Best new movies and TV series on Binge: October 2020

Each month, a mother load of new movies and TV shows are added to BINGE‘s library. Critic Travis Johnson picks the best titles worth watching this month. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.

Top picks: TV

Warrior season two (October 5)

Based on the writings of martial arts legend Bruce Lee and coming to us courtesy Lee’s daughter, Shannon, Justin Lin and Jonathan Tropper, Warrior is a pulpy, hyper-violent martial arts crime drama that follows the fortunes of hard-kicking Ah Sahm (Andrew Koji) as he travels to 19th century San Francisco to find his missing sister, only to become embroiled in the bloody Tong Wars being waged between rival Chinese gangs.

With season one ending with Ah Sahm getting beaten to a pulp by his rival, Li Yong (Joe Taslim of The Raid and The Night Comes for Us), season two will no doubt see our hero clawing his way back to a position of power in Chinatown, in all likelihood obliterating an army of unlucky mooks along the way. We’re here for it.

The Walking Dead season 10 finale (Oct 5)

The most popular horror series in the history of television is back to wrap up its tenth and not-quite-final season. Following a group of survivors struggling to survive in a world overrun by ravening zombies. But, as any seasoned fans of apocalyptic fiction know, it’s those darn ol’ humans that are the bigger threat, as out heroes have learned over and over again in the past decade’s worth of episodes.

Season 10 sees the gang, now led by Norman Reedus’ Daryl since the departure of original star Andrew Lincoln, go up against the creepy AF Whisperers led by Alpha (Samantha Morton), and forced to make a devil’s bargain with the murderous Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). The final episode was delayed thanks to our own plague, but now we finally get to see who will survive and what will be left of them.

The Undoing (Oct 26)

The Undoing comes with a hell of a pedigree. Adapted from Jean Hanff Korelitz’s bestselling novel You Should Have Known by television legend David E. Kelley (Ally McBeal, Boston Legal) it’s directed by Susanne Bier (The Night Manager, Bird Box). Nicole Kidman stars as wealthy relationship counselor Grace Fraser, whose picture-perfect life begins to fragment when her oncologist husband (Hugh Grant) is implicated in a brutal murder.

While Grace may have a knack from winking out the dark secrets hindering her patients’ marriages, it seems she’s blind to the lies underpinning her own. A stacked ensemble, including Donald Sutherland, Edgar Ramirez, Noah Jupe, Lily Rabe and Noma Dumezweni, fill out what should prove to be one of the prestige TV events of the year.

Top Picks: Movies + Specials

Birds of Prey (October 10)

After breaking up with the Joker, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) resolves to carve out her own place in the Gotham underworld, but finds herself protecting teenage thief Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) from mob boss Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) with the help of superpowered singer Black Canary (Jurnee Smollett), vigilante Huntress (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and cop Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez).

Mayhem ensues, which is what you want out of joint like this. While Suicide Squad may have disappointed pretty much everyone, director Cathy Yan knocks it out of the park here, delivering a candy-coloured, riot grrl vision of Gotham City that plays out like Batman meets Streets of Fire.

Captain Phillips (October 16)

Tom Hanks pins on his captain’s bars again for this tense, real-life thriller from director Paul Greengrass (Jason Bourne, United 93). When his unarmed container ship is assaulted by Somali pilots off the Horn of Africa, Hanks’ veteran skipper must use all his courage and wits to keep his crew alive until a rescue can be mounted.

In adapting the actual Captain Richard Phillips memoir, A Captain’s Duty: Somali Pirates, Navy SEALs, and Dangerous Days at Sea, director Greengrass employs his trademark documentary style to excellent effect, giving the film a sense of immediacy and rising, claustrophobic terror. Hanks is as stoic and sturdy as ever, while newcomer Barkhad Abdi, who plays the Somali pirate leader Adudwali Muse, earned an Oscar nomination for his unbelievably intense turn.

The Invisible Man (October 17)

The horror movie of the year. After fleeing her abusive tech tycoon husband, Cecelia Kass (Elisabeth Moss) efforts to rebuild her life come undone as she begins to suspect that her ex has somehow become invisible and is stalking her. While her friends and family think she’s come unstuck, we, knowing that this is the latest iteration of the old Universal Monsters franchise, understand that she’s right on the money.

Australian writer and director Lee Whannell (Saw, Upgrade) delivers a chilly, astute, genuinely frightening thriller that managed to single-handedly reinvigorate Universal’s horror shared universe after the misfire that was the Tom Cruise-starring The Mummy.

All titles arriving on BINGE in October

October 1

The West Wing seasons 1-7
Empire season 4
Psychopaths with Piers Morgan
Raised by Wolves season 1, episode 10 finale

October 2

Chewing Gun season 1&2
Burden of Truth season 3, episode 6
Hypothetical seasons 1 & 2
The Bradshaw Bunch season 1
Keeping up with the Kardashians season 19, episode 4
The Real Houseswives of NYC season 12, episode 25

October 3

The Twilight Movie franchise

October 4

The Vow season 1, episode 3

October 5

The Walking Dead season 10 new episode
Warrior season 2 premiere
Lovecraft Country season 1, epside 8
The Firm season 1
The Real Housewives of Potomac season 5, episode 10

October 6

Below Deck Mediterranean season 5 episode 19
Taskmaster season 8
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver season 7, episode 25

October 7

Songland season 1, episode 1
Alone season 7, episode 10
Agents of Chaos
Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers Live at the Fonda Theatre
Phil Collins – Live at Montreux 2004
Sam Smith: In Concert
Rolling Stones: Havana Moon
John Lennon: Imagine Remastered

October 8

The Real Housewives of Orange County season 15 premiere

October 9

The Shop: Uninterrupted season 1

October 10

Birds of Prey

October 11

Bernie the Dolpin
Bernie the Dolphin 2

October 12

Fear the Walking Dead – season 6 premiere

October 13

90 Day Finance season 6

October 14

Million Dollar Matchmaker season 2

October 15

Mission Galapagos season 1
Ex on the bEach USA season 3
Grand Designs UK seasons 1-4

October 16

The Big Bang Theory season 12
The Shop: Uninterrupted season 2
The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch season 1, episodes 1-3
The Intern
Captain Phillips
David Brent: Life on the Road
Scooby-Doo