A closer look at five new Netflix releases to enjoy over the next several days, including Mike Flanagan’s The Fall of the House of Usher.
New anime, yet another Korean drama, and a horror series that critics are losing their minds over (in a good way) are just some of the Netflix releases that’ll be available to stream over the next several days as we head into the second week of October. Admittedly, this is a pretty light stretch as far as home-run releases go from the streaming giant — but, fortunately, there are at least a few gems here and there worth adding to your watch lists over the next several days.
We’ll cover it all below in our latest week-ahead snapshot as part of our ongoing coverage of the service that’s intended to help you figure out what to watch next.
5 new Netflix releases to add to your watch list
The Netflix releases you’ll find below are in no particular order, and we’ll kick things off with a top-rated new series from Mike Flanagan that’s basically Succession-meets-Edgar-Allan-Poe. The Fall of the House of Usher (Oct. 12)
Flanagan’s new 8-episode The Fall of the House of Usher is a modern adaptation of Poe’s creepy, Gothic short story of the same name that was published in 1839. Moreover, to hammer home the Poe connection, each episode of this Netflix series is also named after either a Poe short story or poem from him — like, for example, the first and last episodes, which have reportedly been titled A Midnight Dreary and The Raven, respectively.
As for what it’s about, this “bat-s**t crazy” (cast member Carla Gugino’s words, not mine) horror drama in which corrupt pharmaceutical CEO Roderick Usher (played by Bruce Greenwood) must face up to his shady past when his children start dying in all sorts of strange and gruesome ways.
Meanwhile, Roderick and Madeline Usher are ruthless siblings who’ve built Fortunato Pharmaceuticals into an empire of wealth and power. It all starts falling apart, however, when a mysterious woman from their youth begins killing off the heirs to the Usher fortune one by one.
“Even if it takes on a slasher-like predictability by pushing characters toward inventive kills, one by one, Usher also grows darker and more somber as it progresses and reckons with the real-world offenses mirrored in the Usher story,” raved a TV Guide critic on Rotten Tomatoes, where the show currently has a near-perfect 95% score from professional reviewers.
