The Literary Film & TV You Need to Stream in September

Emily Temple

Sep 1

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Every month, all the major streaming services add a host of newly acquired (or just plain new) shows, movies, and documentaries into their ever-rotating libraries. So what's a dedicated reader to watch? Well, whatever you want, of course, but the name of this website is Literary Hub, so we sort of have an angle. To that end, here's a selection of the best (and most enjoyably bad) literary film and TV coming to streaming services this month. Have fun.

NEW:

Jan Thijs / Amazon and Sony Pictures Television Inc.

The Wheel of Time (Season 2)
Prime Video, September 1

Literary bona fides: based on Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time universe (1990 - 2013)

The first season of Amazon's ginormous-budget adaptation of Jordan's beloved series got pretty mixed reviews, but at least some fans have hope that season two will be an improvement. Either way, those looking for their high fantasy fix in this post-Game of Thrones world will be able to find it here—though if that's you, might I suggest dipping a toe into Baldur's Gate 3?

The Little Mermaid
Disney +, September 6

Literary bona fides: based on Hans Christian Andersen's original fairy tale (1837)

Disney's latest live action remake—making its streaming debut after opening in theaters in May—is technically an adaptation of its own 1989 animated classic, but that one was (loosely) based on the original fairy tale, so whatever, it counts. Again, reviews were decidedly mixed, but in these dark and darkening days, my stance is: the more magic we can dole out to children (and ourselves), the better.

Apple TV+, September 8

Literary bona fides: based on The Changeling by Victor LaValle (2017)

I loved LaValle's creepy, horror-fabulist New York novel—which contains one of the most frightening scenes I've ever read in a book—and I'm beyond stoked to see LaKeith Stanfield as Apollo Kagwa, the rare book dealer who finds himself plunged, in this very grown up fairy tale, into a sort of mirror world of grief and solitude and monsters.

The Other Black Girl
Hulu, September 13

Literary bona fides: based on The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris (2021)

Book publishing is a land of horrors! Or at least it is when, like Nella, you're the only Black employee at a company—until, that is, Wagner Books hires Hazel, and somehow things begin to get even worse. Here's hoping that Hulu does justice to Harris's twisty bestseller.

The Irrational
Peacock, September 26

Literary bona fides: based on Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational (2008)

NBC's new fall drama, episodes of which will be available the day after air date on Peacock—inspired by the bestselling nonfiction book about human patterns, Predictably Irrational, by behavioral scientist Dan Ariely—stars Jesse L. Martin as a behavioral science professor who uses his insights into human behavior to crack complicated high-stakes cases. Sounds like fun to me.

THROWBACK:

Jaws (1975)
Netflix, September 1

Literary bona fides: based on Jaws by Peter Benchley (1974)

You'll just barely have time to watch the best summer movie ever made before Labor Day—but it's also pretty good early fall (or anytime) viewing, especially if you don't want to scare yourself away from your last few beach days.

Stand By Me (1986)
Netflix, September 1

Literary bona fides: based on The Body by Stephen King (1982)

Another timeless summer/anytime classic to fit in before all the back to school business starts in earnest. Do they still make cherry flavored Pez?

A Knight's Tale (2001)
Hulu, September 1

Literary bona fides: based ever so loosely on "The Knight's Tale" by Geoffrey Chaucer; also features Chaucer himself

I'll always jump at the chance to recommend this cult classic, a modernized Elizabethan comedy that's so, so fun—charming and clever and a little stupid in all the best ways. I have always been a Heath Ledger stan, and he's a perfect angel in this movie, but it's Paul Bettany as Chaucer who really steals the show.

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Hulu, September 1

Literary bona fides: based on The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger (2003)

Like A Knight's Tale, this movie is just way better than it ever needed to be—thanks in large part to Meryl Streep's Miranda Priestly, but also everyone else in it: Emily Blunt as the perfect poisonous fashion girl, Stanley Tucci as Stanley Tucci working at Vogue, and Anne Hathaway doing her level best to convince us she's unattractive and bumbling. Even Adrian Grenier does his job with aplomb. It's the perfect thing to watch when you're sick, or it's raining, or you just need to cool your heels in an emotional time capsule for a while.

An Education (2009)
Hulu, September 1

Literary bona fides: based on "An Education" by Lynn Barber (2003); adapted by Nick Hornby

Hornby based his screenplay for the film, about a teenage girl who falls in love with a con man, on an essay that British journalist Barber published in Granta; she later expanded it into a memoir that came out the same year as the film. This is the movie that put Carey Mulligan on the map.

Fences (2016)
Netflix, September 1

Literary bona fides: based on Fences by August Wilson (1983)

Wilson wrote this adaptation of his own Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play, but the film didn't come to fruition until eleven years after his death in 2005 (Tony Kushner reportedly edited Wilson's draft, though he is not credited as a writer). It is almost as powerful a film as it is a play, due of course to Wilson's genius, but also in large part to the performances of Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, who also starred in the first Broadway revival of the show back in 2010.