October on Apple TV is less about new launches and more about endings. Two of the service’s biggest series wrap up within the same fortnight. Ted Lasso’s fourth season finale arrives on 7 October, and Slow Horses closes its sixth season on 21 October. For many subscribers, those two dates alone justify keeping the subscription through the month.
The new arrivals share an unexpected theme: mountains. Tenzing dramatises the 1953 first ascent of Everest, with Genden Phuntsok as Tenzing Norgay and Tom Hiddleston as Sir Edmund Hillary. It opens in limited cinemas on 9 October before reaching the service on 16 October. It pairs neatly with The Last First: Winter K2, Amir Bar-Lev’s documentary about the 2021 attempt on the world’s second-highest peak, which lands on 2 October after screening at Sundance earlier this year. Apple rarely programmes this deliberately, and anyone who enjoys climbing stories has a ready-made double bill.
Matchbox the Movie arrives on 9 October. It’s the latest attempt to turn Mattel’s toy catalogue into a franchise in the wake of Barbie. John Cena plays an undercover CIA operative who recruits his childhood friends to save the world. The premise sounds more Fast & Furious than Greta Gerwig, and it’s fair to question whether a die-cast car brand can support a film the way a cultural icon did.
The month ends with its most interesting new series. Nocturne premieres on 30 October, with Liev Schreiber as a detective sent to a small Pennsylvania town where a serial killer may have resurfaced. It’s loosely adapted from Lars Kepler’s Joona Linna novels, which gives it serious source material, and new episodes will drop every Friday.
Comedy fans get Small Prophets on 7 October, a six-episode story about an older man chasing love through alchemy and spirits, with all episodes streaming at once. UK viewers miss out until 2027, as the show already aired on BBC Two. The German dark comedy Where’s Wanda? returns for a second season on 21 October with weekly Wednesday episodes. Families have The Sisters Grimm season two from 2 October, while Last Seen concludes on 7 October and Dark Matter and Brothers continue their weekly runs.
Non-subscribers can stream “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” for free on 17 and 18 October. In the UAE, Apple TV costs AED 27.99 per month after a free seven-day trial, and the service is now included with an iCloud+ subscription, so many iPhone owners may already have access without knowing it. Apple One plans that include Apple TV start at AED 49.95 per month, and buying an Apple TV 4K gets you three months of Apple TV free. The Peacock bundle available in the US isn’t an option here, since Peacock doesn’t operate in the region.
With Ted Lasso and Slow Horses both finishing, the real test is whether Nocturne can keep viewers subscribed into November.
