From Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein to the debut of an intriguing new series from the creator of Breaking Bad, we round up our top 10 shows to watch this week
1. Robin Hood – Sunday, November 2, Super Channel Fuse | Series Premiere
The medieval outlaw with a wooden bow and a heart of gold has been portrayed on screen many a time, by such luminaries as Errol Flynn, Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe and, most iconic of all, Disney’s cartoon fox.
The latest incarnation arrives in a 10-part U.K. series, which looks to root the legendary swashbuckler in historical authenticity. Set in the 11th century, as Anglo-Saxons toil under the rule of their Norman conquerors, a young man named Rob (newcomer Jack Patten) and a young maiden named Marian (Hollyoaks alum Lauren McQueen) fight against the oppressors that have seized ancestral homes and now lord over the land and its people. Set to infuse the classic adventure with a psychological depth and “modern relevance,” the series also delves deeper into the complex bond between Robin and Marian.
While our two heroes are played by relative unknowns, the villain of the piece — the sheriff of Nottingham — is an actor of considerable repute and gravitas: Game of Thrones alum Sean Bean. Click here to watch trailer.
2. I Love LA – Sunday, November 2, HBO Canada | Series Premiere
An exciting young voice on the independent film scene, Rachel Sennott is best known for starring in flicks like Shiva Baby, loopy murder mystery Bodies Bodies Bodies and subversive teen rom-com Bottoms, the latter of which she also co-wrote.
Now, she gets a series all her own, as both creator and leading lady. In the vein of female-driven works of HBO auteurship like Girls and Insecure, I Love LA casts Sennott as Maia, an ambitious young staffer at a talent management agency whose life is upended by the reappearance of an old college pal — unpredictable wild-child Tallulah (Odessa A’zion). The two are long-estranged, but soon enough they fall back into their old, co-dependent habits . . . which proves disruptive, but also invigorating for both women as they and their array of friends stumble through life and love in their 20s. Those friends include The Hunger Games’ Josh Hutcherson as Maia’s boy-toy Dylan, English Teacher’s Jordan Firstman as resident gay BFF Charlie and True Whitaker (daughter of Forest) as Alani, the “glue” who holds this eclectic group together. Leighton Meester and Elijah Wood lead the guest cast.
Describing the impetus for her new series in a profile by the New York Times, Sennott noted she was reaching for the stars with this one. That is to say, astrology — and a phenomenon known as “the Saturn return,” the pivotal point of one’s life when the planets align to the position they were in at your birth. “When you get to the end of your 20s,” she explained, “you have to pick if you’re going to keep the life you have or if you’re going to blow it all up and start fresh.” Meanwhile, in the same article, co-star Firstman praised I Love LA’s apt satire. “It’s the first show I have seen that skewers the younger generation in the right way.” Click here to watch trailer.
3. Leanne Morgan: Unspeakable Things – Tuesday, November 4, Netflix
Her eponymous sitcom has been renewed for a second season, but that’s just the start of Leanne Morgan’s burgeoning partnership with Netflix. In this new special, the Southern cut-up quips about her regrettable experiment with cannabis oil and the keys to a lasting marriage. Click here to watch trailer.
4. All’s Fair – Tuesday, November 4, Disney+ | Series Premiere
As the creator of series ranging from Nip/Tuck to Glee to American Horror Story to Feud to the 9-1-1 franchise and so many more, Ryan Murphy has carved out his own niche as a producer. His latest tackles one of TV’s most familiar genres with new legal drama All’s Fair.
The premise underlying the show is a clever one. “A team of female divorce attorneys leave a male-dominated firm to open their own powerhouse practice,” describes the synopsis. “Fierce, brilliant and emotionally complicated, they navigate high-stakes breakups, scandalous secrets and shifting allegiances — both in the courtroom and within their own ranks. In a world where money talks and love is a battleground, these women don’t just play the game — they change it.”
Thanks to Murphy’s reputation for generating hits, All’s Fair has assembled a heavyweight cast to play the six attorneys, including Glenn Close, Sarah Paulson, Niecy Nash, Naomi Watts and Teyana Taylor.
The show’s star, however, is a reality TV icon not generally known for her acting: Kim Kardashian, who heads the ensemble as lawyer Allura Grant.
All’s Fair marks Kardashian’s second major acting role — and her second collaboration with Murphy, who cast her in a pivotal role for the recent season of American Horror Story (and, let’s not forget, also cast Lady Gaga in her first major acting gig in an earlier season of that same show).
“I think it is absolutely time for people to take Kim Kardashian seriously as an actress. She was absolutely excellent in American Horror Story: Delicate,” Kardashian’s co-star, Sarah Paulson, told Yahoo! Entertainment last year. “I think the show we’re about to do together is going to be a tremendous amount of fun and she’s going to be glorious on it.
I have absolutely no doubt about that. Zero.” Click here to watch trailer.
5. Stumble – Friday, November 7, NBC | Series Premiere
Joining Happy’s Place to form a new Friday-night comedy block at NBC, this freshman sitcom is, in contrast to Reba’s live-studio-audience approach, an Abbott Elementary-style mockumentary set in the ruthlessly competitive world of junior college cheerleading.
Jenn Lyon, who’s previously shown off her dark comedy chops on Claws and Justified, plays Coach Courteney Potter, once a true superstar who is sent hurtling back down to the bottom of the pyramid after an Internet video triggers her dismissal from the elite school where she was on the cusp of becoming the winningest coach ever.
Starting over at a small college with a bunch of misfits, Courteney sets some modest squad goals. “Are they perfect? No. Are they good? I wouldn’t say so,” she muses in the trailer. “I’m just trying to make sure nobody dies.” But before long, our heroine learns just how far a group of underdogs can get you.
Rounding out the cast are Saturday Night Live alum Taran Killam as Caroline’s husband and cheer partner, Coach Boon, and Broadway dynamo Kristin Chenoweth as her chief rival, Coach Tammy. Behind the scenes, real-life legend of the sport Monica Aldama, of Netflix docuseries Cheer, is among the producers.
6. All Her Fault – Thursday, November 6, Showcase | Series Premiere
For her first major TV role since that Emmy-winning run on Succession, Sarah Snook leads an eight-part mystery that taps into every parent’s worst nightmare. The show opens on Marissa Irvine, a working mother who runs her own wealth management firm in Illinois. As we meet Marissa, she’s ringing the bell of the house where her five-year-old son Milo is supposed to be having a play date. But when the door opens, not only is her boy nowhere to be found, but the owner of the place is an elderly woman with no children of her own and no idea what’s going on.
After frantic calls to her husband (The White Lotus’ Jake Lacy) and some other parents from the school, it becomes clear Milo has been abducted. You see, the play date was arranged via text, with the mysterious kidnapper posing as one of her fellow moms. As the police are called in and the search begins, Marissa herself comes under intense scrutiny — if not as a suspect, then for her perceived failings as a mother. She finds an unlikely ally in Jenny (Dakota Fanning), the woman the kidnapper impersonated. Like Marissa, she knows the burdens of being a working mom.
“This level of exhaustion of trying to do it all and the anger that is building with women — this assumption that it’s automatically their domain to manage everybody’s lives and happiness and well-being, that pressure just isn’t on men,” said Megan Gallagher, who adapted Andrea Mara’s 2021 novel of the same name, in a chat with Vanity Fair. “It is so real and so prevalent, but we haven’t seen it on TV to the degree that we should have by now.”
Meanwhile, being a new mother herself, Snook didn’t have to reach too far for inspiration: “There’s a different kind of attention to those roles that I can bring now from being a mom, and also a depth of feeling that I wouldn’t have understood prior to having a kid.” Click here to watch trailer.
7. The Assembly, Thursday, November 6, CBC | Series Premiere
Each episode of this unique new Canadian series features a different homegrown celebrity or public figure who faces a group of 30 atypical neurodivergent interviewers, for whom no topic or question is off-limits. Based on a French format, The Assembly promises to deliver “profound revelations, authentic conversations and a lot of laughs,” with those in the hot seat including such luminaries as Jann Arden, Allan Hawco, Howie Mandel, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Russell Peters and Arlene Dickinson. Click here to watch trailer.
8. Death By Lightning – Thursday, November 6, Netflix | Series Premiere
James Garfield was the 20th president of the United States, serving as POTUS for just six months in 1891 before he was murdered by Charles Guiteau — who was not just his assassin, but also his greatest admirer. This truth-is-stranger-than-fiction saga is told in Netflix’s new limited series Death by Lightning, which tracks the political ascendancy of Garfield (played by Michael Shannon) and the sad descent of Guiteau (Matthew Macfadyen), set amid the reform-minded politician’s efforts to clean up rampant corruption in the government. As series creator Mike Makowsky told Tudum, he was inspired to adapt Candice Millard’s 2011 historical novel Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President after “reading it in one sitting, because it was one of the most insane true stories I had ever heard.”
The star-studded cast also includes Betty Gilpin, Nick Offerman, Bradley Whitford, Shea Whigham, Paula Malcomson, Željko Ivanek, Vondie Curtis-Hall and more. Click here to watch trailer.
9. Pluribus – Friday, November 7, Apple TV | Series Premiere
Breaking Bad’s Vince Gilligan returns with what may well be the most anticipated series of the year. In this sci-fi mind-bender, Gilligan casts his Better Call Saul star Rhea Seehorn as a curmudgeonly author who must “save the world from happiness” after a mysterious virus causes an outbreak of irrational optimism. Click here to watch trailer.
10. Frankenstein – Friday, November 7, Netflix
A three-time Oscar winner, Guillermo del Toro has proven himself to be an unparalleled visual stylist and world-builder with such films as Pan’s Labyrinth and The Shape of Water. Now, he tackles one of literature and film’s most iconic monsters, with a feature film adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.
Star Wars alum Oscar Isaac plays the mad scientist who sets out to conquer death itself by reanimating a stitched-together corpse, in hubristic defiance of God and nature. Meanwhile, bringing that corpse to life (so to speak) is Euphoria heartthrob Jacob Elordi.
“You need Oscar’s eyes in order to know that he’s tortured and he thinks he’s doing good and he’s driven,” del Toro said in an interview with Tudum. “In order for the creature to have innocence, you need Jacob’s eyes.” Click here to watch trailer.