A new year comes with new movies for Netflix, which faces its first full year battling our now-crowded streaming universe.
The Big Red Streaming Monolith faced rising competition from Disney+, but also saw HBO Max bungle its way into the ring, Peacock quietly sit in the corner and the entire country look at them for entertainment in a year without just about any other kind of it.
Things won't stay that way in 2021. Netflix lost a lot of its comfort food programming, with "The Office," "Friends" and "Parks and Rec" headed elsewhere. Meanwhihle, Disney+ announced a massive lineup of its biggest names, Warner Bros is desperately dumping its entire theatrical slate onto HBO Max in the hopes of giving its service a jump start (at the expense of, you know, making money), Hulu is investing in becoming more than a TV spot and Peacock ... will probably do something, right? CBS All Access plans a revamp as well, so things aren't going to get less crowded – and less expensive for consumers.
Plus, what will the world look like after the pandemic is over? Will people want to binge on the couch in big numbers after a year of having no other choice? It'll be an intriguing year – and if we've learned anything from 2021, it's that anything can happen.
We know at least this, though: These movies and TV shows are coming to Netflix next month, from indie gems ("Mud," "Spring Breakers") to works from some of the world's finest directors (Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can," Fincher's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," Scorsese's "Goodfellas" and "The Departed") and some comedy favorites, like "The Naked Gun" and "Superbad." And here's something you don't normally say about Netflix: It's getting some actual classics! That's right: Netflix just discovered that film existed before 1980, bringing in "Bonnie and Clyde," "Cool Hand Luke" and "Enter the Dragon." Hopefully that's a sign of more to come.
Of course, there are also the originals too, featuring the Oscar play "The Dig," Nicolas Cage preaching about profanity and a third season of the beloved "Cobra Kai."
Here's everything you have to look forward to on Netflix in January.
Jan. 1
"17 Again"
"30 Minutes or Less"
"Abby Hatcher" season 1
"Blue Streak"
"Bonnie and Clyde"
"Can't Hardly Wait"
"Catch Me If You Can"
"Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"
"Cool Hand Luke"
"The Creative Brain"
"The Departed"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Dream Home Makeover" season 2
"Eddie Murphy: Raw"
"Enter the Dragon"
"Gimme Shelter"
"Good Hair"
"Goodfellas"
"Gothika"
"The Haunted Hathaways" seasons 1-2
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Headspace Guide to Meditation"
"Into the Wild"
"Julie & Julia"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "The Minimalists: Less Is Now"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Monarca" season 2
"Mud"
"Mystic Pizza"
"The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!"
"Sex and the City"
"Sex and the City 2"
"Sherlock Holmes"
"Striptease"
"Superbad"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "What Happened to Mr. Cha?"
"What's Eating Gilbert Grape"
Jan. 2
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Asphalt Burning"
Jan. 5
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Gabby's Dollhouse" season 1
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "History of Swear Words"
"L.A.'s Finest" season 1
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Nailed It! Mexico" season 3
Jan. 6
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Ratones Paranoicos: The Band That Rocked Argentina"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Surviving Death"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Tony Parker: The Final Shot"
Jan. 7
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Pieces of a Woman"
Jan. 8
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Charming"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "The Idhun Chronicles: Part 2"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Inside the World's Toughest Prisons" season 5
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Lupin"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Mighty Little Bheem: Kite Festival"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Pretend It's a City"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Stuck Apart"
Jan. 10
"Spring Breakers"
Jan. 11
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "CRACK: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy"
"The Intouchables"
Jan. 12
"Last Tango in Halifax" season 4
Jan. 13
"An Imperfect Murder"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer"
Jan. 15
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Bling Empire"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Carmen Sandiego" season 4
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Disenchantment" part 3
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Double Dad"
"Henry Danger" seasons 1-3
"Hook"
"Kuroko's Basketball" season 1
"The Magicians" season 5
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Outside the Wire"
"Penguins of Madagascar"
"Pinkfong & Baby Shark's Space Adventure"
Jan. 16
"A Monster Calls"
"Radium Girls"
Jan. 18
"Homefront"
Jan. 19
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Hello Ninja" season 4
Jan. 20
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Daughter From Another Mother"
"Sightless"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Spycraft"
Jan. 21
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Call My Agent!" season 4
Jan. 22
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Blown Away" season 2
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Busted!" season 2
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Fate: The Winx Saga"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous" season 2
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "So My Grandma's a Lesbian!"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "The White Tiger"
Jan. 23
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Love (ft. Marriage and Divorce)"
Jan. 26
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Go Dog Go"
Jan. 27
"Accomplice"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Penguin Bloom"
Jan. 29
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Below Zero"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "The Dig"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Finding 'Ohana"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "We Are: The Brooklyn Saints"
Jan. 31
"Fatima"
Jan. TBA
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "50M2"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Bonding" season 2
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "Cobra Kai" season 3
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "June & Kopi"
NETFLIX ORIGINAL: "The Netflix Afterparty"
As much as it is a gigantic cliché to say that one has always had a passion for film, Matt Mueller has always had a passion for film. Whether it was bringing in the latest movie reviews for his first grade show-and-tell or writing film reviews for the St. Norbert College Times as a high school student, Matt is way too obsessed with movies for his own good.
When he's not writing about the latest blockbuster or talking much too glowingly about "Piranha 3D," Matt can probably be found watching literally any sport (minus cricket) or working at - get this - a local movie theater. Or watching a movie. Yeah, he's probably watching a movie.