The 9 Best TV Shows to Stream This Month (October 2026)

September is typically the time when television gets serious again. The summer’s biggest TV shows have aired their finales, the fall schedule is kicking into high gear, and streamers are rolling out everything from high-concept sci-fi to prestige dramas. There’s plenty of familiar IP in the mix, but also some genuinely original shows worth putting on your to-watch list.

While plenty of outlets will tell you what everyone is watching (see: Reacher), that’s not our goal. As always, the TV shows we’re watching this month reflect the kinds of stories WIRED covers every day—shows that explore technology, science, politics, culture, and the sometimes unsettling ways they intersect.

From returning favorites to ambitious new series—and at least one show that might rekindle your love of traditional anime—these are the TV shows we think you should make time to stream this month.

The Paper

What happens when a newspaper attempts not just to survive, but to thrive, in a world where digital media has become the norm? The Paper, a spinoff of The Office from Greg Daniels and Michael Koman, follows the staff of a struggling Midwestern paper as they attempt to revive it.

Ultimately, its idealistic new editor-in-chief Ned Sampson (Star Wars and Harry Potter alum Domhnall Gleeson) and his hungry young reporter Mare Pritti (Chelsea Frei) end up grappling with what journalism looks like in the digital age. Season 2, which arrived on September 9, finds their Toledo Truth Teller newly revitalized and searching for its next big scoop, making the show a surprisingly sharp comedy about the future of journalism—and who gets to shape it.

Lego Star Wars: The Mandalorian

Though this summer’s The Mandalorian and Grogu (which is streaming on Disney+ now) seriously underperformed at the box office, Lucasfilm is partnering with Lego to take another stab at the fan-favorite Star Wars series—which might be exactly what the franchise needs right now. Lucasfilm and Lego are going back to the beginning, reimagining all three seasons of the Pedro Pascal–starring live-action series as a 49-minute animated comedy.

For anyone who somehow managed to miss Mando and Grogu until now, the story follows Din Djarin (Pascal in the live-action series, Gavin Hammon in this iteration), a bounty hunter known as the Mandalorian, who takes a job transporting a mysterious Force-sensitive child. That child, of course, is Grogu, aka Baby Yoda. What starts as a simple assignment turns into a galaxy-spanning adventure as the pair become unlikely partners. Consider this version an entertaining way to play catch-up.

South Park

It’s hard to remember a time when the world didn’t have South Park. For nearly 30 years, audiences have watched as four potty-mouthed fourth-graders—Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny—navigate life in the bizarre mountain town of South Park, Colorado, in this very much adults-only animated comedy. Along the way, they’ve encountered alien life forms, celebrities, and Elon Musk (yes, the real one). They’ve also watched Kenny die on at least 100 occasions.

Last year, the seemingly never-ending comedy reinvented itself as a particularly pointed political satire by taking aim at figures including JD Vance, Pete Hegseth, Kristi Noem, Donald Trump, and Donald Trump’s manhood. The White House, unsurprisingly, had thoughts. And so did the Emmys; the show just took home the 2026 award for ​​Outstanding Animated Program. Clearly, creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone have no plans to take their foot off the gas; they just announced they’re taking a page out of Trump’s renaming book and rechristening the show South America for its 29th season, which premieres on September 16.

Slow Horses

What if television’s best spy show was also one of its funniest? If John le Carré and (the original) The Office had a baby, it would look and sound a lot like Slow Horses, which returns for a sixth season on September 16.

Based on Mick Herron’s Slough House book series, the series follows a dysfunctional team of MI5 misfits who are banished to the infamous Slough House unit, where they work under the notorious Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), a foul-mouthed, flatulent, chain-smoking wreck of a man who also happens to be the most brilliant operative in the room. It’s a prestige spy thriller that doesn’t take itself too seriously, bouncing effortlessly between shoot-outs and the kind of droll office banter you’d expect from the best workplace comedies. In a career full of memorable performances, and an Oscar to show for it, Slow Horses just might be the role Oldman is best remembered for. It’s also the project that has made Jack Lowden oddsmakers’ top pick for the next James Bond.

City of Blood

In City of Blood, an eight-episode miniseries from Germany, climate change has turned Berlin into a sweltering city teetering on the edge of collapse—and vampires are ready to take advantage of the chaos. While the privileged few live beneath a climate-controlled dome, the rest of the city’s denizens are left to battle the heat, crime, and corruption that have become part of everyday life. But when estranged sisters Bea (Lea Drinda) and Phoebe (Soma Pysall) reunite, they uncover a nefarious political plot and learn that, thanks to that aforementioned undead population, blood has become the city’s most coveted commodity. It’s a perfectly strange mix of climate dystopia, family drama, and vampire thriller. And it arrives on September 16.

MobLand

Season 2 of MobLand is almost here—whether Tom Hardy likes it or not. (Despite all the recent headlines surrounding the Oscar winner’s behind-the-scenes drama, he has already signed on for season 3.) The highly underrated, or perhaps just underseen, crime drama returns with the Harrigan family’s criminal empire under threat from rival forces, forcing their street-smart fixer Harry Da Souza (yep, Hardy) to navigate increasingly bloody internal tensions.

As Harry works to keep the fractured family from tearing itself apart, he’s aided by his trusty sidekick Zosia (Jasmine Jobson), a tech specialist who brings a distinctly 21st-century skill set to their old-school criminal enterprise headed up by Conrad (Pierce Brosnan) and Maeve Harrington (Helen Mirren). Meanwhile, rival forces close in, loyalties shift, and violence spreads through every corner of the family’s world. Expect more bloodshed, shifting allegiances, poor decisions, and one of television’s most kickass theme songs (Fontaines D.C.’s “Starburster”) when season 2 premieres on September 18.

Outlander: Blood of My Blood

Before there was Jamie and Claire, there were their parents. Like its predecessor, this Outlander prequel follows two separate timelines as it details the courtship of Jamie Fraser’s parents, Brian Fraser (Jamie Roy) and Ellen MacKenzie (Harriet Slater), in 18th-century Scotland, alongside the story of Claire Beauchamp’s parents, Henry Beauchamp (Jeremy Irvine) and Julia Moriston (Hermione Corfield), in World War I–era England. Their two love stories unfold across different time periods, weaving together romance, family drama, and the time-traveling forces that kept Outlander fans enthralled for eight seasons. The series’ second season arrives on September 18.

American Horror Story

Season 13 of Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s horror anthology is shaping up to be what has at various points been called an Avengers-esque “endgame-level event” of “greatest hits.” While the details, as always, have been kept rather quiet, what we do know is that the new season of American Horror Story will pull bits and pieces from each season of the series, with a heavy emphasis on its witchcraft-laden “Coven” and “Apocalypse” storylines.

We also know it is reassembling an all-star cast of past stars, some of whom will play double—or even triple—character duty. Among them: Murphy mainstays Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Jessica Lange, Kathy Bates, Emma Roberts, Billie Lourd, and Angela Bassett. The new season arrives on September 26, which gives you plenty of time to brush up on your AHS lore.

Neon Genesis Evangelion

Before Netflix gave it a new English dub—and, depending on who you ask, stirred up a lot of feelings—there was the original Japanese-language version of Neon Genesis Evangelion. The landmark anime, released in 1995, follows a group of teenagers recruited to pilot giant biomechanical weapons called Evangelions, or Evas, as they defend a postapocalyptic Tokyo (now known as Tokyo-3) from mysterious creatures, aka Angels. But what starts as a fairly straightforward battle-for-humanity story soon becomes something far stranger, delving into trauma, loneliness, identity, and human connection.

The Criterion Channel is bringing all 26 episodes of the classic (pre-Netflix) English dub to streaming for the first time, alongside the original Japanese-language version for all you purists. It’s a fitting return for one of anime’s most boundary-pushing series.