“Mr. Robot”
Cast: Rami Malek, Christian Slater, Carly Chaikin, Portia Doubleday, Grace Gummer, BD Wong
Synopsis: A cyber security engineer works with a hacktivist group to dismantle the world’s power structures, while he may not even be in control of his own mind
What You Need to Know: Over its first two seasons, Sam Esmail’s show has constantly challenged and unsettled its audience. Even though we’re aware that all isn’t what it seems, the frequent twists still surprise, and the third season promises to be no different. Bobby Cannavale joins the cast, and Wong has been upped to series regular for his enigmatic role. The thriller’s sophomore year ticked by a bit more slowly than its first, but Esmail is ambitious enough in his themes and methods that we’re willing to stick around. If you haven’t watched the first 22 episodes, we don’t recommend you jump in with the third season premiere; the show is inscrutable enough even for devoted fans who leave their phone across the room and don’t let their eyes leave the screen.
Premiere Date: October 11th on USA
“The Walking Dead”
Cast: Andrew Lincoln, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Norman Reedus, Lauren Cohan, Chandler Riggs, Danai Gurira,
Synopsis: Season 8 adapts the “All Out War “story arc from the comics, with the survivors of Alexandria, the Hilltop, and the Kingdom taking on Negan and the Saviors.
What You Need to Know: Rick Grimes’ Alexandria survivors try and strike an alliance to fight Negan and his cruel Saviors. What does mean if you don’t know the show? Short version: in this post-apocalyptic world where zombies roam free trying to destroy mankind, pockets of human survivor tribes form to unite and work together. But it’s all essentially “Lord Of The Flies” with the ugliest, based impulses of human nature coming to the surface with very little moral righteousness to be found. The Saviors, are the worst of the bunch and they’ve had the protagonists of the series over a barrel for several seasons now. What’s next for the show? More deaths. “Yeah, everyone’s going to die at some point, right? They all die. Let’s thin the herd, man. Let’s thin the herd.” Critics may have abandoned the show long ago (at least on a positive level), but it’s still the highest rated series on TV among the advertiser-prized 18-49 viewer demographic.
Premiere Date: October 22nd on AMC
“Stranger Things”
Cast: Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown
Synopsis: A year after the events of the first season and Hawkins, Indiana is still reeling. Will Byers, returned from the Upside Down, is battling visions from the hellscape he broke free from, and so too are his friends. All while bigger, badder demons are hunting down Will and the rest of the survivors.
What You Need To Know: The first season of “Stranger Things” was a true surprise. Netflix’s surplus of content makes it easy for a show to sneak up out of nowhere, and while most are middling, some, like this Spielbergian, ‘80s throwback are home runs. A gleeful homage to nearly every sci-fi adventure from that nostalgic decade, “Stranger Things” also managed to carve out its own space, offering up nuanced and well-rounded characters of all stripes and a genuinely startling narrative (not to mention the elder Jean-Ralphio meme that should never die). Certainly, a number of webs were left tangled at the close of season one (Eleven!), but, at this point, it’s hard to imagine that season two can muster the same novel creativity and compact narrative structure. Still, whatever the case may be, odds are “Stranger Things” season two is going to be some of the better hours of TV this fall.
Release Date: October 27th on Netflix
“Mindhunter”
Cast: Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, Anna Torv, Hannah Gross
Synopsis: Two FBI agents set out on a sinister investigative odyssey to discover the brutal answers.
What You Need to Know: After losing interest in “House Of Cards,” his first Netflix show that he quietly slipped away from, director David Fincher is back on the streaming channel and has returned to the world of serial killers. Fincher directs the opening and closing episodes, but there’s some strong filmmaking talented involved during the series: Asif Kapadia (“Amy,” “Senna“), Tobias Lindholm (“A War,” “A Hijacking“) and Andrew Douglas (“The Amityville Horror,” “U Want Me 2 Kill Him?“).
Premiere Date: October 13th on Netflix
“The Girlfriend Experience”
Cast: Anna Friel, Carmen Ejogo and Louisa Krause
Synopsis: Exploring the price of intimacy and its emotional consequences within the subsection of the sex worker known as the girlfriend experience.
What You Need to Know: Steven Soderbergh created “The Girlfriend Experience” based on his movie about the same GFE sex worker subject and enlisted (undervalued) filmmakers Amy Seimetz, and Lodge Kerrigan. An anthology series, season two breaks things up in a unique way. Instead of two filmmakers sharing a season. Each directs their own storyline, Kerrigan’s set against the backdrop of the corrupting influence of dark money in the upcoming 2018 U.S. mid-term elections and Seimetz’s narrative follows a former high-end escort who enters the Witness Protection Program in order to escape her abusive relationship. We’re sold.
Premiere Date: November 5th on Starz