With crisp air and autumn colors starting to swirl, you may find yourself at loose ends trying to decide what to watch this weekend. If so, fire up any of the new movies and shows on Netflix, Apple TV and other streaming services, as well as broadcast and cable channels.
As Tom’s Guide’s streaming editor, I watch TV and movies for a living, and I’ve rounded up the week’s biggest new arrivals and ranked them so you don’t have to waste your precious couch time endllessly scrolling. This week brings the return of “Slow Horses” for season 6, “MobLand” season 2 and a batch of civilian contestants backstabbing each other in “The Traitors: New Blood.” There’s also “Neagley,” a spinoff of “Reacher,” the true crime drama “Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story” and movies getting a digital release, including “The End of Oak Street” and “Tony.”
Whatever your mood, this weekend’s lineup has something for everybody. Here’s my watchlist, ranked from “must see” to “maybe later.”
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1. ‘Slow Horses’ season 6 (Apple TV)
Genre: Spy thriller
Available now: 1 episode (48m)
What it’s about: The Slow Horses have gone from MI5’s least-valued employees to someone’s most-wanted list. When former Slough House agents start turning up dead, Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) and his team are forced into hiding while trying to figure out who wants them gone. And somehow, Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) is mixed up in the mess.
Why it’s worth your time: Six seasons in, “Slow Horses” is still very good at playing the espionage game. Some familiar faces make a welcome return, including Olivia Cooke as the supposedly dead Sid. Another six episodes with MI5’s most dysfunctional department? Don’t threaten me with a good time.
Where to stream: Apple TV
2. ‘MobLand’ season 2 (Paramount+)
Genre: Crime drama
Available now: 1 episode (about 50m)
What it’s about: The Harrigan family is back, and its criminal empire is looking more like a family therapy session with guns. Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) and Maeve (Helen Mirren) are facing threats from within and beyond the clan, while Kevin (Paddy Considine) has his own designs on the throne. Caught between them all is fixer Harry Da Souza (Tom Hardy), who has the deeply unpleasant job of keeping the family from imploding.
Why it’s worth your time: Welcome back to watching extremely glamorous people behave extremely badly. Hardy, Brosnan and Mirren remain the main attraction, while Guy Ritchie’s signature slick, kinetic style gives all that backstabbing some serious swagger.
Where to stream: Paramount+
3. ‘Youth’ (HBO)
Genre: Romantic comedy, dramedy
Premiere date: Episodes 1-2 on Sunday, Sept. 20 at 10 p.m. ET (about 30m each)
What it’s about: Alex (Sharon Horgan) is a divorced London literary agent trying to keep her increasingly complicated life on the rails. There’s a troubled teenage son, aging parents, a demanding best friend/boss and Patrick (Rupert Friend), a Scot who’s handsome but emotionally unavailable.
Why it’s worth your time: Horgan has made a specialty of finding the funny in life’s less glamorous milestones (see: “Catastrophe”), and “Youth” promises another deeply relatable mess. This time, the joke is getting older but not any wiser.
Where to stream: HBO Max
4. ‘Tony’ (digital)
Genre: Biographical comedy-drama
Runtime: 1h 46m
What it’s about: Before he was the culinary icon who could make a bowl of noodles sound like a religious experience, Anthony Bourdain was a cocky 19-year-old with a crush, a failed writing fellowship and something to prove. Set in 1975, “Tony” follows Bourdain (Dominic Sessa) as he flees to Provincetown and takes a dishwasher job at a local seafood restaurant, where a Portuguese chef (Antonio Banderas) teaches him a few lessons about kitchens and growing up.
Why it’s worth your time: You don’t need to be a Bourdain superfan to enjoy this intimate mini-biopic. Think coming-of-age film, but with more seafood and cocaine. Sessa is terrific as a young Bourdain, balancing his swagger with the insecurity underneath, while Banderas brings warmth and wisdom as his mentor.
Where to stream: Prime Video (with purchase)
5. ‘The Traitors: New Blood’ (NBC)
Genre: Reality competition
Available now: 1 episode (45m)
What it’s about: Alan Cumming welcomes 22 ordinary Americans to his Scottish castle, where nobody is there to make friends. The Faithful must identify the secret Traitors hiding among them, while the Traitors quietly eliminate their competition and scheme their way toward a $250,000 payday.
Why it’s worth your time: “The Traitors” is one of the juiciest reality shows on TV, and stripping away the Bravolebrities and “Survivor” alums should make the social game even messier. These are civilians with no established alliances or reputations to lean on. Basically: fresh faces, same paranoia.
Where to stream: Peacock
6. ‘The End of Oak Street’ (digital)
Genre: Sci-fi survival thriller
Runtime: 1h 39m
What it’s about: A Michigan suburb gets yanked out of 1982 and dropped straight into the age of dinosaurs. As Denise (Anne Hathaway) and Greg Platt (Ewan McGregor) head toward divorce, they and their two kids, Audrey (Maisy Stella) and Brian (Christian Convery), must come together to survive a neighborhood suddenly crawling with very large, very hungry reptiles.
Why it’s worth your time: If you’ve ever thought “Jurassic Park” could use more marital strife, this is the movie for you. Director David Robert Mitchell gives the dinosaur movie a nasty suburban twist, turning cul-de-sacs and picket fences into death traps. The dinosaurs aren’t majestic movie stars here; they’re predators.
Where to stream: Prime Video (with purchase)
7. ‘Neagley’ (Prime Video)
Genre: Action thriller, crime drama
Available now: All 8 episodes (about 45m each)
What it’s about: Frances Neagley (Maria Sten) finally gets her own corner of the Reacher universe. Now a Chicago private investigator, the former Army special investigator starts digging when her childhood friend dies under suspicious circumstances. Her search pulls her into a dangerous conspiracy, forcing Neagley to call on old skills, new allies and the occasional assist from Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson).
Why it’s worth your time: If the giant, brooding Jack Reacher has ever felt like a little too much protein, here’s the leaner, meaner alternative. Maria Sten has been a standout as Neagley, and this spinoff lets her carry the action while digging into the character’s history. Bonus: Alan Ritchson drops by.
Where to stream: Prime Video
8. ‘Best of the Best’ (Netflix)
Genre: Coming-of-age dance comedy
Runtime: 1h 52m
What it’s about: Childhood best friends Maya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and Anjali (Priyanka Kedia) join UCLA’s competitive Bollywood-fusion dance team, hoping to take home the U.S. championship. Instead, they find themselves tangled in rivalries, cliques, gossip and dance-team drama.
Why it’s worth your time: If you like your coming-of-age stories with big dance numbers and heart, “Best of the Best” looks ready to deliver. Ramakrishnan brings her “Never Have I Ever” charm to the lead, while Hasan Minhaj co-writes and co-stars as a professor. It’s a celebration of South Asian culture and collegiate dance that aims to be both genuinely heartfelt and gloriously fun.
Where to stream: Netflix
9. ‘Finding Emily’ (digital)
![FINDING EMILY - Official Trailer [HD] - Only In Theaters August 28 - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/wc2UjmPzN8c/maxresdefault.jpg)
Genre: Romantic comedy
Runtime: 1h 51m
What it’s about: When lovesick Manchester musician Owen (Spike Fearn) nabs the phone number of a mysterious student named Emily, he feels like it’s fate. One tiny problem: She left a digit off. So he emails every Emily at the university and ends up meeting Emily Raine (Angourie Rice), an American psychology major who thinks romance is basically an evolutionary glitch and sees Owen’s quest as the perfect subject for her dissertation. Soon, they’re searching the city for his dream girl while getting a little too close themselves.
Why it’s worth your time: “Finding Emily” doesn’t try to reinvent the rom-com wheel, but sometimes you just want the wheel to take you somewhere cute and cozy. Fearn is utterly charming as Owen, and the movie delivers good-natured laughs, a breezy soundtrack and a delightful ensemble of Emilys.
Where to stream: Prime Video (with purchase)
10. ‘RJ Decker’ season 2 (ABC)
Genre: Crime drama
Available now: 1 episode (45m)
What it’s about: R.J. Decker (Scott Speedman) is back on the private-investigator grind, but Victor Ochoa’s murder has made his already messy life considerably messier. As he and Emi (Jaina Lee Ortiz) navigate the fallout, R.J.’s estranged father, Reggie (Beau Bridges), shows up with yet another “big opportunity.”
Why it’s worth your time: This is a crime show that understands Florida is basically a genre unto itself. Season 2 keeps the danger and oddball cases coming while adding a particularly fun complication in Bridges as R.J.’s charming, unreliable dad.
Where to watch: Hulu
11. ‘Outlander: Blood of My Blood’ season 2 (Starz)
Genre: Historical romance
Premiere date: Episode 1 on Friday, Sept. 18 at 8 p.m. ET
What it’s about: The parents of Jamie and Claire are once again learning that true love is a real pain in the neck. Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy) and Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater) are pulled apart when the 1715 Jacobite Rising sends Scotland into war, while Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine) and Julia (Hermione Corfield) suffer another separation after their attempt to return to their own time goes wrong.
Why it’s worth your time: If you like your romance with a generous helping of swords, family grudges and supernatural time-travel woowoo, this “Outlander” spinoff continues to deliver the goods. Season 2 raises the stakes for both couples while digging deeper into the tangled family histories.
Where to watch: Starz
12. ‘Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85’ season 2 (Netflix)
Genre: Animated supernatural/sci-fi adventure
Available now: All 8 episodes (about 28m each)
What it’s about: The Hawkins Investigators Club members are looking forward to Valentine’s Day fun and games — which, of course, get thoroughly derailed. Strange apparitions and creepy creatures are popping up around town, while a mysterious threat emerges from Hawkins’ abandoned silver mines.
Why it’s worth your time: This animated spinoff continues to mine the original series’ ’80s nostalgia while giving its younger heroes another supernatural mess to clean up. Season 2 also ventures into unexplored corners of Hawkins, including some ominous abandoned mines.
Where to watch: Netflix
13. ‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’ (Netflix)
Genre: True crime horror
Available now: All 8 episodes (39–63m each)
What it’s about: Ella Beatty stars as Lizzie Borden, the notorious 19th-century heiress accused of killing her father and stepmother with an axe. The series digs into the suffocating family life and forbidden relationship that precede the murders, with Vicky Krieps as Lizzie’s maid and Charlie Hunnam and Rebecca Hall as her parents.
Why it’s worth your time: “Monster” has found its first female subject, and Lizzie Borden is hardly an out-of-left-field choice. This season focuses on one of America’s oldest true-crime obsessions, while Sarah Paulson’s appearance as Aileen Wuornos connects Lizzie’s story to a later generation of notorious women.
Where to watch: Netflix
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