Each month, lots of new films and TV shows are added to Stan‘s library. Eliza Janssen surveys the month’s selections and picks for titles most worth watching. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.
Top Picks: TV
Joan: Season 1 (October 1)
Forget murder, drug dealing, terrorism: jewel theft has to be one of the most fanciful and seductive crimes out there, the perfect profession for a desperate yet glamorous fictional crook. Game of Thrones star Sophie Turner plays one such criminal, in this brand-new British period drama. Joan takes place in the 1980s, with our titular character struggling to escape from a disastrous marriage and raise her daughter.
The opportunity to create a new life for herself comes, surprisingly, in ill-gotten gems, with Turner’s hard-scrabble heroine crafting new identities and disguises to snatch up sparkling goodies. The show’s apparently based on a true story, but don’t get any ideas from Turner’s alluring heists: we have a feeling things won’t end well.
This Is Going To Hurt: Season 1 (October 2)
Back in 2017, British doc Adam Kay published a tell-all memoir with the subheading “Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor”. It captured the exhaustion, mind-breaking bureaucracy, and emotional fatigue of working under the overstrained NHS: all before COVID came along and walloped essential workers in an entirely new way. This miniseries adaptation came out in 2022, bringing a new sense of urgency to Ben Whishaw’s lead performance.
Episode one starts with Adam (Whishaw) making one big mistake on the labour ward, leaving him reeling in his personal life as well as his professional state of chaos at the hospital. The ramifications haunt all seven episodes, leaving him—and sympathetic viewers—unsure if he, or anyone, can handle this sort of medical mania.
Thou Shalt Not Steal: Season 1 (October 17)
You can watch every episode of this sun-bleached Stan Original in one heady go, following the misadventures of Indigenous scamp Robyn (Sherry-Lee Watson) as she tries to uncover a shady family secret. With her unorthodox and mostly illegal methods, Robyn and her mate Gidge (Will McDonald) flee their tiny outback town seeking answers elsewhere—but local stars Miranda Otto and Noah Taylor are hot on their tail, playing a sex trafficker and Gidge’s domineering religious dad respectively. Expect a hard-won coming-of-age, and breathtaking desert scenery.
Top Picks: Movies + Specials
The Matrix Resurrections (October 12)
Pop a red pill and settle in for this mindf**k of a legasequel, with director Lana Wachowski flying solo without sister and collaborator Lily. Some superfans hated it, finding the action far more lackluster than the game-changing bullet time sequences of the original blockbusters…but I reckon Resurrections is daringly sincere, making sweeping changes to the sci-fi franchise’s lore and rediscovering the optimistic heart at its core. Carrie-Anne Moss’s Trinity takes centre stage, arguably, with Keanu Reeves playing a more downhearted Neo.
Our critic Amelia Berry described it as both “really good” and “outrageously bananas” in her review: “If you know who The Merovingian is, and you’ve always wanted to see him impotently cussing out Millennials for ruining cinema, then wow, let me tell you, you’re going to spit!”, she gushed.
Carrie (October 23)
And you thought your high school formal was a bit of a let down. Poor Carrie White (Sissy Spacek), raised by a religious terror of a mother (Piper Laurie) and bullied by her classmates for thinking she’s bleeding to death when she’s actually coming into her dark, repressed, feminine power. In one of Brian De Palma’s most accessible and scary films, Stephen King’s tale of teen torment violently unleashed is a feel-bad blast, still entertaining and spooking us even as we mourn for Spacek’s sympathetic wallflower. And don’t forget: a super-young John Travolta is among her tormentors!
Quo Vadis, Aida? (October 26)
Nominated for Best International Feature back at the 2021 Oscars, this unsettling Bosnian and Herzegovian drama tells the true story of a UN translator, who can’t find the words or the right actions to lead her family to safety. As Serbian forces invade, school teacher and translator Aida (Jasna Đuričić) tries to make a case for her husband and son, hoping to use her position to ferry them to safety from the Bosnian genocide.
The celebrated film’s representation of the Srebernica massacre makes real events from 1995 undeniable to its present-day audience, whilst also brutally critiquing the ongoing genocidal terror that lingers today. A heavy, worthy, and suspenseful experience.
All titles arriving on Stan in October
October 1
Joan: Season 1 Premiere
Hitch (2005)
Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? Season 2
October 2
This is Going to Hurt: Season 1
Ben Gen 10
October 3
Bob The Builder (Project Build It): Season 1
Lucky Country
October 4
Underground: Seasons 1-2
Jumanji: The Next Level
October 5
Burnt
Scooby-Doo! And Krypto, Too!
October 6
The Third War
Going Clear: Scientology and The Prison of Belief
October 7
The Wedding Singer
Heroic
October 9
Fireman Sam: Heroes of the Storm
The Inner Cage
October 10
Seven
Dark Satellites
October 11
It’s The Law
October 12
The Matrix Resurrections
Thomas And Friends: King Of The Railway
Out In The Open
October 13
Hidden Assets: Season 2
Gayby Baby
Scooby-Doo! Return To Zombie Island
October 14
Radical
I’m Not A Killer
October 15
Charlie’s Angels (2000)
Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle
Charlie’s Angels (2019)
October 16
The Diplomat (UK): Season 1
October 17
Thou Shalt Not Steal: Season 1 Premiere
Wagspiracy: Vardy vs Rooney Premiere
October 18
Bad Boys (1995)
Bad Boys II
Bad Boys For Life
October 19
New Leash On Life: Season 1
Scooby-Doo! The Sword And The Scoob
October 20
Octonauts: Great Swamp Search
The Uncovering
Everything Must Go
October 21
The Vice Of Hope
October 22
The Conjuring
The Conjuring 2
Disco
October 23
Surreal Estate: Season 1
Carrie (1976)
October 24
Dead & Buried: Season 1 – Premiere
Of An Age
The Amityville Horror (2005)
October 25
Persona Non Grata
Child’s Play (1988)
October 26
Black Adam
Thomas And Friends: All Engines Go: Season 2
The Wiggles: The Sound of Halloween
Quo Vadis, Aida?
Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!
October 27
Jussie Smollett: Anatomy of a Hoax: Season 1 Premiere
Stranger By the Lake
October 28
Games People Play
Ju-On 2 (The Grudge 2)
October 29
A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood
October 30
The Equalizer 2
The Inbetweeners (2011 Movie)
Plane
October 31
Poltergeist (2015)
The Wild Thornberrys Movie
Three Floors
See also
* Best new movies and TV series on Netflix Australia
* Best new movies and TV series on Amazon Prime
* Best new movies and TV series on Disney+
* All new streaming movies & series
