The Best TV Shows & Movies In September

Welcome to September, the official start of cozy season (even if it is still hot out). And what is one of the most important things required for a successful cozy season? A good TV show or movie to curl up to. 

And this month, there’s no shortage of must-watch titles to be found. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice — the long-awaited sequel to Tim Burton’s classic Beetlejuice starring Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega, Catherine O’Hara, and Michael Keaton — kicks off the fall movie-going season with fun, spooky vibes. Tell Me Lies, everyone’s favorite love-to-hate-it drama chronicling the toxic relationship between two college students, and their friends’, finally returns to Hulu with its second season. And there’s a new Nicole Kidman miniseries — The Perfect Couple — in which, you guessed it, the star addictively portrays a talented woman, wife, and mother pulled into the middle of a possible murder investigation when a dead body washes up on the beach the morning of her son’s wedding. 

So grab the pumpkin-flavored treat of your choosing (no, it’s not too early, okay?) and get watching.

I love a British crime drama or thriller. When they’re good, they’re good, often feeling complex yet never convoluted, intense yet with a specific sense of humor, clever yet not trying to outsmart their audience. And they’re reliable; when the cast and crew of one of these shows find their rhythm, it’s very rare that they lose it. All of this is why Apple TV+’s Slow Horses has been one of my favorite under-the-radar shows of the last few years — I can always count on its six-episode seasons to deliver one of the most purely enjoyable TV-watching experiences I’ll have that year. 

If you’re unfamiliar (which, I wouldn’t blame you: this show has not gotten the attention it deserves), Slow Horses is a spy thriller adapted from Mick Herron’s Slough House series of novels that follows a group of MI5 agents (led by Gary Oldman’s slovenly and obnoxious Jackson Lamb) who have been outcast from the main branch because they’re not very good at their jobs, but not bad enough to be fired. In some cases, exiled agents have done something to piss off the people in power. Regardless, they’re all stuck doing menial administrative work — until they inevitably get pulled into some high-risk mission like they do at the beginning of each season. The series is twisty and fast-paced. It’s also not precious in its decision making: it will do the hard thing, like kill off a main character, if that’s what serves the story best. 

Season 4 is no different. The plot kicks off when a bomb goes off at a busy London shopping center, immediately pulling our group of spies into the investigation to find who’s behind the act before things escalate. At the same time, River (Jack Lowden) is grappling with his grandfather’s (a former beloved MI5 agent himself) worsening dementia, meaning he’s managing grief while also wondering what it means when a spy with years worth of secrets stored in his memory begins to lose control over his mind.

Where to watch: Apple TV+ 
When: September 4 
Watch if you like: The Americans, The Night Manager, Luther 

A hate-watch can be really satisfying. Now, I’m not talking about hate-watching something that’s not actually well made. When I say a movie or TV series is a hate-watch, I mean that I so fundamentally disagree with almost everything that the chapters on screen do and say, I can’t help but yell at them as if they’re in the room with me. That’s the experience of watching romantic drama Tell Me Lies, which is returning for its second season after a lengthy wait. 

Adapted from the 2018 Carola Lovering novel of the same name (and executive produced by Emma Roberts), the series tracks the years-long, incredibly toxic relationship between Lucy (Grace Van Patten) and Stephen (Jackson White), who meet when she’s a college freshman and he’s a junior. Season 1 was dark and sexy, and every single thing about Lucy and Stephen (especially Stephen, as he’s older, manipulative and holds more power) was so frustrating — and Season 2 follows that same vein. 

Heading back to campus for a new semester, Lucy and Stephen are both still dealing with the aftermath of their breakup, but they also can’t help but indulge in their messiest behavior and have a knack for hurting each other in the process. They’re a pair that will make you want to put on your authority figure hat and send them into separate corners for timeouts. 

Where to watch: Hulu
When: September 4
Watch if you like: Euphoria, Conversations With Friends 

If you’re the type to bring a book on vacation or pick up a paperback at an airport, then you’ve probably heard of Elin Hilderbrand. In 2019, The Cut crowned the writer the “queen of beach reads” — and with good reason. Known for her many sunny, often romantic titles set on Nantucket (where she lives), Hilderbrand has a way of crafting compelling, dynamic characters while wielding a page-turning pen. With all that in mind, it’s hard to believe that more of Hilderbrand’s novels haven’t been adapted for the screen. But with The Perfect Couple (Hilderbrand’s first murder-mystery) that’s about to change. 

The six-episode drama feels like it could be the East Coast version of Big Little Lies — and not just because Nicole Kidman stars in it. The miniseries follows Greer Garrison Winbury, a world-famous novelist who has taken it upon herself to throw a lavish wedding for her son Benji (Billy Howle) and his fiancée Amelia (Eve Hewson) — largely in part because Amelia comes from a working-class family and is still an outsider among the ultra-wealthy Winburys. Everything seems to be going according to plan until a dead body is found on the beach the morning of the wedding. What follows is a twisty whodunit that also explores relationships, class, privilege, and what it means to protect your family. This show will likely be divisive (thrillers are hard), but with Nicole Kidman leading the way, it’s hard to resist.

Where to watch: Netflix
When: September 5
Watch if you like:Big Little Lies, The White Lotus, Bad Sisters

How long is too long for a sequel to come around? For Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, 36 years seems to be just fine. The decades-later followup to Tim Burton’s original Beetlejuice is campy in all the right ways — with a wink to the audience to let them know they’re in on the joke too.

Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) now has a daughter of her own, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), although the relationship is strained. After an unexpected family death brings the Deetz family back to Winter River, the next generation’s supernatural misadventure begins when Astrid accidentally opens the portal to the afterlife — and allows for the return of the mayhem-ensuing demon Beetlejuice (reprised by Michael Keaton). Catherine O’Hara as kooky stepmom Delia steals the show with a performance that echoes Schitt’s Creek Moira Rose (but with a tad more self-awareness), and director Burton satiates the appetites of old and new fans alike who relish his childlike view of the strange and unnatural.

The Juice is loose again, baby, and we’re so ready for it.

Where to watch: Theaters
When: September 6
Watch if you like: Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands

Eighteen-year-old Elliott (Maisy Stella) is ready to leave her family’s cranberry farm, but before she heads to the big city, in this case Toronto, for college, she has one final summer in the country. When she and her friends trip on shrooms, her future 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza) appears and warns her to not fall in love with a guy named Chad (Percy Hynes White). Elliot is sure she’ll have no problem heeding “her old ass’” advice — until she meets him.

Coming-of-age stories — and their themes of personal growth, sense of self, and eager-eyed world views — are hardly new, but their universality seems to always resonate no matter how old we get so it’s understandable why we turn to them time and time again. My Old Ass, the second feature film from Megan Park, is sweet, a beautiful ode to Canadiana, and will have you chuckling for all the right reasons. It’s a worthy successor to Park’s The Fallout and secures the director-writer’s lane of modernizing YA stories and elevating them with a gentle hand.

Maisy Stella, best known for playing Connie Britton’s younger daughter in Nashville, has a breakout performance as Elliot displays Gen Z’s most admirable qualities — curious, free-spirited, and reflective — something that’s often missing in today’s cultural conversation. But even if you aren’t of this generation, the slight tweaks to the familiar coming-of-age formula make the film fresh enough that you’ll walk away feeling a bit more profound when you inevitably find yourself reflecting on the simpler days of youth. 

Where to watch: Theaters
When: September 13 (limited release); September 27 (wide release) 
Watch if you like: CODA, The Edge Of Seventeen, The Fallout

Every once in a while, you’ll come across a pair of actors who have so much on-screen chemistry, you can practically feel it radiating between them. Adam Brody and Kristen Bell can count themselves as one such duo — and thank goodness because, like with any rom-com, their new series, Nobody Wants This, thrives on said chemistry.  

Inspired by creator (and online personality/Favorite Daughter co-founder) Erin Foster’s real life, the show chronicles the love story between Joanne, a spunky, unfiltered podcaster who is direct and goes after what she wants, and Noah, a routine-driven modern-day rabbi who is used to playing it safe and considering others in his decision-making. They’re not at all similar yet somehow they hit it off, and they fall hard and fast — in a way that will make you giddy as you watch their story unfold. But their differences are vast, and, eventually, the couple have to tackle them head on — while many people in their lives are not-so-subtly hoping they fail. 

Where to watch: Netflix
When: September 26
Watch if you like: Love Life, Lovesick, Starstruck