The Literary Film and TV You Need to Stream in September

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.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Stream it on: Prime Video, 9/2

Literary bona fides: based mostly on the appendices of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Everybody is doing prequels now, I guess. In The Guardian, Rebecca Nicholson writes that this one is “so cinematic and grand that it makes House of the Dragon look as if it has been cobbled together on Minecraft.” Zing! The show is set in the Second Age of Middle-earth, which is thousands of years before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and is reportedly the most expensive television show ever made, costing $465 million for eight episodes. Spectacle, spectacle, everywhere you look.

Devil in Ohio
Stream it on: Netflix, 9/2

Literary bona fides: based on Devil in Ohio by Daria Polatin (2017)

An eight episode limited thriller series starring Emily Deschanel as a psychiatrist who takes in a girl who has escaped from a cult. Looks creepy as hell. Cornfields always are.

Little Women
Stream it on: Netflix, 9/3

Literary bona fides: very loosely based on Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (1868)

If the trailer is any indication, this K-Drama adaptation bears almost no relation to the original novel. Not because it’s set in modern-day South Korea, or even because there are only three sisters—it’s more about the whole 70 billion won thing. Still, it’s probably worth a shot, not least because it was written by Chung Seo-kyung, who also wrote The Handmaiden, one of my favorite literary adaptations of all time.

Tell Me Lies
Stream it on: Hulu, 9/7

Literary bona fides: based on Tell Me Lies by Carola Lovering (2018)

The very latest in toxic romance—for filling that You-shaped hole in your life.

Pinocchio
Stream it on: Disney+, 9/8

Literary bona fides: based on Carlo Collodi’s The Adventures of Pinocchio (1883)

This live action Pinocchio is the first of two Pinocchio adaptations coming out this year, and you could argue it’s the wholesome one—after all, it’s got Tom Hanks. (The other one is being made by Guillermo del Toro.) No reason you (or your children) can’t enjoy both, though, if you (or your children) are into that kind of thing.

Blonde
Stream it on: Netflix, 9/28

Literary bona fides: based on Joyce Carol Oates’ Blonde (2000)

Well, the long-awaited, much-delayed, super-hyped (not least because it will be the first movie released on Netflix with an NC-17 rating) Marilyn Monroe film looks good—Ana de Armas is definitely channeling Marilyn in the trailer and early stills, and Bobby Cannavale (as “The Ex-Athlete”) and Adrien Brody (as “The Playwright”) are both very convincing. I only hope the substance matches the style.

A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Stream it on: Netflix, 9/1

Literary bona fides: based on Anthony Burgess’ A Clockwork Orange (1962)

“I have been allegedly as responsible as anyone in the last 30 years for the cult of violence,” wrote Anthony Burgess in 1993. “I published in 1962 a novella entitled A Clockwork Orange, which was more concerned with methods of quelling violence among the young than with the glorification of aggression. Ten years after publication, baffled reviews, and a tiny readership, Stanley Kubrick adapted the book to the screen, rather brilliantly. His version differed from the original in that he emphasized the visual, whereas I had been concerned with converting to sound—specifically, the sounds of an invented language—the clichés of mayhem and murder.

In both book and film the protagonist is, through aversion therapy, changed from an aggression-loving lout into an automaton that vomits at even the thought of violence. The question was asked: is it permissible to kill free will in order to ensure the stability of society? Not many viewers of the film took notice of the question: most were too excited by the violence to bother about the philosophy of the concept.”

If that’s you, it might be time for a rewatch.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Stream it on: Prime Video, 9/1

Literary bona fides: based on The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris (1988)

Cannibalism is in again, apparently—but has anyone really done it better than Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter?

Hook (1991)
Stream it on: Hulu, 9/1

Literary bona fides: based (sorta) on Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, by J.M. Barrie (1904)

I can’t be the only 80s baby who had it bad for Rufio, right? Either way, the Robin Williams/Dustin Hoffman Hook is a whole campy delight, no matter what the critics say.

The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Stream it on: Netflix, 9/1

Literary bona fides: based on The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller (1992)

The rare case of an adaptation that improves upon the book. As Janet Maslin wrote at the time, “Clint Eastwood, director and alchemist, has transformed The Bridges of Madison County into something bearable—no, something even better. Limited by the vapidity of this material while he trims its excesses with the requisite machete, Mr. Eastwood locates a moving, elegiac love story at the heart of Mr. Waller’s self-congratulatory overkill.” Plus, Meryl!

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
Stream it on: Hulu, 9/1

Literary bona fides: based on William Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew

Warning: likely to doom your teenage daughter to a lifetime of reading Sylvia Plath and correcting other people’s grammar.

A Knight’s Tale (2001)
Stream it on: Netflix, 9/1

Literary bona fides: based (sorta) on “The Knight’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer

But more importantly, Chaucer himself is in it. And even 20+ years on, it’s still the best. (By the way, you know it’s a good month when you can watch back-to-back Heath Ledger vehicles.)

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)
Stream it on: Netflix, 9/1

Literary bona fides: based on James Baldwin’s If Beale Street Could Talk (1974)

Barry Jenkins’ adaptation of Baldwin’s classic novel is beautiful and moving—a love song to “Black people and how Black people love one another,” as Mychal Denzel Smith put it—even if it doesn’t quite live up to the book.