Traditionally, September marks the beginning of the year’s two best seasons: Autumn and TV. But, as has been the case with every month in 2020 since March, this September will be a unique one, with its virtual Emmys ceremony, its bet-hedging primetime lineups—who knows if Mr. Autumn Man can even be coaxed out of his current cycle of doom-scrolling and Star Trek-bingeing to add one more layer to his seasonal vestments and take a socially distant stroll to the coffee shop on the first brisk morning of September. (Certainly not the author of this post, that’s for sure.)
Leave it to Netflix and its overflowing coffers of content to keep this September feeling at least a little like past Septembers. There may be fewer new shows crying out “N B See Us!” on broadcast television this fall, but Netflix keeps the high-profile premieres rolling out with the latest from Ryan Murphy (Ratched, the One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest prequel starring Murphy muse Sarah Paulson) and Jason Katims (Away, the astronaut drama with Hilary Swank and Josh Charles). Fresh from his gig putting the “quick bites” in “Quibi,” Dishmantled emcee Tituss Burgess returns to his old Kimmy Schmidt stomping grounds to host Sing On!, a karaoke competition that’s a welcome throwback to a time when it was safe to touch a microphone that another person just spat all the “t”s and “p”s in “Don’t Stop Believin’” all over. Or why not pretend your device of choice is actually tuned to a UPN affiliate circa 2000 and queue up all eight of seasons of Girlfriends?
On the film side of things, September 4 brings the premiere of I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, Charlie Kaufman’s first live-action picture since 2008’s Synecdoche, New York. On September 23, Millie Bobbie Brown stars as Sherlock Holmes’ teenaged sister in Enola Holmes; Midnight Special, one of the many films that laid the recently extended path for Brown’s superpowered Stranger Things alter ego, is added to the library on September 7. Those films come to Netflix at the beginning of Jurassic Park, The Lost World, and Jurassic Park III’s last month on the service, but never fear, fans of Steven Spielberg-produced science-fiction trilogies: The animated spin-off Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous opens its doors September 18, and all three Back To The Future movies are available September 1. Those looking to complete The Good Place’s time-bending, reality-hopping journey can do so on September 26, when the sitcom’s fourth and final season takes its Netflix bow.
Read on for the full list of what’s coming to (and going from) Netflix in September, or check out the video preview below:
September 1
Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices
The Boss Baby: Get That Baby!
Felipe Esparza: Bad Decisions