Searching for something new to watch this year? From stunning period dramas to dark crime series, here are the top new TV series premiering in October 2026. Discover what's coming to your screen and find your next binge-worthy favourite right here.
Big laughs and big mischief await in every season of What We Do In The Shadows, another arresting season of Blue Lights lands and Stanley Tucci heads back to Italia. Culinary journeys, comedies, crime series? No matter what you're craving, we have you completely covered in October.
Series coming to SBS On Demand in October
- The Lowdown
- Hotel Portofino, seasons 1-2
- Blue Lights, season 4
- The Jury, season 2
- Hildur
- Doc, season 4
- 70 Up
- Hautalehto: Building 31
- Tucci In Italy
- Fleishman is in Trouble
- What We Do in the Shadows, season 1-6
- Northern Traces
The Lowdown
The Lowdown follows the gritty exploits of citizen journalist “Lee Raybon” (Ethan Hawke), a self-proclaimed Tulsa “truthstorian” whose obsession with the truth is always getting him into trouble. When the publication of Lee’s latest exposé – a deep dive into the powerful Washberg family – is immediately followed by the suspicious suicide of “Dale Washberg” (Tim Blake Nelson), Lee knows he’s stumbled onto something big.
The Lowdown premieres Thursday 1 October at SBS On Demand.
Hotel Portofino, seasons 1-2
A heady historical drama about a British family who establish a hotel for upper class travellers on the magical Italian Riviera during the ‘Roaring 20s’. The Hotel has only been open a few weeks, but already the problems are mounting for its co-proprietor and moving spirit, Bella Ainsworth (Natascha McElhone): she’s short of staff and ready money; her guests, including the imperious Lady Latchmere (Anna Chancellor), are demanding and hard-to-please; and she’s being targeted by a scheming and corrupt local politician, Signor Danioni (Pasquale Esposito), who threatens to drag her into the red-hot political cauldron of Mussolini’s Italy.
Hotel Portofino premieres Friday 2 October at SBS On Demand.
Blue Lights, season 4
Three years into their jobs as response officers, Constables Grace Ellis, Tommy Foster, and Annie Conlon are operating at their limit, facing a new threat on the streets that the police can barely control.
Meanwhile, the murder trial of Gerry Cliff exposes a dangerous and long-buried secret that leads to chaos both inside the police and across the criminal underworld. As they grapple with big decisions about their future, Grace, Tommy and Annie must find the courage to face the greatest threat they have ever encountered: the truth.
Blue Lights season 4 premieres Sunday 4 October at SBS and SBS On Demand. Episodes air weekly at SBS starting Sunday 4 October at 9.30pm.
Blue Lights seasons 1-3 are now streaming at SBS On Demand.
The Jury, season 2
Could you convict a man when there is no clear cause of death, no weapon and no direct forensic evidence? The gripping SBS Original series The Jury returns with The Jury: Skeleton in the Garden, a shocking new true crime event that puts truth, justice and reasonable doubt to the test. The trailblazing social experiment will premiere on SBS and SBS on Demand from Monday 5 October.
Episodes 1-4 of The Jury: Skeleton in the Garden will be available to stream on SBS On Demand from Monday 5 October. The final episode and verdict reveal will be available Tuesday 13 October.
The Jury: Skeleton in the Garden premieres Monday 5 October at 7.30pm on SBS, launching a five-night event across two weeks.
For more details on how to watch The Jury season 2, head here.
Hildur
Based on the acclaimed best-selling novel by Satu Rämö, this chilling Nordic blue crime drama follows Hildur Rúnarsdóttir, who as a young girl suffered the heart-wrenching disappearance of her two little sisters on their way home from school. Now, 20 years later, she works as a police officer in her old hometown of Ísafjörður, a picturesque community surrounded by stormy seas and towering mountains in Iceland’s remote Westfjords.
Drawn into a baffling series of crimes, Hildur finds unexpected allies in Jakob, a Finnish trainee officer seeking a fresh start, and Florian, a German recruit mistakenly assigned to the team but eager to prove himself. As they dig deeper, the trio realises they are closing in on a cunning serial killer, and Hildur soon discovers that catching the perpetrator may also unlock the truth about her own past — her longlost little sisters.
Hildur premieres Thursday 8 October at SBS On Demand.
Doc, season 4
It all started with a gunshot to the head. That was what shattered the life of Andrea Fanti, Chief of Internal Medicine at the Policlinico Ambrosiano in Milan. Although he survived, once he emerged from his coma he had to face a terrible discovery: the last twelve years of his life had vanished into thin air.
After discovering the truth behind the shooting that cost him his memory in the first season, fighting alongside the rest of the staff during the pandemic in the second one, and attempting to recover his memories through therapy, Doc decides at the end of the third season to take a step back and take a break from the hospital. This allows him to stand by his ex-wife Agnese, who is suffering from mesothelioma, a rare disease.
At the beginning of the fourth season, a little over a year has passed since that choice. Andrea returns to the ward, which was left in the hands of Dr. Giulia Giordano, who has in the meantime been appointed Chief of Internal Medicine. However, Dr. Giordano did not inherit an easy situation: the ward's budget was in the red, she had to manage a problematic resident within her team, and she had to deal with the new Chief Medical Officer, Stefano Campigli, who was brought in to make all the necessary cuts to avoid Ambrosiano's bankruptcy and its subsequent acquisition by a private holding company.
This is a vision that Doc cannot help but reject.
Thus begins Doc's crusade to bring his own vision back to the ward: more doctors, more nurses, and more beds are needed. And it matters little that this battle ends up overwhelming Giulia, one of the most important people in his life. For Andrea, it is not just a professional matter: he cannot accept that things have changed for him and, subconsciously, he wants to do everything he can to rebuild his lost past.
Doc season 4 premieres Thursday 8 October at SBS On Demand.
Doc seasons 1-3 are now streaming at SBS On Demand.
70 Up
The original Seven Up was broadcast in 1964 as a one-off World in Action special, featuring children who were selected from different backgrounds and social spheres to talk about their hopes and dreams for the future. Inspired by World In Action founder editor Tim Hewat's passionate interest in both the Jesuit saying 'Give me the child until he is seven and I will show you the man' and the rigid class system of 1960s Britain, Michael Apted has returned every seven years to chart their progress.
70 Up premieres Thursday 8 October at SBS On Demand.
Hautalehto: Building 31
Broman, a retired psychiatrist is found dead, boiled in a hot tub. The police receive a letter where the killer threatens that there will be more bodies. Soon Detective Chief Inspector Antti Hautalehto has his hands full of dead people who seem to have been victims of ritual murders. People are worried, and rumors circulate in the city of Porvoo.
Hautalehto starts investigating but is distracted by Suvi Vettenranta, a woman who is released from prison after serving time for art forgery. Hautalehto reluctantly agrees to be her parole officer. Despite Hautalehto’s warnings, Suvi returns to a community led by a charismatic and talented painter known as the Master who governs his people with his brutal ways. Hautalehto starts fearing for Suvi’s life when one of the community members is found burned in an open grave.
Hautalehto premieres Sunday 11 October at SBS On Demand.
Season one of Hautalehto, Freezing Embrace, is now streaming at SBS On Demand.
Tucci In Italy
Stanley Tucci believes that the best way to understand a country is through its food. Nowhere is this truer than in Italy, where the shape of your pasta and the sauce you serve it with speak directly to identity—and differentiate each region from the next. In this new series, Stanley’s on a culinary quest to explore the connection between the food, the land and the people of the country he loves.
Tucci In Italy premieres Sunday 11 October at SBS On Demand.
Fleishman is in Trouble
Fleishman is in Trouble is the story of recently divorced 41-year-old “Toby Fleishman” (Jesse Eisenberg), who dives into the brave new world of app-based dating with the kind of success he never had dating in his youth. But just at the start of his first summer of sexual freedom, his ex-wife disappears, leaving him with the kids and no hint of where she is or whether she plans to return.
Fleishman is in Trouble premieres Sunday 18th October at SBS On Demand.
What We Do in the Shadows, seasons 1-6
Based on the feature film of the same name from Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, What We Do in the Shadows is a documentary-style look into the daily (or rather, nightly) lives of four vampires who’ve “lived” together for hundreds of years in Staten Island. After an unexpected visit from their dark lord and leader, the vampires are reminded of what they were initially tasked with upon their arrival in New York over a century ago – total and complete domination of the New World. But what exactly is the best way to go about achieving said domination? The vérité camera crew follows along as the vampires set out to answer this query.
What We Do in the Shadows seasons 1-6 premieres Thursday 22nd October at SBS On Demand.
What We Do in the Shadows, the film, is also now streaming at SBS On Demand.
Northern Traces
As he approaches his 50th birthday, Sergeant Guillaume Pelletier is taking stock of his life. He heads off on vacation to the cabin of his old friend François Grondin, located in a little paradise for snowmobilers. While the two friends reconnect and celebrate around a campfire, a murder is brewing in the small rural town. Pelletier quickly finds himself drawn in the investigation, much to the dismay of the local detective sergeant, Évelyne Dumoulin.
Although the victim initially appears to have been an ordinary person with no secrets, the tragedy presents the police with a serious puzzle as the number of suspects continues to grow. But the shockwave comes when Pelletier discovers the murder weapon… The investigation then takes an unexpected turn.
Northern Traces premieres Tuesday 29th October at SBS On Demand.
