Neon continues to bring in a convoy of quality shows and films. See our handpicked highlights below followed by the full release schedule.
Top picks: TV
The Food Crisis (October 2)
“Why does food cost so much, and what can we do about it?” This inflation-busting doco, from award-winning documentarian Bryan Bruce, is seeking to take a little financial pressure off our plates. His quest for an optimistic answer will take him all across Aotearoa and to other nations’ solutions for exorbitantly expensive produce, interviewing farmers, economists, and retailers for a full picture of potentially fixable kitchen crises.
Our Flag Means Death: Season 2 (October 6)
Useless wannabe pirate Stede Bonnet (Rhys Darby) found a little more than he bargained for on the high seas back in season one of this celebrated pirate comedy. He had a run in with the infamous Blackbeard (show creator Taika Waititi)…and they fell in love. Yep, no queerbaiting here, and swashbuckling fans will be keen to tune right back into the new couple’s hilarrrrious 18th century shenanigans. Let’s pray that Bonnet’s motley crew don’t mutiny against him, just because he has a new, murderous bf.
The Gilded Age: Season 2 (October 30)
If And Just Like That is a little too lowbrow for your tastes (understandable), you can always catch Cynthia Nixon in this other HBO drama, also about moneyed women seeking to rise yet further in a cosseted society of fab dresses and scintillating gossip. Debutante Marian Brook should see her star rise further, with the help of her old money aunts Nixon and Christine Baranski, but we’re most fascinated by the trajectory of Carrie Coon’s Bertha Russell. Her husband’s got the money, but she’s got the guts, and will use them to ascend to New York’s upper echelons by any means.
Top picks: Movies
The Fabelmans (October 5)
Instead of writing some stuffy old memoir, Steven Spielberg gave us this loosely fictionalised family therapy sesh: his most personal movie yet, released in the director’s mid-70s. Michelle Williams and Paul Dano play ‘Sammy Fabelman’s parents with bruising sensitivity. “It’s the artists versus the scientists in this family”, Williams’ free-spirited matriarch explains to us, and Spielberg is still seemingly caught in that binary to this day, directing his own childhood with both warmth and a detached, analytic eye.
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (October 12)
Fans of the iconic tabletop RPG rolled a 20 with this zany adventure film, starring Chris Pine as a bard who must bring down Hugh Grant’s blowhard dictator. D&D nerds will certainly find themselves somewhere in the well-assembled cast: Michelle Rodriguez is the muscle, Sophia Lillis is a self-serious shape-shifter, Justice Smith is a clumsy wizard, and Bridgerton standout Regé-Jean Page has a way too brief role as a haughty paladin.
Blade trilogy (October 27)
NEON isn’t rife with fresh scares for the spooky season, so maybe some Wesley Snipes vamp-slaying action is the horror + thrills hybrid you’re after. We haven’t heard much buzz lately about Marvel’s intended remake, either, so until Mahershala Ali picks up the sword, an OG marathon is your best best. The franchise got off to a good start before Guillermo del Toro took things to the next level with Blade II: and while Trinity isn’t quite as solid, thanks in large part to a tired-looking Snipes, it’s still a bloody good time to some degree.
Everything Coming to Neon this October
October 1
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Little Monsters
Paw Patrol: Season 9A
October 2
The Food Crisis
Free Willy
Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home
Free Willy 3: The Rescue
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Seasons 1-5
October 3
Assassin Club
Corn & Peg: Seasons 1-2
October 4
Pretty Little Liars: Seasons 1-7
October 5
The Fabelmans
October 6
Friday
Our Flag Means Death: Season 2
The Tale of Despereaux
October 7
Champions
October 8
Extreme Sisters
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
October 9
Only The Brave
October 10
Blues Brothers
Blue Brothers 2000
October 11
I Love a Mama’s Boy
Marlon Wayans: God Loves Me
The Irrational
October 12
Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves
October 13
Snow White and the Huntsman
The Huntsman: Winter’s War
October 14
The Spy Next Door
October 15
Schindler’s List
October 16
Escape to Victory
Shining Vale: Season 2
October 17
Daddy’s Home
Daddy’s Home 2
Designing Dreams: Season 2
October 19
Death Race
Found
Raised By Refugees: Season 2
What’s Love Got to Do With It
October 20
American Assassin
October 21
Goon
Goon: Last of the Enforcers
October 22
Gold
October 24
Fear the Walking Dead: Season 8B
Organ Trail
October 25
100 Days Wild
October 26
Missing
October 27
Blade
Blade 2
Blade: Trinity
October 30
Christine
The Gilded Age: Season 2
October 31
Mafia Mamma
