It’s back-to-school time, and you know what that means: It’s back to your TV screens as well to decompress after a long day of book learnin’. And lucky you, there’s a ton of great TV (and movies) coming to streaming this month for September 2026, so let’s break down some of the highlights.
Prime Video’s Reacher Universe Expands
Fan of Prime Video’s Reacher? While the fourth season of the series is ending this month (and there’s a fifth in the works), you’ve also got a brand new spin-off dropping all in the same day to enjoy. With Neagley, Maria Sten takes center stage as she investigates a mystery of her own, joined by Adeline Rudolph and Greyston Holt. Alan Ritchson even makes a guest appearance as Reacher for maximum spinoff potential! Unlike the main series, which rolls out episodes semi-weekly, Neagley will premiere all episodes on the same day – just like Reacher himself, you’ve got nine hours of TV to binge.
Peacock’s The Paper Season 2: Will Toledo Find Its Voice?
A lot of all-time comedies take time to find their footing. Think The Office, Parks & Recreation; even Brooklyn Nine-Nine had to spend several episodes hashing out the character dynamics and rhythms. So will Peacock’s The Paper be the same? The first season featured Domhnall Gleeson as Ned, the eternally optimistic new Editor-in-Chief of the Toledo Truth Teller, running a staff of mostly inexperienced writers while clashing with the digital-first Esmerelda (Sabrina Impacciatore) and sparking a “will-they won’t-they” romance with the only good news reporter, Mare (Chelsea Frei). But it mostly couldn’t quite figure out what it wanted to be until the excellent final episode of the season. Will the presses be running for The Paper Season 2?
Apple TV+’s Slow Horses Season 6: Gary Oldman Returns
The best spy show on TV is back for the next yearly installment of six episodes on Apple TV, which definitely isn’t enough… but we’ll take what we can get. Starring Gary Oldman as the disgusting, farting head of Slough House — basically where MI5 sticks the spies they don’t want anymore — the latest season is based on two of Mick Herron’s novels: Joe Country and Slough House. With a new showrunner taking over from Will Smith (Season 5), Gaby Chiappe steps in as head writer, while Ben Vanstone takes over for Season 7. Don’t worry, though; Chiappe is a pro, having written dozens of episodes of TV since 1997 as well as several films. Beyond Oldman, the rest of the cast is back too, with Kristin Scott Thomas’s Diana Taverner finally at First Desk (aka head of MI5) and Jack Lowden’s River Cartwright dealing with a devastating loss. There’s also the return of a few familiar faces (no spoilers here). The show is funny and smart with some great action and excellent character dynamics, so trot over to your TV and get caught up for Slow Horses Season 6 right now.
South Park Season 29: Trey Parker and Matt Stone Continue to Provoke
What is there to be said about South Park, the nearly 30-year-old animated series, at this point that we don’t already know? It’s ostensibly about a bunch of kids living in the small town of South Park, Colorado, but really, it’s a chance for creators/billionaires Trey Parker and Matt Stone to say whatever they want about society and the US government in particular. So what will happen in the upcoming 29th season? Pick up a newspaper or click on over to your fave news website (IGN of course), and whatever is a hot button issue this week will surely make it onto the series later in the week. After a renewed cultural relevance with Season 28 and a contentious upcoming midterms election, chances are that Parker and Stone will go for the jugular once again.
Netflix’s Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story – Another Ryan Murphy Anthology
Despite frequent accusations of front-loading the killers and diminishing the stories of victims, Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s Monster anthology is back with a new installment. In a resounding girl boss move, it’s turning the lens to female killers; heck yeah — you go girl! Specifically, the show is focusing on famous axe murderer Lizzie Borden, who reportedly gave her mother forty whacks and then her father forty-one. But this will likely be a more grounded version of the classic nursery rhyme, featuring an as-usual-for-a-Murphy-production all-star cast: Ella Beatty (previously of Murphy’s Feud) stars as Lizzie Borden alongside Charlie Hunnam, Rebecca Hall, Sarah Paulson, Billie Lourd, and more. At the very least, moving the action to 1892 should probably make it harder for any of Borden’s victims’ families to complain versus previous seasons of Monster.
Josh Brolin and Matthew McConaughey Reunite in Apple TV+’s Brothers
Not to be confused with 2009’s Brothers (starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire), 2024’s Brothers (starring Josh Brolin and Peter Dinklage), or Brothers from 1977, 2004, 2023, or the other Brothers from 2009 (starring Michael Strahan and Carl Weathers), Apple TV’s Brothers stars Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey in the roles they were born to play: Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey. The Apple TV series pivots on how everyone always joked they were like brothers, then continued to joke about that when they were on True Detective, and then discovered via a dive into their family history that they may indeed be half-brothers. Maybe. What Brothers (2026) presupposes is: What if they were brothers? The show takes a metafictional approach to that narrative, with the duo playing semi-fictionalized versions of themselves. Confused? Don’t be, as the show is essentially Yellowstone but with Harrelson and McConaughey trying to unravel their (fictional) shared family history. Alright? Alright. Alright.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season Finale – “Tomorrow’s Enterprise” – What Shenanigans Are Coming?
While the fourth season of Paramount+’s Star Trek: Strange New Worlds has mostly been done-in-one adventures, the season finale has an extremely intriguing title, particularly given Season 2 will be an abbreviated final season of the series: “Tomorrow’s Enterprise.” Even without context, those words could make your ears perk up higher than Spock’s (Ethan Peck) as the well-received prequel series heads towards the end/beginning, with Captain Kirk (Paul Wesley) taking over from Captain Pike (Ethan Peck). So certainly this title could merely refer to the eventuality of the events of the Original Series picking up where Strange New Worlds leaves off. But! The Next Generation episode “Yesterday’s Enterprise” found the crew of the Enterprise-D encountering the presumed destroyed Enterprise-C thanks to what is scientifically known as “shenanigans.” The Next Gen folks ended up changing time by the end of that episode to save yesterday’s Enterprise; could a similar scenario play out in this upcoming Strange New Worlds episode? Could Kirk’s Enterprise end up back in time, encountering Pike’s Enterprise and showing them a glimpse of the future (something an intrepid, probably time-traveling Reddit user called it four years ago)? Or even more intriguingly; What if we skip Kirk entirely and go all the way forward to the Enterprise-G as seen at the end of Picard Season 3, captained by Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan)? Adding fuel to any of these theories: September 1 is the official 60th anniversary of Star Trek. While this episode doesn’t quite line up, what better way to pay tribute to the franchise than with the current flagship show meeting the future… quite literally?
Netflix’s Unabomber: Jacob Tremblay Takes on a Controversial Role
If you’re Netflix and looking to dramatize the life of the Unabomber, aka Ted Kaczynski, the natural choice is — of course — child star Jacob Tremblay. We’re joking, but Tremblay has been a standout ever since his award-winning performance in Room. Now 19, he’ll play the infamous serial bomber in two timelines — one set during the manhunt that tried to track him down, and one during his time at Harvard University leading up to his stint as the mysterious hooded, sunglasses-wearing criminal. While this is far from the first time the events surrounding Kaczynski have been dramatized, this movie does sport a great cast including Russell Crowe, Shailene Woodley, Annabelle Wallis, Steven Ogg, and more. It’s directed by Janus Metz Pedersen, who also directed three episodes of Andor Season 2 — the episode leading to, including, and dealing with the fallout from the Ghorman Massacre — to give you a sense of what might be in store.
Which show or movie are you looking forward to most in September? Will you be watching any of these this month? What else are you looking forward to that we didn’
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