The best new TV shows to stream in November

3 months ago 20

he year is nearing its end but there’s plenty of exciting TV still to come in 2025. November’s highlights include Sarah Snook’s first TV show since Succession, a mysterious series from Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan, and a Ryan Murphy legal drama starring Kim Kardashian.

Netflix

Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys in The Beast in Me.

My top Netflix recommendation is The Beast in Me (November 13).

The leads in this limited series are Claire Danes (Homeland) and Matthew Rhys (The Americans). Please sign me up. In terms of specifics, this high-powered drama stars Danes as a grieving author, Aggie Wiggs, who rediscovers her need to write when an infamous real estate mogul who was once a suspect in his wife’s death, Rhys’ Nile Jarvis, becomes her next-door neighbour. Creator Gabe Rotter (The X-Files) establishes a fraught dynamic between the two: are they potential friends, possible collaborators on a book, or pre-ordained adversaries? We’ll have eight episodes to find out.

Also on Netflix: It’s been almost 3½ years since we got a new episode of Stranger Things (November 27) but, after a lengthy production, the fifth and final season of Ross and Matt Duffer’s 1980s sci-fi horror epic is done. Netflix is starting with four episodes on November 27, three on Boxing Day and the finale on New Year’s Day, although “episodes” may not be an accurate description: most of the eight instalments are rumoured to be the length of a feature film. The narrative picks up 18 months after the conclusion of season four, with the entire cast – including Winona Ryder, Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour – returning for their characters’ battle to the finish with supernatural villain Vecna.

This version of Frankenstein (November 7) may be the ultimate pairing for horror aficionados. Mary Shelley’s 1818 Gothic novel is one of the genre’s foundation texts, and this feature film adaptation has been directed by Guillermo del Toro, an Academy Award winner with an encyclopaedic love of the scary and shocking. The Mexican filmmaker, best known for Pan’s Labyrinth, Hellboy and The Shape of Water has cast Oscar Isaac (Dune) as the 19th-century scientist Victor Frankenstein, whose secret experiments in reanimating the dead give life to the hulking Creature (Jacob Elordi, Saltburn). Shelley’s book has been adapted countless times, setting the bar high for this all-star edition.

October highlights: Toni Collette was at her malevolent best in the thriller Wayward, Victoria Beckham didn’t give us enough of the good stuff, Kristen Bell and Adam Brody still have it in Nobody Wants This, A House of Dynamite was a nail-biting nuclear thriller, and Monster: The Ed Gein Story set a new low for serial killer true crime.

Binge

Sarah Snook as Marissa and Duke McCloud as Milo in All Her Fault.

My top Binge recommendation is All Her Fault (November 6).

After Succession concluded, Australian star Sarah Snook’s first big move was on the stage, conquering London’s West End and then Broadway by headlining an acclaimed solo adaptation of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Now Snook is back on our screens, with top billing as a mother, Marissa Irvine, who goes to pick up her young son from a play date with a new friend but can’t find any trace of the child or the host. Shot in Melbourne but set in Chicago, this missing American child thriller co-stars Jake Lacy (The White Lotus) as Marissa’s husband, Dakota Fanning (Ripley) as her sister, and Michael Pena (Ant-Man) as the lead police detective. Maternal guilt, media obsession and personal betrayal are all in play.

Also on Binge: Nick Cave has enjoyed a long and unpredictable side career as both a screenwriter and novelist. The Death of Bunny Munro (November 20) is a six-part adaptation, by Pete Jackson (Somewhere Boy), of Cave’s well-received 2009 novel, which follows the chaotic road trip between an English cosmetics salesman and his young son, who are both reeling from the loss of their respective wife and mother. Matt Smith (The Crown) plays the errant father, who spouts a can-do philosophy and fancies himself the Lothario, with newcomer Rafael Mathe as Bunny Junior. It’s up to Swedish director Isabella Eklof (Industry) to make Cave’s prose and the story’s unmoored tone flourish.

October highlights: A far better example of serial killer true crime? Devil in Disguise: John Wayne Gacy had empathy and restraint, while Film Club was a showcase for White Lotus breakout star Aimee Lou Wood.

Apple TV+

Rhea Seehorn in Pluribus, the series written for her by Vince Gilligan.

My top Apple TV recommendation is Pluribus (November 7).

After the celebrated neo-noir one-two punch of Breaking Bad and its prequel Better Call Saul, creator Vince Gilligan had the clout to get most anything made. His choice was this science-fiction mystery, which pivots on a vast and wild concept that’s been kept under wraps so audiences can (rightly) go in cold. It’s set in present-day Albuquerque, New Mexico, like Gilligan’s previous hits, and begins with an event that changes everyone on the planet, except for misanthropic fantasy author Carol Sturka (Rhea Seehorn, Better Call Saul). What happens from there is quite the journey – weird, scary, tragic and darkly hilarious. I’ve seen six episodes and heartily endorse having faith in Gilligan and Seehorn.

Also on Apple TV: Its first season went under the radar, despite a cast led by Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids), Allison Janney (The Diplomat) and Leslie Bibb (The White Lotus) but Palm Royale (November 12) will continue its idiosyncratic journey with a second instalment. Set in 1969 and created by Abe Sylvia (Dead to Me), the comic-drama follows an outsider to Palm Beach high-society, Wiig’s Maxine Dellacorte-Simmons, who is determined to get her foot in the country club door. It can be a wayward show – as often a satiric comedy as a deeply felt study of female solidarity, and certainly full of diversions – but there’s little else like it.

October highlights: Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson were aces together in the mystery-thriller Down Cemetery Road, and Mr Scorsese was a wonderfully comprehensive documentary on America’s greatest living filmmaker.

Disney+

Kim Kardashian stars in new legal drama All’s Fair.

My top Disney+ recommendation is All’s Fair (November 4).

Kim Kardashian put on her Hollywood floaties to play a rapacious publicist on season 12 of American Horror Story. Now she jumps into the deep end of the scripted pool as a take-no-prisoners divorce lawyer in this all-star legal drama from uber-producer Ryan Murphy (Glee, 9-1-1, the Monster anthology). Kardashian’s Allura Grant runs an all-female firm in Los Angeles that specialises in getting wronged wives what’s rightfully theirs. This is a show of runway-ready work outfits and smiling putdowns, delivered by the likes of Naomi Watts (The Watcher), Glenn Close (Damages) and – as Allura’s adversary and queen shit-talker – Sarah Paulson (The People v O.J. Simpson). This show could be many things but boring will not be one of them.

Also on Disney+: Australian film star Chris Hemsworth has previously made the Limitless documentary series, which explored wellness and longevity, with the Thor star as the strapping guinea pig. He’s now getting even more personal with new documentary Chris Hemsworth: A Road Trip to Remember (November 24), the actor’s response to his father’s recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis. With footage personally shot by Chris, the pair embark on an Australian road trip, revisiting their shared past and exploring the science of social connection and memory function. Men, crying in this one is an absolute possibility.

October highlights: Glenn Powell got his Ted Lasso on in the predictable sports comedy Chad Powers, and the scandalous true-crime drama of Murdaugh: Death in the Family.

HBO Max

Rachel Sennott and Josh Hutcherson in I Love LA.

My top HBO Max recommendation is I Love LA (November 3).

One of HBO’s calling cards has been debuting comedies that incisively capture the cultural moment for women. They did it with Sex and the City in 1998, and Girls in 2012, and they’re hoping to repeat it with this zeitgeisty 20something tale of chasing fulfilment. Rachel Sennott, who made her name with the independent movies Shiva Baby and Bottoms, brings her distinctive pout and comically self-lacerating dialogue to streaming, creating the show and starring as Maia, a budding entertainment industry manager starting to worry her goals are slipping away. Optimistic online and pessimistic off, the character comes with a juicy friend group; Jordan Firstman, a scene stealer in Disney+’s English Teacher, does likewise here.

Also on HBO Max: Rebecca Gibney has been a star on Australian television for close to 40 years, thanks to long-running hits such as The Flying Doctors and Packed to the Rafters, but she’s a Kiwi by birth and once more returns home to star in Happiness (November 4). An antic comedy about a small town with big dreams, it follows a budding young Broadway director, Charlie Summers (Harry McNaughton), who has to return home to New Zealand and his mother Gaye (Gibney) when he has visa difficulties. Against his better judgment Charlie needs to help Gaye’s local amateur theatre group, who are putting on a musical about Helen of Troy. Curtains up on Waiting for Guffman high jinks.

October highlights: Send in the clown – Pennywise returned for the unstoppable horror prequel It: Welcome to Derry, there were more Alan Partridge mishaps with the mockumentary How Are You? It’s Alan (Partridge), and The Chair Company was conspiratorial lunacy from the one-of-a-kind mind of Tim Robinson.

Stan*

My top Stan recommendation is He Had It Coming (November 20).

Blessed with an anarchic sense of humour and a sharp eye for performative hypocrisy, this Australian campus comedy follows a mismatched pair of students – awkward English arts hopeful Elise (Lydia West) and self-concerned influencer Barbara (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) – who wake from a night of drunken antics to find that a statue they vandalised is now also the murder site of an entitled male student. Cue self-preservation and amateur detective efforts. With shades of Amazon Prime’s brilliant Deadloch, the trailer suggests that creators Gretel Vella (The Great) and Craig Anderson (Double the Fist) are happily willing to skewer everyone involved.

Also on Stan: Luther creator Neil Cross goes full thriller with The Iris Affair (November 13), a British limited series about an enigmatic genius, Iris Nixon (Niamh Algar), who cracks a series of puzzles devised by a disruptive entrepreneur, Cameron Beck (Tom Hollander). Her reward? The chance to collaborate on a piece of new technology. But once Iris discovers its power she’s compelled to steal its activation device and go on the run, with a vengeful Cameron in pursuit. The setting is Italy, and the stars should have terrific chemistry. Hopefully Cross lets them have at it.

October highlights: Sex, consent and surveillance were dangerously intertwined in the Australian thriller Watching You, while The Hack told the story behind one of Britain’s most shocking media crises.

Amazon Prime

Jack Whitehall stars in new TV series Malice.

My top Amazon Prime recommendation is Malice (November 14).

The domestic help thriller is a potent idea: a household brings in an outsider as hired help, exposing themselves to an infiltrator who sabotages their lives. Often the newcomer is a nanny – think the just-remade The Hand that Rocks the Cradle on Disney+ – but this British drama applies a gender flip to the plot. When wealthy London couple Jamie (David Duchovny) and Nat Tanner (Carice van Houten) engage male nanny Adam Healey (Jack Whitehall) to help with their children while on a summer holiday, the young man slots easily into their privileged lives. But once they hire Jamie permanently his malignant intentions take shape. Done right, this should be tense and uncomfortable.

Also on Amazon Prime: Reacher star Alan Ritchson has proven that he has few equals in the “jacked dudes pulverise bad guys” genre. So what else can all that muscle do? One possible answer is Playdate (November 12), an action-comedy about an accountant, Brian (Kevin James), whose son’s new friend has an alpha-male dad, Jeff (Ritchson), whose friendly antics swiftly lead to fighting assassins and high-speed car chases. You know the drill: Brian looks horrified while Jeff delivers one-liners and action-hero moves. It’s so predictable it’s going to need everyone involved to be truly in on the joke.

October highlights: There was an affectionate documentary for a favourite 1980s film star with John Candy: I Like Me, plus Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy as father and son in the supernatural mystery Lazarus.

ABC iview

Benjamin Wainwright plays Parisian police detective Jules Maigret.

My top ABC iview recommendation is Maigret (November 7).

The character of Parisian police detective Jules Maigret is one of crime fiction’s most famous, with author Georges Simenon writing more than 100 novels and short stories between 1931 and 1972. There have been countless Maigret adaptations over the years, be it under French, British or even Japanese auspices, but what distinguishes this latest English-language version is that it’s set in the present day and begins with a comparatively fresh-faced Maigret. Benjamin Wainwright (Belgravia: The Next Chapter) plays the serious young lawman, with Stefanie Martini (The Last Kingdom) as his wife, psychiatric nurse Louise. And, yes, the show is using Simenon’s novels as source material.

October highlights: An unscrupulous conman untied his female victims in the darkly comic thriller The Following Events Are Based on a Pack of Lies.

SBS On Demand

Hunter Page-Lochard as Charlie and Tasma Walton as June in Reckless.

My top SBS On Demand recommendation is Reckless (November 12).

SBS’ new original series is a darkly comic First Nations thriller about a pair of feuding siblings from Fremantle, June (Tasma Walton) and Charlie (Hunter Page-Lochard), who are forced to trust each other when they cover up a deadly hit-and-run accident. Adapting the acclaimed Scottish thriller Guilt, creators Kodie Bedford (Mystery Road) and Stuart Page (Total Control) are mining the fault-lines of family and malfeasance. As keeping their mutual secret forces June and Charlie into ever-worsening circumstances, the question will be how they make their way out of the hole they’ve dug.

October highlights: A new season of the unpredictable British comic-drama The Change raised the stakes for its second-chance heroine, plus reappraising history with Suranne Jones: Investigating Witch Trials.

Other streamers

Mandy McElhinney as Eileen and George Zhao as Joon.

My top recommendation for the other streaming services is Paramount+’s Ghosts Australia (November 2).

Ghosts is one of the best sitcom concepts of the past 10 years: a young couple inherits a country house stocked with spirits from various historical eras who died on the property, which the female half of the new owners can suddenly see and hear after a serious accident. The British flagship debuted in 2019, the American remake followed in 2021, and now it’s Australia’s turn. Tamala (Cleverman) and Rowan Witt (Totally Completely Fine) play the living newcomers, with their spectral tenants including Mandy McElhinney (Paper Giants) as Eileen, a pessimistic Irish matriarch from the 1850s, and Jackson Tozer (Time Bandits) as Satan, a 1990s biker who is more bark than bite. Newcomers to the show can expect culture-clash humour, farcical back stories and an ever-evolving dynamic.

Also: BritBox’s Lynley (November 6) is a fresh take on The Inspector Lynley Mysteries, a BBC case-of-the-week drama that aired between 2001 and 2008. The story’s foundation remains the same: the professional drive and personal friction between hard-charging police detectives Thomas Lynley (Leo Suter) and Barbara Havers (Sofia Barclay). He’s the aristocrat’s son who will inherit an earlship, she’s the working-class scrapper who has no time for an Oxford old boy. Writer-producer Steve Thompson (Leonardo) is in charge, and with any luck the lead duo’s mockery of each other will be endearingly sharp.

October highlights: BritBox’s Scottish detective drama Karen Pirie continued to deliver north-of-the-border thrills.

* Nine owns Stan and this masthead.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.

Read Entire Article