My Top Picks for October TV

As of this past weekend, a tentative deal between the writers and the studios has been made. We will have to wait for all the signatures to be signed and the official announcement to be made for part of Hollywood to get back to rights, but now we still have to wait for the actors and the studios to get there too. And while those strikes have held Hollywood frozen for months, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t programming options to watch in October.

The following are the dramas and movies that I am most anticipating for next month.

WELCOME TO THE BLOCK

The following new dramas will debut throughout October:

NBC will debut the new drama Found on October 3. The premise of this show is somewhat similar to the FOX drama Alert: Missing Persons Unit that debuted in January of this year. Found focuses on a public relations specialist who was once herself a missing person, who saved herself from her kidnapper played by Saved By the Bell and Pitch alum Mark-Paul Gossellar. The twist with this show is that she’s now holding her kidnapper and using him to figure out her current missing person cases.

Two Canadian transplants will be debuting on The CW on October 4: Sullivan’s Crossing and The Spencer Sisters. The first focuses on a neurosurgeon who after a fall from grace returns to her childhood home where she has to deal with her estranged dad and a handsome newcomer. As for the latter, a mom and daughter, who are often mistaken for sisters, work together to solve puzzling cases.

Brie Larson (Captain Marvel herself) stars in Lessons in Chemistry on Apple TV+ starting on October 13. Elizabeth Zott dreams of being a scientist, but after she gets fired from her lab, she takes a job as a host of a TV cooking show that gives her the opportunity to teach a lot more than just recipes.

BACK FOR A NEW SEASON

The following shows will be back for a new season throughout next month:

Quantum Leap on NBC on October 4
Loki on Disney+ on October 5
Doom Patrol on Max on October 12
Upload on Prime Video on October 20

COMING TO AN END

The Wheel of Time will air its season finale on Prime Video on October 6.

MOVIES, MOVIES, MOVIES

There are more than 2 dozen made-for-TV movies set to debut all throughout October, but the movies that I am most interested in watching are:

Hannah Swensen Mysteries: A Zest for Death on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries on October 6, finding Alison Sweeney and Cameron Mathison back for the latest installment of the franchise.

3 Bed, 2 Bath, 1 Ghost on the Hallmark Channel on October 7, starring real life couple Julie Gonzalo and Chris McNally in a story that includes a 1920’s ghost who won’t leave a newly listed house.

Curious Caterer: Fatal Vows on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries on October 13, starring Nikki DeLoach and Andrew Walker in the lead roles in the franchise.

Under the Christmas Sky on the Hallmark Channel on October 22, starring my personal favorite Hallmark hunk Ryan Paevey.

NEW STORYTELLING

As a fan of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer, it was exciting to learn that a number of the cast members of the series – including James Marsters, Charisma Carpenter, Anthony Head, Juliet Landau, Emma Caulfield Ford, James Charles Leary and Danny Strong – would be reuniting for a new story within the Buffyverse, which will debut on October 12, entitled Slayers: A Buffyverse Story. Even better, the story is co-written and will be co-directed by one of the show’s own: Amber Benson, who also appears in the new incarnation.

The only downside – at least for me – is that it will debut on Audible, the online audiobook and podcast service. I am not a fan of podcasts or listening to anything via audiobooks, but this new production just might change my mind.

For those who want to know, the story picks up 10 years after the events of the final episode. Since then, Spike has gone deep undercover in Los Angeles, convincing the forces of darkness that he’s back to his evil ways. When his cover is compromised by sixteen-year-old Indira Nunnally (to be played by Laya DeLeon Hayes from the TV version of The Equalizer), Spike finds himself on baby-slayer-sitting duty once more. While he attempts to track down a watcher for his eager new protégé, their paths collide with the veteran Slayer of a parallel reality where Buffy Summers never existed. A reality where Cordelia Chase is the one-and-only Slayer. She needs Spike’s help with a classic big bad terrorizing her world, his old flame, Drusilla.

Make sure to check out our October TV calendar when it goes live tomorrow and let us know what programming you are most anxious to watch next month.