Rivals to The Diplomat: 11 of the best TV shows to watch this October

From the DAB adaptation of lusty Jilly Cooper’s tale to superhero comedy about moviemaking and back to the second season of the riveting look at dysfunctional politics.

1. Joan 

Currently, Sophie Turner, still most famous for playing Sansa Stark in the cable serial Game of Thrones, plays the real-life ”90s jewel theft suspect Joel Hannington in a series based on Hannington’s book I Am What I Am. As a single mother just out of a bad marriage, Hannington turned to a life of crime, starting out with what became a signature move: swallowing diamonds. Ouch, but also lucrative. It is filled with 80s look into colour and fashion where Joan borrows different appearances to sneak in and out of jewellery stores, and becomes involved with muggers in London. Some actual people’s names have been altered but since becoming a writer, anna symon was awarded the cooperation of the real Hannington for Mrs Wilson and The Essex Serpent.

Joan debuts on the 29th of September on ITV and ITVX in the United States and on The CW on the 2nd of October. 

2. The Franchise

Not so long ago, Armando Iannucci, the author of new-fangled satires, such as ‘Veep’ and ‘The Thick of It,’ laughed. F185 Sam Mendes who has directed the likes of 1917 and Skyfall is not. But together (as well as with the writer Jon Brown) they created this comedy about the complete misadventures of a movie production of a superhero, where John’s long-time colleague, the director, captured the first episode on the set. The director is played by Daniel Brühl, who everyone will remember as the pretentious art house director taking his latest genre exercise Tecto for a layman audience about a fellow who can make earthquakes happen. The main focus though, is the screen assistant director, Himesh Patel, who gets to run around like a headless chicken for the movie. Richard E Grant is also cameo as a theatre actor who looks down on the film while dressed in the most tacky outfit you can ever imagine – a purple and gold tunic and cape. In the UK, it’s impossible to turn around without running into an actor who over the last 18 months has been confined to a small green room pretending to grapple with space aliens and making a good deal of money while going outright stir crazy,” Iannucci told The Hollywood Reporter.

The Franchise debuts October 6th on HBO and Max in the US and October 21st on Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK

3. La Máquina

Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna married very close friends back when they were children in Mexico, and they started over 23 years ago in Y Tu Mamá También, and have been often quite much collaborators in production for quite a while. Both are together again on the screen in this tale of a former champ and now out of work boxer Esteban Osuna (García Bernal) popularly called La Máquina translated literally as The Machine. Luna, in heavy prosthetics, portrays his former best friend and manager, Andy Lujan, a man who has so embezzled himself full of Botox he looks like he has bee zapped by the stuff from head to toe. Andy is committed to getting a proper fight before Esteban but the world of crime may have a thing or two to say about it. This is Hulu’s first Spanish language series and anyone that caught García Bernal and Luna presenting in Spanish at the recent Emmy’s will understand the importance of the language to them. ‘’Spanish is our homeland’’, García Bernal said to Vanity Fair Magazine.

La Máquina debuts on Hulu in the US and Disney Plus in the UK starting 9 October

4. Sweetpea

Ella Purnell has been adrift in the woods after a plane crash in Yellowjackets, surviving a nuclear winter in Fallout, but now she grabs destiny by the balls as the eponymous hero in this black comedy. Purnell is Rhiannon and she is a wallflower who was bullied in school and now as she works in the office she has never seen as a powerful woman but as just a little mouse. Turning to maniac Carrie like manner she bursts into serial killer. It is adapted from a collection of novels written by CJ Skuse. The tagline on the cover of the first book sets the tone and says it all: “No one has called me Sweetpea the last before I ended up dead.”

Sweetpea will air starting 10 October on Starz in the US and Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK.

5. Disclaimer  

Top-tier series that suffered from poring on the great Alfonso Cuarón’s (Children of Men, Roma) better judgment as the writer and director of all seven episodes of this high-profile drama starring Cate Blanchett as a woman whose past, entangled in secrets, might be compromised. Catherine Ravenscroft is a seasoned female journalist and her onscreen counterpart, Kevin Kline, is Stephen Brigstocke, who is her neighbour. His wife, Nancy (Lesley Manville), has died recently leaving behind a seemingly fictional book that seems to paint a rather unflattering albeit pseudonymous Catherine. Like in any TV series where they keep reversing in order to replay the scenes that have happened before, the show brings into focus the topical questions of the truth and the reality. Will Stephen print the book and ruin the life of Catherine? In how much measure is there reality contained in the fables? Catherine is played by Elizabeth Debicki, her husband – Sacha Baron Cohen, and their son with emotional issues – Kodi Smit-McPhee In this series, Adaption of Renée Knight’s bestseller of the same name is presented. As would be expected, Cuarón will be back delivering outstanding visuals, the cinematographer again being Emmanuel Lubezki, with whom the director has worked before in ‘Gravity’; joining is Bruno Delbonnel, with his work in ‘Amelie’.

Disclaimer starts streaming internationally on Apple TV+ 11 October

6. Shrinking

Harrison Ford may be understated this show, but he can still provide some of the best line readings as well as comedic smirks on television in this returning dramedy one of the best of 2023 that follows up with where the last season left off. The scene-stealing Ford stars as Paul, a therapist in training with Jimmy (Jason Segel) who once used a technique on a patient (Heidi Gardner) that made her shove her husband off a cliff — which is why Paul has to visit her in prison. Locally, Paul copes with Parkinson’s disease as well as relationship with Julie played by Wendie Malick; Jimmy’s misadventures to which Paul tries to save him from wrong decisions. Jessica Williams reprises her role as Jimmy’s late wife’s best friend he has been cheating on her with while Luke Tennie featured as Sean, a patient with PTSD who lives with him. Brett Goldstein, Ted Lasso, who created the show together with Ted Lasso co-creator Bill Lawrence and Segel appears on the screen this season as a character who unsets Jimmy.

Shrinking debuts on October 16th on Apple TV+ worldwide

7. Rivals  

It was only last year that Jilly Cooper, one of Britain’s most renowned purveyors of popular pulp fiction, was churning out her novel, Tackle! at 86. Rivals is based on her 1988 book and the second in the well-named Rutshire Chronicles series and is all her special blend of sex, money and intrigue — more Dallas and Dynasty soap opera. David Tennant of Doctor Who fame gets to play the part of Lord Tony Baddingham, the director of Corinium television and Alex Hassell who features in the first season of The Boys gets to portray his neighbor and competitor, the womanizing Tory politician Rupert Campbell-Black. Aidan Turner from TV presenters Episode named as Declan O’Hara who regrets selling his soul to Corinium and Danny Dyer from EastEnders as Freddie Jones, the self-made millionaire who feels out of his depth among peers. It goes with champagne and popping corks in the trailer and Turner with a moustache like of the 70s or 80s then. One time, when talking to the producers about the raunchiness of the program, Turner quipped: “We have so much sex on our show, we have to have two intimacy coaches.” "Two!"

The prominent competitive series premieres on 18 October on Hulu in the United States and on Disney+ in Great Britain.

8. The Office

Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant came up with what looks like a perfect formula in 2001 with the original British series of The Office. A dozen variations from other countries have since been produced and at least nine of the American version but until now, the female boss. This Australian instalment takes care of that, with comedian Felicity Ward as Hannah Howard, the managing director of packaging company Flinley Craddick. Each work has its corresponding main character. That air-headed, fawning flunky Gareth (UK)/ Dwight (US) is a woman here, and Hannah applauds herself for being so supportive of her lady workers, in the most disgusting Brent-est way possible: “My back hurts from carrying all my sisters, all the time, Oww”. There is an Australian Tim-and-Dawn (UK)/ Pam-and-Jim (US). And the mockumentary idea stays, the real-life looking character tell the audience, ‘This is a correct one for the Human Resources, no?’ It always is.

The Office makes its debut on October 18th on Amazon Prime across the world except US.

9. Hysteria!

This is a Halloween-timed satire I think of this being set in the late 1980’s when parents finally came to believe the devil was using their Goth children as vessels when they dressed up in black. Modern Family’s Julie Bowen and Pitch Perfect’s Anna Camp lead the game cast as inhabitants of the quaint Happy Hollow, or as some high school students in a struggling garage band, seeking to seize the Satan craze opportunity. They introduce themselves as a heavy metal group whose name in unison resembles a breakfast cereal brand, Deth Krunch, and very soon they become the prime suspects for all the crimes you can imagine around the town including murders. Bruce Campbell of the Evil Dead movies is also in the cast and that clue is enough to suggest that there is going to be some evil going round. Is Satan existing or is Bowen paranoid when she sees his face in the glass of her microwave only to have the tomato sauce inside boil?

Hysteria! is coming to Peacock on October 18th.

10. Before

We know that Billy Crystal can do a comedy with playing a therapist. He was the resident doctor who eased the tension of a mobster played by Robert De Niro in the movies Analyse This in 1999 and Analyse That 2002. But this is different, he is serious in a psychological thriller with a twist of supernatural. Crystal stars in Eli Adler, a child psychologist whose wife (Judith Light, portrayed in file footage as a character, though this distinguishes her as being a real person and not an invention of the film) has recently committed suicide. One of his patients is Noah, a boy who had a very strange link with Eli’s past along with being played by Jacobi Jupe. Rosie Perez is also in the cast. Apple TV+ isn’t revealing much more than that, which is potentially the point — maybe Crystal’s name alone is enough to get some people interested. The show was developed by Sarah Thorp who also authored the feature film Bounty Hunter that starred Butler and Aniston. Forrest Gump screenwriter, Eric Roth, also a winner of an Academy award is one of the writers and executive producers.

Before premieres 25 October on Apple TV+ internationally

11. The Diplomat

Keri Russell reprises her role as Kate Wyler, the US Ambassador to the UK, in a show that was concluded with an explosion and a bang. Was it the car bomb and did it kill her husband Hal (Rufus Sewell) with whom she was about to file for a divorce anyway? Netflix itself has given up this spoiler: Hal lives, and Sewell is back along with David Gyasi as the UK Foreign Secretary, whose clearly conveyed suppressed attraction to Kate is off the charts tantalizing. The US Vice President guest stars Allison Janney arrives in London fearing Kate is out for her position. On an overture to the fact that Kate never did want to be an Ambassador for Canada it must be said that at no one point in the movie does this entitlement come across loud and clear. This is always an absorbing series that still focuses on the off-stage machinations regarding the US / UK ‘special relationship,’ politics comedic/ dramatic all appearing at the right pitch. Durng her battle with her tumultuous marriage, Kate comes into discovering that UK Prime Minister himself has ordered an attack on a British aircraft carrier.  

The Diplomat comes to Netflix worldwide on the 31st of October.