A needle drop can end a premiere, a theme can set a whole show’s mood, and a composer can come from a stadium band. We went through the song logs and interviews for the series airing right now and picked four where the music does real work. They span HBO, Paramount+, Apple TV and FX, and all four are midseason, so there is time to catch up.
Youth (HBO): Radiohead, and no apologies
Sharon Horgan’s new comedy about a 50-year-old divorcee, her ageing parents and her son’s shaky start at university opened Sept. 20 and runs eight episodes to a Nov. 1 finale. Its premiere ends with the son, Ruari (Aran Murphy, Cillian Murphy’s son), climbing into his mum’s bed while Radiohead’s “Everything in Its Right Place” plays. Horgan told TheWrap the choice was baked in from the beginning:
I’d written that it was going to be Radiohead, whether we got [the song] or not. I’d written that into the script a year and a half ago.
Sharon Horgan, TheWrap
The first two episodes, per NME’s log, also use Amyl and the Sniffers’ “Jerkin’,” Geese’s “Au Pays Du Cocaine,” Goldfrapp’s “Strict Machine,” LCD Soundsystem’s “Time to Get Away,” Fiona Apple’s “I Want You to Love Me” and Viagra Boys’ “Sports,” over a score by Jeff Cardoni. Horgan says the Radiohead ending only works because it is a comedy:
I love the way you can write a comedy and really have a lot of laughs in it and then just knock people around the back of the head, because that scene to me is so much more affecting in a comedy than it would have been at the end of a drama.
Sharon Horgan, TheWrap
MobLand (Paramount+): a theme from Fontaines D.C.
The Harrigan crime family is back for season two, which began Sept. 18 with weekly episodes. The theme, “Starburster” by Fontaines D.C., carries over from season one. The score comes from Muse’s Matt Bellamy and Ilan Eshkeri, and episode one’s needle drops range from Mozart’s “Lacrimosa” to Jinka’s “Bunny Hop,” according to NME. Tom Hardy, Pierce Brosnan and Helen Mirren lead the cast, with newcomers Johnny Flynn and Ophelia Lovibond joining in season two. The crime drama was created by Ronan Bennett.
Slow Horses (Apple TV): Mick Jagger’s “Strange Game”
Season six of the Slough House spy drama started Sept. 16, with five more weekly episodes through Oct. 21. The theme, “Strange Game,” is by Mick Jagger, and the score is by Daniel Pemberton and the electronic duo Toydrum. Episode one slips in Spandau Ballet’s “Gold,” Kofi Stone’s “Busker Flow” and Ebo Taylor’s “Love & Death,” per NME. Gary Oldman leads, with Jack Lowden, Kristin Scott Thomas and Jonathan Pryce, and the season adapts Mick Herron’s novels Joe Country and Slough House.
American Horror Story: 13 (FX and Hulu): a 1956 earworm
Ryan Murphy has billed the anthology’s 13th season as a “greatest hits” crossover, with Jessica Lange, Sarah Paulson and Evan Peters returning. It began Sept. 24 in the U.S., with a finale on Oct. 30 in the U.K. Mac Quayle and James S. Levine again score it. The pick for longtime fans is Patience & Prudence’s 1956 version of “Tonight You Belong to Me” over the closing credits, the same recording used in the pilot of Murder House in 2011 and in the finale of Apocalypse in 2018, NME notes. Johnny Cash’s “Thirteen” is on the list, too, along with Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Ole Buttermilk Sky.” The story follows Ben DeSoto (Joey Pollari), a hospice worker pulled into Constance Langdon’s eerie Manhattan penthouse.
Also on our radar
Prime Video’s thriller Kill Jackie has a whole mixtape of its own, from a Ladyhawke theme to Bad Bunny. NME keeps a running song-by-song log for every show above, so you can check each episode’s tracks as they air.
Sources
Added to the High Grailed archive on October 11, 2026.
