While we aren’t saying that Netflix planned for House of Cards’ final season to premiere just before the US midterms, we are heavily implying it.
The sixth and final season airs on November 2, four days before Americans vote for their lives (the House of Representatives, Senate and Governor’s Offices).
It may be another country’s election, but there’s no way the rest of us aren’t watching and being all partisan-y about it.
In case the results aren’t in your favour, we have November’s finest Netflix titles to help you simmer down.
House Of Cards: Season Six (Series)
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ICYMI, Kevin Spacey was ubiquitously cancelled last year due to sexual assault allegations (followed by a bizarre non-apology). Show runners quickly axed Spacey and announced season 6 as the final season.
Robin Wright will return as The President of the United States, with Academy Award nominees Diane Lane and Greg Kinnear joining the hallowed cast.
With one teaser savagely opening with Frank Underwood’s (Spacey’s) grave, suffice to say this season will spend its eight episodes unravelling the former POTUS’ death.
House of Cards was the first Netflix Original Series, and was the first Netflix series to normalize “binge watching” an entire season in one sitting.
House Of Cards: Season Six airs November 2 on Netflix Australia.
The Other Side of the Wind (Film)
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Even if you haven’t seen Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, you’re probably at least familiar with The Simpson’s “Rosebud” episode. Mr. Burns’ desperate search for Bobo the teddy bear echoed Kane’s longing for his childhood sled, Rosebud.
In the 1970s, Welles failed to complete production on his final cinematic opus due to financial issues. More than a thousand reels of film remained in a Paris vault until March 2017, when Frank Marshall (production manager on the film during its initial shooting) and Filip Jan Rymsza began reviving the project over 30 years after Welles’ death.
Forty years in the making, The Other Side of the Wind is a time capsule of filmmaking from a bygone era, imbued with the sound engineering of a new millennium.
The Other Side of the Wind airs November 2 on Netflix Australia.
John Leguizamo’s Latin History for Morons (Comedy Special)
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In his one-man Tony Award-nominated Broadway show, John Leguizamo dons a drab substitute teacher’s blazer to give us all a rapid-fire lesson in overlooked Latin history.
Charting a timeline from the Mayans back in 1000BC all the way to “the age of Pitbull” (¡Dale!), Leguizamo examines the last 3000 years of Latino history, and confronts the whitewashing of history that has led to Latino representation becoming “goddamned non-existent”.
John Leguizamo’s Latin History for Morons airs November 5 on Netflix Australia.
Warrior (series)
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Warrior (known internationally as Kriger) follows CC, a military veteran who leaves the fighting abroad only to resume it back in Copenhagen. Unable to readjust to civilian life, CC offers to help his best friend’s widow infiltrate a notorious biker gang.
Acclaimed filmmaker Christoffer Boe remarked of post-war Denmark, the film’s setting, "there’s a cultural war based on different perspectives around society, community and what shared values we have… At the core of this series is an exciting, interesting thrilled-based story that still deals with the depth of these issues.”
Warrior airs November 13 on Netflix Australia.
Narcos: Mexico (series)
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With Escobar dead and the Cali Cartel reined in, Netflix had yet to tackle Mexico’s Guadalajara Cartel. The new season of Narcos will focus on its infamous leader, Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo a.k.a El Padrino (the Godfather), played by Diego Luna.
Back when Mexico’s trafficking world was a nascent, disorganized mess, Gallardo unified traffickers to build a grand narco empire, with control of almost all of the trafficking in Mexico and along the US border.
Last year, he was re-sentenced to 40 years in prison for the torturing and killing of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, an event that at the time caused pandemonium between US-Mexico relations.
Narcos Mexico airs November 16 on Netflix Australia
DOGS (series)
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Netflix’s new dog-umentary series celebrates the deep emotional bonds between humans and their furry best friends. The series follows six such relationships from across the globe, in Syria, Japan, Costa Rica, Italy and the US.
There’s Corrine, an 11-year-old whose service dog Rory helps her through traumatic seizures, and Alessandro, an Italian fisherman whose trusted business partner is his dog Ice.
Perhaps most heart-wrenching story follows Ayham, a Syrian refugee who risks everything to bring his dog Zeus across the border to Lebanon.
Says producer Glen Zipper, “dogs don’t just make us feel loved, dogs make us feel safe. In the world we live in today, no matter how divided we are, we should take care to realize how much dogs mean to all of us, and how our bond with them can help bring us together.”
DOGS airs November 16 on Netflix Australia.
Taking to social media earlier this week, Trevor Noah announced his new Netflix Comedy Special with the help of a “Craigslist Chicken” (a confused baby in a chicken costume).
Noah has always been vocal about his Apartheid-era upbringing as a son of biracial parents. His latest Netflix stand-up is named after his mother Patricia, who he once described as a “force of nature”.
Patricia, who is Xhosa, was arrested several times just for being out with his Swiss German father, and could not hold her young son’s hand in public.
Says Noah, “she taught me by example how to navigate the violent racial landscape of South Africa. She taught me responsibility, how to be a man. I get my sense of humour from her, too. My mom was the first true comedian I ever saw.”
Trevor Noah: Son of Patricia airs November 20 on Netflix Australia.
