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      The Best Movies and TV Shows Coming to Netflix in October

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      “Lupin” returns and the latest literary horror adaptation from Mike Flanagan debuts, just in time for Halloween.Every month, Netflix adds movies and TV shows to its library. Here are our picks for some of October’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)‘The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile’Started streaming: Oct. 1The country music singer Tanya Tucker was still a teenager when she recorded her first hit songs in the early 1970s; and hitting the top of the charts at a young age soon led to problems like substance abuse, bad relationships and stage fright. The director Kathlyn Horan’s documentary “The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile” uses the recording and release of a 2019 Tucker comeback album — spearheaded by the modern alt-country stars Carlile and Shooter Jennings — as the frame for a more comprehensive look at the musician’s tumultuous life. This is a touching movie about an artist trying to find her voice and purpose again, helped by two famous fans who sometimes struggle to convince Tucker that they know what they are doing.‘Lupin’ Part 3Starts streaming: Oct. 5After a long layoff, the hit French adventure series “Lupin” is back for seven more episodes of high-stakes heists and sly social commentary. Omar Sy returns as Assane Diop, who has turned his disgust with the rich and powerful — and his love of the author Maurice Leblanc’s gentleman thief character Arsène Lupin — into a lucrative career as a criminal mastermind. The show’s twisty plotting jumps between thrilling caper sequences and scenes that explore Assane’s past as the son of a Senegalese immigrant. The previous set of episodes ended with the hero achieving one of his major goals: exacting revenge on his family’s greatest enemy. The new set begins with Assane on the run and plotting his next moves — which are complicated by his becoming something of a national folk hero.‘Fair Play’Starts streaming: Oct. 6This edgy business-world drama was a sensation at Sundance earlier this year, stirring up audiences with its story of two ambitious young hedge fund analysts — Emily (Phoebe Dynevor from “Bridgerton”) and Luke (Alden Ehrenreich from “Solo”) — whose passionate secret love affair starts going sour after Emily is promoted into a supervisory position at their firm. The writer-director Chloe Domont worked previously on “Billions” and “Ballers,” two TV series that examine how money and power complicate interpersonal relationships. With “Fair Play,” Domont also factors in gender roles, as the couple is pulled apart by the demands of an industry that values macho swagger. The film has the rhythm of a thriller, anchored by the question of whether Emily and Luke’s romance and careers can survive her sudden success.‘The Fall of the House of Usher’Starts streaming: Oct. 12The third of the writer-director Mike Flanagan’s literary horror mini-series for Netflix (after “The Haunting of Hill House” and “The Haunting of Bly Manor”) uses the Edgar Allan Poe short story “The Fall of the House of Usher” as a jumping-off point for a social satire with gothic overtones. Bruce Greenwood plays Roderick Usher, the patriarch of a large and wealthy family that has made much of its fortune peddling dangerous pharmaceuticals. When all of his grown children begin dying, Roderick tells the crusading attorney C. Auguste Dupin (Carl Lumbly) the story of his tragedy scarred, supernaturally plagued life. Flanagan and his writers borrow names and ideas from other Poe books; but they have set their saga and its thematic concerns in the modern day, with a stellar cast that also includes Mark Hamill, Carla Gugino, Mary McDonnell and Henry Thomas.‘Pain Hustlers’Starts streaming: Oct. 27Emily Blunt and Chris Evans play persuasive pharmaceutical salespeople in the drama “Pain Hustlers,” the latest in a recent string of films and TV series that dig into the roots of America’s opioid crisis. The movie is directed by David Yates, who has spent much of the past 15 years at the helm of the Harry Potter movie franchise; and it was scripted by Wells Tower, who has won acclaim as an author of short fiction. These two adapt Evan Hughes’s nonfiction book of the same name, turning it into a fast-paced and fact-filled big business exposé. It is similar to the likes of “The Wolf of Wall Street” and “The Big Short” in the way it uses documentary-style interludes and charismatic antiheroes to tell the story of how greed and lax ethics played a role in the systemic overprescribing of painkillers.Also arriving:Oct. 4“Beckham”“Race to the Summit”Oct. 5“Everything Now” Season 1Oct. 6“Ballerina”“A Deadly Invitation”Oct. 10“Last One Standing” Season 2Oct. 11“Big Vape: The Rise and Fall of Juul”“Once Upon a Star”“Pact of Silence” Season 1Oct. 12“Good Night World” Season 1Oct. 13“The Conference”Oct. 17“The Devil on Trial”Oct. 19“Bodies”“Crypto Boy”“Neon” Season 1Oct. 20“Creature”“Doona!”“Elite” Season 7“Old Dads”“Surviving Paradise”“Vjeran Tomic: The Spider-Man of Paris”Oct. 25“Life on Our Planet” Season 1Oct. 26“Pluto” Season 1Oct. 27“Sister Death”“Tore”“Yellow Door: ’90s Lo-Fi Film Club” More

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      Sex, Thugs and Kidneys: ‘Bargain’ Bids to Be the Next ‘Squid Game’

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      A new Paramount+ thriller depicts a fight for survival amid sex scams, organ auctions and earthquakes. Like other Korean dramas, it is really about class.In “Bargain,” a new dystopian South Korean series on Paramount+, a man shows up at a hotel far from the city to consummate a deal. He is to pay a young woman for sex; the price is steep because she claims to be a virgin. But wait: It turns out she actually works for a criminal organ-auctioning operation, and the guy is about to unwillingly give up a kidney.Then an earthquake levels the hotel, initiating a desperate scramble for survival. And that’s just the first 30 minutes or so.There’s an almost comical amount of calamity in “Bargain,” the latest offering in the push from Paramount+ into a robust South Korean streaming market that exploded with the popularity of Netflix’s “Squid Game” in 2021. Like that show, which depicted debt-ridden citizens competing in a series of deadly, Darwinian children’s games for the amusement of wealthy overlords, “Bargain” deals in dystopian extremes. (All six episodes begin streaming on Thursday.)But these shows aren’t serving up shock for its own sake. They use dark fantasy to confront issues that plague contemporary South Korean society, particularly the economic inequality fostered by capitalism run amok; social isolation in a frenzied tech boom; and a widespread distrust of government authority.In a paradox of the South Korean streaming boom, shows that often dramatize desperate efforts to get a piece of the economic pie are proving to be big business. (Netflix, the world’s biggest streaming service, reported that 60 percent of its subscribers worldwide had watched a Korean-language show or movie in 2022; the company plans to invest $2.5 billion in South Korean content over the next four years.)Jin Sun Kyu plays a man lured into a trap set by a woman posing as a prostitute. Next thing he knows, a roomful of people are bidding on his organs. Then comes the earthquake.TVING Co/Paramount+“We’ve seen a lot of demand for international content across the globe, and Korean content particularly is a phenomenon in itself,” Marco Nobili, the executive vice president and international general manager of Paramount+, said in a video interview. “Globalization has really brought that to light. So certainly Korea was a top market for us.”Paramount+ entered the arena through a film and television partnership between its parent company, Paramount Global, and the South Korean media conglomerate CJ ENM. As part of that deal, Paramount+ and the Korean streaming giant TVing, which CJ ENM controls, committed to co-producing seven original Korean series, of which “Bargain” is the second. The first, “Yonder,” about a man who reconnects with his dead wife, debuted on Paramount+ in April. (Both premiered in South Korea, on TVing, in October 2022.)At the same time, Paramount+ has begun building its K-drama library with hit shows from the CJ ENM vaults, including the 2016 procedural “Signal” and a 2017 thriller about a religious cult, “Save Me,” both of which also arrived in April.A dark, competitive thread runs through much of it; and just as the characters in Korea’s many dystopian offerings must fight for survival, there seems to be a kind of “can you top this?” contest happening among the shows themselves. The premise of “Bargain” is a little more extreme than that of “Squid Game.” Paramount+’s coming series “Pyramid Game,” in which a bullied high school girl must become a sniper in order to survive a brutal game, looks to be yet another nightmare blood sport.For Byun Seungmin, the creator of “Bargain,” the idea of toxic competition is crucial.“In South Korea, the issue of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer is severe,” Byun said in a video interview last month through an interpreter. “There’s a prevailing sense of defeat that if one isn’t born into a good background, it’s difficult to have a fair opportunity to achieve something.”In “Bargain,” you can either afford to buy a kidney for your dying father (freshly carved from a captive), or you can’t. You either run a criminal empire, or what’s left of your body is fed to the fish. Near the end of the series, as the female and male lead characters (played by Jun Jong Seo and Jin Sun Kyu) try to escape the collapsing structure, one says to the other: “If we die here, we die for nothing.” The response: “People like us always die for nothing.”The hit Netflix series “Squid Game,” whose premise put contestants in a series of deadly children’s games, initiated the boom in the South Korean streaming market. Noh Juhan/Netflix“Bargain,” like “Squid Game,” offers the spectacle of millions in cash literally dangling above those who can grab it. Such images are laden with meaning, said the journalist Elise Hu, whose book “Flawless” is a deep examination of South Korea’s booming beauty industry.“You have this story in which body parts are actually getting fragmented, and organs sold and then harvested, so that you can put a price on a body,” she said last month in a phone interview. “It all flows from this moment that South Korea is in with consumption, where you can buy all the things that you want and it’s all money, money, money.”As Byun put it, “The younger generation in Korea now believes unless the system collapses, or a disaster occurs where everyone becomes truly equal, there is no opportunity for the future.”“Bargain” unfolds in a series of carefully choreographed long takes, the camera darting and gliding among the wreckage and creating a sense that, even in this dog-eat-dog world, everyone’s fate is connected. The dearth of editing made it essential that everyone hit their marks and stay on the same page.“It felt like a theater piece, or like I was playing a game of chess or Go,” Jun, the female lead, said through an interpreter. “The series is quite experimental in terms of the scenario and also the structure.”From left, Chang Ryul, Park Hyung-Soo and Jun in “Bargain.” Their characters must battle in an postapocalyptic-like environment after an earthquake collapses much of the building they are in.TVING Co/Paramount+The past few years have seen seismic change and even scandal in South Korean television and film. In 2017 the conservative president Park Geun-hye was removed from office and later convicted on charges of bribery, extortion and abusing her power, including the maintenance of a government blacklist that denied state funding to thousands of artists deemed unfriendly to her administration or insufficiently patriotic. During the Park administration, more filmmakers subsequently sought funding and distribution from streamers — especially Netflix, Hu said.Now the streaming frontier is wide open, and Paramount+ is staking its claim. Nobili, the Paramount+ executive, is particularly excited about the coming series “A Bloody Lucky Day,” about a taxi driver and a serial killer — shades of Michael Mann’s hit man/cabby movie “Collateral.”Business, in other words, is promising. But if “Bargain” stands to provide some wild entertainment for American audiences — and the promise of big revenue for its American streamer — Byun, its creator, seemed more focused on the culturally specific ways he hopes the series will speak about South Korea today. He described a country in which birthrates are plummeting and “people tend to avoid communication with others.”“They express anger about many things, claiming the value of fairness,” he continued. The characters in “Bargain,” he added, “reflect the masses in modern South Korea who seem to have lost hope, and even among them there is a rift.”And yet where there is collapse — of a building, an entertainment industry, a society — there is also the hope for renewal.“Collapse is not the end but a new beginning,” Byun said. “After going through the collapse, the characters inadvertently gain an opportunity to start over in a more primitive era where equality prevails.“I believe this also reflects the psyche of the public, desiring the end of the period they’re living in so that a new one can arise.” More

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      Late Night Hosts Roast Kevin McCarthy on His Way Out

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      “Nine months? I’ve been to Phish concerts longer than that,” Jimmy Fallon joked of McCarthy’s tenure as speaker of the House.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.‘The McCarthy Hearings’Kevin McCarthy was ousted as speaker of the House on Tuesday after only nine months in the job. The vote happened just in time for late night hosts to discuss it during their afternoon tapings.“Nine months? I’ve been to Phish concerts longer than that,” Jimmy Fallon joked.“Even Aaron Rodgers is, like, ‘Damn, that was fast.’” — JIMMY FALLON“After Matt Gaetz announced the motion to remove Kevin McCarthy, McCarthy said Gaetz has ‘personal things in his life that he has challenges with,’ like figuring out how to set his Venmo to private.” — SETH MEYERS“This was an unlikely and historic team-up between far-right Republicans and Democrats. Do you know how much you have to suck to get A.O.C. and Matt Gaetz on the same side of something?” — JIMMY KIMMEL“And I’m sure this won’t be taken out of context when I say: I love the McCarthy Hearings.” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Punchiest Punchlines (Low-Rated Creeps of Late Night Edition)“In fairness, you can’t really argue with him — the man does know talentless, loser creeps. In fact, he fathered two of them.” — JIMMY KIMMEL, on Donald Trump’s Truth Social posts referring to late night hosts as “low-rated CREEPS of Late Night Television” and “true losers.”“This from a man who is such a loser, he buried his ex-wife on a golf course just so he could continue to cheat on her.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Thank you for watching, sir. But I’m not surprised. He’s a 77-year-old white guy — of course he’s watching CBS.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“But I do have a question: ‘Low-rated creeps of late night’? How did he find out our original podcast title?” — STEPHEN COLBERTThe Bits Worth WatchingAmber Ruffin and Jenny Hagel returned on Tuesday’s “Late Night” for another “Jokes Seth Can’t Tell” segment, this time about Black Barbies and lesbian wine bars.What We’re Excited About on Wednesday NightThe stand-up comedian and actor Wanda Sykes will appear on Wednesday’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”Also, Check This Out“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater in Manhattan.Sara Krulwich/The New York TimesJocelyn Bioh’s Broadway debut, “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” is a riotously funny workplace comedy set in prepandemic, mid-Trump Harlem. More

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      in Theater

      ‘Only Murders In the Building’ Season 3 Finale: The Show, and Deaths, Go On

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      Tuesday’s finale of “Only Murders in the Building” wrapped a season that was a love letter to Broadway musicals, not least because it was a little silly.This notebook contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of “Only Murders in the Building.”Everyone loves a Broadway hit. It’s possible that we enjoy a Broadway catastrophe — “Carrie,” “Diana, the Musical,” “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” — a little more. Few productions have been as cataclysmic as Oliver Putnam’s “Death Rattle Dazzle,” a misbegotten gothic about murderous infants, re-conceived as a glittery musical. Think “Ruthless” but skewed younger and set at a Nova Scotian lighthouse.This musical was the centerpiece of Season 3 of the Hulu comedy “Only Murders in the Building,” which brought the amateur detectives played by Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short out of their luxury apartment complex and into a sumptuous Broadway theater. (The theater is actually the opulent United Palace in Washington Heights, subbing for a space more than 100 blocks south.) “Death Rattle Dazzle” bore only the vaguest sequined resemblance to a real Broadway show, while demonstrating deep love of the form. Think of the season as a love letter to Broadway, written in lipstick and blood.On the original opening night, the leading man, Paul Rudd’s Ben Glenroy, was killed. Twice. Once with rat poison and again down an elevator shaft. Theater has its own violence. A good show “kills,” it “slays,” it “knocks them dead.” But this was s a bit much.Amid rehearsals for the original play’s transformation into a musical, several members of the cast and crew were accused of his murder. In the meantime, there were in-jokes about superstitions, spike tape, stage fright, Schmackary’s Cookies and the cavalier use of accents. The accent jokes were made at the expense of Meryl Streep. Matthew Broderick also showed up for some method skewering.During the season finale, which arrived on Tuesday (spoilers follow, so many), the murderers were finally revealed. The uberproducer Donna DeMeo (Linda Emond) had poisoned Ben to protect her son Cliff’s investment in the show. Then her son (Wesley Taylor), defending his mother and his ego, pushed a revived Ben down an elevator shaft.Was the motive love? Or money? Or artistic integrity? Yes? I think? Motive is never big with the “Only Murders Gang.” (Personally, I plumped for the documentarian Tobert (Jesse Williams), mainly because it’s hard to trust a man named Tobert.)This season didn’t often mirror what actually happens on Broadway, even as it assembled a crack team of Broadway composers — Justin Paul, Benj Pasek, Marc Shaiman, Michael R. Jackson and Sara Bareilles — to supply the songs. “Death Rattle Dazzle” was, even by Broadway’s variable standards, too inane, too sparkly. Perhaps the most delirious fiction, beyond the dancing crab people, was the notion that a single negative review, delivered here by the critic Maxine (Noma Dumezweni, deadpan and delectable), could be the precipitating event for a murder.The series’s madcap commitment was one of the most realistic aspects of “Death Rattle Dazzle,” which included singing shellfish and three babies suspected of murder.Patrick Harbron/HuluThankfully (and I write this as someone who covered Broadway for decades), critics don’t have quite that much power, but then again Martin’s Charles-Haden Savage described Maxine’s assessment as “a pan, a massacre.” And also: “The harshest review in the history of theater. A complete bloodletting.” After attending the musical’s opening night, Maxine has warmer feelings: “This dusty old chestnut has been Botoxed, bedazzled and brought back to life.” A complete about-face? Yes, that’s fiction, too.But what did feel real, just a smidgen, was the madcap commitment to the bit that putting on a musical requires. Most musicals, even those that eschew babies and shellfish, are at least a little silly. Unless you’re attending a theater camp, humans don’t spontaneously break into song, and there isn’t often a full orchestra backing them or a chorus that just happens to sing along in harmony while executing the occasional pas de bourrée. It’s ridiculous to think that a few lights, some spangled costumes and a set that’s mostly plywood will transport an audience to some far-off world.And yet, that’s what happens. Which is why we have and have had long-running musicals about, say, cats or trainee witches or the wildlife of the African savannah. Those crab people should feel right at home.A couple of weeks ago, I took the train up to the United Palace for an “Only Murders” pop-up event. Guests wandered the lush surroundings, sifting evidence with specialized flashlights. “Only Murders” is a TV show about a podcast, which this season was about a Broadway show. This event was also a strange hybrid of forms — gallery exhibit, immersive happening, escape room, a live-action watch party, Botoxed and bedazzled. Also you could get your makeup done, which seemed fun. And they gave you a puzzle on the way out.The best part, for me anyway, was a quiet moment in which I was able to sit in the orchestra and look up at the stage. In that plush seat, I could imagine all of the wonderful, outrageous, demented shows that had played there before and dream about what might come next. More

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      Book Review: ‘In the Form of a Question,’ by Amy Schneider

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      Amy Schneider’s new memoir, “In the Form of a Question,” captures a life of bold choices well beyond wagers on the Daily Double.IN THE FORM OF A QUESTION: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life, by Amy SchneiderAmy Schneider is one of the “Jeopardy!” greats, second only to Ken Jennings in games won (40 to Jennings’s 74). She’s fourth overall in regular-season winnings ($1,382,800) and fifth if you include tournaments ($1,632,800). In her new memoir, “In the Form of a Question,” she locks down a No. 1 spot, though, for best hang. Extolling the virtues of recreational drugs, the thrills of casual sex, the flirting potential in offering tarot readings? Ken Jennings could never.In “Question,” Schneider bounces between bloggier, jokier chapters (“Why in God’s Name Did They Make ‘Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue’?”) and more revealing, still jokey ones, about her gender transition and other formative experiences (“So if You’re Trans, Does That Mean You Like Guys?”). Her prose is warm and funny, though the omnipresent snarky footnotes sometimes deflate moments of earnest momentum.Other times, the little sidebars are home to some of the more endearing jokes, such as describing “The Music Man” as “probably the best work of literature ever written about the eternal conflict between unsophisticated farmers and the grifters who want to sell them musical instruments at above-market prices.” This is, deeply and completely, a theater-kid book.“When it comes to other people, I don’t have a setting between ‘at least slightly uncomfortable’ and ‘almost disturbingly comfortable,’ between ‘co-worker’ and ‘Elena Ferrante character,’” Schneider writes. That comes through here, and the more Ferrante-ish chapters are the book’s most interesting. Perhaps there is less of a need for listing the meanings of each tarot card, or an essay describing how good the TV show “Daria” is.Images from a handwritten diary entry from the day her first wife left; her candor about self-loathing (“I kept a mental list of all my shortcomings, all my failures, everything I had to feel ashamed of, and I tended to that list with great care, always on the lookout for opportunities to add to it”); the nervous ecstasy in her trans awakening — that’s where the book feels the most special and alive.The gossip in any of us will always yearn for more happy tales of sex and drugs, and Schneider has a bunch of fun ones. “There’s a fascinating nocturnal world out there, and the only people who can access it are those who have done some blow,” she notes. Sure, having a long-term partner who cares about you can be fulfilling. “But when you hook up with somebody who doesn’t know you well, then it must be because they’re horny for you, and that feels great!”Fleeting moments of righteous bitterness — “not that everything about my wife’s sexual relationship with a mysterious homeless felon that she met at a comedy open mic was perfect” — and tossed-off lines about acrimonious friend breakups and decades-long love triangles add edge and fizz.In the scheme of “Jeopardy!” memoirs, this one is not particularly “Jeopardy!”-centric. There is no training-montage section, no “Jeopardy!” war room, and Schneider describes herself as a lonely and ambivalent student. Her self-actualization comes about not through a career in software engineering or through making money from trivia, but through casting off the oppressive guilt and shame around sex and bodies that colored her entire young life.Fame is mostly but not exclusively great, she admits, and drifting too far into its bubble is dangerous. “I love how many more ways I can now imagine life turning out for me,” she writes, though “icon, but like in a cautionary tale sort of way,” could be one of them.Trans stories are often commodified for either misery or nobility in the face of misery, but “In the Form of a Question” is a much fuller, livelier, more textured and sardonic picture. When you win enough money to quit your job, you actually get a new job, Schneider says. She describes hers, wryly but rightly, as “Famous Celebrity Trans Person.” If this book is part of the gig, things seem like they’re going pretty well.IN THE FORM OF A QUESTION: The Joys and Rewards of a Curious Life | By Amy Schneider | 272 pp. | Avid Reader Press | $28 More

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      Late Night Shows Return After Writers’ Strike Ends

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      “We’ve been gone so long, ‘The Bachelor’ is now a grandfather,” Jimmy Kimmel joked on Monday.Welcome to Best of Late Night, a rundown of the previous night’s highlights that lets you sleep — and lets us get paid to watch comedy. Here are the 50 best movies on Netflix right now.They’re BaaackLate night shows returned on Monday night for their first broadcasts since May, after a five-month writers’ strike ended last week. In their monologues, hosts expressed gratitude to be working again and caught up on some of the news that happened while they were sidelined.“We’ve been gone so long, ‘The Bachelor’ is now a grandfather,” Jimmy Kimmel joked.“The stalemate finally ended when the studios realized, ‘We’ve got to end this now, or it’s another three months of watching ‘Suits.’” — JIMMY FALLON“It was kind of weird coming back after being gone for five months. The studio was empty for so long, NBC converted it to a Spirit Halloween.” — JIMMY FALLON“I missed my writers so much. I was so happy — so happy to see them this morning. I will admit, by lunch, I was a little over it.” — SETH MEYERSWhile off the air, Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers and John Oliver collaborated on a podcast called “Strike Force Five,” with proceeds donated to their out-of-work staff members.“We still, by the way, have two episodes and thousands of T-shirts left to sell,” Kimmel said on Monday. “The strike ended exactly on the day we ordered the shirts and hats, so if you want one, go to StrikeForceFive.com, or I’ll be giving them out until Christmas 2045, OK?”Neither on the podcast nor on “The Tonight Show” did Jimmy Fallon mention an apology he issued in September after current and former employees reported experiencing a “toxic workplace” under his leadership. Instead, he focused on gratitude for viewers who choose “to have me in your bedrooms at nighttime.”“I’m more excited than the guy seeing ‘Beetlejuice’ with Lauren Boebert.” — JIMMY FALLON“Yeah, everyone is excited. Today, my dad called me up and said, ‘Finally, I can watch Kimmel again.’” — JIMMY FALLONThe Punchiest Punchlines (Bad Business as Usual Edition)“We looked at the calendar today and — check my math on this — I believe we have been off the air for 154 indictments.” — STEPHEN COLBERT“Donald Trump got arrested four times while we were on strike — once for the classified documents, once for interfering with the election, once for Jan. 6, and once for shooting Tupac, allegedly.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Trump is now facing 91 felony counts. Ninety-one felony counts. It’s like all of Melania’s birthday wishes came true at once.” — JIMMY KIMMEL“Donald Trump arrived in New York last night to stay at his possibly soon-to-be-renamed residence, Trump Tower, ahead of his appearance today in a Manhattan courthouse for a fraud trial, and I just want to say it’s really nice of him to come back to New York for our first show.” — SETH MEYERS“Trump might not even have the money to pay the penalty in his fraud trial, which means there’s a remote but realistic possibility that Trump Tower gets taken away, he has to sell Mar-a-Lago and he ends up crashing with Rudy Giuliani.” — SETH MEYERSThe Bits Worth WatchingThe actor Matthew McConaughey turned rhymes from his new children’s book “Just Because” into a spirited duet with Jimmy Fallon on Monday’s “Tonight Show.”What We’re Excited About on Tuesday NightFresh off a sold-out date at Madison Square Garden, the musical supergroup boygenius will perform on Tuesday’s “Late Show.”Also, Check This OutBeyoncé on tour last summer. Her “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé” will be released on Dec. 1.The New York TimesThe highly anticipated film version of Beyoncé’s Renaissance tour will debut in movie theaters on Dec. 1. More

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      What’s on TV This Week: ‘Catfish’ and ‘Sullivan’s Crossing’

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      The MTV show is back for a ninth season. The CW premieres a new show based on a novel of the same name.With network, cable and streaming, the modern television landscape is a vast one. Here are some of the shows, specials and movies coming to TV this week, Oct. 2-8. Details and times are subject to change.MondayJaime Camil on “Lotería Loca.”Fernando Marrero/CBSLOTERÍA LOCA 9 p.m. on CBS. Rogelio, what are you doing here? Jaime Camil, of “Jane the Virgin” fame is stepping out of his telenovela role and into a hosting role on this new game show. Based on a Mexican game, similar to bingo, each episode will feature two players — the first place player will get to move up for a chance to win the cash prize at the end.TuesdayCATFISH 8 p.m. on MTV. Nev Shulman and Kamie Crawford are back to bust people on their lies and (very occasionally) make a great love story happen. This long running show centers on online dating and figuring out if people really are who they say they are. Even though the episodes are almost formulaic at this point (someone reaches out to say that the person they are talking to online won’t meet them, Nev and Kamie investigate, they all fly to find the person, and finally they have a sit down emotional conversation about why the “catfish” lied) it somehow never gets old to see Nev put people in their place.From left: Kelli Williams, Shanola Hampton, Gabrielle Walsh and Karan Oberoi in “Found.”Matt Miller/NBCFOUND 10 p.m. on NBC. Like I said last week, crime procedural shows are making their big comeback in 2023, and this new show further proves that. The show follows Gabi Mosely (Shanola Hampton) and her team as they try to solve cases of missing people. The twist? Gabi is keeping her childhood kidnapper in her basement and getting their help to figure out each clue and resolve the cases.WednesdaySULLIVAN’S CROSSING 8 p.m. on The CW. With “Riverdale” and “Nancy Drew” off the air, The CW is lining up a whole new roster of shows, starting with a story based on a novel by Robyn Carr of the same name. Maggie Sullivan (Morgan Kohan) moves back to her hometown, a campground in Nova Scotia, that is run by her estranged father after she finds herself in legal trouble. The part I’m most excited about? Maggie’s father is played by Scott Patterson who is making his CW re-debut after playing the grumpy but lovable Luke Danes on seven seasons of “Gilmore Girls.” The show also stars another “Gilmore Girls” alum: Chad Michael Murray.THE SPENCER SISTERS 9 p.m. on The CW. If you are a daughter with a mother of any age, you have certainly eye-rolled before at “you look like you could be sisters” from random men on the street. But this show has taken that concept and run with it. The mother/daughter duo, who are often mistaken for sisters, investigate crimes together in their hometown, Alder Bluffs. Like lots of CW shows, this first premiered in Canada earlier this year.ThursdayTHIS IS ELVIS (1981) 6 p.m. on TCM. Long before Baz Luhrmann used archival footage of Elvis Presley mixed with shots of Austin Butler in the role for the final scene of “Elvis,” this documentary did the same thing. It combines footage of Presley along with reconstruction of some moments of his life with actors and voice-overs for Vernon Presley, Gladys Presley and Priscilla Presley.FridayAlicia Silverstone and Stacey Dash in “Clueless.”Paramount PicturesCLUELESS (1995) 8 p.m. on CMT. To me, Cher Horowitz (played by Alicia Silverstone) will always be the No. 1 It Girl. From the incredible outfits (the yellow two-piece set lives in my mind rent free), to her rousing speech on immigration (“may I please remind you that it does not say R.S.V.P. on the Statue of Liberty”) you can’t help be fascinated by her. Come for the notorious one liners (“you’re a virgin who can’t drive”) and stay for the jarring reminder that though this movie came out nearly 30 years ago, Paul Rudd still looks almost exactly the same.SaturdayGREAT CHOCOLATE SHOWDOWN 8 p.m. on The CW. This show is what “The Great British Bake Off” would be like if it focused on only one ingredient: chocolate. The finale will feature the three remaining bakers as they create a four-part chocolate dessert meant to embody their baking history. The winner will walk away with $50,000 and a potential stomach ache.SundayTHE CIRCUS 7 p.m. on Showtime. Whether we are ready or not, we are officially entering into campaign season for the 2024 presidential election. As you watch the debates and read up on the candidates, this show can act as a companion guide. Hosted by John Heilemann, Mark McKinnon and Jenn Palmieri (who have all acted as political strategists and communication directors on the national level in some capacity), this show is returning for its eighth season to home in on President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign and former President Donald Trump’s campaign amid criminal proceedings.LAST STOP LARRIMAH (2023) 9 p.m. on HBO. Deep in the Australian outback there is a town with 11 residents. In December of 2017, Paddy Moriarty and his dog disappeared. What was once a tight knit community turned into a crime scene and an investigation began into whether someone in town was to blame. This documentary explores the town’s history and how everyone in the small community became a suspect. More

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      in Television

      Golden Bachelor, Boomer Bait?

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      “The Golden Bachelor” is part of broadcast networks’ efforts to cater to their mostly older audience.In September 1985, a new hit premiered on NBC. The network envisioned a show like nothing else on TV. “Take some women around 60. Society has written them off, has said they’re over the hill,” the pitch to producers went. “We want them to be feisty as hell and having a great time.”The result, of course, was “The Golden Girls,” the beloved sitcom about a group of single women, widowed and divorced, living together in a house in Florida. The show was ranked in the Top 10 of Nielsen ratings for six of its seven seasons. More than 27 million people watched the 1992 series finale.Thirty-eight years later, ABC is betting that a house full of single women, ages 60 to 75, and the 72-year-old man whose heart they’ll vie to win, can achieve ratings success with the aid of mostly boomer-age viewers who still flip on the TV for the prime-time lineup, and have yet to fully abandon network television for streaming.I tuned in for Thursday night’s premiere of “The Golden Bachelor” at 8 p.m. sharp with high hopes. Buzz for the season promised we’d accompany a mild-mannered retired and widowed “grandzaddy” from Indiana on his quest for a second chance at love with one of 22 equally self-possessed bachelorettes. This sounded more my speed than the high-conflict carryings-on I usually associate with reality TV. Perhaps I’d be part of the showrunners’ hoped-for “new audiences who might have turned their noses up at the brand before now.”In the innuendo-packed first episode, we meet our bachelor, Gerry Turner, who spends the hour speed-dating the eager bachelorettes, including Leslie, a fitness instructor from Minneapolis who tells us she dated Prince; Sandra, a retired executive assistant from Georgia with a Zen practice that incorporates curse words; and Faith, a high school teacher from Washington State who rides in on a motorcycle, serenades Gerry with a guitar and seems from the little time we spend with her to be a leading contender for last woman standing.When the show opened with a scene of Gerry getting dressed, deliberately showing him putting in his hearing aids as he recounted the tale of his wife’s death over the strains of “The Wind” by Cat Stevens, I thought this might be a departure for the “Bachelor” franchise, a more serious examination of aging and mortality. But once we arrived at the mansion where Gerry canoodles with each potential sweetheart — a dizzying procession of bawdy jokes and canned repartee — I remembered that this was a reality show with a bonkers conceit that is about pure entertainment (and ratings). It may not end up being any more cerebral than its brethren, but that’s not its remit.So can “The Golden Bachelor” keep network television afloat through the imminent shortage of scripted shows occasioned by the writers’ and actors’ strikes? My colleague John Koblin says it’s “off to a decent start”: While far from the most-watched show of the week, the premiere episode was the most-watched show on network television on Thursday night and, with delayed viewing, the audience will only grow.But, more pressing for viewers, will Gerry ultimately find his soul mate? Who will get the final rose? And will people like me, still skeptical of love competition shows, tune in to find out?I was charmed to learn that one of the showrunners for “The Golden Bachelor” studied “The Golden Girls” for conversation topics should the repartee on the show start to lag. I’m holding out hope that we will see the golden bachelorettes in their chenille bathrobes and house scuffs, sharing a cheesecake in the middle of the night.For moreSee the moment in the NBC promotional special from 1984 when the “Night Court” actress Selma Diamond joked about an imaginary show called “Miami Nice,” a bit that inspired network executives to create “The Golden Girls.”Part of the networks’ continuing efforts to retain older viewers? Game shows.“Older daters face all of the challenges their younger counterparts do — burnout, ghosting, gaslighting — but many of them have found that dating can be infinitely better when you don’t have as much to prove,” writes my colleague Catherine Pearson of the roses and thorns of dating after 60.THE WEEK IN CULTUREMichael Gambon as DumbledoreJaap Buitendjik/Warner Bros. PicturesMichael Gambon, best known for playing Dumbledore in several of the Harry Potter movies, died at 82. Read how he inhabited the role of the beloved Hogwarts headmaster.A man was charged with murder in the 1996 killing of Tupac Shakur. Since his death, Shakur has become an almost mythical figure.A judge ended a legal arrangement between Michael Oher, the subject of the hit movie “The Blind Side,” and the people who took him in when he was a teenager. It had given them authority over his affairs.Amal Clooney, Anne Hathaway and Jon Hamm hit the fall galas in New York.After a lackluster debut for Helmut Lang in New York, the brand’s creative director, Peter Do, showed a better-received collection under his own name at Paris Fashion Week. In Milan, some of the most interesting looks were on the street.A meme of “King of Queens” actor Kevin James has taken over some people’s social media feeds, Vulture reports.Aerosmith postponed the rest of its farewell tour until next year because its lead singer, Steven Tyler, injured his vocal cords.Performances of Stephen Sondheim’s final musical, “Here We Are,” commenced this week. The composer died in 2021.Cher is accused of hiring four men to kidnap her adult son as an apparent form of intervention, The Los Angeles Times reported.Usher will perform at the Super Bowl. Listen to a playlist inspired by his hit “Yeah!”Electronic Arts, a video game publisher, released “EA Sports FC,” a rebranded version of its popular soccer series FIFA. Much of the game is the same, The Guardian reports.The French actor Gérard Depardieu’s art collection sold at auction in Paris for $4.2 million.The home of the French singer Serge Gainsbourg is open to the public, with everything as it was on the day he died.The eight remaining campuses of the Art Institutes, a system of for-profit colleges, will close by the end of the month.THE LATEST NEWSHiroko Masuike/The New York TimesHeavy rainfall pounded New York City and the surrounding region, causing flash floods, shutting subway lines and turning roads into lakes. See some of the hardest-hit areas.Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who gained national stature in more than 30 years in the Senate, died at 90.Hard-line Republicans tanked Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s long-shot attempt to avert a government shutdown ahead of a midnight deadline tonight to keep federal funding flowing.A co-defendant in the Georgia election interference case against Donald Trump pleaded guilty to five charges, the first of the 19 defendants to enter a plea.The United Arab Emirates is giving weapons and medical treatment to one side in Sudan’s war under the guise of saving refugees.An I.R.S. contractor was charged with leaking tax return information believed to be Donald Trump’s.CULTURE CALENDAR📚 “Let Us Descend” (Tuesday): This book, inspired by Dante’s “Inferno,” is the latest from Jesmyn Ward, a two-time National Book Award winner and the youngest recipient of the Library of Congress’s American fiction prize. The novel follows an enslaved teenager named Annis as she travels through the pre-Civil War South after her white slave-owner father sold her. The book is among the most anticipated novels of the year.🎬 “Foe” (Friday): Paul Mescal and Saoirse Ronan, who are among the buzziest young actors working, play a married couple living on a farm in 2065 in this sci-fi drama. Their lives are upended when Junior (Mescal) is told that he’s been chosen to work on a space station. While he’s away, Henrietta (Ronan) will live with a duplicate version of her husband. — Desiree IbekweRECIPE OF THE WEEKLinda Xiao for The New York TimesTomato sandwichesAs September fades away, it’s time to celebrate some of the last of the good heirloom tomatoes by piling them in the sandwich of your dreams. While there are loads of variations to choose from, my tomato sandwich is probably the messiest, in the very best way. The recipe is a hybrid, combining the garlic-rubbed, oil-slathered toast of Catalan pan con tomate with the kind of slivered onions you would see in a tomato tea sandwich, and the bacon of a BLT. Act fast, because sad winter tomatoes will not do justice to a sandwich as good as this.REAL ESTATEHiroko Masuike/The New York TimesA dining table for six: Inside the Long Island City apartment of a best-selling cookbook author.A new frontier: As rising sea levels threaten coastlines, some developers look to floating homes.What you get for $1.4 million: A Cape Cod-style house in Monhegan Island, Maine; an Edwardian home in Evanston, Ill.; or an 1890 rowhouse in Washington, D.C.The hunt: These newlyweds want a three-bedroom house with a yard and a reasonable commute to Manhattan. Which did they choose? Play our game.LIVINGSimon Bailly/SepiaSelf-esteem: Want to believe in yourself? “Mattering” is key.Going solo: Make the best of attending a wedding alone.Elton John’s piano: Celebrity memorabilia and estate sales headline the coming auction season.Child of Birkin: The new standard-bearer for French-girl style just opened a store in Manhattan.Lessons from summer: Climate change is making travel season less predictable.ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTEREmergency essentialsWhen preparing for a natural disaster, no single strategy is right for everyone. But Wirecutter experts have found a few things to be true. When you put together a bag to grab in an emergency, don’t buy a premade kit. Instead, add gear that you actually need and know how to use. (Here’s a good place to start.) And it’s not just about the gear — simple tasks you can do today, like taking a CPR or first aid class, or designating a point person to be in touch with, can make a big difference. — Ellen AirhartFor more advice, sign up for Emergency Kit, an easy-to-follow guide to preparing for natural disasters from Wirecutter’s experts.GAME OF THE WEEKENDTaylor Swift at last week’s Kansas City Chiefs game.David Eulitt/Getty ImagesKansas City Chiefs vs. New York Jets: Taylor Swift and the N.F.L., two of America’s cultural juggernauts, pulled off a remarkable bit of brand synergy last weekend. Swift showed up in Kansas City to cheer on the Chiefs’ star tight end, Travis Kelce, whom she is rumored to be dating. The TV cameras, of course, cut to her constantly, and her exuberant celebrations brought life to an otherwise lousy game. Will she show up again this week? The N.F.L. surely hopes so — her presence would make this prime-time broadcast must-see TV, even if the game itself is another dud. (Fans who want great football without the spectacle should tune in earlier in the day to the powerhouse matchup between the Miami Dolphins and the Buffalo Bills.) 8:30 p.m. Eastern tomorrow on NBC.NOW TIME TO PLAYHere is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangrams were bootjack and jackboot.See the hardest Spelling Bee words from this week.Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines.And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku and Connections.Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — MelissaSign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Reach our team at themorning@nytimes.com. More