Wednesday, October 02, 2024
I've pored over Netflix's release schedule to bring you the best movies and TV shows premiering on the service this month.
My most-anticipated premieres are Laura Dern-powered romance Lonely Planet, sparse suspense tale Don't Move, Spanish sci-fi horror sequel The Platform 2, and body-switching flick It's What's Inside. But the most important new-to-Netflix release is Detroiters. You must watch Detroiters.
Lonely Planet
Laura Dern and Liam Hemsworth star in a thoughtful-but-steamy movie with a May/December romance at its center. Dern plays Katherine, a novelist who travels to Morocco to get over her writers' block. Love is the last thing she's looking for, but when she's thrown together with Owen (Hemsworth) on a roadtrip across North Africa, it finds her anyway. Lonely Planet is the perfect movie if you want to squeeze just a little more heat out of summer before we plunge into Autumn.
Starts streaming October 11.
Detroiters
Criminally under-appreciated when it originally aired on Comedy Central in 2017 and 2018, Detroiters is too funny to die. This is legit one of the best comedies that has ever been on TV, and if you haven't seen it, I feel bad for you. Tim Robinson, auteur of wildly popular sketch show I Think You Should Leave, created Detroiters and stars as a dope who inherits a Detroit advertising company then hires his best friend, another dope played by Sam Richardson, to make commercials. Seriously: If you do nothing else in October, watch this show.
Starts streaming October 15.
The Platform 2
The Platform was pure cinematic madness and this sequel looks like more of the same. Like the original, The Platform 2 is a horror/sci fi movie set in a tower prison where the people who live on the top floor get an opulent spread of food every day. The inmates on the floor below get what's left over, and the inmates below them get the left-over left-overs, and so on, down to the starving wretches hundreds of levels deep who are killing each other over table scraps. It's not the kind of story that begs for a sequel, but I'm still curious where it's going.
Starts streaming October 4.
Don’t Move
Don't Move aims at suspense stripped of everything but its most basic elements. Kelsey Asbille plays Iris, a young woman (the hero) hiking in an isolated forest (the closed arena). A stranger, played by Finn Wittrock (the villain) injects her with a paralytic drug, and explains how, in 20 minutes, she'll be completely unable to move (the ticking clock). If you're into nail-biting suspense, give this movie a shot.
Starts streaming October 25.
See for Me
This is a good month for taut, high-concept thrillers on Netflix. See for Me is a home invasion movie where Skyler Davenport plays Sophie Scott, a blind woman cat sitting at an isolated home. When murderous thieves break in, Sophie's only hope comes via an app designed to help sight-impaired people by letting strangers see through their camera phones. Sophie's survival depends on letting a stranger from across the continent be her eyes.
Starts streaming October 6.
It’s What’s Inside
Freaky Friday, 17 Again, Rob Schneider's The Hot Chick; I'll watch literally any movie where people switch bodies, so I'm totally jazzed for It's What's Inside. The high concept in this sci-fi/horror/comedy is a group of friends at a pre-wedding party all switch bodies. There's some machine or something; doesn't matter. Body-switching movies are often critically maligned, but this one is even getting decent reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.
Starts streaming October 4.
Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, Season 2
The first season of this animated series set in the Jurassic World universe earned 100% positive reviews according to Rotten Tomatoes, so it would be literally impossible to not like it. In Chaos Theory, the dinosaurs have taken over the world. "The Nublar Six," six teenagers with dinosaur experience, embark on a mission to unravel a conspiracy that threatens everything on Earth, humans and dinos alike. This is a perfect series to share with your kids: It's gentle enough for anyone over seven, but adult enough that parents won't want to claw their eyes out.
Starts streaming October 17.
Heartstopper, Season 3
Like Jurassic World: Chaos Theory, Heartstopper's first season has a perfect rating on Rotten Tomatoes and season 2 is sitting at 96%. This British coming-of-age tale tells the story of teens Charlie and Nick whose unlikely friendship blossoms into love. Heartstoppers examines controversial issues with a rare-for-TV level of honesty, intelligence, and sensitivity. Introduce it to the teenager in your life.
Starts streaming October 3.
Hasan Minhaj: Off With His Head
A lot of standup comedy isn't about anything beyond surface-level observations about the minutia of modern life, but Off With His Head promises something deeper. Comedian Hasan Minhaj's promising career—he says he was tapped to host The Daily Show—was derailed when a New Yorker journalist fact-checked some of the details in his comedy routines last year. So the guy has an interesting story to tell. Plus, he's really funny. So if you're looking for something more thoughtful than "what is the DEAL with hats?" check this one out.
Starts streaming October 22.
Unsolved Mysteries, Volume 5
We're on the fifth mini-season of Netflix's revamped version of this series about real-life conundrums, and the mysteries show no signs of stopping. This set of four episodes leans heavier on UFOs and the paranormal than previous volumes of Unsolved Mysteries—there's a Roswell episode, a cattle mutilation episode, and a psychic episode—so if you're into mysteries that are crimes instead of mysteries that are bullshit, this might not be the season for you.
Starts streaming October 2.
The Lincoln Lawyer, Season 3
Lawyers with weekly legal imbroglios have been fodder for compelling television since Perry Mason made objections in the 1950s. The Lincoln Lawyer is a particularly solid example of the genre. Now on its third season, the show's main character, Mickey Haller, (played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) earned the name by solving cases in his Continental convertible. Like the car, the show is a throwback; it's one of those episodic TV dramas that you don't have to watch in order—exciting enough, but not meant to be taken too seriously.
Starts streaming October 17.
Beauty in Black
Tyler Perry's new series shows what happens whens worlds collide. In Beauty in Black, Taylor Polidore Williams plays Kimmie, a struggling exotic dancer at Atlanta's Magic City strip club. Mallory, played Crystle Stewart, is the head of a hair care dynasty and matriarch of a very wealthy family. When these two cross paths, their fates become entangled and things get sexy and dangerous.
Starts streaming October 24.
The Diplomat, season 2
If you're thinking "Oh, great, a television drama about global politics and diplomacy, sounds fascinating," you're not getting what people liked about the first season of The Diplomat. Yes, Keri Russel plays the U.S. ambassador to the UK, but the show is a pot-boiler packed with snappy dialogue that uses geopolitics to raise the stakes on over-the-top situations. In other words, it's fun, I swear.
Starts streaming October 31.
Last week's picks
The Perfect Couple
In this drama about murder among the privileged, Nicole Kidman plays Greer Garrison Winbury, the matron of the richest family in Nantucket. She’s planning a huge wedding for her son, but the event of the season is threatened when a body washes up on the beach, setting in motion an investigation where we learn whether the Winbury clan is normal-rich or kill-someone-and-get-away-with-it rich. The Perfect Couple’s cast includes Liev Schreiber, Eve Hewson, Dakota Fanning, and Meghann Fahy.
Starts streaming September 6.
His Three Daughters
In this drama, three estranged sisters return to their family home because their father is dying. Gathered at their father’s deathbed, the three sisters confront old resentment and try to forge new understandings as they wrestle with the meaning of death and family. With performances from powerhouse actresses Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll, Poker Face), Elizabeth Olsen (Martha Marcy May Marlene, Kodachrome), and Carrie Coon (The Leftovers, The Nest), His Three Daughters looks promising.
Starts streaming September 20.
Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef (LIVE)
No hot dog is safe when two of the biggest names in competitive eating, Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi, square off in an epic frankfurter-eating contest, live on Netflix on September 2. Like Ali vs. Fraser II in the 1970s, Unfinished Beef is a once-in-a-lifetime rematch that pits two of the all-time greats against each other in a final contest to settle the score for good. This is the kind of event TV you have to watch live. (Or not. I mean, it’s just some guys eating hot dogs.)
Starts streaming September 2.
Penelope
This young-adult series was created by Mark Duplass and Mel Eslyn, and earned raves when the pilot aired at Sundance. It tells the story of Penelope, played by Megan Stott, an alienated 16-year-old whose yearning for the wilderness leads her to leave everything behind and trek into the unexplored wilderness to make a different kind of life for herself.
Starts streaming September 24.
Rebel Ridge
In Rebel Ridge, Aaron Pierre plays a black man targeted by a corrupt white cops of a small town police department. The officers don’t know that their target is a former marine though, and he’s not going to take injustice lying down. It’s a perfect set-up for an action-thriller as a badass soldier faces off with a mean cops who fully deserve the ass-kicking they have coming to them.
Starts streaming September 6.
Uglies
In the dystopian science fiction world of Uglies, 16-year-olds are given a procedure that turns them beautiful. As you could probably guess, the full-body glow-up is a cover for more sinister changes. Adapted from the Scott Westerfeld YA sci-fi novel, Uglies posits a conflict between the perfect people and those who have chosen to keep their imperfections and their personalities intact.
Starts streaming September 13.
Will & Harper
In this documentary, GOAT comedian Will Ferrell and writer Harper Steele take a long drive in a car. Steele and Ferrell have worked together and been close friends for 30 years, and the two decided to take this cross-country trip when Ferrell learned his old friend was coming out as a trans woman; so they have a lot to talk about. Will & Harper has a rare perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Starts streaming September 27
Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story
The last season of Netflix’s true crime dramatization series Monster made waves for its unflinching and gritty portrayal of the seedy world of serial killer Jeffery Dahmer. Season 2 takes a left turn into the world of mansions and tennis courts by telling the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez, sons of privilege who murdered their parents—either in self-defense after a lifetime of abuse or because they wanted to get their greedy hands on the family fortune.
Starts streaming September 19.
Untold: Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer
Untold, Netflix’s sports documentary series, turns its lens on women’s soccer and tells the story of star player Hope Solo’s career and personal life. From the heights of her record-setting goalkeeping to her falling out with U.S. soccer that included both an arrest for suspicion of DUI and an international controversy after Team USA’s loss at the Rio Olympics in 2016, Hope Solo vs. U.S. Soccer dives deep into the complex culture of high level professional sports.
Starts streaming September 3
Apollo 13: Survival
This film from director Peter Middleton documents the most harrowing, nail-biting near-disaster in space exploration history. Through archival footage and interviews with the people who were in the thick of it, Apollo 13: Survival takes viewers from the control center full of nervous engineers to the inside of the space capsule that nearly didn’t make it back to earth.
Starts streaming September 5.
Into the Fire: The Lost Daughter
This true crime series tells the story Cathy Terkanian’s search for her missing daughter. Terkanian gave her daughter up for adoption at birth, but she learns she’s been missing since 1989, and she sets out to solve the case. With the help of local authorities and amateur sleuths, Cathy’s relentless investigation uncovers clues that point to a shadowy series of crimes that might be connected to the disappearance of her daughter.
Starts streaming September 12.
What’s Next? The Future with Bill Gates
The five-episode series tackles the topics and trends that will define our future, like artificial intelligence, income inequality, misinformation and more. Featuring in-depth interviews with the most renowned scientists, politicians, journalists, medical professionals, and artists in the world, as well as Bill Gates’ own insights, What’s Next? takes an open-minded and curious approach to defining a vision of what’s come.
Starts streaming September 18.
Twilight of the Gods
Created by Zack Snyder, Twilight of the Gods is a for-adults animated series based heavily on Norse mythology. Leif, voiced by Stuart Martin, is a mortal king who falls in love with Sigrid and invokes the wrath of Thor. Instead of begging forgiveness, Leif and a band crusaders sets out on a mission of vengeance against the Gods themselves. Epic!
Starts streaming September 19.
Nobody Wants This
In this Netflix comedy series, Kristen Bell and Adam Brody star as Joanne and Noah, a pair of opposites: He’s a traditional rabbi used to playing it safe; she’s a brutally honest, in-your-face agnostic. Will these two fall in love despite the differences in their backgrounds and worldviews? I’d put my money on “yes,” because that’s what Nobody Wants This is about.
Starts streaming September 26.
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