The 10 most exciting new series for the start of the 2026 school year

Sociopolitical curiosities, major literary adaptations and ambitious blockbusters, these are the 10 new releases that you will have to discover, from the beginning of September to mid-October.

The Mystery of the Yellow Room – TF1, September 3

Gaston Leroux brought up to date: a thriller rereading of the great classic, which plays with its heritage and transposes the investigation into contemporary France. A journalist returns to her native village after the attempted murder of her childhood friend – despite being locked in her dead-end room – and teams up with a podcaster to carry out her own investigation. With Claire Romain, Pierre-Yves Bon and Barbara Schulz, this free adaptation promises an undeniable popular thriller.

Professor Raoult vs. The Cerise Gang – HBO Max, September 11

A crazy story, yet well anchored in our reality. This documentary series looks back on the confrontation between Didier Raoult, a recognized researcher who became a media icon and guru of the Covid crisis, and the mysterious “Gang des Cerises”, a collective of researchers and activists who worked to investigate his work and his communication. The four episodes deconstruct the character Raoult, over the course of a strange scientific and media war, which implicitly recounts the anguish of the 2020 health crisis.

Supervisor! – Disney+, September 16

There is a way to have a good laugh with this pure and hard farce, which takes us behind the walls of a prison, following the daily life of guards, and their life with the inmates and other members of a… very dysfunctional prison administration. Obviously, all this is to be seen in the third degree, with Audrey Lamy as an indulgent boss stuffed with Jean-Pascal Zadi and Benjamin Tranié to wield the baton. The prison world on the terrain of crazy comedy.

Comrades – Arte.tv, September 16

What if May 68 became a comedy? This funny French series from the archives looks back at the creation of the experimental University of Vincennes, a real political and intellectual laboratory born in 1969, to meet the expectations of a new generation totally opposed to the power in place. A fascinating time machine, in a France in full turmoil, autopsying with a lot of derision the political dogmas of one and the other, while Claudine, prostitute from Bois, agrees to work for General Intelligence by infiltrating the campus… And Manon Kneusé was awarded the Best Actress prize at Séries Mania.

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story – Netflix, September 17

After Jeffrey Dahmer, the Menéndez brothers and Ed Gein, the Monster saga tackles another legendary American news story: the Lizzie Borden affair. In 1892, this young woman from Massachusetts was accused of having killed her father and stepmother with an ax. But the case has never been completely clarified and his guilt remains, even today, a matter of debate. With Ella Beatty in the title role and Charlie Hunnam, Rebecca Hall and Vicky Krieps in the cast, Ryan Murphy provides an ideal new playground for blurring the line between monster and victim.

Brothers – Apple TV+, September 23

Taken from a real rumor… Are Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson brothers? The duo plays on their legend to the hilt, embodying fictional versions of themselves pushed to the extreme, in the course of a strange Hollywood farce. Above all, the opportunity to rediscover, twelve years after True Detective, the alchemy of two actors who seem to have remained very close.

Paolo – HBO Max, September 25

Sébastien Marnier (The Origin of Evil) ventures into the psychological thriller side: Jérôme Niel plays an ordinary guy who becomes obsessed with Téophane, a former classmate who became a candidate for mayor of his small provincial town. Captivated by this man who seems to have succeeded where he himself remained on the side of the path, Paolo gradually seeks to enter his circle. A disturbing dive into the mechanisms of fascination and resentment.

East of Eden – Netflix, October 1

Seventy years after James Dean, it is Florence Pugh who brings a new adaptation of John Steinbeck’s monumental novel. The book explores family, guilt, free will, and the ability to choose who you want to become. Zoe Kazan, screenwriter and showrunner, offers a new reading in the form of a miniseries also carried by Mike Faist and Christopher Abbott. Enough to place this adaptation among the prestige events of the fall.

Carrie – Prime Video, October 7

What will the creator of The Haunting of Hill House do with Stephen King’s famous novel? Obviously, it’s exciting. Mike Flanagan takes on the well-known story of this teenage girl reclusive by a dominating mother, harassed in high school and gradually discovering her telekinetic powers. But he transposes it to our era, that of social networks and cyberbullying, and intends to develop King’s universe beyond the original story. With eight episodes and Stephen King himself as executive producer, this Carrie has what it takes to become the big horror event of the fall.

VisionQuest – Disney+, October 14

Here is finally the direct sequel to WandaVision, certainly the best Marvel series. Paul Bettany reprises his role in a strange fantasy chronicle, which must notably explore his identity, in search of his son Billy. On paper, it is therefore much more than a simple new chapter of the MCU: it is the announced conclusion of an arc around the Maximoff family and Vision. We can’t wait to see if Marvel will be able to regain the formal audacity of WandaVision, while the public now expects each new superhero series to truly justify its existence.