East of Eden to Carrie: 10 of the best TV shows to watch this October

From new adaptations of the beloved John Steinbeck and Stephen King novels to a Newfoundland-set monster horror with Josh Hartnett – these are the best series to watch and stream.

In this deliciously twisty legal melodrama, Dominic West plays a tech billionaire, Morgan Henderson, and Sienna Miller an actress, Carla Duval, who were in love when they married a decade ago but are now at odds in a vicious, big-money, headline-making divorce. Representing them are duelling firms of scheming lawyers, his one of the most prestigious in London and hers an upstart created by a married couple who once worked for that established firm. There are betrayals, leaks to the press, dirty tricks and a lawyer going undercover at one firm to spy for the other, with events all taking place in luxurious settings around the city. George Kay, who created the Idris Elba thriller Hijack and the recent drama Gone, told EW that he got the idea for War when he overheard a woman "screaming from the rooftops" when her husband finally signed divorce papers after four years of wrangling. For the series, "We wanted to have wealth. We wanted to have glamour," he said. "We wanted to show London off at its most aspirational."

War premieres 1 October on HBO in the US and 2 October on Sky and Now in the UK 

In this new miniseries adaptation of John Steinbeck's 1952 family saga, Florence Pugh has the juiciest role and gives a dynamic performance as Cathy, the manipulative, lethal woman at the centre of the conflict between two brothers: Adam Trask (Christopher Abbott), who marries her, and Charles (Mike Faist), who warns him against her. A few years after publication, the novel was famously made into a film starring James Dean, directed by Elia Kazan. His granddaughter, the actress and director Zoe Kazan, has created and written this series but with a different approach, bringing Cathy to the fore. And where the film is based on a slice of the book, the series covers its full timeline, ranging from the post-Civil War years in New England to California during World War One. Tracy Letts plays the Trask brothers' father, Ciaran Hinds is the head of a neighbouring family, and Hoon Lee is the Trasks' servant. Pugh told Vanity Fair about playing the antiheroine: "It was really important to me not to warm her up or make excuses for her," but to find "tenderness and humanity without changing the primary DNA of the person."

East of Eden is released on 1 October on Netflix internationally

Catherine Zeta-Jones stars in this action-fuelled revenge thriller as Jackie Price, a one-time international drug dealer, who after 20 quiet but very affluent years selling fine art, becomes the target of assassins. She suspects hitmen from a group known as the Seven Demons, but there are plenty of vengeful people from her past who could be after her. As Jackie tries to outsmart her enemies, the action is infused with some mordant humour. "I think I have to kill them all," she says, sounding very much as if she relishes a return to her exciting, dangerous old life. The winning cast includes Daniel Ings, Bill Paterson, Ron Perlman and Sidse Babett Knudsen (Borgen). Zeta-Jones has already been praised for using her native Welsh accent in the show, which was shot partly in Swansea, Wales.

Kill Jackie premieres 2 October on AMC in the US and Prime Video in the UK

Based on the Stephen King novel, the classic 1976 horror film Carrie is best remembered for the iconic image of Sissy Spacek as a prom queen covered in pig's blood. Since then there has been a sequel, two remakes and a stage musical – and now comes this series from Mike Flanagan,........

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