You know how new DVDs and Blu-rays always come out on a Monday? Top streaming service Netflix laughs in the face of such regimented scheduling. Instead, it releases all of its new TV shows and movies whenever the heck it feels like it.
That can make keeping track of all of the new stuff a first-world nightmare of epic proportions, adding extra stress to your evenings in front of the TV. But fear not, because help is at hand. In this article, we highlight all of the best new stuff on Netflix. And yes, that means we’ve left out all the rubbish – you won’t find the likes of Frontier or Sharknado: The 4th Awakens here.
Instead, allow us to guide you, truffle pig-like, to the finest and freshest streaming fungus. Bon appetit.
Note: the newest content is at the top of the list, with shows and movies getting progressively less new as you scroll down
Godzilla Minus One
Forget the recent American blockbusters: this right here is a real Godzilla movie. It’s got drama, heft, emotion, characters and an actual story – a big lizard stomping the heck out of Tokyo being just one part of its appeal.
Not that you should take that as it being short on spectacle at all, because Godzilla Minus One has some of the best visual effects in the business (it just won an Oscar for them, in fact), and its representation of the angry kaiju as an unstoppable force of nature makes for some breath-taking action sequences.
Watch Godzilla Minus One on Netflix
Scavengers Reign (S1)
A group of humans (and one robot) stranded on a hostile alien planet eke out a living in this animated sci-fi series, which was originally created for Max but dropped after this first season. Netflix has now acquired it, but has yet to announce whether or not it’ll bring it back for a second season.
We really hope it chooses to, because despite the rather generic-sounding premise Scavengers Reign is one of the best, most imaginative science fiction dramas of recent years. While it isn’t full of thrilling action sequences, riotously funny or throwing cliff-hangers at you every five minutes, its refreshingly low-key, understated approach to storytelling and the genuine weirdness and originality of its setting set it apart from similar shows.
Watch Scavengers Reign on Netflix
Eric (S1)
New York in the 1980s was a much grittier, grimier place than today’s gleaming metropolis; this six-part drama dives right into its dark heart.
Benedict Cumberbatch plays Vincent, a puppeteer on a Sesame Street-style TV show, whose self-destructive tendencies get even worse when his young son Edgar goes missing on the way to school. Was he abducted or did he run away? Believing the latter, Vincent vows to bring him back by building Eric, the huge blue puppet Edgar invented, and putting him on TV. Meanwhile, an outsider NYPD detective uses more conventional methods to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Watch Eric on Netflix
Bridgerton (S3)
Bridgerton’s glamourous recreation of Regency London society won’t win any awards for historical accuracy, but viewers don’t really care about all that: they’re here for the costumes, romance, balls (as in parties, you filthy-minded so-and-sos) and withering putdowns.
There’s plenty of all of the above in this third season, which turns its attention to the long-time close friendship between perennial wallflower Penelope Featherington and the newly rakish Colin Bridgerton, now threatening to turn into something far deeper.
Watch Bridgerton on Netflix
Bodkin (S1)
When a team making a true-crime podcast turns its attention to a spate of historical disappearances in a rural Irish town, they discover that most of the locals aren’t keen on revisiting the past. As they delve deeper, slowly uncovering the reasons why, they’ll be in danger of joining the missing themselves.
Bodkin manages to be both funny (the ghoulish nature of true-crime podcasts and American stereotypes about Ireland both provide some good comedy mileage) and a gripping mystery thriller without overdoing it on violence or grimness.
Watch Bodkin on Netflix
1917
The horrors of the Great War are skilfully brought to the screen in this nail-biting action drama, edited to appear as if it’s a single continuous two-hour shot. Two young British infantrymen must cross German lines to deliver a vital message that will save hundreds of their fellow troops; director Sam Mendes and his crew’s technical expertise imparts the sacrifice and heroism of their perilous mission with great effect.
Watch 1917 on Netflix
The Black Phone
Scott Derrickson’s movie hits all the right horror notes. A serial killer thriller, ghost story and affecting family drama rolled into one, it’s rich in Stephen King-esque tropes: a small town, a period setting, a rowdy school, troubles at home and a villain (played by Ethan Hawke) who feels both supernaturally evil and terrifyingly real. That’s maybe not surprising, given that Joe Hill, who wrote the novel on which this film is based, is King’s son. Anyway, it’s not too often modern horror films feel as well-crafted and non-gimmicky as this, so our suggestion is to settle in on a quiet night and let it get its hooks into you.
Watch The Black Phone on Netflix
Triangle of Sadness
Wealth, beauty and the social order are the subjects tackled in Ruben Östlund’s astute and often revolting social satire, which won the Cannes Palme d’Or as well as being nominated for Best Picture at the 2023 Oscars.
In series of chapters focussing on specific situations, Östlund delivers a pitch-black dissection of the hyper-rich, viewed mostly through the eyes of a pair of (relatively poor) models-slash-influencers who bag a free invitation onto a luxury cruise.
From uncomfortable interactions between members of different social tiers and a captain’s dinner that goes tremendously awry to a masterful final section in which all manner of established stereotypes – gender, class, race – are turned on their heads, this is an brilliant but often depressing exploration of how power and money are kept closely intertwined.
Watch Triangle of Sadness on Netflix
The Death of Stalin
Armando Iannucci brings his trademark brand of political satire to one of modern history’s darkest chapters. In the wake of Josef Stalin’s undignified passing, a troupe of self-serving Soviet grandees – Steve Buscemi, Michael Palin, Jason Isaacs and Paul Whitehouse among the actors playing them – farcically jostle for power.
It’s too bleak to hit the breezy highs of Iannucci’s In The Loop or TV shows Veep and The Thick Of It. After all, it’s set in a time and place where political rivals were regularly executed. But The Death of Stalin skewers the absurdity of politics just as effectively, raising lots of laughs along the way.
Watch The Death of Stalin on Netflix
Lady Bird
In the opening minutes of Lady Bird, the titular character (Saoirse Ronan in Oscar-nominated form) chucks herself out of a moving car. But this isn’t a movie that’s big on action – even if there’s plenty of involving drama to enjoy.
Greta Gerwig’s debut as a director is a sharply written coming of age tale set in early-noughties central California. It’s very funny (particularly Timothée Chalamet’s try-hard outsider) and brilliantly observed and if you’re in the mood for a quirky dramedy with believable characters and an unforced slice-of-life plot line, Lady Bird should be top of your watch list.
Watch Lady Bird on Netflix
Past Lives
One of the hit indie darlings of 2023, Past Lives actually lives up to the hype. The debut film from Korean-Canadian director Celine Song, it’s a story about childhood sweethearts whose lives diverge dramatically, only for them to meet again in adulthood.
This film feels like an examination of the choices we make and the roads we don’t take, with Song simply presenting events – impeccably acted by the central trio of Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaro – and allowing viewers to make up their own minds about the true nature of the relationship between Na-young and Hae-sung. Are they really in love with each other in the present, or with their past selves, or with the lives that they might have led had things been different?
Watch Past Lives on Netflix
Green Book
Directed by Peter Farrelly, best-known for being half of the fraternal filmmaking team that brought the world gross-out classics like Dumb & Dumber and There’s Something About Mary, this Oscar winner is a feel-good drama about friendship and acceptance in a time of deep division.
When a celebrated and sophisticated black pianist (Mahershala Ali) embarks on a concert tour through the segregated Deep South, he hires brusque but streetwise Italian American driver (Viggo Mortensen) to get him from venue to venue. It’s your classic odd-couple setup: at first, they can’t stand each other, but as they encounter prejudice, suspicion and beauty on the road, an unlikely friendship is forged. It’s pretty sentimental stuff, to be honest, but nevertheless an enjoyable ride along with two wonderful actors.
Watch Green Book on Netflix
One Day (S1)
David Nicholl’s tear-jerking tale of a 20-year love story between two young Brits – told through events happening to them on 15 July of each year – has been adapted for the screen before (a disappointing 2011 romcom with Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess). This 14-part Netflix series gives Dexter and Emma’s slow-burn romance far more room to breathe.
Let’s face it, though: if you’re anything like us you’ll probably binge through it in a one single day (no pun intended), putting yourself through one heck of an emotional wringer as the pair’s lives intertwine throughout the years.
Watch One Day on Netflix
Griselda (S1)
Sofia Vergara explodes out of her comedy comfort zone in this Netflix original miniseries. It charts the meteoric rise of Griselda Blanco, the terrifying Colombian ‘Godmother’ who ruled 1980s Miami’s drug trade with an iron fist. Made by the team behind Narcos, this six-episode story serves up glamour, guts, gore and gak. Mountains of the stuff.
Watch Griselda on Netflix
The Favourite
Come for Olivia Colman’s triumphant turn as Queen Anne, stay for Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz’s almost-as-memorable performances as two courtiers competing for the troubled monarch’s affections in Yorgos Lanthimos’ sumptuous black comedy. Nominated for ten Academy Awards in 2019 but winning only one (Colman, deservedly, for Best Actress), The Favourite is a strange and striking period drama that’ll be viewed as a classic by future cinema nuts.
Watch The Favourite on Netflix
Friday Night Dinner (S1-5)
After a prolonged break, this beloved Channel 4 series has landed back on Netflix. It’s a quiet gem of a sitcom centred around the weekly Shabbat dinners of the Goodmans, a middle-class Jewish family living in North London. Each week, the family’s eccentricities – and that of any visitors they entertain – lead to comedic chaos.
It’s weird and wonderfully Brit TV that’s very easy to watch. And if you end up binging the lot over a single weekend in goblin mode, don’t worry: Netflix says the sixth and final series is coming to the platform soon.
Watch Friday Night Dinner on Netflix
American Nightmare (S1)
True crime documentary miniseries are always a bit of a risk on Netflix; you end up with either something genuinely involving and insightful or a salacious and exploitative slice of ‘infotainment’ that leaves you feeling icky. Honestly, American Nightmare sits somewhere in the middle, but the absolutely bizarre nature of the story that it tells makes it feel worthy your time.
In California, a man calls the police, telling them that his home was broken into, that he and his girlfriend were drugged and bound and that she was taken away. The cops are sceptical of his peculiar story, but events are about to take an even stranger turn…
Watch American Nightmare on Netflix
Boy Swallows Universe (S1)
Set in the suburbs of 1980s Brisbane, this seven-part coming-of-age story is warm, nostalgic and full of Aussie charm. It’s also frequently harrowing, with young protagonist Eli striving to keep his family together amidst drug addiction, alcoholism and crime. But even if your heartstrings will not go unplucked, the humour throughout (and the proliferation of Australian screen legends in the cast) will keep you glued to the telly. It’s heaps good, as Eli might say.
Watch Boy Swallows Universe on Netflix
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
If teen horror leaves you cold, dig out your favourite scarf before hitting play on this glossy 1960s-set yarn which, despite being executive-produced by Guillermo del Toro, doesn’t quite pack the edge you might expect from something with one of the world’s most interesting filmmakers’ fingerprints on it.
That said, younger viewers will appreciate this cautionary tale about how old acts of cruelty and greed can reverberate through the generations: there’s more than enough tension and fright to make for a fun evening of hiding behind the sofa cushions. It also seems set up for a sequel, which some of its mysteries left unsolved by the time the credits roll – whether or not it’ll ever get one remains to be seen.
Watch Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark on Netflix
Dune (2021)
David Lynch’s weird and wonderful adaptation of Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel might be quirkily charming, but lets’ face it: it’s just a bit too weird for its own good. Thankfully, this 2021 version helmed by Denis Villeneuve gives the book the screen treatment it deserves.
With an incredible ensemble cast, stunning cinematography and sound design and a riveting story of conquest, colonialism and conflict in the far future, Dune is an event movie that manages to be more than just a popcorn-muncher. Truly epic stuff.
Watch Dune on Netflix
Society of the Snow
In 1972 a plane carrying 45 passengers, including a Uruguayan rugby team, crashed in the Andes. Lost and presumed dead, the survivors find themselves trapped on a glacier, hopelessly far away from civilization. The disaster was previously immortalised by the 1993 American-made movie Alive, but Society of the Snow is a Spanish-language retelling that cleaves much more closely to the actual events. It also uses a full Uruguayan and Argentinian cast, lending an air of authenticity Hollywood couldn’t match.
Director Juan Antonio Bayona has great form, having previously helmed chiller The Orphanage and The Impossible (the Ewan McGregor/Naomi Watts movie about the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami), and succeeds in giving this harrowing true story the weight and drama it deserves.
Watch Society of the Snow on Netflix
Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (S1)
Netflix has pulled off a massive casting coup for this Scott Pilgrim anime adaptation, convincing almost every single actor from Edgar Wright’s 2010 live-action movie to reprise their role – albeit in animated form. It’s also written by the graphic novels’ creator Bryan Lee O’Malley, giving him the chance to take his own fictional universe off the page and expand it onto the small screen.
Watch Scott Pilgrim Takes Off on Netflix
The Crown (S6)
The sixth and final serving of Netflix’s lavish story of the Windsors, this season of The Crown takes us from the death of Diana, Princess of Wales up to the present day – and while we suspect anyone who has stuck with it until this point will want to see it through, there’s unfortunately no denying that the series’ quality has plummeted faster than Prince Andrew’s post-Maitlis interview reputation.
Maybe it’s because the scenes now being dramatised are so familiar and relatively recent, but something has shifted; a show that started out as a compelling prestige drama now feels parodic and trashy, and once Diana’s ghost makes an appearance you may well feel like checking out of things altogether.
Watch The Crown on Netflix
Jackass Forever
Over 20 years on from the TV show’s debut, the Jackass crew reunite for a new feature-length barrage of bone-shaking stunts and wince-inducing pranks. The formula may not have changed (and yes, if you’re wondering – it’s still not big, it’s still not clever but it’s still very, very funny) but the faces are crinklier, the hairlines higher and the teeth fewer.
There’s something oddly heart-warming in watching these middle-aged men getting back together to act the fool, as well as symbolically pass the torch on to a new, younger generation of masochistic lunatics.
Watch Jackass Forever on Netflix
Escaping Twin Flames (S1)
When does self-help and life-coaching turn into money-draining cult activity? Very quickly, in the case of Twin Flames Universe, the subject of this three-part documentary series about people who join an online programme in search of finding their one true love (or “Twin Flame”) and end up in the thrall of the married couple in charge.
As a breakdown of how multi-level marketing cults work, this series is effective – even if as a viewer it’s hard to see how anyone could fall for the charmless cult leaders and their vacuous spirituality word salad. It’ll likely leave you angry as well, because despite all the evidence accrued by the filmmakers (with the help of several ex-members who succeeded in breaking the cycle and escaping the cult) Twin Flames Universe is still wildly popular online, and its founders are still raking in millions from their willing followers.
Watch Escaping Twin Flames on Netflix
The Killer
Is this movie a chin-scratcher about an emotionally repressed loner in an impersonal world or a glossy globe-trotting action thriller? Director David Fincher clearly wants to have it both ways in this fantastic-looking made-for-Netflix movie, which walks a wavy line between John Wick and I, Daniel Blake – and mostly stays on its feet.
Having sweet-talked Michael Fassbender out of semi-retirement as a racing driver (Google it), Fincher casts him as a meticulous hitman who, following an on-the-job mishap, is forced to stray from the rigid rules that have governed his career thus far. Spiralling out of his comfort zone, he must embark on one final mission to put his former life comfortably in the rear-view mirror.
Watch The Killer on Netflix
Blue Eye Samurai (S1)
This gorgeous and gory animated series takes place in 17th-century Japan, when the borders were closed, foreigners were expelled and any hint of racial difference was regarded with fear and revulsion. We follow a young orphan seeking to track down and kill all four of the white men left in the entire country. Why? Because one of them must be the father from whom she inherited the blue eyes that mark her out as a hated outcast in her own homeland.
With stunning visuals, a compelling cast of characters (not to mention voice actors) and some of the bloodiest fight scenes on Netflix, Blue Eye Samurai is a scintillating show that seemingly came out of nowhere.
Watch Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix
Parasite
Bong Joon-ho’s black comedy won both the Cannes Palm d’Or and Oscar for Best Picture, being the first (and to date only) non-English language movie to win the latter. It’s something of an outlier for the Oscars, with the Academy usually favouring epic, feel-good or ostensibly “worthy” films, but watching it it’s easy to see why it’s been so lauded: it’s masterfully crafted, funny, shocking, insightful and extremely relevant to the current state of the world, all while ripping along at a dizzying pace.
The film revolves around two Korean families: the poverty-stricken working-class Kims and the wealthy middle-class Parks. The Kims concoct a devious scheme to install themselves as well-paid household employees of the trusting Parks, but their triumph is short-lived. A wonderfully entertaining treatise on class, inequality and how modern capitalism brings out the bloodsucker in everyone, no matter how rich or poor.
Watch Parasite on Netflix
All the Light We Cannot See (S1)
Antony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about war, love, sacrifice and the magic of radio gets the Netflix treatment in a four-part adaptation. Mark Ruffalo, Louis Hoffman and Hugh Laurie star alongside Aria Mia Loberti, a partially sighted actress in her first ever role as blind French resistance agent Marie-Laure.
While it’s hard to fault the technical aspects of this miniseries – it’s consistently great to look at – almost all of the book’s charm and substance has evaporated in translation, leaving only a sentimental and schmaltzy residue. Doerr’s lyrical prose, perhaps the main thrust of the book’s appeal, has been replaced by plodding plotting and leaden dialogue. A missed opportunity, then – but at least it’s reminded us of how wonderful the book was.
Watch All the Light We Cannot See on Netflix
The Wailing
Don’t let this Korean horror movie’s 2.5-hour runtime deter you. It’s an atmospheric, disturbing and sometimes incongruously amusing masterpiece of disquiet and tension that’ll linger with you long after the credits roll.
When a series of gruesome deaths occur in a quiet mountain community, suspicion and superstition start to run rampant. The spotlight initially falls on an enigmatic outsider who lives out in the woods, but the investigation into the murders is far from straightforward, leaving both the protagonists and the audience in a near-permanent state of discomfort. As a horror film The Wailing really has it all, taking the viewer to some extremely uncomfortable places – all while keeping you guessing until the end. Masterful.
Watch The Wailing on Netflix
Talk to Me
This Aussie chiller plays out like a Gen Z take on The Exorcist, with teenagers filming TikToks of themselves becoming temporary vessels for the restless souls of the departed: just grab this creepy embalmed hand, utter the invitation “I let you in” and you’ll become a viral hit in no time.
It’s all fun and games until one spirit doesn’t want to give up its new home, making things go predictably sideways and scary. The result is an enjoyable horror romp with one or two genuinely disturbing sequences.
Watch Talk to Me on Netflix
Halloween (1978)
Setting the mould for all other films with a silent and almost indestructible masked killer, Halloween’s everyday suburban setting, chilly synth soundtrack (written and performed by director John Carpenter himself) and near-constant sense of tension ensure it remains a great watch 45 years after its release.
Jamie Lee Curtis delivers an unforgettable debut performance as babysitter-turned-serial-runner-away, and Donald Pleasance provides gravitas as obsessive shrink Dr Loomis. And the apparently motiveless murderer Michael Myers, a looming ‘shape’ clad in an expressionless rubber mask and boiler suit, makes for a truly iconic manifestation of pure evil.
Watch Halloween on Netflix
Reptile
A brutal small-town murder sparks an investigation where nothing is what it seems, while its grizzled lead detective stumbles into dangerous new territory. Benicio Del Toro stars in and co-writes a brooding, David Fincheresque neo-noir with supporting turns from Justin Timberlake, Alicia Silverstone and Michael Pitt. While Reptile doesn’t quite stick its landing after a compelling build-up, it’s a frosty and involving crime thriller with a great lead performance.
Watch Reptile on Netflix
Evil Dead Rise
A welcome antidote to all those lofty, erudite and smart Alec ‘elevated’ horror movies that are currently in vogue, Evil Dead Rise is a fitting and fun return to the franchise that expertly walks the line between silly and scary.
Rather than the usual cabin in the woods, our setting this time around is an ageing Los Angeles apartment block cut off from the outside world by an earthquake – a perfect time and place for malicious and murderous demonic entities to emerge from Hell and torment the remaining residents.
Watch Evil Dead Rise on Netflix
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
In 2021 Netflix forked out over US$600m for the rights to adapt Roald Dahl’s beloved written works for the screen, and here’s the first film resulting from that deal: a 40-minute short directed by none other than the Warden of Whimsy, Wes Anderson.
Anderson has solid form when it comes to Dahl, having directed 2009’s excellent Fantastic Mr. Fox, and has assembled a star-studded cast for this adaptation of the author’s 1970s short story. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the eponymous Sugar, and is joined by Dev Patel, Richard Ayoade, Ralph Fiennes and Sir Ben Kingsley.
Can we handle this much quirkiness? Sure we can. And the good news for fans of Dahl and Anderson is that more short films based on the partnership are arriving (or have arrived already, depending on when you’re reading this).
Watch The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar on Netflix
Encounters (S1)
With the US government’s recent admission of having huge reams of records (including videos) of hundreds of encounters with what it calls UAPs (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena), and Congress hearing testimony about ‘non-human biotics’ and strange craft in government possession, this documentary series about UFO sightings feels timely. Like many Netflix-produced factual series, it’s slickly made and full of interesting interviews with experts and witnesses alike – even if it ends without revealing anything truly original.
Watch Encounters on Netflix
Judas and the Black Messiah
Daniel Kaluuya bagged an Oscar for his towering portrayal of charismatic young Black Panthers leader Fred Hampton, the would-be ‘black messiah’ whose Chicago-based chapter of the socialist, anti-racist organisation was infiltrated by the FBI in the late 1960s.
Concerned that Hampton may unite disparate working-class communities and effect a revolution, the bureau recruits and coerces petty thief William O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield, also Oscar-nominated) into joining the Panthers as a mole and keep a particularly close eye on Hampton. It’s a gripping and galling story, full of high drama, but it’s the two lead performances that demand the most attention.
Watch Judas and the Black Messiah on Netflix
Sex Education (S4)
In lesser hands, Sex Education could have turned out as a cringey sitcom with a brand of humour that’d make American Pie look like The Godfather. Instead, this magnificent show has cemented itself as one of Netflix’s most adored and popular original series. And little wonder, being that it’s a genuinely warm-hearted and involving teen dramedy with some of the most well-drawn characters on telly. It’s back for another season – the last, sadly – in which all of our favourites’ tales of love, lust and loss will come to a close. We’ll miss it.
Watch Sex Education on Netflix
Top Boy (S3)
Along with Sex Education, here’s another much-loved British series taking its final Netflix bow. Top Boy’s fifth season (or third if you’re Netflix and seemingly can’t acknowledge that Channel 4 made two great seasons before you took over the show) wraps up this gritty and long-running London crime saga, with plenty of blood being shed as tensions between childhood friends Dushayne and Sully seem certain to spiral out of control.
If we’re being honest, this is the weakest of the three Netflix-made seasons, but even if it does seem to sell certain characters a bit short, we can’t deny that it finishes everything off in a way that befits the brutal, near-nihilistic tone of the show.
Watch Top Boy on Netflix
