Netflix East of Eden
Netflix’s East of Eden reboot is directed by the granddaughter of the original director Credit: Netflix

Streaming Wednesday, Sept. 30:

The Arena — Aspiring MMA fighters battle it out for a €100,000 jackpot and a contract with a big professional league. The runner-up gets something even more valuable: immunity from extradition. (Netflix)

Food Samurai — Celebrity chef Mory Sacko promises that the deep dive into the heart of Japanese cuisine we’ll witness here is sincere and respectful to the culture. Not like … um, Oppenheimer? Yes, he really said that. Seems like kind of a spurious comparison, but then again, Emily Wilson did warn us Christopher Nolan doesn’t know dick about entrees. (Disney+)

Love Is Blind: Netherlands — Yet another nation gets its own edition of the dating phenomenon in which singles get to hash out all the important aspects of a relationship before meeting face-to-face. At least this bunch won’t have to ask each other if they want to go Dutch. (Netflix)

Medusa — Season 1 of the Colombian crime drama ended with the show’s ostensible villain, Gabriel, found dead in prison of an apparent suicide, with the intimation he hadn’t been working alone and may actually have been the victim of foul play. Season 2 promises to follow that lead wherever it may go, and why not? This is Colombia we’re talking about, not some banana republic like the United States. (Netflix)

Sacrifice Season 2 — Almost five years after its first season dropped on BET+, the legal thriller moves into the main house on the Ellison plantation, just in time for entertainment attorney Daniela Hernandez (Paula Patton) to find fresh intrigue in the world of high finance. Supporting players this season include now-deceased actors Erica Ash and Richard Roundtree, which means either the footage has been gathering dust for quite some time or Tilly Norwood has greater range than we ever thought possible. (Paramount+)

The Widower: ’Til Death Do Us Part — Tiger King director Chris Smith digs for the truth about reverse black widow Thomas Randolph, who managed to be married six times despite four of his wives dying mysteriously. I guess a credit score and a restraining order don’t seem like such stumbling blocks after all, now do they, ladies? (Netflix)

Streaming Thursday, Oct. 1:

Crazy Rich, Incredibly Broke — The comedy cuts like a bonesaw as a Saudi family pulls out all the stops to make it seem they’re wealthier and more influential than they actually are. Hijinks ensue when they try to fund a suicide hijacking but learn all they can afford is a shoe bombing. With Crocs! (Netflix)

Curse of the Ghoul Logs — Shudder’s traditional hourlong jack-o’-lantern video has a new twist for Halloween 2026: multiple pumpkins instead of one. Speaking of multiple pumpkins, isn’t it time Sydney Sweeney came up with a new angle? (Shudder and AMC+)

East of Eden — Zoe Kazan steps into the shoes of her grandfather, Elia, by adapting the Steinbeck classic into a seven-episode limited series. This version is told from the perspective of Cathy Ames (Florence Pugh), the absentee-matriarch-turned-murderous-brothel-madam whom Steinbeck described as “a total representative of Satan” but is here depicted as a complex byproduct of an oppressive society. Because remember, you can’t go wrong depending on a Kazan for a character reference. (Netflix)

The Ramparts of Ice — Teenage friendship and romance become even more difficult for our heroes in Season 2 of the manga-turned-anime, as the emphasis of the series turns to “hearts quietly drifting apart.” Things must be very different in Japan, because from what I remember of high school, nothing our hearts did was remotely quiet. It was more like “hearts noisily running toward the bike racks to get their ass kicked again.” (Netflix)

Streaming Friday, Oct. 2:

#Love — The founders of two rival Tamil dating apps learn that … guess what? They were made for each other! (Which should come as great news to the founders of either Kalshi or Polymarket, who I’m assuming set them up as a bet.) (Netflix) 

Adventure Time: Side Quests — Season 2 of the “soft reboot” finds the young Finn and Jake throwing themselves into new ancillary activities, like wrestling with toads and fending off baby gladiators. (They’re more dangerous than the grown-up ones, because even owning videos of them could have put Peter Graves in jail for life.) (Hulu)

Doing Life — Another week, another Tyler Perry project, this one an unconventional romance in which a single mom strikes up a courtship with an incarcerated felon. See, and I could have sworn I saw this on Love Is Blind: Joliet. (Netflix)

Infirmary — The latest found-footage shocker uses bodycam and CCTV feeds to re-create a security guard’s fateful first night on the job at a psychiatric hospital. Now I want to see a found-footage flick about the typical therapist’s first Zoom session with a new patient. One 60-minute close-up shot of a head shaking in disbelief! (Shudder and AMC+)

I Would Rather Die — A Mexican teen who’s newly become a zombie enlists the help of two gal-pals in a horror comedy the internet peanut gallery is already calling a ripoff of Warm Bodies. Come on, people, let’s see the movie first. Maybe it’ll surprise us and just be uncomfortably similar in every important regard. (Prime Video)

Schumacher ’94: The Birth of a Legend — This documentary retrospective of F1 driver Eddie Schumacher’s first of seven championships has extensive interviews with the important people in his life, particularly his wife. Well, of course: The audience needs to know what he was so desperate to get away from. (Netflix)

The Sisters Grimm — In Season 2, the titular descendants of the iconic fairy-tale clan continue to unravel the mysteries of their little town one year after their parents disappeared mysteriously. With a 100 percent critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes, it’ll probably be five years before we find out Ma and Pa Grimm “went out for smokes.” (Apple TV)

Streaming Sunday, Oct. 4:

Blue Box Season 2 — The “sports romance” anime introduces a new complication, in the form of a resentful rival who comes between our lovestruck basketballer and badminton player. Once again, we must ask that make-or-break question: How serious is this in gay-hockey terms? (Netflix)

Streaming Tuesday, Oct. 6:

Love Village Season 3 — Another group of Japanese singles ages 35 and up have to live and work together to see if self-sufficiency breeds affection. This season is set at the foot of Mount Fuji, and that’s not good: Of all the Kaiju we’ve seen hanging out there, I can’t remember any two who made it to the altar. (Netflix)

Reasonable Doubt Season 4 — Life continues to be challenging for celebrity lawyer Jacqueline “Jax” Stewart (Emayatzy Corinealdi), who at the end of last season lost a client to an overdose, got shot at and decided to start her own firm. Even worse, she picked this exact moment to take up sourdough baking. (Hulu)

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This article appears in Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 2026.