15 Shows and Movies We’re Excited to Stream in October 2020

We’ve got a lot of time on our hands right now. Here are all the movies and television shows we can’t wait to watch on streaming services—including Netflix Canada, CBC Gem, Crave, Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video—in October 2020.

Apple TV+

On the Rocks
In this new film from director Sofia Coppola, Rashida Jones plays a young mother whose doubts about her marriage push her to team up with her playboy father (played by Bill Murray). The pair spend their nights roaming around New York City, visiting various parties and hotspots, as they investigate her husband and learn more about each other in the process. In addition to Jones and Murray, the film also stars Marlon Wayans and Jenny Slate. Available October 23

Netflix Canada

Emily In Paris
Taking the classic “American in Paris” trope and giving it a high fashion spin is this 10-episode series starring Lily Collins. Created by Darren Star (who’s already given us women-living-their-best-lives shows like Younger and Sex and the City), the series centres around an ambitious young marketing executive from Chicago whose company transfers her to Paris. Her new life in the City of Lights, according to the show notes, is “filled with intoxicating adventures and surprising challenges as she juggles winning over her work colleagues, making friends, and navigating new romances.” Available October 2

Schitt’s Creek
The sixth and final season of this multi-Emmy-winning series hits Netflix in October, six months after the finale aired on CBC and Pop TV in Canada and the United States. No word yet on whether the one-hour farewell documentary Best Wishes, Warmest Regards will also land on the streaming platform (it’s still available to view on CBC Gem) but go ahead and read our interview with the documentary’s director anyway.Available October 7

The Forty-Year-Old Version
About to turn 40, a down-on-her-luck playwright decides to reinvent herself as a rapper. Produced by Lena Waithe, the film is written, directed by and starring actress/filmmaker Radha Blank and is loosely based on her own life. Available October 9

The Trial of the Chicago 7
The latest film from Aaron Sorkin follows the Chicago Seven, a group of anti-Vietnam War protesters charged with conspiracy to incite a riot at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. The film stars Sacha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Eddie Redmayne and recent Emmy winners Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Jeremy Strong. Available October 16

Rebecca
This latest adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 gothic novel stars Armie Hammer and Lily James as the couple at the heart of this psychological thriller. After a whirlwind romance in Monte Carlo, recently widowed Maxim de Winter returns to his home at Manderley with a new wife, who discovers that he and his household are still haunted by memories of his first wife. Available October 21

Holidate
In this holiday rom-com, Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey play perpetually single people who make a pact to be each other’s platonic plus-ones all through the holiday season to avoid family pressure and awkward questions. But at the end of a year of “holidates,” it’s possible some real feelings might have been sparked along the way. Available October 28

Crave

The Good Lord Bird
Based on real events, this satirical drama centres around the famous Harper’s Ferry raid of 1859 that instigated the start of the American Civil War. The miniseries stars Ethan Hawke as unhinged abolitionist John Brown, Daveed Diggs as Frederick Douglass, and Joshua Caleb Johnson as Onion, a formerly enslaved boy who joins Brown’s crew of motley abolitionist soldiers. Available October 4

David Byrne’s American Utopia
This concert film directed by Spike Lee is a live recording of a Broadway performance of the album American Utopia by Talking Heads’ David Byrne. Recorded during the show’s late 2019 to early 2020 run at the Hudson Theatre in New York City, the subsequent HBO film served as the opening night title at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. Available October 17

The Undoing
This six-part miniseries features Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant as a wealthy couple whose perfect life is overturned by a chain of terrible events precipitated by a violent murder. The HBO series co-stars Noah Jupe, Donald Sutherland, Edgar Ramirez, Lily Rabe, Noma Dumezweni and Ismael Cruz Córdova. Available October 25

CBC Gem

Trickster
Based on a coming-of-age trilogy by Canadian author Eden Robinson, this supernatural series from the CBC is directed by Michelle Latimer and follows an Indigenous teen struggling to support his dysfunctional family amid myth, magic and monsters. The show stars 18-year-old Cree actor Joel Oulette, Crystle Lightning, Craig Lauzon and Anna Lambe. Available October 7

PEN15
This Emmy-nominated series returns with a second season about middle school and all its related anxieties and mortifications. The show’s creators Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle play younger versions of themselves, while the rest of the cast of this Hulu series-which touches on everything from school dances to overbearing parents—is populated with actual 13-year-olds. Available October 16

Disappearance at Clifton Hill
Set in the eerie world of off-season Niagara Falls, this thriller centres around a pathological liar who inherits a crumbling motel and becomes obsessed with reconstructing childhood memories of witnessing a kidnapping. The film stars Tuppence Middleton, Hannah Gross, Noah Reid, Andy McQueen, Connor Jessup and filmmaker David Cronenberg. Available October 2

Amazon Prime Video

Mad Men
All seven seasons of this critically acclaimed series about the “golden age” of advertising will be dropping on this streaming platform in October. The 1950s period drama stars Jon Hamm, Elisabeth Moss, January Jones, Christina Hendricks, John Slattery and a slew of other recognizable faces. Available October 1

Savage x Fenty Show Vol. 2
Rihanna is presenting the Fall 2020 collection for her lingerie line Savage x Fenty at a fashion show on October 2 and for the second time, footage from the show will drop exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. A host of big names are slated to appear on the runway, including Lizzo, Bella Hadid, Will Smith and Cara Delevingne. Musicians Travis Scott, Miguel, Rosalía and more are scheduled to perform. Available October 2