New seasons of “Élite” and “Big Mouth” are just two of the highlights launching on Netflix in the coming week. Plus, the streaming service has a whole bunch of fresh original series for you to enjoy.
This week, the new additions to Netflix are dominated by the in-house original series, of which the streaming service serves you a few fresh international representatives as well as new seasons of well-known and beloved titles every day. Among them is the coming-of-age hit series “Élite” from Spain, which is already in its seventh round, as well as the hotly anticipated new arrival of the first season of the animated video game adaptation “Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix”. Admittedly, the movie selection pales a bit behind this flood of series, but there are still a few hand-picked shockers in the program for horror movie fans to sweeten up the scary month a bit.
But let’s not beat around the bush – here are the Netflix highlights for the week of October 16-22, 2023, sorted by weekday.
MONDAY: SOMETHING FOR THE KIDS
Monday rings in the week slowly and has two highlights in store for the very young series fans. The French CGI remake “Oggy Oggy” of the cult series “Oggy and the Cockroaches” moves into Netflix with a third season. In addition, “The Smurfs” are making the streaming service unsafe in series form from the beginning of the week. But thankfully, that was just the beginning.
TUESDAY: TRUE CRIME TO FEAR AND A VAMPIRE IN HIGH SCHOOL
Tuesday is more of the same, bringing two Netflix originals to the schedule that couldn’t be more different. First, the British documentary “The Devil in the Dock” starts, which takes a closer look at a curious murder case as well as the alleged devil obsession of a young boy. Both true crime and horror film fans should get their money’s worth here. The second program item on Tuesday, on the other hand, will be the Canadian series “When I Woke Up a Vampire. Here, vampire horror gives way to fantasy and coming-of-age elements, making it light teen fare rather than gritty horror.
WEDNESDAY: A SURVIVAL DRAMA FROM INDIA AND A JAPANESE ROMCOM
Midweek brings us two series from the Asian region to Netflix. In the Japanese rom-com “Turn To Me Mukai-kun,” an attractive perennial single jumps back into the dating game after 10 years and first has to relearn how relationships even work. The thriller series “Kaala Paani,” on the other hand, is an Indian Netflix original in which various individuals set out to find a cure and end up stranded on a deserted island. The visually stunning eight-parter promises to be a survival drama with mystery elements, and it appears to have been made on a deep budget.
THURSDAY: THE LONG-AWAITED ADAPTATION OF A HIT VIDEO GAME AND A CRIME THRILLER FROM THE UK
Thursday continues to press the gas pedal and has no less than five wildly diverse Netflix originals to offer. With the first season of “Captain Laserhawk: A Blood Dragon Remix,” the adaptation of the popular video game “Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon” finally moves into the streaming service’s lineup. Our expectations are high, as the creative mind behind the series is Adi Shankar, who was already involved in the highly acclaimed video game adaptation “Castlevania” as executive producer.
The “Far Cry” series from Ubisoft is considered one of the best video game series of all time, and “Blood Dragon” also delighted fans and critics alike after its release in 2013. The series is set in a dystopian version of the USA in the 90s, where Dolph Laserhawk has been turned into a military fighting machine and plans to break out of a maximum security prison. Wacky action meets a surreal setting here in six episodes.
In the British miniseries “Bodies,” a mysterious murder hunt unfolds on four time levels, combining crime, thriller and sci-fi elements that should cause no less confusion and mindfuck than the hit German series “Dark” did back in the day. While the corpse of a young man suddenly appears out of nowhere in front of Detective Seargeant Hasan (Amaka Okafor), she has no idea that police officers were also entrusted with the same murder case in 1890, 1941 and 2053. A conspiracy unfolds that spans more than 150 years and threatens the lives of many people in different time periods. The eight episodes star Stephen Graham (“Snatch”), “Unorthodox” star Shira Haas, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd (“The Queen’s Gambit”) and Kyle Soller (“Star Wars: Andor”).
In addition, Thursday’s releases include the music comedy series “Neon” from music producer Daddy Yankee, the first season of the romantic comedy series “Crashing Oath” from Saudi Arabia, and the Dutch comedy “Crypto Boy. “
FRIDAY: BACK TO THE “ÉLITE” – WITH A BIG MOUTH
Friday takes us back to Las Encinas with the 7th season of the Spanish coming of age series “Élite”, where Omar (Omar Ayuso) also returns to do an internship. Because the past at the elite school is hard to let go of after Samuel’s death, he hopes to come to terms with it and get some mental closure. There he meets a number of new and old classmates who are struggling with their own problems. The mystery of Ivan’s (André Lamoglia) accident is still not solved, while the new student Chloe (Mirela Balic) gets caught up in scandalous lies. In any case, we can’t wait to see what drama and intrigue await us in the eight episodes of the new season.
Another highlight on Friday is the seventh season of Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg’s animated comedy “Big Mouth,” about a group of pubescent teenagers and their more or less supportive hormone monsters. The fresh season marks the penultimate batch of new episodes from the internationally acclaimed Netflix original before the series is set to wrap up with an eighth season later next year.
Netflix is also delivering a few new series on Friday with the Turkish sci-fi horror series “The Creature,” the South Korean comedy series “Doona!” and the French true crime docu-series “Vjeran Tomic: The Spider-Man of Paris.” With the indie comedy “Old Dads,” the time-loop horror “Flashback” and the American demon horror “Disco Inferno,” the streaming service is adding a few original films to its lineup before the weekend.
SATURDAY: MANGA ADAPTATION FROM JAPAN
On Saturday, the Japanese drama series “Trillion Game” is the only new entry on Netflix. In it, two old friends start a business and want to use their respective strengths to move up into the Trillion Dollar Club. The series is based on the successful manga series of the same name, which has 10 volumes so far since 2021.
SUNDAY: NOTHING GOING ON
There are actually no new movies and series announced on Netflix for Sunday. But keep your eyes open – knowing the streaming service, things can always change…
