TV Shows to Watch This November

TV Editor Kylie Clarke

Beckham (2023)

I have never been a person who cares about football, not even when England plays in the World Cup (controversial, I know). That is until I watched Beckham, the recent documentary about football legend David Beckham and his rise to stardom. I started watching the series, expecting to be bored to death with clips of men kicking around a ball and technical terms I do not understand. However, instead I was introduced to a new perspective on football, the resilience it takes to be a footballer and how much the game really means to people (and the negative consequences this can sometimes lead to). The series showcases both the highlights and low points of Beckham’s career and personal life, and also gives an insight into the effect on Victoria, his wife. The interviews were done tastefully and felt therapeutic even as a viewer. The series captivated me from start to finish and changed a lot of my opinions on not only the celebrity couple but also on the sport as a whole.

Films to Watch This November

Film Editor James Richards

Millions (2004)

This mid-career oddity from Trainspotting (1996) director Danny Boyle is essential viewing: tackling spirituality, grief and idealism without a whiff of morality-play preachiness. In Millions, youngster Alex Etel stumbles upon a discarded bag of cash, finding himself suddenly torn between Catholic faith and struggling family. James Nesbitt features as the beleaguered dad, but it’s Boyle’s direction that proves the real star here: blending childlike freneticism with all the usual non-naturalistic flourishes. Millions is Boyle at his hallucinatory best… an offbeat treat for kids and adults alike.

Film Editor Alice Weltermann

Bottoms (2023)

Emma Seligman and Rachel Sennott have already proven themselves as a duo to be reckoned with following 2020’s Shiva Baby: Bottoms consolidates them as an unstoppable team. A hybrid of Fight Club, Superbad and something else altogether, the film is a riotous flick that has many laugh-out-loud moments. Sennott’s PJ and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) are best friends who decide they must lose their virginity before graduating high school, and start a girls-only ‘self-defence club’ to do so. The school is an absurdist exaggeration of the High School Movie setting, exploring friendships, first sexual experiences, violence, and homophobia all whilst remaining utterly unserious. 

Film Editor Tom Green

HyperNormalisation (2016)

A kaleidoscopic exploration of how we in the West have come to find ourselves trapped in a ‘dream world’ where no change is possible. Constructed from archive footage, trip-hop, and ambient sound welded together with singular narration, Adam Curtis takes us on a trip across 20th and 21st century history to demonstrate how politicians, technocrats and financiers have driven us to mass uncertainty about our future. This experimental documentary epic might, for some, seem like the cinematic equivalent of a tranquiliser dart, but its off-piste presentation has a strange, lasting hypnotic power.

Games to Play This November

Gaming Editor Louis Wright

Super Mario Wonder

Over a decade since the series’ last (original) foray into 2D platforming, Super Mario returns to the genre with one of its strongest entries yet. Gone is the bland, plastic sheen of the “New” subseries and the ‘Mickey Mouse’ syndrome its characters have suffered from for so long. In its place is a game that is absolutely oozing in charm, character, and colour. 

Taking inspiration from psychedelia, Super Mario Wonder is a game that leans heavily into the idea that literally anything can happen when collecting a Wonder Flower. Music levels featuring various singing enemies, genre-jumping to a top-down exploration game, and stampedes of enemies trying to crush you under foot are all possibilities. A true return to form for the innovation that the Super Mario Bros. series is known for, Wonder truly lives up to its name.

Sonic Frontiers

Sonic the Hedgehog, as a series, has been through many reinventions through its inception in 1991. Making a transition from 2D to 3D and changing gameplay style several times over, Sonic Frontiers is the latest of these reinventions. And this does not feel forced or unnecessary as some transitions in the past have, rather a natural progression of Sonic’s established formula.

The open world setting, combined with Sonic’s vast skill-tree, the fluidity of the controls, and variety of puzzles and challenges scattered throughout makes for a great playground. Combat is engaging, the standard levels featured throughout are suitably challenging, and for the first time in years, the story and writing are a return to form. If one is considering returning to the Sonic franchise, Sonic Frontiers is the game to do it.

Albums to Play This November

Music Editor Hannah Gadd

Dance Fever by Florence + The Machine 

Dance Fever is the fifth studio album by Florence + The Machine and is the perfect record to turn to during the colder months. Rich with oversized acoustics, dramatic drums and soft piano parts, Dance Fever feels like a fourteen-track fairytale. Florence Welch sounds as angelic as ever on this album as she delivers her poetic lyricism. The album has an enchanting quality which very few can achieve, sounding hauntingly delightful from start to finish. Dance Fever is technically and sonically beautiful, a magnificent addition to Florence + The Machine’s catalogue which will undoubtedly be in my rotation this winter.

Music Editor Devin Birse

Serfs Up – Fat White Family

Serfs Up is about as haunted and twisted as pop music can get. Aching, misanthropic and gorgeous in equal measures. Serfs Up spends the majority of its fourty four-minute run resharpening The Fat White’s razor wit, till the ten tracks of ghostly synths, motorik drums, and scintillating funk grooves, become the perfect vessel to deliver lead singer Lias Saudis creeping seductive vocals and twisted inflammatory lyrics. Wether it’s the glam nightmare of ‘Tastes Good with The Money’ or the Morricone inspired slow burner ‘When I Leave’ The Fat White Family sound fresher and more scintillating than ever.

Key Tracks : ‘Feet’, ‘Fringe Runner’, ‘Tastes Good With The Money’

Music Editor Isabelle Porter

Good Riddance – Gracie Abrams

Released earlier this year, Gracie Abrams’s debut album, Good Riddance, is a delicate rumination on the missed connections, internal conflict, and growing pains of your early 20s. The record was written in collaboration with The National member and producer Aaron Dessner. A notable track on the album is the closing song, ‘Right now’, which was co-written by Abrams and Dessner with Brian Eno. The nearly six-minute-long track weaves together wisps of diaristic imagery in a particularly stunning way. Good Riddance is a tender and sparse work, perfect for the cooler months.

Key tracks: ‘I know it won’t work’, Where do we go now?’, ‘Amelie’

For more Editor’s Picks, check out this list from October 2023:

Editor’s Picks: What to Watch and Play This October