Each month, loads of new films and TV shows are added to Netflix Australia‘s library. Eliza Janssen presents her picks for titles worth watching. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down. Also, check out Craig Mathieson’s top 50 movies on Netflix list.
Top Picks: TV
Heartstopper: Season 3 (October 3)
Based on a beloved graphic novel, this adorable teen romance series has exploded into its own blush-inducing thing—all the while never delving too deep into Nick and Charlie’s more intimate desires. As we finally get a third season of perfectly nice gay lads and their perfectly nice friends, some viewers have criticised the show for presenting a seemingly sanitised coming-out story, but fans and newcomers seeking a gentle and bubbly vision of love’s first thrills will still be moved.
In a review of season one way back in 2022, Lillian Crawford pointed out the show’s cutesy, near-asexual drawbacks whilst still praising its accessibility: “if Heartstopper gives even one teenager the tools for exploring their sexual identity, then it’s worth celebrating.”
Territory: Season 1 (October 24)
‘Bout time the Land Down Under got its own Yellowstone! Anna Torv leads this sweeping family drama as Emily Lawson, that surname being tellingly reminiscent of the country’s great bush poet Henry Lawson. When her family’s lil farm—actually the largest cattle station in the whole darn world—is left stranded without a clear successor to its fortune and foibles, the Lawsons are torn apart by backstabbing and intergenerational conflict.
It’s a thrill to see a cast of hard-working local talents get a shot at Netflix’s mega-global platform, and Australia’s most brutal and sunburned landscapes will look terrific even on your wee TV screen.
The Diplomat: Season 2 (October 31)
The wonderful and somehow still underrated Keri Russell returns for more political intrigue in this transatlantic government drama. Last season wrapped up with Russell’s troubled American ambassador realising the call was coming from inside the house—namely by learning that the attack on the UK that brought her across the pond in the first place was a false flag operation, ordered by none other than the Prime Minister.
There was also a pesky bomb threat that may or may not have ruined her already-tumultuous marriage to Rufus Sewell’s Hal. Geez! At least Alison Janney, a dab hand at this sort of political chaos, puts in an appearance as the US Vice President.
Top Picks: Movies + Specials
The Platform 2 (October 4)
Capitalism is like a game of Snakes and Ladders. No, actually it’s like Monopoly. No, actually it’s like that horizontal hierarchy in Bong Joon-ho’s Snowpiercer, with the Haves getting all the good stuff up front and sending all the scum to the Have-Nots up the back. No, no, flip that vertically and you’ve got 2019’s sleeper hit The Platform, a thriller in which starving prisoners fight over the scraps left on a descending platform.
The sequel will wring even more pathos and gnarliness out of this neat, visually simple premise—with food being plentiful to those randomly assigned to the top levels, and those at the bottom left to rot. Don’t expect many of the first film’s hungry bastards to show up in this second chapter: we’re hoping for new characters with a better shot at taking down the barbaric system.
The Menendez Brothers (October 7)
Hmmm, we see what you’re doing, Netflix: playing both sides to maintain our attention. The streamer released a shocking and exploitative dramatisation of the Menendez Brothers’ murders last month, and now they’re presenting a documentary retelling of events, purporting to represent the pair’s side of the story in more accurate detail.
The first-hand accounts of the Los Angelenos who killed their parents in a supposed act of self-defense after years of abuse should make this feature-length doco a more grounded exercise than Ryan Murphy’s splashy fabrication. Watching the two Netflix projects back-to-back might be an interesting experiment, if you’re one of those real true crime sickos who lets this stuff spool out in the background while you iron or whatever.
Woman of the Hour (October 18)
Hey wait, true crime sickos: I didn’t mean to offend you! You might also like this eerie drama based on an insane true story, and helmed by lead actor Anna Kendrick in her directorial debut. This creepy film focuses on the bizarre 1978 occurrence of a serial killer who appeared on romantic game show The Dating Game, looking for love even at the height of his murderous spree.
It’s one of those stranger-than-fiction chapters in TV’s sordid history, and the movie’s script was hugely buzzed about before production, with Kendrick earning some solid early praise for her work on both sides of the camera.
All titles arriving on Netflix Australia in October
October 1
Making It in Marbella
Tim Dillon: This Is Your Country
October 2
Chef’s Table: Noodles
Love Is Blind: Season 7
Unsolved Mysteries: Volume 5
October 3
The Bad Guys: Haunted Heist
Blue Box
Heartstopper: Season 3
Trouble
October 4
CTRL
IT’S WHAT’S INSIDE
The Platform 2
October 5
The Amazing Digital Circus: Season 1
The Fabelmans
Ranma 1/2
October 7
The Menendez Brothers
October 8
Ali Wong: Single Lady
Dinner Time Live With David Chang: Holiday Edition
The Predator
October 9
Bullet Train
Deceitful Love
The Invitation
The Secret of the River
Starting 5
October 10
Love Is Blind, Habibi
Outer Banks: Season 4: Part 1
Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft
October 11
In Her Place
Lonely Planet
Uprising
October 12
Halloween II
October 13
A Virtuous Business
October 14
Mighty Monsterwheelies
October 15
BEYBLADE X: Season 1
Chucky: Season 1
Comedy Revenge
Rachel Bloom: Death, Let Me Do My Special
Spies in Disguise
October 16
Ancient Apocalypse: The Americas
I AM A KILLER: Season 5
Justice
Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare
October 17
Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance
Jurassic World: Chaos Theory: Season 2
The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 3
Outside
The Shadow Strays
October 18
Happiness Is
Late Night with the Devil
The Man Who Loves UFOs
Scream
The Turnaround
Woman of the Hour
October 22
Hasan Minhaj: Off With His Head
October 23
Car Masters: Rust to Riches: Season 6
The Comeback: 2004 Boston Red Sox
Family Pack
This Is The Zodiac Speaking
October 24
The Color Purple
Territory
Tyler Perry’s Beauty in Black
October 25
Don’t Move
Hellbound: Season 2
Hijack ’93
The Last Night at Tremore Beach
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Simone Biles Rising: Part 2
October 26
Lisa Frankenstein
Scream VI
October 29
Tom Papa: Home Free
October 30
Go Ahead, Brother
The Law According to Lidia Poët: Season 2
The Manhattan Alien Abduction
Martha
Time Cut
October 31
The Diplomat: Season 2
Murder Mindfully
Coming Soon
Children of the Church Steps
Don’t Come Home
See also
* Best new movies and TV series Stan
* Best new movies and TV series on Amazon Prime
* Best new movies and TV series on Disney+
* All new streaming movies & series
