if The Smashing Machine finds a way to feel fresh within a genre usually hobbled by its tropes. — Jason Tabrys
Frankenstein
Release Date: Oct. 17
Why Watch: Leave it to Guillermo del Toro to take the most famous monster in literature and make him… hot? Hot but sad? Devastatingly poetic? Really, it’s a combination of all three because del Toro is the kind of creative genius who can find beauty in the most abhorrent. He prefers his Gothic horror lush and atmospheric and possibly capable of inspiring a new TikTok aesthetic. His Frankensteinian experiment for Netflix pairs Jacob Elordi’s lanky, mournful Creature with Oscar Isaac’s tormented Victor Frankenstein, staging their doomed creator-creation dynamic like a toxic situationship with grave consequences. The film swaps lightning bolts and stitched-up clichés for grand sets, practical effects, and del Toro’s trademark cocktail of bittersweet romance and dread while also giving scream queen Mia Goth plenty to sink her teeth into. — Jessica Toomer
Good Fortune
Release Date: Oct. 17
Why Watch: The space for theatrical comedies with big budgets and big ideas behind them has shrunk drastically over the last 15 years, so it’ll be incredibly interesting to see how successful this heavenly life-swap comedy performs with audiences. Writer/Director Aziz Ansari is certainly bringing the star power, casting himself as a struggling victim of the hustle economy who gets to take over the life of a super-rich guy (Seth Rogen) thanks to a meddlesome angel (Keanu Reeves). — Jason Tabrys
Bugonia
Release Date: Oct. 24
Why Watch: If you thought Poor Things was Yorgos Lanthimos at his freakiest, well, then, you haven’t seen Dogtooth. Or this film, which puts poor Emma Stone through the ringer for our own twisted enjoyment. The director’s cinematic muse (along with fellow regular Lanthimos collaborator Jesse Plemmons and newcomer Aidan Delbis) occupy this three-way standoff that feels like a Reddit conspiracy thread made flesh. Plemmons and Delbis play two basement philosophers convinced Stone’s icy CEO is not just a capitalist overlord but an actual alien sent to annihilate humanity. But who’s delusional and who’s just the better liar? — Jessica Toomer
Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
Release Date: Oct. 24
Why Watch: For the last 50+ years, Bruce Springsteen has been one of the most ubiquitous figures in music and culture. Will audiences buy The Bear star Jeremy Allen White as a young Springsteen without harshly judging his fidelity to their perception of what “The Boss” sounds and looks like? Is there enough willingness to expand on the idea of who Springsteen is with this story of personal excavation during the recording of Nebraska early in his career? We’re excited to find out. — Jason Tabrys
A House of Dynamite
Release Date: Oct. 24
Why Watch: Kathryn Bigelow’s films are often preoccupied with the unthinkable – terrorist manhunts and bomb technicians with an appetite for risk – but she cranks up the disaster scenario meter for her latest Netflix thriller, which first premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival. A patchwork series of multiple POVs, the film covers a tense 20-minute span following the launch of a nuclear weapon that may be heading for the American Midwest. It’s the job of Rebecca Ferguson, Idris Elba, Anthony Ramos, Greta Lee, and Jared Harris to stop it while drawing lines between personal loyalties and more global pressures. It’s Bigelow at her most meticulous, layering human frailty with sharp performances and whiplash-inducing editing that never lets the audience breathe. — Jessica Toomer
Sentimental Value
Release Date: Nov. 7
Why Watch: It’s a great time for international cinema, with audiences primed for several global breakouts each year. Zone Of Interest and Anatomy Of A Fall can find acclaim in the same year. So can Flow, I’m Still Here, and, ahem, Emilia Perez (ducks). This year has at least a handful of buzzy international titles, and Joachim Trier’s follow-up to The Worst Person In The World might be leading the pack. Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve are both getting plenty of award buzz, and Trier’s last movie primed young cinephiles to anticipate his next move. — Philip Cosores
The Running Man
Release Date: Nov. 14
Why Watch: Another project with roots as a Stephen King novel, The Running Man is probably better known for its original theatrical adaptation as a somewhat cheesy ‘80s action film, glimpsing into a dystopic future where people’s favorite TV show has them watching convicts run a violent gauntlet toward freedom. In the latest version, we’re getting another dose of Glen Powell goodness as he takes over for Arnold Schwarzenegger in a more grounded but still high-octane future that feels less theoretical. Co-written and directed by Scott Pilgrim and Baby Driver filmmaker Edgar Wright and co-starring Katy M. O’Brian, Lee Pace, Josh Brolin, and Colman Domingo, The Running Man has a lot of potential to stand out on its own as an absolute blast. — Jason Tabrys
Wicked: For Good
Release Date: Nov. 21
Why Watch: The first Wicked soared because it made Oz feel fresh again — turning a glittery fairy tale into a story of friendship, ambition, and two women daring to rewrite the script they’d been handed. Wicked: For Good blows that up a bit, taking the magic and turning it dark via some pretty moody breakup ballads. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is now a fugitive, labeled the Wicked Witch of the West, while Glinda (Ariana Grande) inhabits the palace halls of Emerald City, perched on a throne that feels all too precarious. With uprisings, power grabs, fractured friendships, and the arrival of a certain ruby-slippered outsider comes the creeping sense that this is one yellow brick road that doesn’t have a happy ending. — Jessica Toomer
Train Dreams
Release Date: Nov. 21
Why Watch: Director Clint Bentley mines something extraordinary from the unremarkable life of his protagonist in Train Dreams. Billed as a turn-of-the-century introspective epic, the film follows Joel Edgerton’s Robert Granier, a railroad worker forging a path through the American West as he navigates the triumphant and troubled waystations of his life. There’s joy and tragedy, adventure and a bit of aimless wandering, reflections on tolerance and humanity’s interconnectivity. It’s gorgeous and quietly moving and likely too subtle to land with any blockbuster-sized audience but it deserves to be seen and appreciated anyway. — Jessica Toomer
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Release Date: Dec. 12
Why Watch: While Glass Onion has its defenders and functions best if received as a fun lark divorced from high expectations, the film didn’t come close to leaving the same lasting impact that the first Knives Out did. For his next installment, however, Writer/director Rian Johnson seems intent on leaning back into the vibes of the original with a gambit dripping in gothic creepiness and a strong cast surrounding Daniel Craig’s familiar and adored Benoit Blanc (Josh O’Connor, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, to name but a few). — Jason Tabrys
Hamnet
Release Date: Dec. 12
Why Watch: Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet skips the predictable period-drama pomp and dives straight into the messy business of grief, proving that even the world’s most renowned scribe couldn’t write his way out of loss. An adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, the film follows William and Agnes Shakespeare (Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley) as they navigate the devastating fallout of their young son’s untimely death. It’s already been blamed for more than a few emotional breakdowns after premiering at this year’s Telluride Film Festival, so maybe have your therapist on standby for after the credits roll. — Jessica Toomer
Avatar: Fire And Ash
Release Date: Dec. 19
Why Watch: They say Avatar has no cultural relevance. They say that Big Jim is wasting his life on Pandora. They say a lot to try to discredit the biggest and best new IP of this century. But to those people I have one response: If every few years, we get to spend three hours with Jake Sully, Neytiri, Kiri, Spider, Payakan, and all the rest of our blue (or, um, whale-like) friends, we should be thankful. Plus, these movies are consistently great, make billions of dollars, and win awards. What’s not to love? — Philip Cosores
The Housemaid
Release Date: Dec. 19
Why Watch: Sydney Sweeney scrubbing toilets. Amanda Seyfried popping pills and locking poor girls up in her attic. Hot gardeners. Cheating husbands. A kitchen Martha Stewart would kill for. The Housemaid – Paul Feig’s adaptation of Freida McFadden’s bestselling novel – is guilty-pleasure cinema done right. The trick to enjoying it, though? Going in blind. — Jessica Toomer
Marty Supreme
Release Date: Dec. 25
Why Watch: Another elevated sports movie from a Safdie brother, Marty Supreme comes from Josh Safdie and stars Timothée Chalamet as an ebullient tennis player in the 1950s chasing big dreams. Co-starring Tyler, The Creator, Odessa A’zion, and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow in her most substantial non-Marvel role in years, the film looks the part of an hours-long historical epic with a magnetic character study at its heart. In other words, be prepared for Marty Supreme to EAT when it comes to awards season. — Jason Tabrys
No Other Choice
Release Date: Dec. 25
Why Watch: Park Chan-Wook might not have the Oscars that his compatriot Bong Joon Ho has, but the sense from most film fans is that his time will come. From his vengeance masterpieces to his recent bangers The Handmaiden and Decision To Leave, Director Park has an incredible hit rate, and the buzz out of fall festivals is that his latest lives up to his own high standard. — Philip Cosores