Prime Video’s Peripheral, Netflix’s Derry Girls among October’s must see TV

October is overflowing with new viewing options.

Free-to-air highlights include Prime’s new four-part documentary series A Question of Justice (October 13), which investigates the legal issues our country needs to face up to, the Ant and Dec-hosted game show Limitless Win (October 12, TVNZ 1) and new seasons of Three’s trans-Tasman favourites, Love It or List It Australia (October 11), Lego Masters Australia (October 12) and Australian Ninja Warrior (October 16).

TVNZ+’s line-up includes dating competition FBoy Island NZ (October 12) and British gambling addiction drama Compulsion (October 4), while Neon boasts a second seasons of multiple Emmy-winning dramedy The White Lotus (October 31), sci-fi comedy Avenue 5 (October 12) and controversial documentary series The Vow (October 20), as well as the debut of Supernatural-prequel The Winchesters (October 14).

Amongst Netflix’s plethora of new content, there are the latest instalments of Somebody Feed Phil, Unsolved Mysteries (both October 18) and Love is Blind (October 19), a mini-series inspired by the devastating 2019 Notre-Dame fire (October 19’s Notre-Dame) and the return of the much-maligned noughties reality hit The Mole (October 7).

However, after looking through the schedules, Stuff to Watch has come up with the list of the dozen shows we’re most excited to check out over the next few weeks.

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Derry Girls (October 7, Netflix)

After a seemingly interminable three-year wait (and six months after its debut in the UK), the third and final season of this beloved 1990s Northern Ireland-set sitcom finally makes its bow here.

Expect Erin (Saoire-Monica Jackson), Orla (Louisa Harland), Clare (Nicola Coughlan), Michelle (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell) and James (Dylan Llewellyn) to get up to plenty more misadventures as the navigate life in and out of their Catholic girls’ school. Look out for cameos from Liam Neeson and Chelsea Clinton during the seven-episode run.

“The show is a masterclass in hitting the sweet spot between decades-honed sitcom tradition and refreshing nowness,” wrote The Guardian’s Rachel Aroseti. “Its nostalgia is bright and cosy like a jazzy 90s jumper; its portrayal of young women as morally ambivalent and intrinsically comic human beings a cathartic, satisfying relief.”

The Devil’s Hour (October 28, Prime Video)

Jessica Raine, Peter Capaldi and Nikesh Patel team up for this six-part British thriller about a woman who is woken by terrifying visions at the same minute (3.33am) every night.

Struggling with an eight-year-old son who is withdrawn and emotionless and a mother who speaks to empty chairs, Lucy (Raine) then finds herself inexplicable connected to a string of brutal murders in the area.

A Friend of the Family (October 6, TVNZ+)

New Zealand’s own Anna Paquin returns to TV with this 1960s-set nine-part true-crime drama which tells the harrowing story of the Broberg family, whose daughter Jan was kidnapped multiple times over a period of years by a charismatic, obsessed family friend.

From the creator of Melanie Lynskey-starrer Candy and Netflix’s Brand New Cherry Flavour, this series also features Colin Hanks, Jake Lacy and Mckenna Grace.

Gangs of London (October 20, Neon)

Two years after Gareth Evans action-crime drama took the world by storm, the sometimes violent and lurid show is back for a second, eight-part season.

It’s now a year since the collapse of the Wallace and Dumani empire, new gangs are flooding into the city and power and fortune are up for grabs. There will be traitors, uneasy alliances, revenge and sacrifices as the battle for the capital’s soul unfurls. Episodes will also screen on Sundays on SoHo from October 23.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities (October 25, Netflix)

Bizarre nightmares unfold in eight tales of terror in what has been billed as a visually stunning, spine-tingling horror collection curated by the Mexican director of movies like The Shape of Water, Crimson Peak, Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devil’s Backbone.

Other helmers involved include The Babadook’s Jennifer Kent, Twilight’s Catherine Hardwicke, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night’s Ana Lily Armipour and Cube’s Vincenzo Natali, while the impressive acting line-up runs the gamut from Essie Davis, Andrew Lincoln and F. Murray Abraham to Crispin Glover, Peter Weller, Charlyne Yi and Rupert Grint.

High School (October 28, Prime Video)

Based on Canadian musicians and siblings Tegan and Sara Quin’s best-selling 2019 memoir, this eight-part comedy is billed as a story about finding your own identity – a journey made even more complicated when you have a twin whose own struggle and self-discovery so closely mimics your own.

Told through a backdrop of ‘90s grunge and rave culture, the series weaves between parallel and discordant memories of sisters growing up down the hall from one another. Directed by Happiest Season’s Clea DuVall.

Let the Right One In (October 10, Neon)

Inspired by the original hit 2004 Swedish novel and subsequent 2008 film, this 10-part horror series centres on Mark (Demián Bichir) and his daughter Eleanor (Madison Taylor Baez), whose lives were changed 10 years earlier when she was turned into a vampire.

Locked in at age 12, perhaps forever, Eleanor lives a closed-in life, able to go out only at night, while her father does his best to provide her with the human blood she needs to stay alive.

The cast also includes Nick Stahl, Anika Noni Rose and Gracie Gummer. Episodes will also screen on Saturdays on SoHo from October 29.

The Midnight Club (October 7, Netflix)

Horror-meister Mike Flanagan’s (The House on Haunted Hill, Midnight Mass) latest 10-part series follows a group of five terminally ill Brightcliffe Hospice patients, who embark on a series of regular middle-of-the-night gatherings to share scary stories. Together, they form a pact – whoever dies first will make an effort to contact the rest of them from beyond the grave.

Based on Christopher Pike’s 1994 novel of the same name, the clever casting includes former Nightmare on Elm St movie series star Heather Langenkamp.

Peacock (October 9, TVNZ+)

Three-part BBC sitcom about a personal trainer who finds himself in the middle of an identity crisis.

Andy’s (Love Wedding Repeat’s Allan Mustafa) world is one of selfies, bravado and gym memberships, but when he’s beaten to a job promotion by a younger, better-looking PT, he suddenly realises he’s a man out of time and sets out to prove that he’s more than just good looks and a well-curated dating profile.

“Mustafa’s comic turn as a queasy gym bro cements his status as a top purveyor of preening losers,” wrote The Guardian’s Jack Seale.

The Peripheral (October 21, Prime Video)

From the creators of Westworld comes this eight-part sci-fi thriller based on the 2014 book of the same name by William Gibson. Chloe Grace Moretz (Shadows in the Cloud) plays Flynn Fisher, a 3-D printing shop worker who earns some much-needed extra money playing VR games for rich people.

However, when donning the headset one night, she finds herself in a futuristic London that feels just a little too real – it’s turns out someone 70 years in the future has found a way to open a door to her world and, just by her mere presence, Flynn has set dangerous forces into motion.

Ridley (TBC, Eden)

Line of Duty’s Adrian Dunbar headlines this four-part ITV drama about a retired police officer who is lured back into service as a consultant detective when his former protégée Carol Farman (Bronagh Waugh) needs help cracking a complex murder case.

“As a chance for Dunbar to move on from his role as Ted Hastings…without alienating those who have come to know him primarily from that, it works very well,” wrote The Guardian’s Lucy Mangan. “Yes, he is another tortured detective and essentially decent man, but he has more to play – and to play with – here.”

Shantaram (October 14, Apple TV+)

Based on the international best-selling 2003 novel by Gregory David Roberts, this 12-part action crime-drama focuses in on a fugitive named Lin Ford (Sons of Anarchy’s Charlie Hunnam), as he looks to get lost in the vibrancy and chaos of 1980s Bombay.

Alone in an unfamiliar city, he initially struggles to avoid the trouble he’s running from, before complicating his life by falling for the enigmatic Karla (Antonia Desplat).