The must-watch title on every major streamer this September
The must-watch title on every major streamer this September
These September releases are the easiest way to decide what to watch next on every service.
September is kind of ridiculous. I missed “The Mandalorian and Grogu” in theaters, so Disney+ is giving me a do-over, “The Paper” is back after I finally stopped demanding that it be “The Office,” Ryan Reynolds and Kenneth Branagh are doing Cold War buddy-comedy nonsense in “Mayday,” and Prime Video apparently decided the best way to end “Reacher” Season 4 was to immediately hand us eight episodes of “Neagley.” Then there’s murder tennis (yes really), Chad Powers keeping the lie alive, and an animated comedy I’m willingly watching, which rarely happens. I told you it was stacked! So, here’s the one movie or TV show on each major streamer I’m most excited to watch this September.
Top title on each streamer for the month of September 2026:
‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ | Movie | Disney+
I completely missed “The Mandalorian and Grogu” in theaters. Just fully whiffed on it. Which is weird because this is Pedro Pascal flying around the galaxy with Grogu, Sigourney Weaver is involved, Martin Scorsese is apparently doing a voice, Jeremy Allen White is doing a voice… how did I not go see this?
Anyway, I get my second chance when it hits Disney+ on Wednesday, Sept. 2, and I’m actually kind of glad because I can watch it at home and do any Googling I need to do to remember what’s happening. Jon Favreau is directing again; he wrote it with Dave Filoni and Noah Kloor, and honestly the whole thing sounds like someone emptied a very strange bag of “Star Wars” ingredients onto the table and said, yeah, let’s make a movie out of that. I’m there this time.
The Mandalorian and Grogu
The evil Empire has fallen, and Imperial warlords remain scattered throughout the galaxy. As the fledgling New Republic works to protect everything the Rebellion fought for, they have enlisted the help of legendary Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin and his young apprentice Grogu.
‘Youth’ | Series | HBO Max
I always have time for Sharon Horgan, whose track record with great TV is pretty dang strong. “Bad Sisters” is one of the most underrated shows on Apple TV in my opinion. Now, she’s got a new show coming to HBO Max called “Youth” and I expect it to go hard. She plays a 50-year-old divorcee juggling her love life, her aging parents, and her son who should act a lot more grown-up than he does.
The trailer is very Horgan in her chaos, and I’m excited to see her unleash her full sensibility around this stage of life on a streamer that’s never afraid to take risks and get weird. “Youth” drops the first two episodes on Sunday, Sept. 20.
Youth
A 50-year-old divorcee searches for sex and love whilst juggling caring for her ailing parents and parenting her should-be grown up son.
‘Bloody Tennis’ | Movie | AMC+
There is apparently a whole subgenre now where elite athletes go somewhere to get better and instead discover everyone around them is completely insane, and I’m into it. “Bloody Tennis” kind of reminds me of “Him” that way. Different sport, same basic warning sign: maybe don’t trust the mysterious high-level training facility. Sophie (Sandra Guldberg Kampp) gets into this elite tennis academy hidden somewhere in Southern Europe, which already sounds ominous before you even get to the brutal teammates and whatever increasingly sinister thing the school is actually doing to these kids.
And tennis feels weirdly perfect for this because it’s so solitary. You’re out there by yourself, everyone staring at you, every mistake yours. Now make that environment competitive to the point of cruelty and apparently add some horror — now I want to see where this goes. “Bloody Tennis” premieres Friday, Sept. 25 on AMC+.
Bloody Tennis
Sophie joins a prestigious tennis academy, where the brutality of competitive sports is taken to its extreme and only the hungriest survive.
‘The Paper’ Season 2 | Series | Peacock
I was pretty skeptical of “The Paper” at first, and honestly my first watch left me feeling kind of… off. I think I was waiting for “The Office” to happen. Same mockumentary DNA, Greg Daniels involved, Oscar Nuñez sitting there, and my brain really wanted to believe it would be the same. Don’t let it! Once I stopped expecting Scranton 2.0 and let this weird little Toledo newsroom be its own thing, there’s a really good show hiding in there.
Season 2 hits Peacock on Wednesday, Sept. 9, with Ned Sampson still trying to keep the Toledo Truth Teller functioning while the staff chases actual stories, screws up assignments, goes storm chasing, and apparently has to deal with Ned and Mare Pritti quietly becoming a thing (because all great workplace comedies have a great romance). Domhnall Gleeson, Sabrina Impacciatore, Chelsea Frei, and Oscar Nuñez are all back, and now that I’m no longer sitting there waiting for Michael Scott to walk through a door, I’m actually very excited to get back into this one.
The Paper
The documentary crew that immortalized Dunder Mifflin’s Scranton branch is in search of a new subject when they discover a historic Toledo newspaper, The Truth Teller, and the eager publisher trying to revive it.
‘Mayday’ | Movie | Apple TV
Action comedies are my jam, and usually I’m finding them over on Prime Video. Not this time with Apple TV’s “Mayday.” In this one, Ryan Reynolds plays a cocky (no one does it better) Navy pilot whose secret Cold War mission goes to hell in Russia, where he ends up stuck with Kenneth Branagh as an ex-KGB guy who’s hilariously obsessed with American culture.
It’s got that great buddy-comedy survival partnership (that really worked in “Heads of State”) with the two trying to get Reynolds’ character back home while figuring out whether either of them should trust the other. Other than wishing this was hitting theaters, I’m pretty excited to watch this one when it drops on Friday, Sept. 4.
Mayday
When a U.S. Navy pilot on a top-secret mission during the Cold War gets trapped behind enemy lines, his only chance at survival is to form an alliance with an eccentric ex-KGB agent.
‘Chad Powers’ Season 2 | Series | Hulu
“Chad Powers” has now reached the point where Russ’s fake football alter ego is somehow better at having a career than Russ is. Season 2 starts Thursday, Sept. 3, and Chad is actually killing it on the field while off the field the whole thing is beginning to smell extremely fake.
Coach Hudson is suspicious. Gerry is suspicious. Russ is presumably spending every waking second trying not to move his face wrong. And now he and Danny need Ricky, who is the exact person you would never want to ask for help after constructing an elaborate identity fraud situation around college football. At this point I don’t even want Russ to confess. I want to see how stupidly far this can go.
Chad Powers
Eight years after an unforgivable mistake nukes his promising college football career, hotshot quarterback Russ Holliday tries to resurrect his dreams by disguising himself as Chad Powers - a talented oddball who walks on to the struggling South Georgia Catfish.
‘Dang!’ | Series | Netflix
I’m not the biggest animated comedy guy, which means “Dang!” really had to get my attention. And it has. It’s got Andrew Law, Matt Murray, and Mike Schur behind it, Stephanie Hsu and Poppy Liu in the cast, and if you have siblings, the premise is built to get under your skin: two people are happily living their lives in New York until their wildly successful older sister shows up and decides she’d like to be included. Horrifying. Very relatable. “Dang!” lands Tuesday, Sept. 8 on Netflix, and against my usual instincts, I’m checking this one out.
Dang!
After their sister Ruthie blows up her perfect life, Andrew and Eunice show her the fun in being flawed as she helps them adult.
‘Neagley’ | Series | Prime Video
There’s something almost aggressive about Prime Video ending “Reacher” Season 4 and then, on that exact same day, dropping eight more episodes from the same universe. But I love it. “Neagley” arrives Wednesday, Sept. 16, and sends Frances Neagley off on her own, digging into the suspicious death of a friend as a private investigator, which already feels like a pretty natural excuse to let her be even more Neagley than she gets to be around Reacher.
Alan Ritchson does show up, but this time he’s supporting her, not the other way around. Honestly, I like that. Neagley has always felt like someone who could carry eight episodes without a giant man punching through every wall nearby, although apparently we’ll still get at least a little of that.
Neagley
Frances Neagley is a private investigator in Chicago and former military colleague of Jack Reacher in the Army’s 110th Special Investigations Unit. When she learns that a beloved friend from her past has been killed in a suspicious accident, she becomes hell-bent on justice.
‘Scary Movie’ | Movie | Paramount+
The original “Scary Movie” is pure nostalgia fun for me. I’ve always loved outrageous spoofs, and the fact that “Scary Movie” brings Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Marlon Wayans, and Shawn Wayans back together after all these years made this an automatic theater movie for me. Or it would’ve been if I weren’t dealing with a back injury right now.
Otherwise, I 100% would’ve gone to see this thing in theaters, and I’ve basically been waiting for Paramount+ to rescue me. It finally does Thursday, Sept. 3, and even better, they’re dropping both the theatrical version and an extended cut. A masked killer, the old gang back together, and a whole new pile of horror movies sitting there waiting to be made fun of. I cannot wait.
Scary Movie
Twenty-six years after outrunning a suspiciously familiar masked killer, the Core Four are back in the killer’s crosshairs and no horror movie IP is safe.
‘Lucky Number Slevin’ | Movie | Plex
If you’ve somehow never seen “Lucky Number Slevin,” fix that. Josh Hartnett gets mistaken for his missing friend and winds up caught between rival crime bosses Morgan Freeman and Ben Kingsley, while Bruce Willis lurks around as a mysterious hitman and Lucy Liu slowly realizes none of this adds up.
The movie is basically lying to you the whole time, but in a fun way, where every twist makes the earlier scenes better, and the ending makes you want to start over and see what you missed. Hartnett’s laid-back performance, the sharp dialogue, and that ridiculous cast are a big reason this became such a cult favorite.
Lucky Number Slevin
Slevin is mistakenly put in the middle of a personal war between the city’s biggest criminal bosses. Under constant watch, Slevin must try not to get killed by an infamous assassin and come up with an idea of how to get out of his current dilemma.