Can’t-Miss HBO Max Arrivals: Every New Show and Movie Dropping October 6–12, 2025

HBO Max is stacking the week of October 6-12 with a little bit of everything: returning animation chaos, competitive cooking, Looney Tunes in hard hats, and a gnarly sci-fi horror flick. It’s a weird mix (in a good way), and a couple of the pickups have some fun inside-baseball quirks.

The quick hits

First up, Smiling Friends is back on Monday with Season 3. If you haven’t met these guys yet, it’s an Adult Swim cartoon about a tiny company whose whole mission is to make people happy. Naturally, that simple goal turns into constant misadventures as the crew tries to fix other people’s lives and smacks into every possible obstacle along the way.

Midweek, Alex vs America returns for Season 5. The setup hasn’t changed: skilled chefs roll in to try to take down Alex Guarnaschelli, tackling a gauntlet of challenges to prove they can out-cook her. It’s a clean, high-stakes format that does exactly what it says on the tin.

Friday brings Bugs Bunny Builders Season 2G, which is exactly what it sounds like: Bugs and the Looney Tunes crew running construction gigs with their own oddball vehicles. It’s a kids show, sure, but the premise is so specific it almost loops back around to being avant-garde.

Also Friday: The Substance, a science-fiction horror film with a nasty hook. It follows Elisabeth Sparkle, who gets tossed from her aerobics show by a sexist boss and turns to a serum that promises a younger, more beautiful version of herself. That goes well until it very much doesn’t. Fun quirk: the listing tags it as MUBI, which makes its stop on HBO Max a neat bit of streaming cross-pollination.

Everything landing this week

• Monday, October 6
  Smiling Friends, Season 3 (Adult Swim)
• Tuesday, October 7
  Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: It Doesn't Have to Hurt (CNN Originals)
  One Day in October, Season 1
• Wednesday, October 8
  Alex vs America, Season 5 (FOOD Network)
  Baylen Out Loud, Season 2 (TLC)
• Thursday, October 9
  Vgly, Season 2 (Max Original)
• Friday, October 10
  Bugs Bunny Builders, Season 2G (Cartoon Network)
  Homes With a View, Season 1 (Magnolia Network)
  Lu & The Bally Bunch, Season 1D (Cartoon Network)
  The Alabama Solution (HBO Original)
  The Substance (MUBI)
• Saturday, October 11
  Bering Sea Gold, Season 19 (Discovery)
  Impractical Jokers, Season 12A (truTV)
• Sunday, October 12
  The Chair Company, Season 1 (HBO Original)
  The Snake Catcher, Season 1 (Animal Planet)

Short version: animation fans get fed early, food people get their midweek fix, and horror hounds should circle Friday. Busy week.