Steve Greene
Oct 3, 2022 7:00 pm
@stevebruin
Showtime’s “Let the Right One In”
Francisco Roman/Showtime
Some months just have a clearer TV directive. In just a few short weeks, screens will be filled with snow and warm lighting and cocoa mugs. March/April are the months of Prestige TV Onslaught. July, as we all know, is Literary Adaptation Month. (Just kidding, that’s every month now.)
So as the leaves begin to turn and fall really kicks into high gear, it’s not exactly kismet that brings so many spooky/horror-adjacent titles to the world of TV. That’s what October has long been made into, complete with all the eyeballs searching for scares that come along with it. Whether unsettling or kitschy or ironic, a good chunk of the new shows arriving over the coming weeks are designed to thrill and chill.
There’s still a smattering of network premieres to help round out the fall schedule, and some series that you might not necessarily peg for this corner of the calendar. But, as is the case time and again with these monthly roundups, the wave of TV crests for no one and there’ll always be more than you’re anticipating.
(And if you happened to miss any of our past roundups, you can peruse the premieres of January, February, March, April, May June, July, August, September, and our Fall Preview.)
‘Tis the season for documentary series celebrating the genre. This one comes courtesy of the famous production company, joined by a wide array of guests who have made, lived, and surrounded themselves in the best from nearly a century of horror offerings. Robert Englund serves as narrator on the series, which begins in the 1930s and follows a five-part chronological history of how global audiences have built and sustained a thriving community.
One thing you really need to know about this show is that Richard Kind is playing a police captain. But for the sake of being somewhat comprehensive, we should also mention that Amanda Warren stars as a new precinct boss looking to improve the relationships between the officers of the 74th and their community. Jimmy Smits co-stars as a police chief helping her guide the process of getting everyone on board with her reforms, and the main ensemble also includes Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Kevin Rankin, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Olivia Luccardi, and Lavel Schley.
Jacob Anderson and Sam Reid lead this revisiting of the Anne Rice classic, one that also takes the “interview” portion of the series and brings it into a new, modern context. There’s still the rich overview of the fiery, ever-changing relationship between Louis de Pointe du Lac and Lestat Lioncourt. But the conversations between Louis and journalist Daniel Malloy (Eric Bogosian) imagine those two picking up where they left off 50 years prior. The show comes from “Perry Mason” creator/showrunner Rolin Jones, who serves in both roles here as well, and also features Bailey Bass, Rae Dawn Chong, Assad Zaman, and Kalyne Coleman.
Read the IndieWire review of the series here.
And if sweeping, gothic tales and lengthy musings on mortality are not your preferred ingredients for a vampire story, this Jacob Batalon-led show comes at the subgenre from a distinctly different angle. Marguerite Hanna, Aren Buchholz, Savannah Basley, and Georgia Waters co-star in this show that features Reginald (Batalon) as a misfit in a world where his fellow vampires are cooler, more popular, and a lot more luckier in love than he is. Though this show is also a book adaptation, with showrunner Harley Peyton guiding this spin on Johnny B. Truant’s “Fat Vampire” series.
If you imagined a team-up between Hillary Swank and “Spotlight” director Tom McCarthy, “journalist ditches her New York career to investigate stories in the uppermost reaches of the country” is either the very first or very last premise you’d expect from this ABC show. Jeff Perry, Matt Malloy, Meredith Holzman, Grace Dove, Pablo Castelblanco, Ami Park, and Craig Frank round out the main cast, some of whom play Eileen Fitzgerald’s colleagues at a daily Anchorage newspaper covering criminal investigations, corporate takeovers, and beyond.
The latest series to dramatize a tragedy as a means of understanding how it could have happened, “A Friend of the Family” looks at the early life of Jan Broberg, who was kidnapped by someone her family knew and trusted. If you’ve seen the documentary “Abducted in Plain Sight,” you’ll know that this barely scratches the surface of what transpired for them and anyone else caught up in what happened. Among those helping bring this story to life are “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” director Eliza Hittman, Jan Broberg herself, and showrunner Nick Antosca. The series’ main cast includes Anna Paquin, Jake Lacy, Colin Hanks, Lio Tipton, Mckenna Grace, and Hendrix Yancey.
A sufficiently morbid (and oddly reassuring) Halloween premise: a group of terminal patients at a hospital vow to continue to stay in touch if/when any of them pass away. That’s the premise of Christopher Pike’s mid-90s YA book and the new series from co-creators Mike Flanagan and Leah Fong. Flanagan directs and co-writes the first two episodes of the ten-episode season, leading a directing team that also boasts Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour, Axelle Carolyn, Viet Nguyen, Morgan Beggs, and Michael Fimognari. Aside from the main cast of patients, the show will also include returning members from the Flanagan Troupe, including Samantha Sloyan, Zach Gilford, and Rahul Kohli.
Everything Y2K is new again. The show that introduced many in the TV-viewing world to Anderson Cooper now returns as a Netflix original, hosted by Alex Wagner. Though the basic premise is similar — a reality competition show where one contestant is secretly working with the producers to sabotage from within — this new version might have surprises for the 11 of the 12 folks in the group trying to weed out the person working against them.
Ah, the vampire trifecta! Demian Bichir and Anika Noni Rose lead the second English-language adaptation of the 2008 Tomas Alfredson film (itself an adaptation of a John Ajvide Lindqvist novel from four years before), centered on a father (Bichir) trying to protect and provide for his perpetually 12-year-old vampire daughter (Madison Taylor Baez). This 10-episode series will juggle past and present, also digging into the origins of what locked Matt and Eleanor into their mortality-defying way of life. “Away” creator Andrew Hinderaker is the showrunner on the series, which features a pilot directed by Seith Mann.
As the CW experiences some changes around it, here is a new series looking at the youthful exploits of Sam and Dean Winchester’s parents. Drake Rodger and Mary Campbell star as the central couple, as they progress from demon-hunting meet-cute to their quickly escalating battles against some of the sinister forces their two boys would one day face themselves. Longtime “Supernatural” writer/producer Robbie Thompson is back in both roles for this prequel.
If every massive tech company is due to have their own origin story told on screen, it makes sense that this limited series look at the creation of Spotify would come from Sweden, the country where the music streaming giant was born. Edvin Endre and Christian Hillborg co-star as co-founders Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon, two of a handful of people who helped make the company what it is, for better and worse.
Based on the childhoods of the title members of the band Tegan and Sara, this series stars Railey and Seazynn Gilliland as sisters navigating twindom and growing up against the backdrop of the ‘90s. Clea DuVall is a director and along with Laura Kittrell a showrunner on the series, which also features Cobie Smulders and Kyle Bornheimer as the younger Quin sisters’ parents. The series was part of this year’s TIFF Primetime lineup and will be available in additional countries outside the US and UK later this month.
Read the IndieWire review of the series here.
This series looks at life in the Bombay of 40 years ago, as seen through the eyes of an on-the-run convict (Charlie Hunnam) who weighs risking getting caught with a potential romance. Creator Steve Lightfoot adapts this 12-episode season from Gregory David Roberts’ novel, which also features Shubham Saraf, Elektra Kilbey, Fayssal Bazzi, Luke Pasqualino, Antonia Desplat, Alyy Khan, Sujaya Dasgupta, and Alexander Siddig.
Proving that October isn’t purely a time for moodiness and gloom, this bit of Netflix counterprogramming traces the romance between a student studying in Italy (Zoe Saldaña) and the chef she meets during her travels (Eugenio Mastrandrea). The show not only follows the couple’s whirlwind meeting, but the challenges they face once their story continues together in back in the United States. Tembi Locke adapts this eight-episode series from her own memoir, alongside fellow series co-creator (and sister) Attica.
Chloë Grace Moretz heads this sci-fi series as a worker in the near future who supports her family by doing VR work for wealthy clients. When one job somehow transports her to the London of 70 years into the future, she’ll have to unpack the mystery of what led to her ability to emerge in an entirely new future. “A Simple Plan” writer Scott B. Smith serves as showrunner on the eight-episode season (adapting William Gibson’s book) which also co-stars Jack Reynor, Gary Carr, Eli Goree, Louis Herthum, JJ Feild, T’Nia Miller, Charlotte Riley, and Alexandra Billings.
Tracee Ellis Ross hosts this series of conversations and insights into the way that Black hair as been both symbol and a driving force for shaping culture, identity, and perceptions of beauty. Like last month’s new legal drama “Reasonable Doubt,” this show comes in part from the Hulu-based storytelling unit Onyx Collective. Among those sharing their stories in the series are Issa Rae, Ayanna Pressley, and Oprah Winfrey.
The acclaimed filmmaker shifts into Hitchcock mode as the man behind a new anthology collection of horror stories. Taking original stories from del Toro and others and mixing them with literary adaptations, this eight-part season also boasts an impressive collection of directors, including Jennifer Kent, Ana Lily Amirpour, and Panos Cosmatos. It’s a rare Netflix project with an event-style release, as the streaming service will roll out two episodes a day through Friday, October 28.
Rounding out the month is this addition to the cerebral horror corner, following a woman with a special insight into the thought processes of a serial killer. Jessica Raine and Peter Capaldi star as the two individuals linked by a common brain space, which a detective on the case (Nikesh Patel) is looking to use for help. Tom Moran is the writer on the series, which also co-stars “Ted Lasso” favorite Phil Dunster.
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This Article is related to: Television and tagged Interview With the Vampire, Let the Right One In, The Midnight Club, The Peripheral
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