September marks the official start of the cosy season. We’ve been seeing more rainy weather, thundery showers, humid nights and thus, staying in a tad bit more. To make nights in that much sweeter? A good TV show or film to curl up to. Thankfully, there’s no shortage of must-watch titles this month.
On days when we want to feel our feelings, stream box-office champion How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies. After all, the Thai film famously had audiences sniffling in their seats, dabbing away tears, and bursting into ugly, uncontrollable sobs in cinemas all over the world. Should we have more tears to spare, Studio Ghibli’s soul-crushing anime Grave of the Fireflies has also just been picked up by Netflix.
In other news, we can finally catch Uglies after years of waiting since it was shot in 2021. The Kissing Booth’s Joey King plays Tally, who lives in a dystopian world where appearance is everything. As Tally eagerly awaits her mandatory cosmetic surgery on her 16th birthday, she realises her best friend has run away. Soon, Tally embarks on a journey that upends everything she thought she ever wanted.
We can’t possibly ignore the onslaught of spooky festivities this time of the year, with Gyeongseong Creature’s second season beckoning us over. Who’s Ho-Jae, and why does he look so freakishly similar to the Tae-Sang we already know and love? There’s also The Judge From Hell, which stars Park Shin-Hye as an elite judge whose beautiful exterior masks a devilish self who punishes criminals in her own ways and methods.
It’s never truly “horror” without some influence from true crime of course, as Netflix’s Monster anthology series returns to document The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story. A “perfect on paper” family living in a perfect mansion in Beverly Hills—what could have went wrong?
Below, find our full curation of what to watch this September—all available on popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Disney+ and Apple TV+.
1 / 8
How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies
“Inspired by true stories found in every family”, this film follows university dropout M (Putthipong Assaratanakul) who quits his profitless game-caster gig to care for his grandmother (Usha Seamkhum) after she is diagnosed with late-stage cancer. The film’s title is not subtle about his motives—M wants to gain top billing in Amah’s will. After M moves in with Amah, however, he realises the true value of family, demonstrating moving moments that famously had audiences sniffling in their seats and bursting into uncontrollable sobs during the film’s release in theatres.
Watch How To Make Millions Before Grandma Dies on Netflix from 12 September 2024.
2 / 8
Grave of the Fireflies
Studio Ghibli’s darkest film tells the story of two orphaned siblings and their desperate struggle to survive the final months of World War II. Following their mother’s death in an air raid, Seita and Setsuko settle in an abandoned bomb shelter. The pair spend their last days fending for themselves, scavenging for food that is scarcely enough for anyone. At one point, Seita steals tomatoes from a farm and is beaten. As much as they struggle, Seita and Setsuko remain wonderfully childlike, illustrated via Ghibli’s signature art style and poetically muted in the way a watercolour painting is, softening the ugly reality the children were forced to face.
Watch Grave of the Fireflies on Netflix from 16 September 2024.
3 / 8
Uglies
After years of waiting since Uglies was shot in 2021, the adaptation is finally here. The Kissing Booth’s Joey King is Tally, who lives in a dystopian world where appearance is everything. Citizens are classed according to their outward looks, while every person is afforded a mandatory cosmetic procedure once they turn 16 so they can look any way they wish to look. As Tally eagerly awaits to be turned “pretty” on her 16th birthday, her best friend runs away. To save her, Tally embarks on a journey that upends everything she thought she ever wanted.
Watch Uglies on Netflix from 13 September 2024.
4 / 8
La Maison
2024 has undeniably been the year of fashion (television) shows, and Apple TV+ is rounding off the offerings with this new French-language family drama. High fashion meets high stakes here, as we witness star designer Vincent LeDu’s (Lambert Wilson) fall from grace after a certain clip of him goes viral. The scandal leaves his family’s century-old, legendary haute couture house, LEDU, hanging by a fraying thread. The next-generation designers of LEDU must navigate ego battles and power struggles to save the Maison, before it lands directly into the wrong hands.
Watch La Maison on Apple TV+ from 20 September 2024.
5 / 8
Agatha All Along
Buckle up, Marvel fans. WandaVision’s spinoff witchy series is arriving. Watch as Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), now down and out of power, find her way to break free from the mental prison Wanda created for her. A mysterious Teen (Joe Locke) comes by to help Agatha, but on one condition: Take him to the legendary Witches’ Road, where a magical gauntlet of trials await.
Watch Agatha All Along on Disney+ from 19 September 2024.
6 / 8
Gyeongseong Creature: Season 2
When this series first aired, the leading cast was more than enough to attract viewers. This time round, we’re counting on Season 2 to answer all of the mind-boggling twists and chair-gripping cliffhangers it left us with. Part two of Gyeongseong Creature shifts to present-day Seoul, following Ho-Jae (Park Seo-Joon), who bears a creepily striking resemblance to Tae-Sang from the first season and Chae-Ok (Han So-Hee), as the duo continue to navigate their intertwined destinies and face off bigger villains than before.
Watch Gyeongseong Creature: Season 2 on Netflix from 27 September 2024.
7 / 8
The Judge From Hell
Park Shin-Hye plays Bit-Na, a power-hungry demon sent to Earth on a mission—to drag ten criminals to the fiery pits of hell for their punishment. She blends in as an elite judge in the real world, dishing out lawful sentences to defendants by day but dealing with them with her own vile methods when night falls. One day, Bit-Na meets Da-On (Kim Jae-Young), a compassionate detective with a warm and gentle heart. Da-On works hard at a job in a reality harsher than hell, struggling with an inner pain that nobody sees and knows about. Things take a turn when Bit-Na starts developing feelings for Da-On.
Watch The Judge From Hell on Disney+ from 21 September 2024.
8 / 8
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
Dahmer was merely the beginning. In the second installment of the Monster anthology series, the focus is on Lyle and Erik Menendez, a true story of two brothers who brutally killed their parents in their perfect Beverly Hills home in 1989. In court, they cited sexual abuse by their father José Menendez, a high-status RCA Records executive, as reasoning behind their actions. But their story of self-defense was rejected by the jury, and both boys were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. So, what really transpired?
Watch Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story on Netflix from 19 September 2024.
