Week of October 17 – 23
As we get closer to Halloween, there is an increase in spooky streaming fodder — from the witchy “Yaga” (on AMC+) to Luc Besson’s sweeping take on “Dracula” (on Paramount+) to a Joe Bob Briggs Halloween double-feature (on Shudder) and a potentially ill-advised “Stamford Prison Experiment” competition show (on Netflix). And if you’ve already had your fill of jack-o-lanterns and fake blood, there’s plenty of other stuff to choose from, including coming-of-age mystery “Phony” (on Hulu), the streaming debut of Olivia Wilde’s “The Invite” (on HBO Max) and a documentary about comedian Maria Bamford (on Netflix). So, yes, the ghouls and ghosts will be covered. But so will everybody else.
On with the television!
Phony
Tuesday, October 20, Hulu
Source: Hulu
We love a good doppelgänger story. In “Phony,” Sam Nivola (from “The White Lotus”) wakes up from a car accident convinced that his mother (Connie Britton) has been replaced by a possibly nefarious double. The show hails from Nick Paley (a veteran of “Broad City” and the Oscar-nominated “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On”) who writes, co-showruns (with Anthony King) and directs half of the first season. Drew Goddard, who wrote this year’s “Project Hail Mary” produced the show with partners Sarah Esberg and Andrea Massaro. Meera Syal, Grace Brennan, Mahaela Park, Maliq Johnson and Colter Lee also star. The series, which Hulu describes as a “coming-of-age mystery,” has been in development for a very long time. It was set up at ABC Signature back in 2022, before it was folded into 20th Television in 2024. A pilot was produced in 2025 before, finally, it was ordered to series. Hopefully it was worth the very long wait. Best enjoyed while watching with your exact genetic double or your clone from a parallel universe. Whatever works! [TRAILER]
Slow Horses
Wednesday, October 21, Apple TV
Source: Apple TV
“Slow Horses” has quietly become one of the most dependable and successful streaming series of the modern age. There have been six seasons of the series, based on the “Slough House” novels by Mick Herron, that have streamed on Apple TV. And it’s already been renewed for its seventh and eighth seasons. It’s very funny that a show about a group of loser secret agents led by a paunchy Gary Oldman is one of the most critically acclaimed and universally beloved streaming shows currently on air. Kristin Scott Thomas, Jonathan Pryce, Hugo Weaving and Rosalind Eleazar (currently starring in Chris Rock’s A24 movie “Misty Green”) also star. [TRAILER]
The Invite
Friday, October 23, HBO Max
Source: A24
One of the year’s very best movies, “The Invite,” which was directed by and co-stars Olivia Wilde, is finally making its streaming debut. In the film, Wilde is married, somewhat unhappily, to Seth Rogen. One night they decide to invite their upstairs neighbors (played by Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton) over for dinner. (Their upstairs neighbors are notorious for their extremely loud sex.) Over the course of a single evening, all hell breaks loose — secrets are exposed, hard truths examined and, of course, light hors d’oeuvres are passed around. Everything about “The Invite” is laser-cut for maximum enjoyment, from the whip-smart script by Will McCormack and Rashida Jones (based on the 2020 Spanish film “The People Upstairs” by Cesc Gay) to the fine performances from the four leads to Wilde’s masterful shot compositions (Adam Newport-Berra from Rogen’s “The Studio” was the cinematographer) to editorial choices (with editors Yorgos Mavropsaridis and Anthony Boys). It’s the kind of fun, funny, grown-up comedy that Hollywood used to make regularly and now are seen as a welcome outlier. A Sundance breakout that became a word-of-mouth hit over the summer for A24 (making more than $60 million worldwide), “The Invite” is a must-watch movie. Invite some of your weirdo neighbors over to watch. [TRAILER]
Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story
Friday, October 23, Netflix
Source: Netflix
The third (out of four) of the Netflix feature documentaries about famous comedians, “Paralyzed by Hope: The Maria Bamford Story” follows one of the most original comics working today. “Since the 1990s, stand-up comedian and actor Maria Bamford has built a career on turning radical honesty into radical comedy,” according to the official synopsis. Co-directed by Judd Apatow (who also made the Norm MacDonald doc that premiered last week) and Neil Berkeley, the documentary will “trace the comedian’s path — and pathos — from her childhood in Duluth, Minnesota, to her hard-won fame in Los Angeles and her present-day life, showing how Bamford’s mental health journey and family relationships shaped her art and career.” It was produced by Apatow, Berkeley, Amanda Rohlke and David Heiman and executive produced by Josh Church, Wayne Federman and Olivia Rosenbloom. [TRAILER]
Dracula
Paramount+
Source: EuropaCorp
This new take on Bram Stoker’s immortal story, written and directed by French filmmaker Luc Besson, was quietly released earlier this year in America after opening overseas last year. Now, just in time for Halloween, it is streaming on Paramount+. And hopefully it finds a new audience on streaming, because it really is a hoot. Caleb Landry Jones, who starred in Besson’s underseen “Dog Man,” plays the titular Count, with Christoph Waltz as “The Priest” (a Van Helsing stand-in) and Zoë Bleu as Mina Harker. (And, yes, it is weird that Waltz starred in Besson’s “Dracula” and Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” in the same year.) Besson adds all sorts of odd flourishes, like Dracula’s castle being tended to by a gang of oddball gargoyles that wouldn’t have been out of place in Besson’s “Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets” and a Danny Elfman score that really amps up the Gothic romanticism. Make it a part of your Halloween-time movie marathon. [WATCH]
Source: Prime Video
“The New Stanford Prison Experiment”
Wednesday, October 21, Netflix
“More than 50 years after Philip Zimbardo’s infamous 1971 study became one of psychology’s most notorious cautionary tales, the Stanford Prison Experiment is back under the microscope — this time reimagined as a new unscripted series.” This is how Netflix describes their new competition series. It seems a little foolhardy to turn a notorious psychological experiment into frothy streaming entertainment but the only way to find out is to watch. [TRAILER]
“The Terminal List”
Wednesday, October 21, Prime Video
“The Terminal List,” based on the James Reece novels by Jack Carr, premiered back in 2022. Since then, a spinoff prequel season, “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf” (starring Season 1 star Taylor Kitsch) premiered last year, while work continued on a proper Season 2. Now “The Terminal List” is finally back, with Chris Pratt back as Reece alongside Constance Wu, Tom Hopper and Luke Hemsworth and newcomer Gabriel Luna. This season Reece “will uncover