Pick of the week
The Girlfriend

Tense, jumpy music. An oddly intense mother-son relationship. Plenty of conversational cut and thrust. This melodramatic psychological thriller parades its genre signifiers like a badge of honour. It centres on the relationship between Cherry (Olivia Cooke) and Danny (Laurie Davidson). She’s an ambitious, cunning, thwarted estate agent who is looking for a shortcut up London’s social ladder; he’s a slightly gormless, grinning rich boy. When Danny brings Cherry home to meet his parents, his uptight, manipulative mother Laura (Robin Wright) smells a rat. Thus begins a battle of wills between two women whose mutual suspicion quickly turns into deep antipathy.
Prime Video, from Wednesday 10 September

AKA Charlie SheenConfessional … AKA Charlie Sheen. Photograph: PA

To say that Charlie Sheen has had a tumultuous life is an understatement. He has experienced the most dizzying highs and the deepest lows – and he promises that none of these extremes are out of bounds in this two-part confessional. Sheen is now seven years sober and able to look back with clarity (and some wry humour) on his lively personal life and galloping substance abuse problems. And should we be in any doubt, even his erstwhile crack dealer is interviewed. Other witnesses to the chaos of this charismatic loose cannon include Sean Penn, Heidi Fleiss, Ramon Estevez and his ex-wife Denise Richards.
Netflix, from Wednesday 10 September

Dr Seuss’s Red Fish Blue FishGentle fun for all the family … Dr Seuss’s Red Fish, Blue Fish. Photograph: Netflix

Look out for a welcome flurry of preschool-friendly Dr Seuss adaptations on Netflix this autumn, with Dr Seuss’s Horton! and Dr Seuss’s The Sneetches following hot on the heels of this bite-size series of cute underwater odysseys. The cartoon follows a pair of fishy friends, one red and one blue, as they explore their colourful, watery world and deal with crabs, ice and, unexpectedly, a very heavy piano. The animation doesn’t quite have the inventive angularity of the originals but it still offers gentle, immersive fun for all the family.
Netflix, from Monday 8 September

Only Murders in the BuildingOn the beat … Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short in Only Murders in the Building. Photograph: Patrick Harbron/Disney

Poor Lester. As the fifth season of this crime comedy starring Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez begins, the gang are reckoning with his death – which, they are startled to learn, has been recorded as accidental. Clearly they’re going to have to investigate … and before long, they’re bumping heads with one of New York’s mafia families. As ever, it’s densely written, overflowing with celebrity cameos (this time Renée Zellweger, Téa Leoni and Christoph Waltz appear) and slightly too pleased with its own cleverness to quite hit its emotional or thriller beats.
Disney+, from Tuesday 9 September

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Tyler Perry’s Beauty in BlackAll the gloss … Taylor Polidore Williams as Kimmie in Beauty in Black. Photograph: Quantrell Colber/Netflix

Kimmie (Taylor Polidore Williams) has come a long way since her pole-dancing days: as Tyler Perry’s drama returns for a second season, she is assuming control of the Bellarie empire. But that is just the beginning of her problems as other family members struggle to accept her new primacy. Furthermore, Kimmie doesn’t really know how the business works and with a crowd of vultures waiting for her to fail, she’ll have to learn fast. The dialogue is very flat and the plotting is pretty boilerplate but it’s slick and glossy escapism all the same.
Netflix, from Thursday 11 September

Playing Gracie DarlingMagnificently silly … Rudi Dharmalingam as Jay Rajeswaran and Morgana O’Reilly as Joni Grey in Playing Gracie Darling. Photograph: Ingvar Kenne/Curio/Sony Pictures Television

From its magnificently silly opening scene onwards – a seance in which an evil spirit goes rogue, shattering the minds of a quartet of teens and causing one of them, the titular Gracie, to go missing – this Australian mystery drama is an exercise in absurdity. Joni, who was at the seance but now works as a child psychologist, is forced to confront her past when 27 years later another teenager goes missing in almost identical circumstances. Generic horror shlock that manages to be both watchable and impossible to take seriously.
Paramount+, from Thursday 11 September

Call My Agent BerlinA riotous reboot … Call My Agent Berlin. Photograph: Julia Terjung © 2025/Disney

Netflix’s riotous, self-reflexive French comedy, which offers a heightened and often scurrilous window into the world of talent agents, gets a German reboot on Disney+. The Stern agency is facing a crisis after the death of founder Richard Stern. But while a battle for succession rages, the put-upon staff still have to pander to the frequently bizarre whims of their clients. The identity of the celebrity cameos has been kept largely under wraps but the fact that Juliette Binoche’s name has been mentioned suggests an impressive calibre of guest.
Disney+, from Friday 12 September