Every month, Netflix Australia adds a new batch of movies and TV shows to its library. Here are the titles we think are most interesting for June, broken down by release date. Netflix occasionally changes its schedule without giving notice.
TV New to Netflix
‘Marcella’ Season 2
Starts streaming: June 8
Anna Friel returns as the London police detective Marcella Backland, a dogged investigator whose work is complicated by domestic strife and occasional spells of memory loss. The second season covers a new case — involving a string of horrific child murders — while the heroine’s personal issues persist. She’s mired in a custody battle with her ex-husband and is increasingly worried that she’s having violent episodes during her blackouts. Created in part by the Swedish writer Hans Rosenfeldt (best known for his work on “The Bridge”), “Marcella” is one of Britain’s grimmest crime series … which is saying something.
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‘Sense8: The Series Finale’
Starts streaming: June 8
Netflix abruptly canceled this mind-bending sci-fi show after its second season, then relented, allowing Lana Wachowski, one of the series’s creators, to wrap up the story with a two-hour finale. Given the complexity of “Sense8” — it has a big cast, numerous international locations and arcane mythology — it might be tough for Wachowski and her collaborators (including the novelists David Mitchell and Aleksandar Hemon for the finale) to tie everything up in a neat bow. But then a lot about this one-of-a-kind series has been impressively unreasonable, from its pricey cinematic polish to its heady mix of politics, sensuality, spirituality and superheroes.
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‘The Staircase’
Starts streaming: June 8
First aired in the United States in 2005, this gripping mini-series follows the trial of the crime novelist Michael Peterson, who was accused of murdering his wife. It is also one of the shows most responsible for kicking off the current craze of pulpy true-crime docu-series like “The Jinx” and “Making a Murderer.” But Peterson’s story didn’t end with the original series. The Oscar-winning documentarian Jean-Xavier de Lestrade has continued to follow the case, having appended two follow-up installments since then — one released in 2013, and another in three parts, which is being released here for the first time.
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‘Unsolved: Tupac & Biggie’
Starts streaming: June 18
The 10 episodes of “Unsolved” tell the story of Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G., two ’90s hip-hop stars whose rise up the charts fractured their friendship before each was gunned down in his prime. Weaving together three different story lines from three different times, the series follows the rappers’ lives and the aftermath of their deaths, from the early days of their careers through two dead-end murder investigations. An ace cast (including Bokeem Woodbine, Wendell Pierce, Aisha Hinds and Donald Faison) helps make this sordid saga newly relevant, exploring the pressures of celebrity life, the persistent strains in American race relations and the institutional flaws of the criminal justice system.
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‘Marvel’s Luke Cage’ Season 2
Starts streaming: June 22
The second run of “Luke Cage” arrives with relatively little hype for a Marvel series. But in a way, this suits the show, which is the least fantastical and most grounded of the “Defenders” franchise. Season 2 will move “Luke Cage” closer to the “Power Man” comics of the 1970s, in which the hero fought the low-level criminals and mob bosses that other superhero types ignored, alongside a support team that was unafraid to go fist-to-fist with any crook.
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‘GLOW’ Season 2
Starts streaming: June 29
One of last year’s most pleasant Netflix surprises, “GLOW” tells the comical, fictionalized story of how women’s professional wrestling became a syndicated TV sensation in the 1980s. The show centers on Alison Brie, who stars in one of her most nuanced roles to date: a struggling actress with a disastrous personal life, who seeks redemption by signing on with a fledgling wrestling league, steered by a fantasy writer played by Marc Maron. Season 1 ended just as these “Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling” were getting started, with women of varying types entering the ring dressed as outsized heroes and villains. In Season 2, the battles really begin, onstage and off.
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‘Nailed It!’ Season 2
Starts streaming: June 29
A different kind of cooking competition, “Nailed It!” presents novice bakers with impossible challenges, asking them to recreate fancy, professionally designed cakes and other pastries. The second season brings back the host, Nicole Byer, and the head judge, Jacques Torres, both of whom help shape the way the game plays out, whether by helping or distracting the contestants. The emphasis here is more on comedy than culinary prowess, although watching ordinary people ruin complicated recipes can actually be instructive. It’s a “dos and don’ts” demonstration that’s heavy on the latter.
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‘Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’ Season 3
Starts streaming: June 30
This darkly comic TV musical goes through a major transition in its third season, moving beyond the story of its heroine’s manic pursuit of her childhood crush Josh Chan. The co-creators Aline Brosh McKenna and Rachel Bloom (who plays the lead, Rebecca Bunch) dial back the humor and plunge deeper into their characters’ underlying psychological issues. The heavier material is still balanced by snappy musical numbers, though, with lyrics that speak frankly about sex, depression, obsession and the struggles of everyday life.
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‘Jane the Virgin’ Season 4
Starts streaming: June 30
One of TV’s most reliably entertaining and involving series, “Jane the Virgin” enters one of its strongest stretches in its fourth season, with multiple down-to-earth personal crises playing against the usual telenovela-inspired wackiness. The season’s second half is especially powerful, culminating in a finale that is jaw-dropping even by this show’s high standards. Although this is dramedy is made to be binged, fans may want to slow down a bit and savor these episodes, since next year’s fifth season will reportedly be the last.
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Also of interest: “You Me Her” Season 3 (June 1), “Queen of the South” Season 2 (June 15), “The Ranch” Part 5 (June 15), “Cooking on High” Season 1 (June 22) and “Kiss Me First” Season 1 (June 29).
New Netflix Original Comedy Specials
‘W. Kamau Bell: Private School Negro’
Starts streaming: June 26
In the decade since W. Kamau Bell released his first comedy album, he has carved out a niche as one of the most politically astute stand-up comics working today. His new set, “Private School Negro,” addresses the fears and follies of the Trump era, as well as the contradictions of a culture in which people seem more “woke” than ever but still are fighting the same decades-old battles.
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Also of interest: “Hannah Gadsby: Nanette” (June 19).
Movies New to Netflix
‘Black Swan’
Starts streaming: June 1
Natalie Portman won a best actress Oscar for her performance in this hit psychodrama from Darren Aronofsky, which fuses the arty expressionism of a classic Hollywood musical with the raw terror of a B-movie. Portman plays a meek, cautious ballerina who pushes herself beyond her mental and physical breaking point as she prepares to star in “Swan Lake.” The movie is high-pitched and overtly theatrical, but it really captures the paralyzing self-consciousness faced by many artists, as she strives for an utter lack of inhibition — both as a dancer and as a human being.
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‘Muriel’s Wedding’
Starts streaming: June 18
The Australian actresses Toni Collette and Rachel Griffiths owe their long, distinguished careers in part to this crowd-pleasing 1994 comedy, which introduced those two talented and unconventional stars to American audiences. Collette plays Muriel, an ABBA-loving, marriage-obsessed small-town misfit, who strikes up a friendship with Rhonda (Griffiths), a fellow outcast who encourages her to stand up for herself. The writer-director P.J. Hogan works with a colorful palette and broadly cartoonish characters to create a movie that eschews realism in order to express in a more abstract way how it feels to be a lifelong underdog.
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‘Dunkirk’
Starts streaming: June 20
The British evacuation of Dunkirk after the calamitous Battle of France in 1940 has been the subject of multiple films over the decades, each trying to explicate the paradox of a crushing military defeat that nevertheless roused the nation. But none of these movies has been quite like Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk,” an expensive, experimental blockbuster that interweaves three stories: one set on a civilian boat heading to evacuate troops; another following a pilot about to run out of gas; and a third set on the beach, among increasingly desperate soldiers. Nolan uses these pieces to build a stunning mosaic, a cinematic experience that evokes both the sensations and the significance of wartime.
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‘Selena’
Starts streaming: June 21
The life and death of the crossover Tejano music star Selena Quintanilla-Pérez demanded a biopic as vibrant and informed as this 1997 drama. The actress (and, at the time, aspiring pop star) Jennifer Lopez plays the title role, bringing a combination of natural charisma and performing chops to her role as a singer who’s simultaneously trying to please her demanding father (Edward James Olmos) and her fiercely devoted fans. The result is a passionate and informative film about a cultural hero who helped popularize the art and experiences of her Mexican-American community.
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Also of interest: “Joseph Campbell and the Power of the Myth” (June 1), “Total Recall” (June 1), “The Secret Life of Pets” (June 7), “Bridget Jones’ Baby” (June 11), “The Client” (June 15) and “The LEGO Ninjago Movie” (June 20).
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