Somehow, it is August. The time when you can put together a picnic together in the hopes that it won’t rain or that it even may be a little sunny, is coming to a close. And while it may be time to put away summer-time dreams, we land in the mind-clearing freshness of autumn, and with it, a lot of time inside. You may wish to spend some of that time watching television – we’ve heard it’s quite good – and so we have trawled the best of what’s coming to Netflix. Indoor picnic, anyone?
Dear Child
As the nights draw in, Netflix offers a twist-laden thriller based on the German bestseller, Dear Child by Romy Hausmann. Lena lives in isolation with her two children, living by the rules of “father”. One day, she manages to escape, but the mystery of the family set-up – and who Lena really is – unravels. The six-part series seems exactly the type of European noir that will take over imaginations in the darker months.
Dear Child comes to Netflix 7 September
Top Boy
In September, the latest (and last) season of Top Boy is due to drop. Now that the tentative alliance between Dushane (Ashley Walters), Sully (Kane Robinson) and Jamie (Michael) has been shot to pieces, how will life at the Summerhouse estate continue? You can read more about what to expect here.
Top Boy comes to Netflix 7 September
Sex Education
Half of the Barbie cast returns for a fourth (and final) season of the British comedy Sex Education in September. Asa Butterfield is back as Otis (as well as his mother, played by Gillian Anderson). So is Emma Mackey as Maeve and Ncuti Gatwa as Eric (before hopping in a Tardis for the new season of Doctor Who). This time round, they’re trying to set up a clinic at a new school and praying they won’t be losers. Dan Levy will pop up as “cult author” Thomas Molloy at Maeve’s American college. Will this actually be the last outing for this treasured show? Who knows. But how it proceeds without some of its main assets – much of this show relies on the cast’s chemistry – will be an intriguing venture for the Moordale universe.
Sex Education comes to Netflix 21 September
Lupin
The third instalment of the much-loved French thriller, Lupin, arrives in early October. What’s going on with the highly-skilled thief Assane (played by Omar Sy) this time round? Well, he’s now in hiding, living apart from his wife and son. His bold plan is to leave the country and start afresh but a return trip to Paris means that those hopes quickly become complicated.
Lupin Part 3 comes to Netflix 5 October
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer prize-winning 2014 novel All the Light We Cannot See receives a glossy Netflix adaptation, with a cast including Mark Ruffalo, Hugh Laurie and Aria Mia Loberti in one of the lead roles. The limited series follows Marie-Laure, a blind French girl who flee Paris in order to the seaside town of St. Malo, in possession of a mysterious diamond. Here she meets the German soldier Werner (Louis Hofmann), who has been enlisted to track down illegal broadcasts.
All the Light We Cannot See comes to Netflix 2 November
The Killer
David’s Fincher latest film is set for a November release on Netflix, a couple of months after its world premiere at the Venice International film Festival. Based on a French graphic novel, the action thriller has an, uh, killer cast, including Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton. The project, which has been in development for two decades now and is Fincher’s first film since Mank, follows an assassin (Fassbender, inarguable casting) who soon begins to have a moral crisis. Does it feel like you’ve seen this one before? Perhaps, but with the calibre behind and in front of the camera, this is set to be essential viewing come autumn.
The Killer comes to Netflix 10 November
Squid Game: The Challenge
Here we go: the real-life version of one of the most popular television shows ever. That is, of course, Squid Game, the South Korean horror show about desperate down-on-their-luck contestants competing for a grand prize while trying to avoid murder by gameshow. In this version, 456 people will compete for $4.56 million by competing in games inspired by the original show (though presumably without the possibility of instant death). I don’t want to think about who was asking for this, but it will be everywhere, and even if it doesn’t attract audiences in the same number (it won’t), surely there’s some morbid curiosity in all of it.
Squid Game: The Challenge comes to Netflix 22 November
Henry Wong is a senior culture writer at Esquire, working across digital and print. He covers film, television, books, and art for the magazine, and also writes profiles.
