I've pored over Netflix's release schedule to bring you the best movies and TV shows premiering on the service this month. Netflix is packed in July. The month starts with Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, the long-anticipated sequel to 1984's Beverly Hills Cop; a few weeks later, the first part of the final season of Cobra Kai drops; and the month closes out with a new season of Unsolved Mysteries.
Not everything on the streaming service is based on intellectual property from the 1980s, though. There's a new season of "very-now" reality show Too Hot to Handle, Exploding Kittens (based on the card game), and a pair of getting-ready-for-the-Olympics documentaries: one on gymnast Simone Biles and one about the world's top sprinters.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F
It's been almost 30 years since cop-out-of-water Axel Foley busted bad guys in Beverly Hills, and Eddie Murphy returns to the title role with some world-weariness to add to his panache. Old pals Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold) and Taggart (John Ashton) are on hand, but there's some new blood too: Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Axel's partner, and Taylour Paige plays his daughter, whose life is in danger until Pop F. comes to save the day. The mixture of action, comedy, and Eddie Murphy worked in the 1980s, but will it in 2024? Watch Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F to find out.
Starts streaming July 3.
Cobra Kai Season 6, Part 1
Cobra Kai's mix of 1980s nostalgic meta-comedy, teen soap opera cheese, and martial arts shouldn't work so well, but somehow, the charm of its cast and its breezy, "none of this is important in any way" tone make it a must-binge series. This is the first part of the sixth and supposedly final season for the show, and it sees the members of the Miyagi-Do dojo pondering “if and how they will compete in the Sekai Taikai—the world championship of karate." So the plot is whatever, but the original cast are all expected to return to their places in the karate-based alternate universe in which they live, which is reason enough to watch.
Starts streaming July 18.
Too Hot to Handle
The hook of Too Hot to Handle is brilliant: the reality-competition show puts a gaggle of extremely attractive and sexed-up 20-somethings together in an exotic location, makes them sleep in pairs, then penalizes them for hooking up—the only way anyone can win the $250,000 prize is through abstinence. It's dumb reality show spectacle, perfect as a mid-summer guilty pleasure, and I promise I won't tell anyone you watched it all.
Starts streaming July 19.
The Man with 1000 Kids
If you're interested in the future of Humanity, check out docu-series The Man with 1000 Kids. It tells the story of Dutch musician Jonathan Meijer who is accused of fathering hundreds, maybe thousands, of children through sperm donation. If the accusations are true, Meijer's DNA will have more influence on succeeding generations than just about anyone else's on Earth, and he's a super-creepy YouTuber who eats raw meat, stares directly at the sun, and makes absolutely terrible music. Good luck, human race!
Starts streaming July 3.
Exploding Kittens
Based on the popular card game, Exploding Kittens is a cartoon-for-adults in which God and the Devil are sent to Earth in the form of house cats. That's not in the game, but it does capture the oh-so-random tone of the source material. Whether it'll work or not remains to be seen, but producers Mike Judge (King of the Hill, Beavis and Butt-Head) and Greg Daniels (The Office) know something about making comedy, so it's a solid bet.
Starts streaming July 1
Sprint: The World's Fastest Humans
Sprint: the World's Fastest Humans takes us into the world of elite sprinters so we can learn what motivates someone to devote their lives to the pursuit of speed. If you're planning to watch the track and field events at the Olympics later in the month, this is a perfect way to get to know some of the top athletes competing.
Starts streaming July 2.
Receiver
Last summer's Quarterback followed three of the NFL's best quarterbacks; in this summer's Receivers, we learn about the dudes they throw to. This Netflix original documentary series details the 2023 seasons, both on and off the field, of Davante Adams, Justin Jefferson, George Kittle, Deebo Samuels, and Amon-ra Saint Brown, five best-of-the-best players that football fans either totally love or begrudgingly admit are awesome, even though they hate them, depending on their team loyalty.
Starts streaming July 10.
Back to the Future series
Back to the Future is a perfect movie, and the other two entries in the series are alright too. If you have a few rainy days this summer, there are a lot worse ways to spend them than gathering the family and basking in the '80s glow of this trilogy. It still works all these years later.
Starts streaming July 1.
Lost: Seasons 1-6 (series)
Lost's ending was so epically terrible, it's easy to forget that its first few seasons were as good as any prestige television that has ever been produced—and it was made before "prestige television" even existed. Co-created by J.J. Abrams, and co-written by Damon Lindelof, Lost features a talented cast that includes Evangeline Lilly, Terry O'Quinn, and Dominic Monaghan, and mind-bending plot that ultimately doesn't make much sense, but it's still a fun trip.
Starts streaming July 1.
The Boy Next Door (2015)
Jennifer Lopez stars in good, old-fashioned domestic thriller The Boy Next Door. She's a teacher who has an affair with her much younger new neighbor, but he turns out to be one of her students, and he's a psycho who sets out to destroy her family and her life. You know the drill—it's a potboiler, but with the always charismatic J-Lo at its center.
Starts streaming July 16.
Simone Biles Rising
Gymnast Simone Biles grabbed the world's attention when she withdrew from the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. But the shocking move, partly in response to Biles' mental health concerns, didn't end her career. Biles is back for another go at Olympic glory this year, and Simone Biles Rising details her hard road back to potential greatness at the 2024 Olympics. This docuseries is a pre-Olympics must-watch.
Starts streaming July 19
Star Trek: Prodigy (Season 2)
If you've been looking for a first Star Trek series to watch with your children, Star Trek: Prodigy is for you. The CGI-animated series captures the thoughtful adventure-and-exploration vibe that makes Star Trek great, and does it in a kid-friendly way that isn't adult-unfriendly. The first season of the CGI series earned a 94% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes for taking the dusty franchise in unexpected directions; hopefully season two measures up.
Starts streaming July 1.
Skywalkers: A Love Story
If you like white-knuckle cinema, Skywalkers is for you. It chronicles the life and relationship of Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, a young couple who live to climb the world's tallest buildings. Skywalkers: a Love Story follows the couple's elaborate plans to conquer Malaysia’s Merdeka 118 super-skyscraper without harnesses, ropes, or permission. It makes me nervous just thinking about it.
Starts streaming July 19
Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam
Lou Pearlman, the impresario behind The Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, and Britney Spears might not have been a super honest guy—shocking, I know. Dirty Pop details how Pearlman changed music while building his personal empire, and doesn't shy away from the dark side of the business of fame, power, and exploiting talented young artists.
Starts streaming July 24.
The Decameron
If you like unconventional comedy, check out The Decameron. Loosely based on Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron, published in the 14th Century, this Netflix period comedy is set in Florence, Italy, in 1348 among a rag-tag group of nobles and their servants who are camped out in an opulent villa as the plague rages outside. To pass the time, they tell each other stories that range from from touching to ribald, while the social order descends into chaos. Seems relatable. Netflix describes it as "Like Love Island, but Back in the Day," and that's enough for me to give it a watch.
Starts streaming July 25.
Unsolved Mysteries, Volume 4
The first three seasons of Netflix's revival of Unsolved Mysteries are excellent. Netflix hasn't released a ton of details about volume four yet, but if previous seasons are any indication, it will feature a mixture of unexplained deaths, strange disappearances, paranormal activity, UFOs, and other "what the hell?" content presented in a thorough, thoughtful way.
Starts streaming July 31.
Tickled (2016)
Tickled is one of the strangest documentaries I've ever seen. Journalist David Farrier starts off hunting a quirky story about the "sport" of competitive tickling, but uncovers a strange underworld that's not funny at all. I don't want to spoil any of the twists and turns in this narrative, so I'll just urge you to watch this movie.
Starts streaming July 10.
Last month's picks
Hit Man
Directed by the supremely talented Richard Linklater, Hit Man tells the real story of a fake Hit Man. Gary Johnson's job is pretending to be a professional killer for police sting operations (where can I send a resume?) but he puts everything on the line when he falls in love with a potential client. Co-written by and starring Glen Powell, Hit Man takes a darkly comedic look at an unusual lifestyle. If you're looking for a funny, perfectly crafted, and intelligent movie, look no further.
Starts streaming June 7.
A Family Affair
Nicole Kidman, Zac Efron, and Joey King lead the cast of A Family Affair, a romantic comedy that begins with Zara (King) walking in on her mom (Kidman) and her ex-boss (Efron) in the middle of a passionate tryst. The ex-boss is an impossibly self-centered celebrity—so Zara is not at all sure how to deal with the new relationship. This exploration of love, sex, and identity is the kind of charisma-powered, crowd-pleasing movie that romantic comedy fans can't get enough of.
Starts streaming June 28.
My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman, Season 5
David Letterman's in-depth interview series My Next Guest Needs no Introduction returns for a fifth season where Dave chops it up with basketball legend Charles Barkley and pop-singing legend Miley Cyrus. If you care about these specific people, or you're interested in larger-than-life people in general, Letterman's long-form, deep-dive interviews are worlds better than five minutes of banter on a late-night show's couch.
Starts streaming June 12.
Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial
At the risk of starting a sentence with "You have to hand it to the Nazis for..." Hitler and company inspired more compelling documentaries than anyone else in history. This one examines the post-World War II trials of the Nazi leaders who survived. Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial explores our failing cultural memories of the Third Reich and asks if forgetting about the past dooms us to a hellish repeat. It's not a lighthearted movie, but it is an important one.
Starts streaming June 5.
Trigger Warning
For her role as Parker in Netflix original action movie Trigger Warning, Jessica Alba learned Indonesian knife fighting skills to make the flick's intense hand-to-hand combat scenes extra real. Parker is a Special Forces commando who returns to her home town her father's funeral, only to discover a dangerous conspiracy that might be responsible for his death. Does she confront the evil men behind the plot with Indonesian knife-fighting skills? Goddamn right she does. Mark Webber, Tone Bell, Jake Weary, Gabriel Basso, and Anthony Michael Hall also appear in this treat for action movie fans.
Starts streaming June 21.
Worst Roommate Ever, Season 2
Learning that a second season of Worst Roommate Ever was coming to Netflix is the best news I've heard in months. If you're not familiar, this documentary series tells the stories of bad roommates through interviews with victims and animated re-enactments. If you're like, "Why would that even be interesting?" you're not grasping how monumentally, spectacularly, and unbelievably horrific these people are. Imagine your worst college roommate, now multiply their awfulness by 100; these people are worse than that. If you like well-made freak show TV as much as I do, you'll be hitting "play" at
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