Silicon Valley’s self-appointed saviours of humanity are heading for your television, and it sounds like their egos will need a screen all of their own. HBO Max has picked up ‘The Audacity’ for the UK and Ireland, with the darkly comedic drama arriving exclusively this October.
Created by Jonathan Glatzer, whose credits include ‘Succession’, ‘Bad Sisters’ and ‘Better Call Saul’, the eight-episode series takes aim at the tech industry’s warped ambitions, questionable ethics and apparently limitless confidence in its own genius. HBO Max has acquired both the first and second seasons through a new agreement with AMC Global Media, so this comes with a little reassurance for anyone wary of getting attached to another new drama: Season 2 is already in production and will follow exclusively on the platform in 2027.
The announcement also brings a substantial A24 content deal, including the streaming debut of horror hit ‘Backrooms’, alongside more films and series. However, for those of us who enjoy watching wealthy people make spectacularly questionable decisions, ‘The Audacity’ is the particularly tempting addition.
Tech billionaires, data mining and some very large egos
Set inside the Silicon Valley bubble, ‘The Audacity’ follows Duncan Park, an ambitious data-mining CEO determined to turn insight and influence into profit and power. He is played by Billy Magnussen (‘Made for Love’, ‘No Time to Die’), putting him at the centre of a world where the people promising to improve everyone’s lives might also be rather interested in monetising them.
Around him are jaded billionaires, psychiatrist-gurus, bio-hacked tech bros, AI laboratories and disillusioned teenagers being optimised at elite private schools. Apparently, even adolescence needs a software update now.
The series explores privacy, reality and the delusions driving an industry determined to optimise absolutely everything, including the rest of us. It is fertile territory for a satire, particularly when the gap between inventing the future and finding another way to extract money from people can look suspiciously narrow.
There is a strong ensemble joining him. Sarah Goldberg (‘Barry’) plays Dr. JoAnne Felder, Zach Galifianakis (‘The Hangover’) is Carl Bardolph, Lucy Punch (‘Motherland’, ‘Amandaland’) plays Lili Park-Hoffsteader, and Simon Helberg (‘The Big Bang Theory’) stars as Martin Phister.
The cast also includes Rob Corddry (‘Ballers’) as Tom Ruffage, Meaghan Rath (‘Being Human’, ‘Hawaii Five-0’) as Anushka Bhattachera-Phister and Paul Adelstein (‘Prison Break’) as Dr. Gary Felder.
Meanwhile, Randall Park (‘Fresh Off the Boat’) guest stars as Gabe, described as the qualm-free CFO of a data-mining operation. A finance executive without qualms should fit right in.
Glatzer writes, executive produces and serves as showrunner, with Gina Mingacci (‘Killing Eve’) also executive producing. Episodes will arrive weekly on Thursdays, giving viewers eight instalments of tech-world ambition rather than dropping the whole first season at once.
A24 brings ‘Backrooms’ and a wider film catalogue
Alongside the AMC agreement, HBO Max has struck a new licensing deal with A24 covering first-run and later-window films and series, plus a selection of catalogue titles. Further first-window A24 feature films will be announced later.
The big October film arrival is ‘Backrooms’, directed by Kane Parsons, who became A24’s youngest-ever feature director. Based on his online series, the film turns the internet’s unsettling labyrinth of yellow rooms into a feature-length psychological horror.
A strange doorway in the basement of a furniture showroom leads into an apparently endless network of interconnected rooms. Time bends, getting lost is a very real possibility, and there is the distinctly unpleasant sense that something else is in there with you. Suddenly, assembling flat-pack furniture sounds like the less stressful option.
Chiwetel Ejiofor (‘12 Years a Slave’) and Renate Reinsve (‘The Worst Person in the World’) lead the cast. According to HBO Max’s announcement, the film has grossed more than $400 million worldwide, making it A24’s highest-grossing release to date.
The deal also includes ‘Born to Bowl’, a documentary series following professional bowlers Kyle Troup, Anthony Simonsen, EJ Tackett, Cameron Crowe and Jason Belmonte as they chase success, respect and prize money on the PBA Tour. Narrated by Liev Schreiber (‘Ray Donovan’), its first season will be available to binge.
A24 catalogue films including ‘The Whale’, ‘Warfare’ and ‘Moonlight’ will roll out over the term of the agreement. The AMC deal also adds ‘Line of Duty’ Seasons 1 to 6 for UK viewers, alongside films including ‘The Spine of Night’ and ‘Oddity’ for both the UK and Ireland.
Elsewhere in HBO Max’s October film line-up, ‘The Christophers’, directed by Steven Soderbergh, follows an inheritance scheme involving an artist’s unfinished paintings, while ‘Moss & Freud’ explores Kate Moss’s experience of sitting for a portrait by Lucian Freud. Plenty to watch between visits to Silicon Valley, then.
‘The Audacity’ Season 1 premieres Thursday, 22nd October 2026 on HBO Max, exclusively in the UK and Ireland, with episodes released weekly. Season 2 follows in 2027.
‘Born to Bowl’ Season 1 premieres Tuesday, 13th October 2026 on HBO Max in the UK and Ireland. ‘Backrooms’ makes its exclusive HBO Max streaming debut in the UK and Ireland on Monday, 26th October 2026.
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