10 TV shows to watch this November

The Wheel of Time

Leaving a poorly-received pilot in 2015 aside, epic 14-book fantasy series The Wheel of Time has never been adapted for the screen – until now. The story follows Moiraine, an Aes Sedai – or magical woman – who leads a group of five people on an epic adventure, one of whom could be the Dragon Reborn: someone who could either save or destroy humanity. Starring Rosamund Pike as Moiraine, alongside a lead cast otherwise filled with relative unknowns, this could be the show to really fill the Game of Thrones-shaped hole left in the cultural zeitgeist, if it can get the story right. In an interview with Den of Geek, showrunner Rafe Judkins said “I think it’s our job to both be true to the Wheel of Time books but also be mindful of… the things that could feel repetitive [and those] that are fresh and unique”. Watch the trailer here.

The Wheel of Time premieres on 19 November on Amazon Prime Video

The Unlikely Murderer

In 1986, the Swedish prime minister was gunned down in the street in front of more than a dozen witnesses, while walking home from the cinema with his wife. But the true assassin was never discovered. One man was convicted in 1989, but was later acquitted. The case remained open until 2020, when Swedish prosecutors named the man they believed to be responsible for the killing, who had died 20 years earlier. The Unlikely Murderer – based on the non-fiction book by journalist Thomas Pettersson – fictionalises how Stig Engström (Robert Gustafsson) evaded justice for nearly 15 years. Written by Wilhelm Behrman and Niklas Rockström, who previously created Swedish hits Before We Die and Caliphate, it features a cast including Mikael Persbrandt (Sex Education), Cedomir Djordjevic (Before We Die) and Fabian Penje (Young Royals). Watch the trailer here.

The Unlikely Murderer is released on Netflix on 5 November

The Beatles: Get Back

“The best bit of us, always has been and always will be, is when we’re backs against the wall,” says Paul McCartney in the trailer for The Beatles: Get Back. In this new three-part documentary, Oscar-winning filmmaker Peter Jackson has remastered and edited nearly 60 hours of never-before-seen footage of the band as they try to write 14 new songs over 21 days, and prepare for a live performance. The resulting record, Let It Be, The Beatles’ 12th and final studio album, and the series will feature the famous rooftop performance on Savile Row, which became the band’s final ever public performance. Originally shot by Michael Lindsay-Hogg for his 1970 documentary Let It Be, the remaining unused rushes lay untouched for nearly 50 years, before Jackson expressed interest in picking up the project. It promises to be a very different atmosphere to the gloomy one of Lindsay-Hogg’s film, with Jackson telling GQ: “I’ve tried to use nothing at all from Let It Be, so Get Back is completely different. I didn’t want to usurp the original film, so this is a companion piece,” going on to say: “This is The Beatles and you’ve never seen The Beatles like this before”.

Episode 1 of The Beatles: Get Back premieres on 25 November on Disney+, with the following two episodes released in the subsequent days

Dexter: New Blood

“I might still be a monster, but I’m an evolving monster”. Serial killer drama Dexter is back and rebooted, eight years on from its original finale, which was widely condemned by fans at the time. Set 10 years on from the last series, this new iteration finds its titular sociopathic protagonist now living in a fictional town in New York and making a fresh life under a different name. But can he stick to the straight and narrow, or will his inner demon, the so-called “Dark Passenger”, re-emerge? Michael C Hall is back as Dexter, and Jennifer Carpenter is back as Debra Morgan, his sister – despite the character being dead. In an interview with Entertainment Direct TV, showrunner Clyde Phillips said: “expect to be surprised, satisfied, and for the show to be redeemed. And expect to have your minds blown”. Watch the trailer here.

Dexter: New Blood premieres on 7 November on Showtime in the US, and 8 November on Sky Atlantic and Now TV in the UK

Hellbound

From Yeon Sang-ho, director of South Korean smash hit action-horror Train to Busan, comes Hellbound, a new TV series which looks as gruesome as it does compelling. Yoo Ah-in (Burning, Six Flying Dragons), Kim Hyun-joo (I Have a Lover) and Jeong Min Park (Bleak Night) are among the starry cast of this supernatural crime thriller, in which enormous beings rise from the ground to mercilessly chase and burn those condemned to hell. It was the first Korean TV series, or K-drama, to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, where programmer Geoff Macnaughton called it a “wildly original commentary on the growing anxieties of a nation”. Arriving hot on the heels of another South Korean mega-success Squid Game, Hellbound could yet further boost the already soaring international standing of the country’s TV and film industry. Watch the trailer here.

Hellbound is released on Netflix on 19 November

The Shrink Next Door

Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd lead the star-studded cast of this dark new comedy, written by Veep and Succession’s Georgia Pritchett. Inspired by true events and adapted from the popular podcast of the same name, it sees Rudd play Dr Isaac “Ike” Herschkopf, a psychiatrist to the stars, who slowly crosses boundary after boundary with patient Martin “Marty” Markowitz (Ferrell). Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision, Transparent) and Casey Wilson (Gone Girl) also star in a tale in which money, power and sanity are all up for grabs. Jazmin Kopotsha wrote for Refinery29 that the podcast the series is based on “straddles the line between outrageous and plausible a little too well, and it’s all the more gripping for it”. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about why he was drawn to the story, Rudd said “it seemed to me that the micro story was a really interesting story. And the macro is: this can be applied to everything that’s going on in the world right now.” Watch the trailer here.

The first three episodes of The Shrink Next Door are released on Apple TV+ on 12 November, with subsequent episodes released weekly thereafter

Hawkeye

Marvel’s expert archer Hawkeye, played by Jeremy Renner has appeared as one of the Avengers in a number of MCU films, but is finally taking centre-stage, in this six-part limited series. Here, he teams up with Kate Bishop (Hailee Steinfeld) – another archer from the comics, who is also known as Hawkeye ­– in a story, appropriately enough, set during the holiday season: the trailer blasts The Most Wonderful Time of the Year as Barton and Bishop shoot their bows and arrows in suitably chaotic scenes across a Christmassy New York. It also shows Hawkeye wearing hearing aids for the first time on screen: in the original comics, he has been portrayed as deaf, and so it looks like this series could weave that storyline in. It will also feature Alaqua Cox as Maya Lopez, aka Echo, another deaf superhero; Florence Pugh, returning to the MCU, following her debut in Black Widow, as Yelena Belova; and an adorable dog called Lucky, who could steal the whole show.

Hawkeye premiers on 24 November on Disney+

Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness

During the first lockdown of March 2020, one TV show in particular gripped millions of people around the world, as they adjusted to their new realities. The stranger-than-fiction true-crime documentary Tiger King, which followed eccentric big cat breeder Joe Exotic – documenting his criminal activities, including an attempted murder-for-hire plot against animal rights campaigner Carol Baskin – was a breakout hit, watched by 34 million people in its first 10 days in the US alone. It received criticism from conservationists and animal rights campaigners for its depiction of the zoo and Exotic’s breeding programme. But inevitably Netflix is now following up on the show’s success with a second season. The question is: with Carol Baskin refusing to appear in this season, Exotic in prison serving a 22-year sentence, and the story pored over by the world’s press since the first season’s release, how can Netflix maintain the show’s level of success, intrigue and mystery?

Season two of Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness is released on Netflix on 17 November

Hit-Monkey

Marvel character Hit-Monkey – an assassin that happens to be a Japanese snow monkey – is getting his own animated TV series. It follows the titular simian, trained by the ghost of an American assassin, as he sets out on a blood-soaked vengeance mission across Japan. The voice cast is led by award-winning voice actor Fred Tatasciore (Family Guy, American Dad) as Hit-Monkey, with Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso), Olivia Munn (The Newsroom) and George Takei (Star Trek) among the stars featuring in supporting roles. Created by Josh Gordon and Will Speck, (Blades of Glory), it will be sweary, funny and completely ridiculous, if the trailer is anything to go by.

Hit-Monkey premieres on 17 November on Hulu

The Sex Lives of College Girls

From creators Mindy Kaling (The Office, Never Have I Ever) and Justin Noble (Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Never Have I Ever) comes this comedy-drama following four freshman roomates at a fictional college in Vermont. The show will see them getting to grips with college life, friendship and romantic relationships, while attending raucous parties and keeping up with the academic side, too. Speaking to Elle, Kaling said: “It’s an amalgam of a lot of different experiences that me and my co-creator had. The girls are so different from each other, and we get to see them at the beginning of their freshman year, and they’re all very ambitious”. The four leads include Pauline Chalamet, sister of a certain Timothée. Watch the trailer here.

The Sex Lives of College Girls premieres on 18 November on HBO Max

 —

 Love film and TV? Join BBC Culture Film and TV Club on Facebook, a community for cinephiles all over the world.

If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

And if you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter, called The Essential List. A handpicked selection of stories from BBC Future, Culture, Worklife and Travel, delivered to your inbox every Friday.