The Last Frontier and The Smashing Machine – here’s what to watch this week

Abbott Elementary, Disney+

Season 5 of the hit comedy Abbott Elementary is here, and some changes are underway for our favourite group of teachers. Janine (Quinta Brunson) now finds herself leading a packed class of 40 second graders with Ava (Janelle James) remarking that she’s eager to see if it “breaks her.” Meanwhile, Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter) is taking on the challenge of middle schoolers, and Gregory (Tyler James Williams) has a different kind of lesson plan: teaching Mr. Johnson (William Stanford Davis) how to ride a bike. Oh, and the teachers’ lounge ceiling looks ready to collapse. Expect laughs galore. Out now.

Monster: The Ed Gein Story, Netflix

The third instalment in Ryan Murphy and Ian Brennan’s true-crime Monsters anthology shifts its focus from Jeffrey Dahmer and the Menendez brothers to the real-life inspiration behind Norman Bates in Psycho. This season tells the story of Ed Gein, the Wisconsin killer whose grisly obsession with corpses and unsettling fixation on his mother shocked the 1950s. Charlie Hunnam underwent a dramatic transformation, shedding nearly 30 pounds (13kg) to embody the gaunt and terrifying Gein. Out now.

The Smashing Machine, cinemas nationwide

Starring an unrecognisable Dwayne Johnson as MMA fighter Mark Kerr, this biographical sports drama film follows Kerr as he reaches the peak of his career but faces personal hardships along the way. Also stars Emily Blunt as Kerr’s then-wife, Dawn Staples. Out now.

The Last Frontier, Apple TV

Jason Clarke leads this high-stakes action drama as U.S. Marshal Frank Remnick, stationed in a remote corner of Alaska. When a transport plane carrying 50 convicts crashes in the wilderness, the prisoners scatter into the tundra, and Remnick is tasked with hunting them down. But as he digs deeper, he begins to suspect the crash wasn’t an accident at all. With the CIA curiously entangled, Remnick becomes determined to uncover the truth. Premieres October 10.