What to Watch This Week in Canada

Apple TV's Nocturne, a Matthew Perry docuseries, a Spanish zombie sequel and a celebrity hot seat on CBC Gem lead a busy Halloween week.

By Lauren Smith October 25, 2026 5 min read

Courtesy of Apple TV

The week before Halloween is less about scares than about a crime drama with a serial killer at its centre. Apple TV‘s Nocturne leads the new series in Canada this week, joined on Netflix by a three-part docuseries about Matthew Perry, a Swedish house-swap thriller and a heist film set in Madrid. Prime Video brings back a Spanish zombie franchise, Crave fills Halloween weekend with horror films and Canadian titles, and CBC Gem closes the week with a second season of The Assembly.

The lead pick: Nocturne (Apple TV, Friday 30 October)

Nocturne makes its global debut on Apple TV on Friday 30 October with two episodes, followed by a new episode every Friday through 25 December, according to Apple. The 10-episode series stars Liev Schreiber as Jonah Lynn, a former soldier turned homicide detective who moves to a small town in western Pennsylvania, only for a serial killer, Jurek Walter (Stephen Graham), to threaten the town and his family. Zazie Beetz plays FBI agent Saga Bauer, Jonah’s surrogate daughter, who is drawn into the hunt for Jurek’s last missing victim.

Apple says the series is based on The Sandman by Lars Kepler, the pen name of a husband-and-wife writing team. Rowan Joffé created it for television and John Hlavin developed it, and the two co-showrun. Tim Van Patten directs the first two episodes. Bill Camp, Rory Culkin, Chrissy Metz, Poorna Jagannathan and Gary Carr round out the cast. It is a weekly release, so viewers who prefer to binge can wait for the Christmas Day finale.

Image from The One About Matthew Perry — In pictures 3

Netflix

Netflix’s week starts on Tuesday 27 October. The One About Matthew Perry is a three-part documentary series directed by Emmy winner Mary Robertson, and Netflix bills it as the first in-depth documentary about the Friends star. Netflix says it is told by the people who knew Perry best, including his sister Mia Perry Bowick, his friend of more than 40 years Roger Castillo and former NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield, and draws on unreleased family photos and videos.

Thursday 29 October brings You, Me, Us, an Italian sentimental comedy from director Daniele Luchetti starring Elio Germano and Maria Chiara Giannetta as a mismatched couple whose differences surface when they try to adopt. It premiered at the Rome Film Fest on 18 October.

Friday 30 October is the crowded day:

SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of, Jason Hehir’s documentary on the Canadian sketch series and its surviving cast.
A Couple of Lies, a Swedish psychological thriller in which Helene (Frida Gustavsson) and Carl (Fares Fares) swap their Stockholm archipelago home for a Sicilian villa, with Emma Appleton and Jakob Oftebro as the couple on the other side of the trade.
Collision Course, a thriller from director Daniel Sánchez Arévalo about a Madrid bank robbery during an economic crisis that spirals into what Netflix calls a game of deception, fear and survival.
Dead-End Job, a Korean mystery-horror series starring Lee Jae-wook as an indebted young man who takes well-paid part-time jobs from a mysterious agency.

Prime Video

Two international originals land midweek. Drive, a German-language romantic drama inspired by Tamara Lush’s Wattpad novel, arrives worldwide on Wednesday 28 October. Lisa-Marie Koroll plays a mechanic who agrees to pose as the fiancée of a scandal-prone racing star (Amin Baahmed).

On Friday 30 October, Apocalypse Z: New World continues the Spanish zombie series based on Manel Loureiro’s books, with Carles Torrens back as director. Amazon says it streams in more than 240 countries and territories. The same day, Prime Video Canada adds Minions & Monsters. The Lord of the Rings trilogy arrives on Monday 26 October, and four Jurassic films follow on Saturday 31 October.

Crave

Crave’s HBO pick is Kordell Stewart: Slash & Burn, an HBO Original documentary on Tuesday 27 October. Halloween weekend is mostly horror: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) on Thursday 29 October, then Lurker, The Nun and Pumpkinhead 2 on Friday 30 October, along with the Starz title The Furious. Bell Media lists three Canadian films: A Castle of Our Own (already streaming, from Sunday 25 October), At the Place of Ghosts (Friday 30 October) and Hunting Matthew Nichols (Saturday 31 October).

CBC Gem

The Assembly returns for a second season on Sunday 1 November. CBC says episodes with American Sign Language and extended Producer’s Cuts go up on CBC Gem at 9 a.m. ET, and the broadcast follows at 9 p.m. (9:30 NT) on CBC TV and CBC Gem. CBC says this season’s guests in the hot seat are Hudson Williams, Marie-Philip Poulin, Jay Baruchel, Ashley Callingbull, Lights and Zach Galifianakis.

Where to watch

The One About Matthew Perry: Netflix · CA · Tuesday 27 October
Kordell Stewart: Slash & Burn: Crave · CA · Tuesday 27 October
Drive: Prime Video · CA · Wednesday 28 October
You, Me, Us: Netflix · CA · Thursday 29 October
Nocturne: Apple TV · CA · Friday 30 October, then Fridays
SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of: Netflix · CA · Friday 30 October
A Couple of Lies, Collision Course, Dead-End Job: Netflix · CA · Friday 30 October
Apocalypse Z: New World: Prime Video · CA · Friday 30 October
Minions & Monsters: Prime Video · CA · Friday 30 October
Lurker, The Nun, Pumpkinhead 2, At the Place of Ghosts: Crave · CA · Friday 30 October
Hunting Matthew Nichols: Crave · CA · Saturday 31 October
The Assembly season 2: CBC Gem · CA · Sunday 1 November, 9 a.m. ET (CBC TV 9 p.m.)