3 Elite Series to Binge on Netflix This Weekend (Oct 3-4)

1 week ago 20

Florence Pugh in 'East of Eden' miniseries

Published Oct 2, 2026, 8:41 AM EDT

In over three years at Collider, senior author Jake has now penned over 3000 articles covering a wide range of TV and film for the resources, lists, utilities, news, and interview teams. Alongside interviewing stars such as Selin Hizli, Rose Ayling-Ellis, Harlan Coben, and Chelsea Peretti, Jake was lucky enough to visit the set of Aardman and Netflix's Wallace and Gromit: A Vengeance Most Fowl in 2024, getting the chance to chat with four-time Academy Award winner Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham. Jake has also worked for other publications, including Agents of Fandom. You can also hear Jake every week as the resident film and TV journalist on Track Radio.

Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, starring If I Had Legs I'd Kick You's Ella Beatty, continues to be the must-watch series on Netflix, for better or for worse. The first to focus on a female serial killer — after Season 1's Jeffrey Dahmer, Season 2's Menendez brothers, and Season 3's Ed Gein — the latest season of Ryan Murphy's anthology series proves once more just how popular his so-called 'Murphyverse' is. But that could all change with the exciting release of one of Netflix's biggest October additions. So, with that in mind, here's a look at three shows you should binge-watch on Netflix this weekend.

For more recommendations, check out our list of the best shows and movies on Netflix.

Disclaimer: These titles are available on US Netflix.

1 'East of Eden' (2026)

October begins with a big splash on Netflix, as The Lizzie Borden Story's reign comes under threat from an adaptation of John Steinbeck's celebrated 1952 family saga. East of Eden, set in California's Salinas Valley, follows the tragic destiny of two families (the Trasks and the Hamiltons), centered on Cathy Ames, played by Florence Pugh.

Adapted for the screen by Zoe Kazan, East of Eden is the latest novel adaptation to launch on Netflix and is sure to prove a massive hit for the streamer. Pugh is currently having a great year as part of several of 2026's biggest movies, and she is adding this prestige streaming option to her catalog, alongside co-stars Mike Faist, Poor Things' Christopher Abbott, and Warrior's Hoon Lee.

Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which MCU Character Is Your Best Friend? Steve Rogers · Tony Stark · Peter Parker · Shuri

Pick where you meet, what they text you at two in the morning, what they hand you on your birthday and what the two of you keep arguing about. Four very different people are waiting on the other side: the one who never leaves, the one who is exhausting and worth it, the one who replies in four seconds flat, and the one who will roast you and then fix your life.

🛡️Steve Rogers(Captain America)

🛠️Tony Stark(Iron Man)

🕸️Peter Parker(Spider-Man)

🐆Shuri(Black Panther)

FIND YOUR FRIEND →

Where do the two of you meet? Nobody in this universe makes a friend somewhere normal.

AIn a gym at six in the morning, where the two of you are the only people awake. BAt a party you were not really invited to, where they talked to you for an hour. CQueuing for coffee in Queens while something loud happens six blocks away. DIn a lab you had no clearance for, and they decided to let you stay.

NEXT QUESTION →

Your phone lights up at two in the morning. What does it say? You find out what kind of friend somebody is by what they send at that hour.

ANothing at all, because they are already outside, having heard you had a rough week. BFour hundred words about an idea they just had, plus a schematic you cannot read. CAn apology for texting so late, followed by a question that could have waited. DA meme aimed directly at you, sent with no context and absolutely no mercy.

NEXT QUESTION →

It is your birthday. What do they hand you? The present is never really about the present.

ASomething small they made themselves, handed over slightly awkwardly. BSomething absurd and expensive that fixes a problem you mentioned once, months ago. CA gift that clearly took months of saving, wrapped badly, with a long note inside. DAn upgrade to something you already owned, installed without asking you first.

NEXT QUESTION →

What does a good Saturday with them actually look like? Superheroes have days off, and this is how they spend them.

AA long walk, an old diner and a conversation you had both been avoiding. BWhatever they decide at noon, which somehow ends with you in another country. CBad takeaway and an old film on their couch, interrupted about eleven times. DTwo hours in a workshop, arguing about whether your idea would even work.

NEXT QUESTION →

You have your worst day in years. What do they do about it? This is the part of a friendship nobody puts in the trailer.

AThey sit next to you and say almost nothing until you are ready to talk. BThey throw money, noise and three terrible plans at it until one of them helps. CThey turn up with food, refuse to leave, and then check on you every day for a month. DThey tell you the honest version of it, which nobody else was willing to say.

NEXT QUESTION →

Every real friendship has one fight it keeps having. What is yours? The thing you argue about is usually the thing you like most about them.

AThey take risks with their own life that they would never let me take with mine. BThey vanish into work for weeks and expect me to be completely fine about it. CThey keep apologising for things that were never even slightly their fault. DThey are three steps ahead of me and do not always bother explaining why.

NEXT QUESTION →

The alarm goes off and you are both in the field. What is your job? You get one role on the team, and it says a lot about who you want next to you.

AHolding the front line so that everybody behind me gets out of the building. BDoing the thing nobody has a plan for yet, at speed, and inventing the rest. CGetting people off the street quietly before anyone realises we were there. DRunning everything from a screen and talking the rest of them through it.

NEXT QUESTION →

Ten years on, what do you want this friendship to be? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who picks up the phone.

AExactly the same, because some people are simply permanent and that is the appeal. BLoud and complicated and worth every bit of the trouble it caused along the way. CStill the person I look out for, and still the first one who checks on me. DTwo people who keep each other sharp and never once get sentimental about it.

REVEAL MY BEST FRIEND →

The Line Is Ringing Your Best Friend Is…

Four people, four completely different ideas of what it means to have somebody in your corner. Here is who picked up, what they would ask of you, and what you would get back.

Steve Rogers

You want the friend who does not leave. Steve is the one who turns up at the door without being asked, who remembers what you said you were worried about, and who has never once made you audition for his attention.

His entire character is built on a single sentence, which is that he will not abandon somebody just because it has become expensive to keep them.
He is far funnier than people give him credit for, and the joke is almost always at his own expense rather than yours.
The friendship comes with a cost, since being close to Steve means being dragged into fights that were never yours and being glad about it later.
You would get a friend who tells you the hard thing to your face and then defends you to everybody else in the room.

Tony Stark

You want the friend who is genuinely exhausting and completely worth it. Tony will forget your birthday, then build you something at four in the morning that you did not know you needed, and hand it over as though it were nothing.

He is bad at saying the warm thing out loud, so he says it in hardware instead, which is why everybody around him ends up with upgraded everything.
Being his friend means putting up with the disappearing, the deflecting and the jokes that arrive about ninety seconds too early.
What you get in return is somebody who will spend an unreasonable amount of money and effort on a problem the moment it becomes yours.
He is the loudest person in the room and the one most likely to be quietly panicking about all of you.

Peter Parker

You want the friend who replies in four seconds and apologises for it. Peter is earnest in a way that is almost unfashionable, and he will take on far more than he can carry rather than admit that he is struggling.

He is the only one on this list who needs looking after as much as he looks after you, and that balance is exactly what makes it a real friendship.
Nobody in the MCU is better at the small stuff, from remembering the thing you were nervous about to showing up with food you did not ask for.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day arrived in July 2026 and put him back where he works best, which is broke, local and carrying the weight on his own.
You would get a friend who is sincerely, embarrassingly happy for you when something goes right, with no edge to it at all.

Shuri

You want the friend who insults your shoes, fixes your phone and then quietly rearranges your entire life for the better. Shuri does not do soft reassurance, and that is the reason you would believe her when she says you are fine.

She is the smartest person in almost any room she walks into and treats that as a reason to tease you rather than a reason to lecture you.
The teasing is the affection. When Shuri stops making fun of you, something has gone seriously wrong and you should probably ask her about it.
Her story is the one on this list that goes somewhere genuinely dark, which is what turned her from a scene stealer into the emotional centre of the films.
You would get a friend who never pities you, never softens the truth, and never once lets you take yourself too seriously.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

2 'Unbelievable' (2019)

Rotten Tomatoes: 98% | IMDb: 8.3/10

Netflix has been home to some of the greatest miniseries of the past decade, from The Queen's Gambit to Baby Reindeer. But of all these masterpieces, Unbelievable is the most underrated, and you should binge-watch it this weekend. The series stars Kaitlyn Dever as teenage rape survivor Marie Adler, who is charged by police for supposedly lying about the crime. Years later, detectives Grace Rasmussen (Toni Collette) and Karen Duvall (Merritt Wever) search to uncover the truth.

Dever is a hugely talented performer, and Unbelievable is her best performance to date. Based on an actual Pulitzer-winning news investigation, this harrowing tale is both deeply moving and frighteningly relatable, shining a light on the lack of convictions for sexual assault in our modern society through the lens of one woman's heartbreaking experience.

3 'North of North' (2025–Present)

Rotten Tomatoes: 100% | IMDb: 7.5/10

One of Netflix's hidden gems is scheduled to return this fall, and this weekend is the perfect time to catch up. The Canadian comedy North of North, Netflix's first Canadian original series, follows Siaja (Anna Lambe), an Inuk woman desperate to break free from the chains of her current life, despite the whispers of her claustrophobic community and a doomed relationship.

You don't score a perfect 100% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes for no reason. This easy-to-watch, joyful comedy makes for perfect weekend viewing, as it remains light and fun throughout, but never shies away from discussing issues faced in Inuit communities. Although an exact release date for the show's return is currently unavailable, Season 2 has already aired in Canada and received plenty of praise.