1st seasons of 1923, Rain Dogs, The Rookie: Feds, Six Four, American Auto; new Chucky, Son of a Critch
CHUCKY S3| First on Showmax | 2 episodes on Mondays from 23 October
Chucky is headed for the White House in the third season of the cult horror franchise. It’s up to Jake, Devon, and Lexy to figure out how to stop Chucky when he’s cosied up to America's First Family, in the most secure house in the US.
Returning just in time for both Pride Month and Halloween, Chucky was nominated for Best Horror Series at this year’s Critics Choice Super Awards, with Brad Dourif up for Best Villain in a Series as the title character. The series has a 91% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus praises its “absurd humour and creative horror.”
Alyvia Alyn Lind, Zackary Arthur and Björgvin Arnarson are back as Lexy, Jake and Devon, as is Oscar nominee Jennifer Tilly as Chucky’s ex and now sworn enemy, Tiffany, who’s facing a looming crisis of her own this season as the police close in on her.
1923 S1 | Binge from 16 October
The Yellowstone prequel 1923 stars Oscar winner Helen Mirren (The Queen) and Oscar nominee Harrison Ford (aka Indiana Jones) as Cara and Jacob Dutton, who head a new generation of the Dutton family in Montana during the time of western expansion, Prohibition, and the Great Depression.
Continuing the saga from Oscar nominee Taylor Sheridan’s first Yellowstone prequel 1883, 1923 was conceived as a two-season series. The show has also already earned Helen Mirren a 2023 Critics Choice Super Award for Best Actress in an Action Series or Limited Series. It has an 8.4/10 score on IMDb and a 90% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Variety saying, “Mirren and Ford make for such a potent pairing; their chemistry alone is enough to make 1923 feel like an elevated version of Sheridan’s neo-Western fare.”
1923 was partly shot in Kenya, South Africa and Tanzania, so look out for SAFTA winner Nick Boraine (The Mating Game) as safari operator Richard Holland and Colin Moss (Warrior) as Tanganyika railroad construction supervisor Charles Hardin.
The international support cast includes the likes of the former James Bond, Timothy Dalton; BAFTA nominee Jerome Flynn (Bronn in Game of Thrones); and Robert Patrick (Peacemaker), while Isabel May reprises her 1883 role as Elsa Dutton to narrate.
RAIN DOGS S1 | Binge from 19 October
Rain Dogs stars double-BAFTA winner Daisy May Cooper (Avenue 5) as Costello Jones, a devoted mother who wants more for her precocious young daughter, Iris (Fleur Tashjian).
As she hustles to survive, Costello leans on Selby (Jack Farthing from Poldark), Iris' pseudo father and Costello's pseudo soulmate, and Gloria (Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo from Alex Rider and Christopher Robin), the duo's loyal yet chaotic godmother/best friend. Together they form a dysfunctional family on the fringes of society, trying to defy a system built against them to go straight in a crooked world.
Rain Dogs has a 93% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, where it’s #37 among the Best TV Shows of 2023 (So Far). Time calls Costello and Selby “easily the most compelling characters I’ve encountered this year”, hailing Rain Dogs as “magnificently dark… like no other family comedy on TV…”
THE ROOKIE: FEDS S1 | Binge from 23 October
Five-time Emmy nominee Niecy Nash (Dahmer, When They See Us) stars in The Rookie: Feds as Special Agent Simone Clark, the oldest rookie in the FBI Academy, who is assigned to support the Los Angeles field office.
A spin-off from Showmax favourite The Rookie, Feds was nominated as Outstanding New TV Series at the 2023 GLAAD Media Awards and has an 86% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Look out for Screen Actors Guild nominee Felix Solis (Ozark), Black Reel nominee Frankie Faison (The Wire), multi-award winners Kevin Zegers (Transamerica) and Britt Robertson (Tomorrowland), and James Lesure (Good Girls).
SON OF A CRITCH S2 | Binge from 11 October
In Season 2 of Son of a Critch, a new school year brings new challenges for 1980s junior high-schooler Mark Critch, including his first fight, first beer, and even his first pair of jeans. But the bigger Mark’s world gets, the more complicated things become.
Benjamin Evan Ainsworth (who voiced Zemeckis’ Pinocchio and stars opposite Bryan Cranston in the upcoming Everything's Going to Be Great) stars as the young Mark, with Hollywood Walk-of-Famer Malcolm McDowell (Bombshell, A Clockwork Orange) as his grandfather, and the real Mark Critch as his dad. An award-winning Canadian actor and writer, Critch co-writes the show (which is based on his memoir), with Writers Guild of America Award nominee Tim McAuliffe (The Last Man on Earth).
Season 1 scooped a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes and was nominated for seven Canadian awards this year, including Best Supporting Performer: Comedy for McDowell at the Canadian Screen Awards, and both Best Performance in a Comedy Series and Best Youth Performance for Sophia Powers at the Leo Awards, as well as a 2023 Young Artist Award for Outstanding Ensemble Cast (for Ainsworth, Powers and Mark Ezekiel Rivera).
Son of a Critch has already been renewed for a third season. Common Sense Media gives the family friendly show 4/5-stars, recommending the show for ages 10+.
SIX FOUR S1 | Binge from 23 October
Based on the bestselling novel by award-winning Japanese mystery writer Hideo Yokoyama, Six Four follows Glasgow police detective Chris and his wife, former undercover officer Michelle, who discover that the disappearance of their teenage daughter may be connected to a cold case.
Kevin McKidd (Dr Owen Hunt in Grey’s Anatomy and Tommy in the original Trainspotting) and British Independent Film Award winner Vinette Robinson star alongside the likes of Richard Coyle (Aberforth in Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, and Father Faustus Blackwood in Chilling Adventures of Sabrina).
In their four-star review, London Evening Standard praised Six Four as “tight, thrilling and full of twists and turns.”
AMERICAN AUTO S1 | Binge from 2 October
From Emmy nominee Justin Spitzer (the creator of Superstore and producer of The Office), American Auto is set at the Detroit offices of Payne Motors, where the floundering corporate execs are at a crossroads: adapt to the changing times or be sent to the junkyard. Luckily, they have a bold new CEO, whose leadership, experience, and savvy are only slightly offset by her total lack of knowledge about cars.
Nominated for a Hollywood Critics Association Award for Best Broadcast Network Series: Comedy, as well as for its writing, American Auto holds a 100% critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with Globe and Mail calling it, “A mad satire of corporate life… mainly set in the boardroom, where executives prove daily that they know nothing.”
The hilarious ensemble cast includes Ana Gasteyer (Saturday Night Live), Jon Barinholtz (Superstore’s Marcus), Harriet Dyer (Ashley in Colin From Accounts, Emily in The Invisible Man), and X Mayo, an Emmy nominee for her writing on The Daily Show.
EVERYTHING ON SHOWMAX IN OCTOBER 2023
To see everything on Showmax in October 2023, including the Showmax Original Boetie Boer, blockbuster films like Cocaine Bear, and the Black Reel-nominated documentary Love To Love You, Donna Summer, click here.