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Ah, remember back to school energy? The first few weeks of a new semester are always filled with so many possibilities. I will do all the readings this semester. I will work on all my assignments super early. The tattooed guy in my film theory seminar is my soulmate. September in TV world isn't much different. The calendar is stacked with new releases and it’s when broadcast networks wake up from their summer slumber. If for some reason you don’t watch a single broadcast show that airs from ~September to May, you’re missing out on one of television’s most powerful time-proven gems. Like at least watch Abbott Elementary, dang!
What’s your September looking like? I will be at the Toronto International Film Festival for a lot of it, then off to New York for a few days there, with a week of respite back in Vancouver before the Vancouver International Film Festival begins. Somewhere in there, I have a self-imposed deadline for my book proposal. I don’t know how we’re going to get it all done, and most importantly, watch everything we need to watch, but hey! These are plentiful problems. There are so many shows premiering I’m dedicating this entire newsletter to previewing the month ahead.
Sept 1: The Varnell Hill Show (Paramount+, S1) – For fans of Martin, Tommy Davidson is reprising his role three decades later in this new sitcom. The show will also see the return of Martin Lawrence. I’m curious about how this will land as a spin-off/reboot? I mean, not even the Frasier reboot could make it.
Sept 3: La mesías (MUBI/Disney+, S1) – Okay so Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo are about to blow up with their buzzy Oscar season film La bola negra, but they also have this acclaimed series coming out internationally on MUBI (it’s already streaming on Disney+ in the US for whatever reason). The real ones will recall these directors from their work on Veneno (an underrated series!).
Sept 3: The Gentleman (Netflix, S2) – Did anyone catch those messy Meghan Markle announcements? Two announcements came out within like 2 days of each other, one saying Markle was being eyed for a role for the show’s third season and then she was “dropped” not long after, reportedly due to backlash. That seems like a flimsy reason not to have her? Anyway I haven’t even watched the first season of this, but I should.
Sept 5: Scavengers Reign (Adult Swim, S1) – If you have Adult Swim, one of my favourite series of the last few years is airing on their late-night Toonami block. The implications of this! Let’s break it down: The series, based on a short film from 2016, originally premiered for HBO Max back in 2022. It was nominated for an Emmy and critically acclaimed but cancelled (CRIMINAL). Netflix picked it up in 2024 to stream with the possibility of renewing it but they decided not to (ALSO CRIMINAL). One of the co-creators has another show, Common Side Effects, which does well on Adult Swim, with another in development. So my thinking is Adult Swim could pick this up for a second season since they seem to be interested in owning the rights to broadcasting it. All that and I haven’t even told you what it’s about, but it doesn’t even matter because it’s just that good, go hit play and let me know what you think.
Sept 6: A Tale of Two Cities (MGM+, S1) – It’s a terrible time to debut a new Kit Harington show, given the Harry Potter of it all. This period drama is about two lookalikes who fall in love with the same woman during the French Revolution. If they were gay guys they would fall for each other instead!
Sept 8: The Real Housewives of New York City (Bravo, S16) – So this is a re-re-reboot, I guess. The last two seasons saw an entirely new cast: Mostly younger, with significant social followings, but an entirely different vibe to the old RHONY guard (Luann the countess, Bethenny Frankel, etc.). After two poorly received seasons and a bit of a hiatus, S16 is promising to be a return to form, and also welcomes back one of my favourite housewives ever, Carole Radziwill (the widow of Anthony Radziwill, a Kennedy nephew). That being said, she’s in the Epstein files, which based on the trailer of the new season, will be addressed head-on. Martha Stewart is also set to appear since her makeup artist has joined the cast.
Sept 8: Dang! (Netflix, S1) – Animated TV has had a bit of a rough go lately, after the cancelation of Kevin and the poorly-received Ricky Gervais comedy Alley Cats. Or maybe we just need to stop making animated shows about cats. They’ll never be Flow! Dang! is about three siblings voiced by Andrew Law, Stephanie Hsu, and Poppy Liu.
Sept 8: The Drop: A Snowfall Saga (FX/Hulu, S1) – I wish I could go back in time and watch Snowfall as it was airing because I know it’s good and I also feel overwhelmed by the idea of starting now with everything on my plate. Nonetheless, a spin-off has arrived.
Sept 8: North of North (CBC Gem, S2) – Sorry to Americans, you’ll have to wait for this one to hit Netflix (unless Canada follows my instructions and starts pulling Canadian TV from American networks as a weapon in their arsenal for the trade wars! Americans would actually maybe start caring if they couldn’t watch Heated Rivalry). Anyway, I loved S1 of this bright comedy.
Sept 9: The Paper (Peacock, S2) – I’ve told a few people there’s a spin-off of The Office and they’re like WHAT?! So this can’t be doing that well, but I kind of liked S1…
Sept 9: Last Seen (Apple TV, S1) – I feel very protective over Patrick Brammall after people were making fun of him on The Devil Wears Prada for being useless or whatever. But to me he is a TV king from his time on Evil and his charming comedy Colin From Accounts that he co-creates with his wife. This also stars Maxine Peake who is also a tvscholar fave from showing up in a million things but The Bisexual in particular. This is just six episodes so we’ll see!
Sept 10: Crew Girl (Netflix, S1) – Friend of tvscholar Max Gao told me I can go ahead and remove this from my list because I mostly make fun of YA shows rather than actually watch/enjoy them…but hey this was filmed in my hometownish of Victoria and I was Googling “gay Vancouver rowing” the other day because I like the idea of a team sport I can do while sitting down.
Sept 10: Colin from Accounts (Paramount+, S3) – Copy-paste everything I said above about Patrick Brammall here but add that I love Harriet Dyer! This show will randomly cut deep in a way that reminds me of You’re the Worst. There was an amazing episode where Ashley (Dyer) gets lost after falling asleep on a bus last season. I’m hoping for more of that once again, but I’m so upset this is the last season.
Sept 13: Brothers (Apple TV, S1) – This show’s concept uhhh: Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson apparently play fictionalized versions of themselves who find out they might be brothers. What in the Bupkis meets Sterling Point?
Sept 13: High Value Target: The Hunt for Saddam (TNT, S1) – Oh god, I don’t even know how this will go but it’s about Saddam Hussein’s first interrogation after being captured in 2003. Joel Kinnaman stars as CIA officer John Nixon.
Sept 14: The 78th Primetime Emmy Awards (NBC) – The Emmys, on a Monday?! I’ll be at TIFF but I’m planning to take the night off from screenings/party to tune in.
Sept 15: The Creep Tapes (Shudder, S3) – I don’t watch this horror series created by Mark Duplass but they’ve consistently put out a season of it per year. Does anyone watch/should I tune in?
Sept 15: RJ Decker (ABC, S2) – My favourite part of this show is that Scott Speedman, who plays RJ Decker, lives with a lesbian couple. The first season was just a 9-episode affair so I’m hoping I can catch up because I do like watching Speedman…well, anywhere.
Sept 15: Agatha Christie’s Tommy & Tuppence (Britbox, S1) – Another Agatha Christie! Imelda Staunton is credited in the cast.
Sept 16: Neagley (Prime Video) – A spin-off of Reacher that stars Maria Sten.
Sept 16: RHOSLC (Bravo, S7) – We are so back…RHOSLC will welcome Ashley Quai as a new full-time housewife with everyone else coming back. So much has occurred in this series, but somehow they always manage to weave together an extremely entertaining narrative. Some of the best editing on TV, I swear!
Sept 16: Slow Horses (Apple TV, S6) – The most consistent shooting schedule on television. This one is set to premiere at TIFF, as well.
Sept 17: Traitors: New Blood (Peacock, S1) – A new iteration of the American Traitors, this one will follow “regular” people. I’ve always heard the “citizens” version of this show is much better and more satisfying because they have no pre-existing context for each other as they play the game.
Sept 17: Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story (Netflix, S4) – I am a bit sick of this franchise and can barely watch it but I am excited to see Rebecca Hall and Sarah Paulson.
Sept 20: Youth (HBO Max, S1) – Sharon. Horgan. Starring and writing. I will be tuned IN.
Sept 20: American Hostage (MGM+, S1) – Based on a podcast series, Jon Hamm and Mireille Enos star in this crime thriller. I feel like nothing MGM+ except From is really breaking out yet? So we’ll see, maybe this could be it.
Sept 20: Trespasses (PBS, S1) – Finally! Lola Petticrew (Say Nothing, Furious) stars in another show about The Troubles in 1970s Northern Ireland. Gillian Anderson is also in it! It’s just 4 episodes.
Sept 21: WAR (HBO, S1) – George Kay (Lupin, Hijack) has created this legal drama about a high-profile divorce between characters played by Dominic West (does he ever play anyone likeable?) and Sienna Miller. The show is also an anthology and the second season is already in production with Marisa Tomei set to star.
Sept 21: Line of Fire (NBC, S1) – A new NBC show starring Peter Krause (he stays booked…) about a family of law enforcement agents who all get wrapped up in some kind of conspiracy.
Sept 22: Best Medicine (Fox, S2) – This cutesy medical drama based on Doc Martin returns with Josh Charles at the helm. I wish I had kept watching this but it never felt that high priority for me.
Sept 24: American Horror Story (FX, S13) – They’re backkkkk. This all stars season will apparently be an ode to the series as a whole, bringing back a number of the original actors (Jessica Lange!). It looked like it would mostly be a second iteration of Coven but Ryan Murphy assured it would encompass many other seasons too. Didn’t we already do that with Apocalypse?
Sept 24: A Different World (Netflix, S1) – The original A Different World was a college sitcom spin-off of The Cosby Show that took place at Hillman College and aired between 1987 and 1993. This new revival is produced by Debbie Allen with many of the original performers reprising their roles.
Sept 25: Slo Pitch (Crave, S1) – Queers and baseball! I’m excited for this. I love that Crave is expanding its queer programming. No news on an American distributor though, sorry…
Sept 30: Scrubs (ABC, S2) – I never watched the original Scrubs but the reboot was a fun short little watch to throw on during the week…I was kind of happy when it got renewed!
In case you missed it, I also wrote a tribute to Hayden Panettiere, declared that Sterling Point is the show of the summer, interviewed Lady Sybil who is also in Silo and the upcoming final season of Industry, put together my usual new TV recommendations round-up for Yahoo, and I think that’s it! For now ;)
I love how unabashedly Canadian you are, GeopoliticsScholar.
Question 🙋🏻♀️ the survey asks for a sign in. Do we have log-ins as subscribers? I don’t remember setting up an account 😬