What’s New On Netflix In October

It’s already well into October, and with the encroaching cold, you’re going to need more than hot apple cider to warm you up. So turn off the lights, pop some corn, type in that familiar web domain, and enjoy these new Netflix shows.

Ja’Siah Young stars as Dion Warren in Carol Barbee’s “Raising Dion” (2019). By Courtesy of Netflix

“Raising Dion” (Season 1)

This show is filled with the magical, childlike wonder that comes with one day discovering that you have superpowers. Such joy! Starring and produced by Michael B. Jordan, the show centers around the life of a second-grade boy named Dion (Ja’Siah Young) and his single mother, Nicole (Alisha Wainwright), who grieve the death of the father, played by Jordan. In mourning, Dion and Nicole discover that Dion has gained superpowers, and the extent of Dion’s abilities are insane — imagine floating toys, fish suspended out of water in the sky, teleportation, and being super good at botany. Additionally, the government is supposedly tracking down people with superpowers. Is little Dion safe in this big, cruel world? Watch the first season of the show to find out.

Maya Rudolph voices Connie the Hormone Monstress (left) and Nick Kroll voices Nick Birch (right) in Season 3 of “Big Mouth,” created by Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett. By Courtesy of Netflix

“Big Mouth” (Season 3)

The new season of “Big Mouth” is about to get a whole lot cringier and raunchier than ever before. It’s hard not to get the shudders while watching this show, which is about middle school, puberty, first kisses, hormone monsters, and dreams where vaginas become talk show hosts. It is wildly inappropriate and disgusting, but it is precisely this vulgar honesty which has contributed to its being honored as one of “Netflix’s best animated shows for your grown-up self” among others, such as “BoJack Horseman.” So “Big Mouth” gets credit for being quite so uncomfortable to watch — it is loudly and unashamedly bold in its self-expression and not afraid of being what it is: a big lump of profanity and good old dirty humor.

By Courtesy of Netflix

“Rotten” (Season 2)

Here comes a reality shock to everyone who eats, drinks, and everyone who lives. Food: no one can live without it. But the truth behind its origins is not always as pretty as it may seem. That’s exactly what “Rotten” tries to teach us: The way most of our food gets made, packaged, and sold is full of corruption, and fraudulence and has great moral consequence. The bottled water industry, for example, “has made something out of nothing,” tricking people into paying money for something they could get out of their own kitchen sinks. Much of commercially-sold chocolate is unsustainable, farmed for cheap by impoverished farmers who do not receive a fair trading wage. The show turns the fairly inconsequential issue of thinking about food into an urgent humanitarian crisis — try chewing on that during your next meal at HUDS.

By Courtesy of Netflix

“Living Undocumented” (Season 1)

“Living Undocumented” depicts the reality of what it’s like to live everyday as an undocumented immigrant. The central theme is fear: the fear of living in the shadows, of becoming separated from one’s family, of disappearing, and of being deported. In this show produced by Selena Gomez, undocumented immigrants speak up about their lives and family experiences for the rest of the world to know. It discusses how immigration policies such as the Zero-Tolerance Policy has separated children from their parents and forced them to return to a land where they don’t have a home. In an article published by Time Magazine, Gomez discusses her own family history of coming from an undocumented lineage, which started with her aunt crossing the border, hidden in the back of a truck. Gomez says that she thinks about the issue of undocumented immigration every day, out of fear for the nation and empathy for the people. The show lends a sympathetic lens and sheds light on the cruel reality of their world. One of the immigrants on the show said it best: “I wasn’t blessed to be born in this country. But my heart is American.”