September 2022 is over halfway down and the official start to autumn is looming just around the corner to hopefully say goodbye to this summer heat for good. Netflix continues to pump out top-notch television and film programming to help audiences stay entertained through all the seasonal changes and return to school, from eagerly anticipated premieres to fan favorites coming to the digital platform. CBR is here with a full list of recommendations for viewers to binge this weekend and cool off from those final days of summer.
Here are all of CBR’s recommendations for what to stream on Netflix this weekend, from trashy reality shows making their return to cyberpunk classics set to depart from the streaming service by the end of September.
Fate: The Winx Saga Returns to Bring the Magic
2021 saw the debut of Fate: The Winx Saga, the live-action television adaptation of the popular animated series Winx Club. The series follows a group of elemental fairies enrolling in a magical academy known as Alfea within the mythical realm of Otherworld. Fate: The Winx Saga returns for its second season this week as the Netflix original series ups the ante for its fan-favorite group of fairy friends.
Season 1 ended with the shocking cliffhanger of Alfea’s former headmistress Rosalind murdering the current headmistress Farah Dowling to reclaim her former position. With the fairies back at the academy under Rosalind’s watchful eye, their magical training has just become more deadly. Blending high fantasy with teenage coming-of-age drama, The Winx Saga ambitiously reimagines this world of fairies and other elements of myths and magic to great effect.
Morbius Serves up the Meme-Friendly Vampire Thrills
Is there a movie released in 2022 that has garnered more memes and Internet notoriety than Morbius? Set in Sony’s universe of Marvel characters, adjacent to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the film has Jared Leto play the blood-sucking antihero Michael Morbius. For those looking to see what all those memes are about and check out the antics of Marvel’s living vampire, Morbius is now available to stream on Netflix and has already been a decided hit on the platform.
Obsessed with curing his rare blood disorder, medical genius Michael Morbius leads a daring gene-splicing experiment that blends his DNA with vampire bats. This results in Morbius developing superhuman abilities while needing to drink human blood to sustain himself, while Morbius' childhood friend Milo (Matt Smith) uses the procedure to transform into a supervillain. A bloody twist on the superhero genre, Morbius succeeds most when it embraces its over-the-top sensibilities, especially with Smith's unhinged performance.
Love Is Blind Goes Beyond the Honeymoon
Of all the reality romance shows produced by Netflix, one of the most entertainingly trashy of them all is Love Is Blind, which has grown to become a global phenomenon. Fifteen potential couples from the same general metropolitan areas are gathered to date for 10 days, albeit only communicating through a speaker rather than seeing each other. It is only when the budding couple agrees on a marriage proposal that physical contact is made, earning the program its reality show gimmick.
Following up from Love Is Blind Season 2's conclusion in February 2022, the postgame spinoff series Love Is Blind: After the Altar examines how the couples fared months after their respective weddings. Following up from this past March's reunion special, After the Altar goes deeper to see if true love was indeed found once the cameras initially stopped rolling. For those looking for the ultimate in trashy reality television, there is no greater choice currently on Netflix than Love Is Blind.
Blade Runner Delivers a Cyberpunk Double Feature
One of the greatest science fiction films of all time is filmmaker Ridley Scott's 1982 masterpiece Blade Runner, loosely adapting Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. The movie was followed up in 2017 by Blade Runner 2049, a sequel helmed by Denis Villeneuve set 30 years after the original film. Both movies are set to leave Netflix later in September, making this one of the last weekends to watch both classics on the streaming service.
Though there are multiple versions of Blade Runner, with different cuts emerging from studio interference and alternate iterations for international audiences, the version leaving Netflix this month is Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Deemed the definitive version of the 1982 film, the movie has police detective Rick Deckard track rogue androids through Los Angeles to destroy them. Blade Runner 2049 has an android detective named K stumble across a conspiracy from Deckard's service with society-shaking consequences and implications for himself.
Narco-Saints Takes K-Drama Stakes to South America
-(1).jpeg?q=50&fit=crop&w=750&dpr=1.5)
From Squid Game to Parasite, South Korean cinema and television know how to deliver taut thrills with an admittedly dark sense of humor. These storytelling sensibilities are on full display in the new Netflix original series Narco-Saints, a crime story set largely in Suriname. The show has a Korean businessman tasked by the South Korean government's intelligence service to track down and investigate the activities of a drug lord who has set up an empire in South America.
Combining fish-out-water comedy with deadly crime action, Narco-Saints is an entertaining transposition of Korean drama to the other side of the world. Declaring that it is inspired by true events, the show has a self-aware sense of humor about just how ridiculous its own premise is. For a fun twist on a crime drama, Narco-Saints is another fantastic example of Netflix's original programming bringing Korean voices unfettered to a worldwide audience.