We’re only midway through September, but as the final days of summer count down, Netflix is just getting ramped up. I cannot wait for the arrival of Party Down on September 22—it’s the best comedy show you’ve never seen; it stars the brilliant Ken Marino, a pre-Severance Adam Scott, and other faces you’ll recognize.
In the meantime, however, I’m excited for the three shows below, which have all hit the streaming service for U.S. customers within the past couple of weeks, making them not new-new, but pretty new, and that’s OK, too. The first one is the second episode of a scorching show based on a famous YouTube series; the second is a new season of an animated take on one of Netflix’s biggest series ever, and my top pick is another animated (this one adult) show that’s getting great reviews.
The WWE’s CM Punk takes on the Wings of Death
I’ve been watching Sean Evans serve up his hot questions and even hotter wings on First We Feast’s YouTube phenomenon Hot Ones almost since it began in 2015. You know you’ve hit the big time when SNL spoofs you twice, you’ve been nominated for two Daytime Emmys, and, most recently, you’ve been given a Netflix spin-off.
Hot Ones: Extra Heat is the streamer’s spicy new offering: a series of 30-minute specials centered around Netflix’s big live events. Sure, it’s a bit promotional, but the guests still have to face the show’s notorious Wings of Death—10 increasingly brutal wings, including the infamous Da Bomb Beyond Insanity—while also answering Evans’ famously thorough questions.
The July premiere of Extra Heat, which followed the MLB Home Run Derby, featured Will Ferrell and his The Hawk co-stars Fortune Feimster and Jimmy Tatro. Episode 2 dropped just after September 14th’s WWE Raw, with wrestler CM Punk scarfing the hot sauce-soaked wings while talking about his polarizing career, personal struggles, and more in a surprisingly candid talk. Evans even gets in the ring with Charlotte Flair, who gives the host a lesson in doing his first wrestling-style promo—wait till the end, it’s awesome.
Hot Ones
Release Date
March 12, 2015
Network
YouTube
2
Stranger Things: Tales From ’85 (Season 2)
Hawkins gets haunted just in time for Valentine’s Day
It’s hard to believe that Netflix’s monster sci-fi hit Stranger Things turned 10 this summer. It seems like yesterday that El, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, Max, Will, Robin, and the gang put an end to Vecna once and for all last December. But even before we could fully mourn the loss of our favorite show, the streamer satiated fans with the animated spin-off, Stranger Things: Tales From ’85, with its first season in April.
Now, less than five months later, season 2 has arrived to continue the adventures of the Hawkins Investigators Club. Set during the winter of 1985, between the live-action series’ second and third seasons, season 2 opens right after the gang thwarted the Horde Queen’s bid to create a new gate to the Upside Down.
Love is in the air, too, and as Valentine’s Day approaches, dark spectral figures plague the town, while eerie glowing flowers start sprouting up everywhere, with Max (voiced by Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) and new friend Nikki Baxter (Odessa A’zion) going around selling them—which causes a big problem. Eleven (Brooklyn Davey Norstedt) and the crew follow the clues toward an unexplored mine, and Steve Harrington (Jeremy Jordan) returns. Eight half-hour episodes make it an easy family-friendly watch.
1
Dang!
It’s millennial vs. Gen Z in this hilarious adult animated comedy
I’m only a few episodes into this saucy new animated Netflix comedy with some serious pedigree—it’s executive produced by the folks behind Big Mouth, and it’s animated by Titmouse, the prestigious studio behind monster hits like Prime Video’s The Legend of Vox Machina and Paramount+’s Star Trek: Lower Decks.
With quick-witted dialogue (maybe a little too quick for this Gen Xer), Dang! follows the lives of three siblings in New York City. Overachieving family golden child Ruthie (voiced by Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once) blindsides her codependent younger siblings Andrew (creator Andrew Law, who wrote for The Good Place) and Eunice (Poppy Liu, Hacks), who can’t stand Ruthie’s judginess.
But it turns out Ruthie is as big a screw-up as her siblings—she’s cheated on her husband and is pregnant—and Andrew and Eunice are there to pounce … and help. Much of the humor comes from the millennial v. Gen Z generation clash, and there are some genuinely snort-worthy laughs. Its eight half-hour episodes make for an easy adults-only afternoon binge.
Dang!
Release Date
September 8, 2026
Network
Netflix
Showrunner
Andrew Law, Matt Murray
A great range of shows for your weekend
There are some new, highly anticipated seasons of some of your favorite shows on the way in the next couple of months, but if you’re like me and tend to go weekend-to-weekend, then these three picks (and our vast range of recommendation content) should at least offer some solid options while you wait on tenterhooks for your top show.
Subscription with ads
Yes, $8/month
Simultaneous streams
Two or four
Live TV
No
Price
Starting at $8/month
Stream licensed and original programming with a monthly Netflix subscription.