8 New TV Shows to Watch This Weekend: October 2–4

Weekend viewing has plenty to offer, from major film releases to a strong line-up of new and returning television. Tom Cruise leads Digger, Robert Pattinson stars in Primetime, and Avengers Endgame: Encore adds four minutes of footage, including scenes that set up Avengers: Doomsday, due in December.

For a home-streaming marathon, the biggest arrivals include a new adaptation of East of Eden, HBO’s legal drama War, fresh animation and returning genre favourites. If you enjoy keeping up with screen adaptations and pop-culture releases, the RETROCADE arcade blog has more gaming news and features.

1. East of Eden

• Available on: Netflix
• Genre: Drama
• Episodes: 8
• Cast: Florence Pugh, Mike Faist, Christopher Abbott, Hoon Lee

Written for television by Zoe Kazan, East of Eden is her first TV series and an adaptation of John Steinbeck’s celebrated novel. The story reworks the Cain-and-Abel myth across generations, following the Hamilton and Trask families while placing Cathy Ames, played by Florence Pugh, at the centre.

Kazan has a personal connection to the material: her grandfather, filmmaker Elia Kazan, directed the 1955 film version starring James Dean. She has also written films including Wildlife and Ruby Sparks. In an interview with TUDUM, she described the adaptation as something that needed to feel both epic and intimate.

2. War

• Available on: HBO Max
• Genre: Drama
• Episodes: 8
• Cast: Dominic West, Sienna Miller, Archie Renaux

George Kay, whose television credits include Killing Eve and Lupin, developed this legal anthology drama. Dominic West and Sienna Miller play tech billionaire Morgan Henderson and actress Carla Duval, a couple locked in an increasingly hostile divorce.

The first season begins when Carla suspects Morgan is having an affair. She arranges a honeytrap, obtains evidence and gives it to her lawyers, setting two elite London firms against one another. The series has already been renewed for two seasons, with each instalment intended to focus on a different case.

3. Get Jiro!

• Available on: HBO Max
• Genre: Animation
• Episodes: 10
• Cast: Brian Tee, Alison Pill, Titus Welliver

Based on the graphic novel co-written by Anthony Bourdain and Joel Rose, with art by Langdon Foss, Get Jiro! follows a chef in a futuristic Los Angeles. Rival gourmet factions battle for control, turning the restaurant world into a violent, exaggerated power struggle.

The animated series expands beyond the graphic novel with family restaurants, a justice-minded health inspector, an ambitious apprentice, hungry police officers, corrupt politicians and frustrated investors. Its tone sits somewhere between John Wick and Delicious in Dungeon.

The series builds a lively, decadent Los Angeles around Jiro, adding original characters and humour while teasing a new adventure at the end of its ten-episode season.

4. Ranma ½

• Available on: Netflix
• Genre: Animation
• Episodes: 12 per season
• Cast: Kappei Yamaguchi, Megumi Hayashibara, Noriko Hidaka

The remake of the popular 1990s anime returns for a third season. Martial artist Ranma Saotome is cursed to change into a girl when splashed with cold water, returning to his male form with warm water. Alongside managing the curse, he must navigate his engagement to Akane Tendo, whose father is an old friend of Ranma’s father.

5. Coven Academy

• Available on: Disney Plus
• Genre: Science fiction
• Episodes: 10
• Cast: Malina Pauli Weissman, Malachi Barton, Tiffani Thiessen

Disney’s YA fantasy follows three witches at an elite boarding school for magical people. Their lessons, romantic crushes and supernatural dangers collide in a series created by Tim Federle, known for High School Musical: The Musical.

Federle told The Hollywood Reporter that 1990s teen shows such as Dawson’s Creek and Charmed helped shape the series, alongside his long-standing interest in witches.

6. Marshals

• Available on: Paramount Plus
• Genre: Western
• Episodes: 18
• Cast: Luke Grimes, Ash Santos, Arielle Kebbel

Taylor Sheridan expands his modern American-West universe with the second season of Marshals. Luke Grimes returns as Kacey Dutton, who has left the Yellowstone ranch to join an elite U.S. Marshals team in Montana.

The new season starts with Dutton searching for his kidnapped son, placing the character in a high-stakes rescue mission far removed from his former life at the ranch.

7. Kill Jackie

• Available on: AMC Plus
• Genre: Crime
• Episodes: 8
• Cast: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Christine Adams, Hattie Hook

Adapted from The Price You Pay, Kill Jackie changes the novel’s lead into Catherine Zeta-Jones’ Jackie Price. Jackie is a glamorous art dealer who once worked as a drug dealer, and her criminal past threatens the carefully rebuilt life she now protects.

8. Tip Toe

• Available on: Starz
• Genre: Drama
• Episodes: 5
• Cast: Alan Cumming, David Morrissey, Elizabeth Berrington

Alan Cumming plays Leo Struthers, an HIV-positive gay bartender found dead in his flat at the beginning of this five-part drama. The story moves backwards over the ten days before his death, gradually examining Leo’s life and the events that led to it.

For a different kind of weekend entertainment, browse RETROCADE’s arcade videos, compare options in the arcade machine buying guide, or explore compact bartop arcades for a games room.