What to Stream: September 18–24, 2026

The weekend of September 18 to 20 brings HBO's biggest music event of the fall, a Sharon Horgan comedy premiere, and a Netflix dance film, and the four days after add Apple's A-lister friendship comedy plus a cluster of series premieres. This guide covers US arrivals from September 18 through September 24, 2026. The Rotten Tomatoes figures below are a live snapshot checked on September 17, 2026; "not yet scored" means the title page displayed no percentage at that moment, which is the ordinary state for a premiere that has yet to air.

The week at a glance

Title	Service and date	Format and time commitment	Rotten Tomatoes	Verdict
Brothers	Apple TV+, Sep. 23	Eight episodes; two on premiere day, then weekly; TV-MA	Not yet scored; 0 critic reviews 1	Watch It
JAŸ-Z in 8	HBO Max, Sep. 18	Eight-part docuseries; two episodes at launch; TV-MA	Not yet scored; 0 critic reviews 2	Watch It for Jay-Z fans
Youth	HBO Max, Sep. 20	Eight episodes; two on premiere night, then weekly; TV-14	Not yet scored; 0 critic reviews 3	Watch It
Best of the Best	Netflix, Sep. 18	Feature film; 1h 52m; PG-13	Not yet scored; 0 critic reviews; 0 audience ratings 4	Watch It for dance fans
Stop! That! Train!	Netflix, Sep. 20	Feature film; 1h 30m; R; streaming arrival	85% critics (81 reviews); 79% audience (250+ verified ratings) 5	Watch It for drag comedy
A Different World	Netflix, Sep. 24	Ten episodes; all at once; comedy-drama	Not yet scored; 0 critic reviews 6	Watch It
Wicked	Hulu, Sep. 21	Feature film; 2h 40m; PG; library arrival	88% critics (407 reviews); 95% audience (25,000+ verified ratings) 7	Watch It
American Horror Story: 13	Hulu, Sep. 24	Thirteen episodes; three-episode premiere; TV-MA	Not yet scored; 0 critic reviews; 0 audience ratings 8	Watch It for franchise fans

Apple TV+: two film stars playing versions of themselves

Brothers — September 23

Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson play fictionalized versions of themselves, and the series turns on a decades-old secret: the two lifelong friends may be brothers. Woody's daughter's wedding collapses, so he moves his family into Matthew's Austin ranch for an extended stay. Matthew's mother, Ma Mac (Holland Taylor), lets the suspicion slip, Woody starts digging for the truth, and Matthew weighs a run for governor of Texas at the same time. Lee Eisenberg showruns and executive produces, Trent O'Donnell directs the pilot, and Paramount Television Studios produces. The ensemble around the two leads includes Natalie Martinez, Brittany Ishibashi, Nolan Almeida, Ella Grace Helton, Noah Carganilla, Highdee Kuan and Oona Yaffe. 9

Apple puts the first two episodes up on Wednesday, September 23, then releases one episode each Wednesday through November 4. Rotten Tomatoes records zero critic reviews and displays no Tomatometer or audience score for the season at the time of this check. 1

Woody Harrelson with a guitar sitting beside Matthew McConaughey on a ranch set in Brothers

Woody Harrelson (left) and Matthew McConaughey play versions of themselves on a Texas ranch in Brothers, whose eight-episode run opens September 23 on Apple TV+. Apple TV Press released this first-look still.

Verdict: Watch It. The premise hands two actors with an off-screen friendship a running joke they can play straight, and the weekly rollout through early November makes this a low-commitment Wednesday habit rather than a weekend binge.

HBO Max: a Friday music event and a Sunday comedy

JAŸ-Z in 8 — September 18

Rick Rubin directs this eight-part documentary series and interviews Jay-Z across two days in Paris, in a room at the Palais Brongniart. The format is spare: Rubin plays a track, the two listen, and then they talk about what went into it. Cinematographer Bradford Young shot the conversations in black and white, and Jay-Z executive produces. 10

HBO airs the first two chapters back to back on Friday, September 18, at 8 p.m. ET, with both available on HBO Max the same night. The Hollywood Reporter's review calls the series "essential viewing for passionate fans" of Jay-Z while warning that general admirers may find its repetitions and vague topical thread frustrating; individual episodes run between 37 and 61 minutes. Rotten Tomatoes shows no Tomatometer and zero critic reviews for the season. 2 10

Verdict: Watch It for Jay-Z fans. The song-by-song breakdown rewards people who already know the catalogue; viewers without that attachment can let this one pass.

Youth — September 20

Sharon Horgan created, writes and stars in this HBO comedy as Alex, a 50-year-old divorcée chasing sex and love while caring for two ailing parents and a son who should be grown up by now. Rupert Friend, Sharlene Whyte, Aran Murphy and Robbie Gee round out the cast. The series runs eight episodes and is rated TV-14. 3 11

HBO and HBO Max premiere two episodes on Sunday, September 20, at 10 p.m. ET, with weekly episodes after that. Rotten Tomatoes shows no Tomatometer and zero critic reviews for the first season. 3

Verdict: Watch It. Horgan has spent a decade writing women this age with wit and without flattery, and the two-episode premiere gives the series a full hour to establish Alex's situation.

Netflix: a dance comedy, a drag farce, and a Hillman homecoming

Best of the Best — September 18

Two childhood best friends, Maya and Anjali, join UCLA's Bollywood-fusion dance team and discover that the road to a US championship is cutthroat. Lena Khan directs, and Hasan Minhaj wrote the screenplay with Prashanth Venkataramanujam; Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia play the leads. The film runs 1 hour 52 minutes and carries a PG-13 rating. 4 12

Netflix adds the film on Friday, September 18. Rotten Tomatoes displays no Tomatometer and no audience score yet, with zero critic reviews and zero audience ratings recorded. 4

Verdict: Watch It for dance fans. Competition choreography and a Minhaj script point at a light Friday-night watch, and the missing score means nobody has vouched for it yet.

Stop! That! Train! — September 20

Ginger Minj and Jujubee play Tess and DeeDee, train stewardesses who trade the Stank Rail for the glamorous Glamazonian Express. When a storm threatens to send the train off the rails into Los Angeles, the coach crew joins the first-class attendants — Symone, Brooke Lynn Hytes and Marcia Marcia Marcia — and President Gagwell (RuPaul) to stop it. Adam Shankman directs the 1-hour-30-minute film. 5

The film reached theaters in June 2026 and arrives on Netflix on Sunday, September 20. Rotten Tomatoes records an 85% Tomatometer from 81 critic reviews and a 79% Popcornmeter from more than 250 verified ratings. 5

Verdict: Watch It for drag comedy. The critical consensus credits the film's momentum and the warmth between its two leads, which is enough for a group watch on a Sunday night.

A Different World — September 24

The sequel series moves the story a generation forward. Deborah Wayne (Maleah Joi Moon), youngest daughter of Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert, enters Hillman College and tries to build a legacy of her own. Alijah Kai, Chibuikem Uche, Cornell Young IV, Jordan Aaron Hall and newcomer Kennedi Reece play the new students, while Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison, Darryl M. Bell, Cree Summer, Charnele Brown and Dawnn Lewis return as the characters they played in the original run. Felicia Pride showruns, and Debbie Allen, who directed 83 episodes of the original, returns as executive producer and directs the premiere. 13

All ten episodes arrive on Netflix on Thursday, September 24. Rotten Tomatoes shows no Tomatometer and zero critic reviews for the season. 6

The returning cast of A Different World in a cafe scene

Charnele Brown, Jasmine Guy, Kadeem Hardison, Darryl M. Bell and Cree Summer reprise their original roles in the ten-episode A Different World sequel, which Netflix releases on September 24. Photo: Quantrell Colbert/Netflix.

Verdict: Watch It. Putting the original cast beside a new student body gives the show two audiences at once, and a full ten-episode drop suits a weekend of catching up.

Hulu: a blockbuster musical and a thirteenth round of horror

Wicked — September 21

Jon M. Chu's adaptation of the Broadway musical arrives on Hulu, with Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba and Ariana Grande as Glinda, and Jonathan Bailey, Ethan Slater and Bowen Yang in support. The film runs 2 hours 40 minutes and carries a PG rating. 7

Hulu adds the title on Monday, September 21. Rotten Tomatoes records an 88% Tomatometer from 407 critic reviews and a 95% Popcornmeter from more than 25,000 verified ratings. 7 14

Verdict: Watch It. Two and a half hours of practical sets and staged musical numbers, backed by the strongest audience signal of anything arriving this week, makes this the safest pick on the list for a household that has to agree on one thing.

American Horror Story: 13 — September 24

Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk's anthology returns for its thirteenth season. The premiere's first episode follows Ben as he takes a hospice job with a mysterious client in a penthouse, and the third, "Rauhnacht," puts Constance through a holiday party with two surprise guests. Rotten Tomatoes lists Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters and Angela Bassett on the season page. The season runs thirteen episodes at TV-MA. 8

Three episodes premiere Thursday, September 24 on FX, and stream on Hulu the same day, with two episodes weekly after that. Rotten Tomatoes shows no Tomatometer, zero critic reviews and zero audience ratings at the time of this check. 8 14

Verdict: Watch It for franchise fans. The three-episode drop lands viewers in the season's central thread immediately, and the returning names give long-time viewers a reason to start on Thursday rather than wait for reviews.

Also new this week

Siren: The Voices of Shelley Beattie (HBO Max, Sep. 22) — Irene Taylor directs this 1-hour-43-minute documentary, with Marlee Matlin producing and tracing the life of Deaf bodybuilder Shelley Beattie. No Tomatometer or audience score is displayed; zero critic reviews recorded. Watch It for a documentary slot. 15
100 Nights of Hero (Hulu, Sep. 18) — A 2025 fairy-tale romance starring Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe and Nicholas Galitzine, running 1 hour 32 minutes. Rotten Tomatoes records a 67% Tomatometer from 79 reviews and a 55% Popcornmeter from more than 100 ratings. Skip It. 16
Top Gun: Maverick (Netflix, Sep. 22) — Tom Cruise's 2022 sequel, 2 hours 10 minutes, makes its Netflix debut. Rotten Tomatoes records a 96% Tomatometer from 476 reviews and a 99% Popcornmeter from more than 50,000 verified ratings. Watch It. 17
My Sad Dead (Netflix, Sep. 24) — A Spanish-language horror miniseries from Pablo Larraín, based on Mariana Enríquez's stories, about a girl who can see the dead. No Tomatometer or audience score is displayed. Watch It if you want horror with subtitles. 18
The Last Whale Singer (Hulu, Sep. 24) — A 1-hour-31-minute animated family film about a teenage humpback whale. Rotten Tomatoes lists seven critic reviews with no displayed percentage and fewer than 50 audience ratings. Skip It until a score appears. 19

Bottom line

For the week's biggest single event: JAŸ-Z in 8 on Friday, September 18 — two chapters at once, then weekly.
For a Sunday-night comedy: Youth — Horgan's eight-episode run opens with two episodes on September 20.
For a binge that costs you one evening: Stop! That! Train! — 90 minutes, 85% critics, 79% audience.
For the surest bet in the house: Wicked — 88% critics and 95% audience across more than 25,000 ratings.
For a franchise fix: American Horror Story: 13 — three episodes on September 24.
For a family watch: Best of the Best — a 1-hour-52-minute Bollywood-fusion comedy, unreviewed so far.
For a midweek start: A Different World — ten episodes, the original cast beside a new one, on September 24.
What to skip: 100 Nights of Hero — 67% critics and 55% audience.

The Rotten Tomatoes metrics above reflect live scores recorded on September 17, 2026, and may move as further reviews and ratings arrive. Availability dates come from the platforms' own schedules and press releases.