Best new movies and TV series on Netflix New Zealand: November 2024

Each month, loads of new films and TV shows are added to Netflix‘s library. Eliza Janssen presents her picks for titles worth watching. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.

Top Picks: TV

Outer Banks: Season 4: Part 2 (November 7)

There’s nothing like a treasure hunt, to turn good friends into ride-or-dies. This returning teen adventure-drama arrives just in time for summer (in our lower hemisphere, at least), following the scrappy gang of “Pogues”, townie rivals to the rich-kid “Kooks” who vacation in their coastal town. Ever since our hero John (Chase Stokes) picked up the scent of a legendary golden bounty, his mates have been swashbuckling their way through episodes of romantic conflict, melodrama and the odd action sequence, revelations of pirate ancestry and missing dads flecked here and there.

There’s something joyfully childish about the show’s narrative thrust, despite the characters all being older than your Famous Fives and Goonies. The sunny setting and promised, shiny prize makes each new season (or half-season, as we’re dealing with now) feel like an inviting holiday rather than a gritty chore to show up for.

Arcane: Season 2 (November 9)

You don’t necessarily need to be a square-eyed devotee of League of Legends to appreciate this sumptuous animated adaptation: season one of Arcane was praised for its accessibility, hyping up fans and welcoming newcomers into a world caught between binaries of utopian tech and an oppressed underclass of survivors. Ella Purnell and Hailee Steinfeld voice sisters Powder and Vi, dwellers in an undercity that cowers below the wealthy burb of Piltover.

The first season ended with the pair being tragically torn apart by their convictions, and an ongoing rebellion that draws in steampunk, fantasy and (obviously) video game mechanic elements. The lore is dense and expansive at once, the voice cast are committed, and the visuals are fluid and impressive enough to justify the three-year wait we’ve suffered since 2021’s first season.

Cobra Kai: Season 6 Part 2 (November 15)

Nothing’s ever gonna keep this martial arts remix down: after a much longer run than its nostalgia-baiting premise ever suggested, Cobra Kai is finally shutting its dojo doors. Well, not finally: this sixth and last season has been broken into not the traditional two but three parts, with a final-and-we-really-mean-it-this-time chapter kicking its way onto Netflix sometime next year.

This second batch should set up all the punchy pieces, though, with the first part ending on Daniel (Ralph Macchio) questioning his beliefs and Cobra Kai’s female and male captains getting selected for a brutal tournament in Barcelona. Hopefully we’re plunged right into that international melee once this middle segment begins.

A Man On The Inside (coming in November)

A new Netflix comedy series, based on an Oscar-nominated Chilean documentary? Um, sure, especially if it stars Ted Danson. If you missed 2020’s The Mole Agent, it’s well worth a watch before you enjoy this scripted remix. But in short: the doco followed an elderly “spy” tasked with checking into and checking out an old folks’ home, his eyes and camera pen open to notice any signs of elder abuse.

Sounds like heavy stuff, but since even that non-fiction film had its funny and heartwarming moments, sitcom auteur Michael Schur is now turning it into an even funnier series, with Danson as our tech-challenged mole. Schur has worked with Danson before on existential comedy The Good Place, and the cast also includes Mary Elizabeth Ellis and Brooklyn Nine-Nine‘s Stephanie Beatriz, amongst a who’s-who of winning older talent. Watch it and then go visit your nanna.

Top Picks: Movies + Specials

The Piano Lesson (November 22)

Based on a script by acclaimed playwright August Wilson, this historical drama promises compelling performances from an all-star Black cast, including Samuel L Jackson, Denzel’s kid John David Washington (with brother Malcolm acting as director), Corey Hawkins, and the tremendous Danielle Deadwyler. Expect it to be played in a minor key rather than a jaunty major one, of uncomplex nostalgia: the setting is 1930s Pittsburgh, and our characters are a family struggling with a troublesome family heirloom.

It’s the inherited piano of the title, which features carvings from an enslaved ancestor—and you can bet each member of the Charles family is similarly marked by forces from their shared past, too. Soul and funk goddess Erykah Badu is even amongst the cast, in what should be a potent and theatrical chamber drama.

The Merry Gentlemen (November 20)

Christmas is still properly a month away, but Netflix couldn’t care less, already springing a new batch of original festive films on us. Lindsay Lohan’s got a new one—with one of those plots about exes forced to play nice over the holidays, obviously reconnecting under some mistletoe—and so does Lacey Chabert, being an indentured servant of the holiday rom-com industry by this point.

But my pick is this saucier effort, starring Britt Robertson as a dancer who must stage an all-male strip revue to save her parent’s struggling small-town performance space. It’s basically a Christmassy, yassified The Full Monty! With Chad Michael Murray bearing all in Magic Mike mode! These schmaltzy Christmas romances normally stack on the chaste sentimentality rather than any real steaminess, so perhaps buff Santas flashing some flesh could be just the stocking stuffer you’re after.