What To Watch This Week: Sept 21-27, 2026

MasterChef Asia: Season 2 (HBO Max, Sept 22)

This new season — arriving more than 10 years after Singaporean Woo Wai Leong was crowned the inaugural champ —  will feature contestants who are alumni of various international editions. (Woo isn’t among them, and neither are any of the four MasterChef Singapore winners. How come?) The 10-part showdown was filmed in Macau, a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, with chefs Edward Lee, “Pan” Pichaya S, and Kelvin Cheung as the resident judges.

Toy Story 5 (Disney+, Sept 23)

As much as I want Pixar to make more originals and fewer sequels to their greatest hits, I believe every generation of kids should have their own Toy Story. This one, with Jessie the Cowgirl (again voiced by Joan Cusack) front and centre, sees her leading the playthings as they deal with yet another existential crisis — in the form of Lilypad (Greta Lee), a smart tablet convinced it knows what’s best for kids. Does it? Does it fire up or hinder their imagination? And does it get in the way of their social development? Discuss!

Wonka’s The Golden Ticket (Netflix, Sept 23)

Netflix’s latest competition show pits 12 contestants  — “Golden Ticket winners” —  against one another in challenges taking place inside a replica of Roald Dahl’s iconic chocolate factory. Each obstacle (are you ready for the lickable walls?) will put the players and their chosen partners through the wringer physically, mentally, and morally. The last team standing takes home “a lifetime supply of money”. There’s no flesh-and-blood host, just an omniscient voice — an AI recreation of the late Gene Wilder, who played Willy Wonka in the 1971 film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. The nine-episode show was filmed in Australia.

Brothers (Apple TV, Sept 23)

Remember that rumour that Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are biological siblings? (McConaughey’s mum claimed to have been romantically involved with Harrelson’s underworld-linked father.) It isn’t true but wouldn’t that make for a great TV show if it were? Which brings us to this: an eight-part series where the True Detective alums play fictionalised versions of themselves who are grappling with the possibility that they’re genetically related. It will launch with two episodes, followed by new eps every Wednesday.

American Horror Story:13 (Disney+Sept 25)

Season 13 of Ryan Murphy’s horror anthology promises to be the Avengers of the series, with fan-favourite characters from past instalments converging for one big spooky fest. The season will include 13 half-hour episodes, with three dropping in premiere week and week two. Following that, two episodes will drop every Friday leading to the 13th and final episode on Oct 30. Just in time for Halloween. The stacked cast includes AHS regulars (Sarah Paulson, Jessica Lange, Evan Peters, Emma Roberts, et al) and a few newbies (hello, John Waters!).

Michael (HBO Max, Sept 25)

Bad reviews (38% on Rotten Tomatoes, 39% on Metascore) and bad PR (his court cases, past and present) didn’t stop Michael Jackson fans from making his biopic earn more than US$1 billion (S$1.27 bil) — the first biopic to surpass the coveted box-office milestone — and driving his back catalogue up to the charts. Silence. You hear that? That’s the sound of the Jacksons swimming in a pool of money.

Unabomber (Netflix, Sept 25)

We’ve all heard of Ted Kaczynski aka the Unabomber, the mathematician-turned-terrorist who carried out a decades-long bombing campaign in the US from 1978-95, killing three people and injuring 23. But what was he like as a young man? This origin story, directed by Janus Metz (True Detective, Andor) follows Kaczynski (Jacob Tremblay) as a student at Harvard, where he was subjected to controversial psychological experiments by Professor Henry Murray (Russell Crowe) — tests that would have deadly consequences in the years to come. Shailene Woodley co-stars as the FBI agent heading the manhunt that eventually led to his arrest.