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TV shows to watch in September: Lizzie Borden unleashed and the return of ‘Slow Horses’
Long-lost children, axe-murderers and the hilarious and harsh realities of middle age in this month’s TV offerings
The proliferation of streaming options complicates the logistics of watching television, but it also means that each month brings a cornucopia of new offerings in virtually any genre. Whether you’re looking for an espionage thriller, a twisty drama or a comedy, September has you covered.
Apple TV+ hasn’t had quite as much luck with thriller and drama series as it has with sci-fi shows like “Silo” and comedies like “Ted Lasso.” The streamer looks to change that with this Australian entry.
Ian Ridley (Patrick Brammall) is an ex-detective working as an emergency dispatcher. Like so many prestige TV characters, he’s nursing grief from an unbearable trauma — the disappearance of his young daughter, Maggie, more than a decade ago. When he receives a distress call from a girl (Chloe Jean Lourdes) calling herself Maggie, he becomes convinced it’s his daughter. The show features a “premise seemingly engineered to sit uncomfortably in any parent's chest,” said Caroline Preece at MovieWeb. (Sept. 9 on Apple TV+)
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Based on Saskia Noort’s novel “The Dinner Club,” this Dutch production follows Karen (Loes Haverkort) who is invited to join an exclusive club of dilettantes and pleasure-seekers when she moves with her family to a new town. One night, one of the group’s houses is set ablaze, and their friend Evert (Edwin Jonker) is killed.
From there, secrets start to unravel and answers to the mystery of how their friends can afford a lifestyle of seemingly limitless fun are revealed. A twisty thriller in the spirit of “Big Little Lies,” the series will be “your next TV obsession,” said Lydia Patrick at Good Housekeeping. (Sept. 10 on Netflix)
‘Slow Horses’ season 6
Slow Horses — Season 6 Official Trailer | Apple TV - YouTube
Millennials may get their first solicitation from the American Association of Retired Persons before they see the third season of the Apple TV+ sci-fi hit “Severance.” But the streamer is cranking out seasons of the spy thriller “Slow Horses” on an impressively accelerated schedule.
The story of a fictional dumping ground for inept MI6 spies called Slough House, “Slow Horses” is blessed with a winning ensemble led by Gary Oldman as their foul-mouthed leader, Jackson Lamb, and Jack Lowden as the ambitious (but also somewhat incompetent) young agent River Cartwright. In season 6, the gang is on the lam from double-crossing MI5 official Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas). The series has in “recent years cemented itself among shows consistently vying for critical recognition,” said Trey Williams at The Hollywood Reporter. (Sept. 16 on Apple TV+)
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‘Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story’
MONSTER: The Lizzie Borden Story | Official Trailer | Netflix - YouTube
Netflix’s series of “Monster” biopics about famous murderers like Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer is possibly the grimmest franchise on television. But creator Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan look to lighten the atmosphere a bit with this bonkers-looking fictionalization of the legendary Fall River, Massachusetts, axe-murders of Andrew (Charlie Hunnam) and Abby (Rebecca Hall) Borden for which their child Lizzie (Ella Beatty) was put on trial.
Creative liberties include a romance between Borden and the family’s live-in maid, Bridget Sullivan (Vicky Krieps). “This isn’t your great-great-grandmother’s version of the Victorian-era mystery,” said Savannah Walsh at Vanity Fair, but a thoroughly modern entry with a “darkly comic tilt.” (Sept. 17 on Netflix)
Fresh off the hit Apple TV+ comedic thriller “Bad Sisters,” Sharon Horgan — whose breakout role was in the superb British comedy series “Pulling” — goes back to her comedy roots with a new series for HBO Max. Horrigan plays Alex, a divorced 50-year-old literary agent with a son, Ruari (Aran Murphy), who has failed to launch.
Her parents are also in decline, which she juggles along with her on-again, off-again romantic interest, Patrick (Rupert Friend), in what seems like a natural follow-up to “Catastrophe,” the Horgan-headlined hit comedy about an unexpected late-30s pregnancy. The latest show “constantly slips back and forth between comedy and drama” and “lets its characters steep in the weirdness of ordinary life,” said Joy Press at Vanity Fair. (Sept. 20 on HBO Max).
David Faris is a professor of political science at Roosevelt University and the author of "It's Time to Fight Dirty: How Democrats Can Build a Lasting Majority in American Politics." He's a frequent contributor to Newsweek and Slate, and his work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New Republic and The Nation, among others.
