Next week kicks off a new month and a new wave of Netflix releases, with dozens of shows and movies, both old and new, hitting the platform. In this post, we’re going to take a closer look at a handful of those new titles we think are worth adding to your watchlist, and also direct you to where you can get the full rundown of each and every new title being added to the streaming giant every day next week.
Let’s start with the latter first.
When we talk about Netflix being the biggest streaming platform in the world, it’s both on the basis of its number of subscribers as well as the volume of content that it adds to the platform every single day. We track all of the latter right here, in a monthly roundup of new Netflix releases that really puts into stark relief how much new content it’s regularly bringing to subscribers.
Of course, not all of those new titles are for everyone. There are several international Netflix releases and new documentaries coming next week, for example, that I suspect will have minimal if any appeal here. On the other hand, these are three new Netflix releases that I definitely will be watching next week, starting with one of my favorite TV shows of all time.
Lost: Seasons 1-6 (July 1)
Thinking about this first of the new week’s Netflix releases we’re spotlighting, I’m honestly shocked that it’s been almost 20 years since this all-time TV classic first debuted on the small screen. It feels like just yesterday — okay, actually just a few years ago — when I was looking forward to each week’s new episode of Lost, and scouring blogs for recaps and deep dives into the show’s lore. Seriously, where does the time go?
July 1 brings the arrival of all six seasons of Lost. Which means, among other things, that an all-new generation of viewers is about to get hooked on figuring out what the numbers mean, whether Benjamin Linus is good or bad, the mystery of the smoke monster, and what’s so special about the island, The Others, and so much more.
Netflix, distinct from any other streamer, has a talent for bringing shows back from the dead and introducing them to a whole new crop of viewers. Mark my words. That’s about to happen here.
Zombieland (July 1)
Another Netflix release coming on July 1, meanwhile, is this 2009 apocalyptic zombie classic starring Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg that breaks one of my personal rules. I generally shy away from films and TV shows that are about zombies and such, but the writing in Zombieland is so, so good that you can’t help but love it.
Director Ruben Fleischer’s movie is chock-a-block with sublimely good writing and quips that just zing, most of which are delivered by Harrelson’s “Tallahassee.” For anyone who hasn’t seen it, the movie is also unburdened by complexity. Harrelson’s and Eisenberg’s characters team up to kill zombies. That’s pretty much it. And they do it in all sorts of grotesquely fun ways, like when a big, overweight member of the undead starts barreling toward Tallahassee — who subsequently removes some garden shears from his back pocket (“Come here, big fella … we’re just gonna take a little off the top”).
Among my favorite Tallahassee lines:
- “I hate coconut. Not the taste, the consistency.”
- “My momma always told me, “Someday, you’ll be good at somethin’. Who’d have guessed that somethin’ would be zombie killin’?”
- “I’ve never been good with farewells, so … that’ll do, pig.”
- Columbus: “Are you one of these guys that tries to one-up everybody else’s story?” Tallahassee: “No. I knew a guy way worse at that than me.”
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (July 3)
Finally, here’s perhaps the biggest Netflix original coming with next week’s pile of new releases.
It’s been almost 30 years since we last saw Eddie Murphy playing the iconic character of Axel Foley, the fast-talking Detroit cop who’s now back on patrol in Netflix’s Beverly Hills in Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.
The plot: After the life of Foley’s daughter Jane is threatened, she and Foley team up with a new partner (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his old friends Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Taggart (John Ashton) to fight back and uncover a conspiracy. “Eddie’s such an incredible artist,” producer Jerry Bruckheimer said in a Netflix promotional interview. “He can do drama, he can do comedy — he can do anything. And he’s the same Axel Foley.
“He’s still on the streets. He’s still doing what he does. Obviously with age you get wiser. But he still has the twinkle in his eye.”
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