Watch List: 30 Shows and Movies to Stream in September 2021
By Ishani Nath
Image: Netflix
Every month, Ishani Nath, pop culture expert, journalist and the most avid tv-watcher I have ever met, is sharing her top picks for new shows, movies and documentaries to stream on Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, CBC Gem, Crave, Disney+ and Netflix Canada, plus the one older release she thinks you should check out. Here’s what she’s recommending this month.
I’m not quite sure where summer went. For me, the past few months have been a blur of vaccines, heat waves and long-overdue reunions, complete with awkward hugs and loud laughter. At the same time, I’ve found that my capacity to socialize has decreased. I’m out of practice and low on stamina. Staying home to rest and recharge feels like more of a necessity than in The Before. So even though public health restrictions have been easing, and my social calendar is no longer blank, my intake of TV and movies has not decreased.
The show I can’t shut up about: Sex Education. I had to go back and look through all of my past Friday Things roundups to make sure I hadn’t already mentioned this Netflix gem because it is truly one of my go-to recommendations. Set in the fictional small town of Moordale, U.K., Sex Education follows a pair of unlikely friends who start secretly running a for-hire sex advice clinic. The show tackles the always-timely issue of the shortcomings of sex ed—according to a recent Refinery29 Canada survey, only 5 per cent respondents felt prepared them for the real world. But with its inclusive cast, engaging storylines and technicolour palette, Sex Education is also truly a pleasure to watch, and Season 3 hits Netflix in September.
As we head into the fall, and navigate this fourth wave, snuggling up on the couch is looking mighty tempting, especially since there are so many great TV shows and movies coming to streaming services in Canada.
Apple TV+
Come From Away (Premieres September 10)
Come From Away is the filmed version of the award-winning Broadway musical that tells the story of 7,000 people stranded in the small town of Gander, Newfoundland after all flights into the US are grounded on September 11, 2001. As the people of Newfoundland graciously welcome the “come from aways” into their community in the aftermath, the passengers and locals alike process what’s happened while finding love, laughter, and new hope in the unlikely and lasting bonds that they forge. Come From Away is directed by Tony Award-winner Christopher Ashley, who directed the original Broadway production, and stars an ensemble cast led by members of the Broadway show. The live performance of Come From Away was filmed at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre in New York City, where the Broadway production is staged, for an audience which included 9/11 survivors and front-line workers.
The Morning Show, Season 2 (Premieres September 17)
Starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell, The Morning Show is an Emmy Award-winning series, and has been honored with a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series for Jennifer Aniston, a Critics Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Billy Crudup, as well as three Golden Globe Award nominations just shortly after its premiere. Picking up after the explosive events of season one, season two finds the Morning Show team emerging from the wreckage of Alex (Aniston) and Bradley’s (Witherspoon) actions, to a new UBA and a world in flux, where identity is everything and the chasm between who we present as and who we really are comes into play.
Foundation (Premieres September 24)
From visionary showrunner and executive producer David S. Goyer, Foundation is the highly anticipated epic saga that marks the first-ever on-screen adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s iconic, award-winning novel series of the same name. When revolutionary Dr. Hari Seldon predicts the impending fall of the Empire, he and a band of loyal followers venture to the far reaches of the galaxy to establish The Foundation in an attempt to rebuild and preserve the future of civilization. Enraged by Hari's claims, the ruling Cleons—a long line of emperor clones—fear their grasp on the galaxy may be weakening as they’re forced to reckon with the potential reality of losing their legacy forever.
Camila Cabello as Cinderella. (Image: Kerry Brown)
Amazon Prime Video
Cinderella (Premieres September 3)
The story you grew up with takes a musical and modern turn as our ambitious heroine (Camilla Cabello) has big dreams and with the help of her Fab G (Billy Porter), she perseveres to make them come true. Cinderella has an all-star cast including Idina Menzel, Minnie Driver, James Corden, Nicholas Galitzine and Pierce Brosnan.
Everyone’s Talking About Jamie (Premieres September 17)
The film follows Jamie New (newcomer Max Harwood), a teenager in a blue collar English town with a dream of life on stage. While his classmates plan their livelihoods after graduation, Jamie contemplates revealing his secret career ambition as a fabulous and proud drag queen. His best friend Pritti (Lauren Patel) and his loving mom (Sarah Lancashire) shower him with endless support while local drag legend Miss Loco Chanelle (Richard E. Grant) mentors him toward his debut stage performance. But it’s not all rainbows for Jamie as his deadbeat dad (Ralph Ineson), an uninspired career advisor (Sharon Horgan), and some ignorant school kids attempt to rain on his sensational aspirations. In rousing and colorful musical numbers, Jamie and his community inspire one another to be more accepting and to see the value in facing adversity stepping out of the darkness into the spotlight.
The Mad Women’s Ball (Premieres September 17)
The highly-anticipated Amazon Original Movie The Mad Women’s Ball premieres on September 17 and tells the story of a young, radiant and passionate woman, Eugénie, living during the close of the 19th century. As a young woman, Eugénie discovers that she has the special power to hear the dead. After her family discovers her secret, she is taken to La Pitié Salpétrière Hospital without any way of escaping her fate. The hospital is a neurology clinic in Paris run by the famous professor and pioneer of neurology Dr. Charcot, where women diagnosed with hysteria, “craziness”, egomania, epilepsy and other types of mental or physical diseases are committed. Her destiny becomes entwined with that of Geneviève, a nurse at the hospital whose life is passing her by. Their encounter will change both their futures as they will prepare for the annual “Bal des folles” organized by Dr. Charcot at the hospital.
Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 3 (Premieres September 24)
Combining fashion, dance, music and iconic architecture, Savage X Fenty Show Vol. 3 highlights the newest assortment of styles through subtle-yet-impactful scenic elements, lighting and filming techniques. Now in its third-consecutive year, the highly anticipated fashion experience continues to challenge tradition and redefine sexy. Featuring an all-star line up of models, actors, performers and more debuting the latest Savage X Fenty styles, the star-studded show is a visually stunning and epic event that raises the bar yet again with special performances from some of the biggest names in music.
A still from season 2 of Next Stop. (Image: twitter.com/nextstopseries)
CBC Gem
A Colony (Premieres September 17)
Mylia (Émilie Bierre, Jenny), a timid 12-year-old child, is about to leave her native countryside to begin high school. Lost in this new hostile environment, she copes as well as she can, sometimes awkwardly, dealing with the absurdities, discomforts and small victories of adolescence. Along the way she encounters Jimmy (Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie, District 31), a young Indigenous outsider from the neighbouring reserve, who will help her stand her ground and embrace who she really is.
Next Stop, Season 2 (Premiers September 24)
An anthology comedy series chronicling the lives of Black Torontonians struggling to stay afloat in the sprawling city. Continuing its rise from a community-based YouTube show, Next Stop charts a course through chaotic, surreal, and hilarious vignettes of ‘yutes’ confronting the challenges of life in a competitive, expensive, and rapidly-changing city. Created by Jabbari Weekes, Tichaona Tapambwa and Phil Witmer and executive produced by Amar Wala.
Ghosts (Premiers September 24)
A cash-strapped young couple inherit a rickety country mansion, only to find it teeming with needy ghosts. Starring Lolly Adefope (Shrill, Miracle Workers), Mathew Baynton (Vanity Fair, The Wrong Mans) and Simon Farnaby (Paddington 2, Detectorists), this multi-character sitcom was created by and stars the writer-performers from the award-winning Horrible Histories and Yonderland, and feature film Bill.
Spirit to Soar: Mashwaki-Manidoo Bimaadiziwin (Premiers September 24)
Directed by Tanya Talaga and Michelle Derosier, Spirit to Soar: Mashwaki-Manidoo Bimaadiziwin examines the hard truths around the deaths of First Nations students in Thunder Bay, truths Canada continues to ignore: racism kills, especially when it presents as indifference. It’s a look at how families and communities struggle to carry on while pursuing justice for their loved ones and equity for their people, and it follows Tanya Talaga’s personal journey as she explores her own Indigenous identity. At its heart, this is a story of the strength and bravery of First Nations youth who everyday walk out the front door and head to high school in a country that has tried to erase them. This is a story about resilience that says, we're still here and we are thriving.
Canada’s Drag Race winner Priyanka during the season one finale. (Image: Crave Canada)
Crave Canada
Bitchin’: The Sound and Fury of Rick James (Premieres September 3)
Directed by Emmy®-nominee Sacha Jenkins (Wu-Tang Clan: Of Mics and Men ), the documentary is a raw and intimate look at the “Super Freak” singer, charting his soaring artistic success and eventual personal decline. Blazing new trails in American music and global culture in the ’70s and ’80s as a songwriter, performer, and producer, James collaborated with Canadian luminaries such as Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, who he would later collaborate with on the R&B band The Mynah Birds. Featuring rare footage of James’ incredible live shows, never-before-seen home videos, original interviews with legendary artists, collaborators and friends, and a treasure trove of recorded interviews with James (who died in 2004), the documentary presents a full picture of James’ dramatic rise and fall, focusing in on the “Punk-Funk” music he left behind.
Canada’s Drag Race Anniversary Extravaganza (Premieres September 6)
Hosted by Priyanka, Canada’s first drag superstar and winner of Canada’s Drag Race Season 1, Canada’s Drag Race Anniversary Extravaganza airs Monday, September 6 at 9 p.m. ET. In anticipation of the second season of Crave’s five-time, Canadian Screen Award-Winning smash-hit original series Canada’s Drag Race, the all new, 90-minute special looks back at the series’ history making first season. All 12 Queens from Season 1 reunite to discuss their most memorable experiences on the show. In addition, Priyanka sits down with Season 2 judges Amanda Brugel, Brooke Lynn Hytes, Brad Goreski, and Traci Melchor, as they spill the tea on what they’re looking for from the new competitors, and give viewers the opportunity to learn more about what they bring to the judges table.
Scenes from a Marriage (Premieres September 12)
The five-episode limited series explores love, hatred, desire, monogamy, marriage, and divorce through the lens of a contemporary American couple. Mira (Chastain) is a confident, ambitious tech executive left unfulfilled by her marriage, and Jonathan (Isaac) is a cerebral and accommodating philosophy professor desperate to keep their relationship intact. The series observes the full complexity of Jonathan and Mira as individuals who ultimately know their marriage isn’t being torn apart by any one event or flaw, resulting in a radically honest series that allows the audience to eavesdrop on private conversations between two people torn between feelings of hate and love.
Back to Life, Season 2 (Premieres September 13)
The six-part second season of the critically acclaimed series Back to Life premieres Monday, September 13 at 10 p.m. ET. Season 2 picks up six weeks after an optimistic Miri (Daisy Haggard, Episodes) leaves prison. Her probation officer, Janice (Jo Martin, Doctor Who), has gotten her a trial shift at the supermarket. Miri and her neighbour Billy (Adeel Akhtar, Utopia) have been spending more time together, and she’s even found her hair crimper. However, Miri’s not talking to her mother Caroline (Geraldine James, Downton Abbey) after the revelation that she was having an affair with Miri’s ex-boyfriend Dom (Jamie Michie, Borderline), and she’ll need a lot of shifts at the supermarket before she can afford to move out. She’s also avoiding her best friend Mandy (Christine Bottomley, Dominia) after learning that Mandy’s secret affair with Lara’s father led to Lara’s death all those years ago. Things are about to get a whole lot worse with the arrival of Lara’s mother, Norah, who is still grieving her daughter. It is clear that Miri cannot escape her past.
D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Paulina Alexis, Lane Factor, and Kawennáhere Devery Jacobs in Reservation Dogs. (Image: FX)
Disney+
Reservation Dogs (Premieres September 1)
From Co-Creators and Executive Producers Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, Reservation Dogs is a half-hour comedy that follows the exploits of four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma who steal, rob and save in order to get to the exotic, mysterious and faraway land of California.
The D’Amelio Show (Premieres September 3)
From relative obscurity and a seemingly normal life, to overnight success and thrust into the Hollywood limelight overnight, the D’Amelios are faced with new challenges and opportunities they could not have imagined. Charli, who at 16 became one of the biggest celebrities with over 150 million followers combined and #1 on the TikTok platform in less than a year, has the world at her fingertips and is working to balance fame and family, life with dancing, running a budding empire, making new friends in LA and battling the naysayers online. Her sister Dixie, is now 19 and experiencing her own overnight rise to fame with over 78 million followers combined, one of the fastest growing YouTube channels and ranked within the Top 10 Most Followed Creators on TikTok. Dixie is now pursuing a music career in LA. For mom Heidi and dad Marc, raising teenagers is hard enough before adding in a cross-country move, supporting their daughters’ dreams and doing the best they can to stay close as a family and protect their girls from the dark side of fame, while also trying to adjust to life in Hollywood.
Asa Butterfield and Emma Mackey in Sex Education. (Image: Netflix)
Netflix Canada
Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror (Premieres September 2)
This unflinching series documents the 9/11 terrorist attacks, from al-Qaida's roots in the 1980s to America's forceful response, both at home and abroad.
Money Heist Part 5: Volume 1 (Premieres September 3)
The gang has been in the Bank of Spain for over 100 hours and the Professor is at risk. To make matters worse, a new adversary is coming: the army.
Worth (Premieres September 3)
An attorney learns a lesson in empathy when he is faced with the near-impossible task of determining how to compensate families who suffered incalculable losses as a result of the September 11th attacks in 2001. Based on true events.
The Circle: Season 3 (Premieres September 8)
A fresh crew of flirts, fibbers and honest allies join the Circle — and navigate new twists and turns — in hopes of winning this season’s cash prize.
Blood Brothers: Malcolm X & Muhammad Ali (Premieres September 9)
From a chance meeting to a tragic fallout, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali's extraordinary bond cracks under the weight of distrust and shifting ideals.
Metal Shop Masters (Premieres September 10)
Sparks fly and tensions flare in Metal Shop Masters, a fierce, fiery competition between 7 of America’s top welding legends. Hosted by Jo Koy, over the course of six episodes, these iron men and women race against the clock in challenging builds ranging from epic, one-of-a-kind grills to futuristic vehicles, all judged on both form and function. Pressure, heat and hustle makes for grinding work, and in the end, only one will forge a path to victory and the title of Metal Shop Master.
Ankahi Kahaniya (Premieres September 17)
As big city life buzzes around them, lonely souls discover surprising sources of connection and companionship in three tales of love, loss and longing.
Sex Education: Season 3 (Premieres September 17)
It’s a new year, Otis is having casual sex, Eric and Adam are official, and Jean has a baby on the way. Meanwhile, new headteacher Hope tries to return Moordale to a pillar of excellence
Love on the Spectrum: Season 2 (Premieres September 21)
Love on the Spectrum S2 continues to tell the stories of people on the autism spectrum as they navigate the world of dating and relationships. With a few familiar faces, and some delightful new ones, this season represents an even wider range of people and personalities, showing just how diverse the autism spectrum really is.
Dear White People: Volume 4 (Premieres September 22)
Reunited amid a pandemic, future Sam and Lionel look back on their epic final year together at Winchester — which plays out as a '90s musical.
Intrusion (Premieres September 22)
After a deadly break-in at a couple’s new dream home, the traumatized wife searches for answers — and learns the real danger is just beginning.
Jaguar (Premieres September 22)
In 1960s Spain, a Holocaust survivor joins a group of agents seeking justice against the hundreds of Nazis who fled to the nation to hide after WWII.
The Starling (Premieres September 24)
A woman adjusting to life after a loss contends with a feisty bird that's taken over her garden — and a husband who's struggling to find a way forward.