Last month was a brilliant month for Hulu and Disney Plus subscribers as the streamer went heavy on Halloween content. But now that spooky season is over, it's time to once again decide which are the best streaming services to keep subscribing to when you're counting your cash – and this month I think Netflix is the better service to spend your pre-Christmas coins on.
There are some serious big hitters dropping on the streamer this month including new seasons of some of our very favorite shows, a thrilling real-life driving drama, a very unusual movie and what could well be the comedy hit of the winter.
Here's what we'll be streaming on Netflix this November.
Arcane Season 2 (streaming from 9 November)
Arcane Season 2 will be bittersweet for fans of the show: the critically-acclaimed and award-winning animated series was originally supposed to be five seasons long, but now it's ending after two. It's set in the same universe as Riot Games' League of Legends, and it's managed the difficult trick of appealing both to long-term fans of the game and to people who've never heard of it.
Some critics say that Arcane Season 1 was one of the best videogame adaptations of all time, although to be honest that's a pretty low bar: for every HBO The Last of Us there's a Uwe Boll movie. We think Arcane is the former rather than the latter, though, and we have tons of questions we want Season 2 to answer. We're just a bit sad that it's ending after this season.
Emelia Pérez (streaming from November 13)
Emilia Pérez tells the story of high-powered lawyer Rita (Zoe Saldaña) who takes on an unexpected assignment: helping a Mexican cartel leader (Karla Sofía Gascón) fake their death and undergo gender reassignment surgery. The film has been described as "an audacious fever dream" and according to Gascón, Perez is "a phenomenal role" with "so much depth, so much richness."
As a trans person, I'm deeply ambivalent about Netflix's track record on trans rep – for every Will & Harper there have been multiple "edgy" comedy specials where rich old straight men roll out tired gags about trans folks – but this movie was given a lengthy standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival and it won the Jury Prize too. The consensus on Rotten Tomatoes so far is largely positive. Empire says it's "part drug-cartel gangland thriller, part trans coming-of-age drama, part grand melodrama, and part opera libretto musical. It’s nothing if not unique." But it also says that "Audiard’s script and perspective too often indulge in some of the laziest tropes of trans stories from cis writers." However, "for better and for worse, you won’t see anything else like it this year."
It also seems to be a must-watch if you want to stay on top of what will be most discussed when Oscar and awards season arrives – it's hotly tipped to do well.
Cobra Kai: Season 6 part 2 (streaming from 15 November)
And now the end is near, but Cobra Kai isn't going without a fight. Season 6 Part 2 sees the Miyagi-Do head to Barcelona, and as one of the best Netflix shows ever it promises to deliver even more thrills and spills as it nears the final fight. According to Netflix "At the Sekai Taikai, Miyagi-Do faces new challenges and old enemies as they fight to become world champions – can they stay united as internal rivalries bubble back to the surface?"
According to co-creator Hayden Schlossberg, it's Cobra Kai as you've never seen it before. "The first thing that you're going to notice is we're not in the Valley anymore. It's a totally different environment. The competitive space is different from previous All Valley tournaments. There's no crowd watching. This is a karate temple that they're going to, where the only people in attendance are black belts or karate masters."
This is the second of the three final parts of the Cobra Kai saga, but don't worry: the show's creators are strongly hinting that spin-offs are seriously being considered for when the main show ends after part 3.
A Man on the Inside (streaming from 21 November)
Based on the 2020 documentary The Mole Agent, A Man on the Inside stars Ted Danson as a retiree who becomes a private investigator inside a retirement home as part of a top-secret investigation. The show reunites Danson with The Good Place writer Mike Schur, and given that Schur's resume also includes Parks and Recreation, Hacks and Brooklyn Nine-Nine expectations are high for this comedy show, and while we don't know much about it as yet, but the trailer makes it look like it'll be a lot of fun.
Senna (streaming from 29 November)
Thirty years since his tragic death, Brazilian racing legend Ayrton Senna is the subject of the six-part series that bears his name. The show, which stars Gabriel Leone as the F1 star, "will showcase Senna’s journey of triumphs, disappointments, joys, and sorrows, unveiling his personality and personal relationships," Netflix says. It begins at the start of his racing career in Formula Ford, and follows his life and his races until his fatal accident at the San Marino Grand Prix.
This looks like it's going to be spectacular. It features more than 14,000 extras and was filmed in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Northern Ireland and Monaco, and according to Netflix's Francisco Ramos “The car races are extraordinary... and the emotional part is very powerful.”
