This weekend, the streaming services are fighting for your attention with a stack of new premieres. Netflix drops UNABOMBER, Hulu puts up American Horror Story: 13, and HBO Max finally lets you stream Backrooms. Decider rounded up the full list, and the honest admission is that they couldn’t pick just one title to highlight. So we’re left with the question: which of these three is worth your time?
What Decider Actually Said
Decider’s own write-up admits it was hard to narrow down which new releases to highlight this week, since there are so many good ones. They settled on three titles they think offer the most thrills possible. That means you get a mix of drama, horror, and a thriller that’s already made a name for itself.
The three picks are:
- UNABOMBER on Netflix
- American Horror Story: 13 on Hulu
- Backrooms on HBO Max
The Three Picks
Decider didn’t rank the three titles, but the logic of their selection suggests an order of appeal. Here’s how we’d lay them out based on what Decider highlighted:
- Backrooms — starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Renate Reinsve, and Lukita Maxwell
- American Horror Story: 13 — an all-star season with Sarah Paulson, Kathy Bates, Emma Roberts, Evan Peters, Angela Bassett, Jon Waters, and many more
- UNABOMBER — a dramatic look at Ted Kaczynski’s life, starring Jacob Tremblay, Russell Crowe, Shailene Woodley, and Annabelle Wallis
The ranking is ours, not Decider’s, but it follows a simple logic: audiences tend to gravitate toward the title they’ve heard the most about.
UNABOMBER and the Ted Kaczynski Story
UNABOMBER tells the story of Ted Kaczynski, the man who became the Unabomber. Jacob Tremblay plays a young Kaczynski, starting with his childhood as a prodigy who enrolled at Harvard. The film weaves two timelines together: those early years at Harvard, and the mid-1990s manhunt that eventually led to his capture.
The film introduces Kaczynski as a child prodigy who becomes a domestic terrorist responsible for the deaths of three people. Shailene Woodley and Annabelle Wallis co-star. Russell Crowe plays Professor Henry Murray, whose controversial psychological experiments shaped Kaczynski’s path.
American Horror Story: 13, the Mega-Season
Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story returns with an all-star season. American Horror Story: 13 reunites many of Murphy’s collaborators for a mega-season full of familiar characters. The first three episodes are out now on Hulu.
The season is called 13, happens to be the 13th season, and will consist of 13 episodes. That’s a lot of content to work through.
Backrooms, Finally Streaming
Kane Parsons directed one of the biggest hits of the year, Backrooms, and it finally arrives on HBO Max this weekend. The film follows a furniture store owner who gets trapped in a seemingly infinite and surreal liminal space in the basement of his store.
Chiwetel Ejiofor leads the cast. Renate Reinsve and Lukita Maxwell round out the ensemble. The premise is simple: a maze of rooms hidden beneath a store.
The Full Weekend Lineup
The three main picks are only the tip of the iceberg. Decider’s full list runs long, and the schedule stretches across multiple days.
| Date | Platform | Title |
|---|---|---|
| September 24 | Netflix | UNABOMBER |
| September 24 | Hulu | American Horror Story: 13 (3 episodes) |
| September 25 | HBO Max | Backrooms |
Netflix also drops A Different World, Delusion, House at the End of the Street, My Sad Dead, Oculus, Law & Order: Season 25, STEEL BALL RUN (JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: 2nd-3rd STAGE), The Final Problem, The Great British Baking Show: Collection 14.
Hulu adds Paranormal State: Complete Seasons 4-6, Pawn Stars: Complete Season 24, The Last Whale Singer, The Plague, Expedition X: Complete Seasons 10-11, Naked And Afraid: Complete Season 19, Tournament of Champions: Complete Seasons 5 and 7, and Tropic Like It’s Hot: Complete Season 1.
The full list is exhaustive, and it’s easy to get lost in it. That’s the point of Decider’s roundup: there’s something for everyone.
What We Make Of It
The honesty in Decider’s write-up is refreshing. They admit they couldn’t pick just one title to highlight, even though the headline promises three. That’s a confession of abundance, not a failure of judgment.
The three picks they settled on are all solid choices. Backrooms is the biggest hit of the year, American Horror Story: 13 brings back the show’s biggest names, and UNABOMBER offers a dramatic look at a notorious figure. None of them are bad picks.
But the full list shows how crowded the streaming landscape is right now. There are collections of seasons, documentaries, sports streams, and podcasts across every platform. The problem isn’t finding something to watch; it’s choosing between too many things.
That’s the irony of Decider’s own position. They wanted to narrow down the choices, but the sheer volume of new releases forced them to open up again. The result is a guide that tells you everything that’s new, which is exactly the opposite of what a guide is supposed to do.
Our Call
If you’re looking for one thing to watch this weekend, the answer depends on what you want. The horror fan gets Backrooms. The drama fan gets UNABOMBER. The horror-drama fan gets American Horror Story: 13.
But the casual viewer might be better off picking one platform and seeing what’s there. Netflix has A Different World and The Great British Baking Show. Hulu has Paranormal State. HBO Max has Diners Drive-Ins and Dives and House Hunters.
The full list is available on Decider’s site, where they break down each title in more detail. The seventh episode of The Mina Kimes Show featuring Lenny Podcast is on Disney+. The Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective Podcast is on Apple TV.
The WNBA streams on Prime Video on Sunday. The Chilean Mine Rescue documentary premieres on Disney+ on Saturday. The Simpsons are on Disney+ on Sunday.
There’s no shortage of options. The only shortage is time.
Source material: “New Movies and Shows to Watch This Weekend: ‘Backrooms’ Arrives to HBO Max, ‘UNABOMBER’ Premieres on Netflix and More,” Decider.
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