At the beginning of (and during) each month, Netflix adds new movies and TV shows to its library. Below, you’ll find our August 2018 new-on-Netflix recommendations along with a full list of new titles. For more comprehensive coverage of the best movies and TV shows available on Netflix, including our top picks from last month and updates on what’s leaving Netflix this month, check out Vulture’s What to Stream Now hub.
This Month’s Highlights
Available August 28
For a comedy that shakes your brain awake: The Good Place Season 2
It is a public service to introduce your friends and family to The Good Place, the most thoughtful and bracingly original sitcom we’ve seen in years. The second season of the NBC charmer reached even brainier, zanier heights than the first, as Eleanor (a perfectly cast Kristen Bell) and her group of friends struggle to make sense of their strange purgatory, while demon overlord Michael (the brilliant Ted Danson) upends the show’s entire premise every few episodes. The third season premieres September 27; study up on your moral relativism before then. Available August 28.
Available August 17
If you love posting Simpsons memes: Disenchantment Season 1
Matt Groening is releasing his third show in 30 years? The man likes to take his time. This Netflix-original animated fantasy series stars Abbi Jacobson as an alcoholic princess on a quest to find her purpose and also features a bunch of Groening regulars like John DiMaggio, Maurice LaMarche, and Tress MacNeille. That familiar overbite is back on a bunch of magical creature designs, while a little elf looks so much like Bart Simpson that Groening seems to be openly inviting us to mock his drawing style yet again. Here’s hoping Disenchantment can reset some of the creative juices that have been steadily seeping out from The Simpsons over the last 20 years. Available August 17.
Available August 1
For a bit of violent wisdom on America today: Gran Torino
Maybe it’s the Detroit love talking, or maybe it’s the desperate need to remember that Clint Eastwood is a gifted actor and director when he’s not being a crabby Archie Bunker type. Either way, his 2008 drama about a racist Korean War vet who bonds with a Hmong teenager is worth keeping in the conversation as a thoughtful commentary on what, if anything, the dying men who once considered themselves American heroes have to offer our diverse social fabric today. Although its wall-to-wall ethnic slurs are a bit much, Gran Torino wears its rusty, blue-collar heart on its sleeve. Available August 1.
Full List
New on Netflix: TV Shows
Available August 1
• Los tiempos de Pablo Escobar Season 1
• Once in a Lifetime Sessions With Moby
• Once in a Lifetime Sessions With Nile Rodgers
• Once in a Lifetime Sessions With Noel Gallagher
• Once in a Lifetime Sessions With TLC
• Switched
Available August 4
• Flavors of Youth: International Version
• Mr. Sunshine (Streaming Every Saturday)
• On Children
Available August 9
• The Originals Season 5
Available August 10
• 72 Dangerous Animals: Asia
• Afflicted
• All About the Washingtons
• Insatiable
• La casa de las flores
• Million Pound Menu
• The Ponysitters Club
• Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 7
• Zion
Available August 15
• The 100: Season 5
Available August 17
• Disenchantment
• Magic for Humans
• Pinky Malinky
• Spirit Riding Free Season 6
• Stay Here
• Ultraviolet
Available August 19
• The Investigator: A British Crime Story Season 2
Available August 23
• Deadwind
• Follow This
• Great News Season 1
Available August 24
• Ask the StoryBots Season 2
• Bert Kreischer: Secret Time
• Ghoul
• The Innocents
• Trolls: The Beat Goes On! Season 3
• Young & Hungry Season 5
Available August 28
The Good Place Season 2
Available August 31
• Inside the Criminal Mind
• Ozark Season 2
• Paradise PD
• The Comedy Lineup: Part 2
• Ultimate Beastmaster: Survival of the Fittest
• Undercover Law
New on Netflix: Movies
Available August 1
• The Aviator
• Batman Begins
• Chernobyl Diaries
• Clerks
• Constantine
• Dreamcatcher
• Edge of Fear
• Eraser
• The Golden Compass
• Gran Torino
• House of Deadly Secrets
• The Informant!
• The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
• Million Dollar Baby
• No Reservations
• The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
• P.S. I Love You
• Secretariat
• Silverado
• Steel Magnolias
• Stripes
Available August 2
• Emelie
Available August 3
• Brij Mohan Amar Rahe
• Like Father
Available August 5
• Paid in Full
Available August 9
• Perdida
Available August 10
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
• The Package
Available August 11
• No Country for Old Men
Available August 13
• Alexander: The Ultimate Cut
• The Nut Job
Available August 15
• Adventures in Public School
• Hostiles
Available August 16
• Evan Almighty
• Wish I Was Here
Available August 17
• The Motive
• To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before
Available August 21
• Year One
Available August 24
• The After Party
Available August 29
• Inequality for All
Available August 31
• The Laws of Thermodynamics
For more coverage of the best movies and TV shows available on HBO, Amazon Prime, Showtime and Hulu, check out Vulture’s What to Stream Now hub, which is updated throughout the month.