October recap: Five Netflix releases you cannot skip
October is undoubtedly big for Netflix, packed with starry, long-awaited reunions and a glittery festive glow. And now that the end is near, users cannot help but wonder whether November can live up to the standards already set.
Well, only November can answer that. But the good news is October is not done yet, and neither are we.
After the quantity of high-profile content Netflix rolled out throughout the month, October truly deserves a shoutout.
So, if you’re ready for an October recap, here’s a rundown of the top five Netflix releases you cannot skip.
Five Netflix releases you cannot skip in October 2026
Doing Life (Tyler Perry, 2026)
Tyler Perry is a name Netflix viewers stumble upon a little too often, and they don’t mind. If anything, they crave more, and that’s exactly what happened when his urban drama Doing Life dropped earlier this month. The heartwarming movie centres on an unlikely bond between a struggling single mother and a reformed ex-convict, whose relationship goes beyond every meet-cute trope the audience are habituated to see.
Doing Life opens with Anika Morrison, a corrections officer working at a state prison while heavily pregnant, who gets caught in a violent prisoners’ riot. But during the breakout, Carousel White, an inmate serving a 10-year sentence, steps in to save her and her unborn child from being assaulted, setting the story in motion.
Below (Jamie Childs, Helen Shaver, and Stephen Dunn, 2026)
Created by Jesse McKeown, Below is a six-episode horror-thriller very on brand for October. Set against the backdrop of the isolated, close-knit fishing town of Snook’s Arm in Newfoundland, Canada, the limited series follows humble but stubborn local fisherman and widower Calvin Penney, still recovering from a boating accident that claimed his father’s life decades ago, leaving several questions unanswered.
So, when an unidentified but terrifying sea creature starts terrorising his hometown, Calvin must step up to protect the residents anyhow. Driven to shield his son Wade and his family, Calvin joins forces with a marine researcher visiting his town to face the creature head-on and unearth the town’s buried secrets before time runs out. Below combines local folklore, gripping suspense, heart, and humour to breathe life into a tale of family, community, and change.
The Diplomat (Alex Graves, Liza Johnson, and Tucker Gates, 2023-Present)
Although Netflix’s newer releases clearly grabbed attention, the streamer’s returning shows made waves online throughout the month, including the fourth season of the fan-favourite political thriller The Diplomat. The latest instalment opens with an assassination attempt on President Grace Penn at Windsor Castle, which she survives, prompting Hal to take charge as acting president briefly. But quickly, they devise a secret scheme to seize the most powerful Russian nuclear weapon, ultimately sparking international tension.
At the same time, US Ambassador Kate Wyler gets a hunch about the unlikely alliance. Realising the potential consequences of Grace and Hal’s unchecked ambition that could culminate in a full-blown war, Kate secretly joins forces with Grace’s husband, Todd Penn, to try and stop the unexpected alliance from dismantling the global balance of power, tumbling down a web of deceit, betrayal, and underlying power play.
Nobody Wants This (Karen Maine and Richard Shepard, 2024-Present)
Just as The Diplomat brought familiar tension on its coattails, the third season of Nobody Wants This brought the feel-good vibes this October. The instalment follows Joanne as she moves in with Noah and fully commits to conversion classes at his former synagogue, juggling her newfound identity, belief, and work as a podcaster. As they build a life together, viewers witness the pair in their full glory, embracing every “first” in their relationship.
While the wedding bells ring from afar, Nobody Wants This is not without its pre-wedding jitters. While we won’t spoil it for you, they aren’t the only ones experiencing the “firsts.” Sasha and Esther are trying their hands in the modern dating world, and the awkwardness of this “first” is at its peak. As for Morgan? Well, she’s diving headfirst into the corporate world to upgrade her designation. But are any of them successful? Find out now on Netflix!
Lupin (Édouard Salier, Everardo Gout, and Hugo Gélin, 2021-Present)
Lastly, the show on everyone’s lips is Lupin, whose fourth season arrived on October 23rd and scooted right to the top of Netflix’s global top 10 after earning a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In part four of the beloved heist thriller, gentleman thief Assane Diop has already spent four years as a model inmate after turning himself in at the end of the third season. Determined to finish his sentence, reconcile with his family, and take his son to Senegal, he seems to have made up his mind to leave a life of crime.
But when an unidentified entity starts using Assane’s Lupin persona to execute high-stakes robberies across multiple museums simultaneously, with security footage showing Assane inside one of the museums during a heist, he’s forced out of retirement and pushed to escape prison in an attempt to find the imposter and prove his own innocence. The fourth season of Lupin follows Assane’s pursuit of the copycat who is hell-bent on keeping him inside bars.