Netflix Canada in March 2020: What’s new this month

Netflix’s 2020 rollout has continued its established strategy for fighting the many Netflix copycats: place more of an emphasis on international content, and a push to try and find new viewers around the world to replace the U.S. viewers who may have dropped out once Netflix lost the rights to Friends, The Office or Black Panther (leaving Netflix early this month). A clue to how Netflix is doing can be found in the Hollywood Reporter’s analysis of last year’s movie-studio profits. The publication found that Netflix gained 27.8 million new subscribers last year, close to its 2018 total (28.6 million), though that might be misleading since the big competition from Disney+ didn’t start until late in the year. The analysis also found Netflix’s fourth most-watched launch last year was December’s The Witcher, “with 65 million member households having watched (for at least two minutes).” This was a dark fantasy series, a genre Netflix is investing in heavily to fill the void left by Game of Thrones, and it’s also a Polish-U.S. co-production with an international cast. Netflix’s competitors are going to emphasize U.S. content; Netflix is more of a global entertainment company.

Netflix in March: What you should watch

The English Game (TBA)

Downton Abbey creator Julian Fellowes wrote this period drama series about the sport that I can’t help but call “soccer.” It takes place in Victorian England, when football was an upper-class pastime, and tells the story of how it became a professional sport that overturned class distinctions. It focuses on the relationship between two real-life men: Arthur Kinnaird (Edward Holcroft), an Eton-educated Peer, and Fergue Suter (Kevin Guthrie), a working-class man who brings a new style to the sport, and actually wants to make a living at it.

Ugly Delicious: Season 2 (March 6)

Netflix differs from most of its U.S. competitors not only in the way it releases TV seasons, but when. This non-fiction series, where producer/host David Chang travels around the world to examine the history and culture behind everyday food dishes, released its first season in February 2018. On most U.S. networks, this would be followed either by cancellation, or by a second season the following year. But “Ugly Delicious” skipped a year; Chang filmed the second season in 2019, and it’s only being released now. This isn’t because of any problem Netflix had with Chang, who is already working on a follow-up show for Netflix, where every episode will be about one city and its cooking. It’s just that Netflix has what other businesses would call a backlog of inventory: they produce as much content as possible, so there may not always be a rush to get the next season out.

Altered Carbon: Resleeved (March 19)

Netflix may not be a fan of long runs, but they’re a fan of spinoffs, which allow them to get as much mileage as possible out of a successful show while it lasts. Last month, they released the second season of “Altered Carbon,” a live-action series about a future where people’s consciousness can be “re-sleeved” in new bodies. Now they’re releasing an animated spinoff movie, created by Dai Sato (“Cowboy Bebop”), which will tell a new story set in the universe of the parent show, but with the show’s visual world reimagined in anime style.

Mae Martin: Feel Good (March 19)

Canadian comic Mae Martin, a Canadian comic who mostly works in the UK, brought her comedy special “Dope” to Netflix last year as part of their “Comedians of the World” series (which classified her as British comic to justify the “world” part). Now she stars in her own series, co-produced by Netflix and the UK broadcaster Channel 4. Martin plays a fictionalized version of herself, a comedian living in London and recovering from drug addiction. When she falls in love with George (Charlotte Richie), she worries that her “addictive personality” will make her incapable of sustaining a healthy relationship. Lisa Kudrow adds some big-name power as Martin’s mother, but this is no Friends or even Curb Your Enthusiasm: it’s part of a recent trend for half-hour comedies to have the look and feel of an independent movie, meaning we can expect to be entertained, but not to laugh every few seconds.

Release date TBA

The English Game (Netflix Original)

A miniseries, written by Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey), about two footballers in Victorian England, one upper-class and one working-glass, who help to turn the sport from an upper-class pastime to a profession.

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 1

Go! Go! Cory Carson: Season 2 (Netflix Family)

Animated series about talking cars (no, not that one, the less expensive one), based on the Vtech toy line.

ARASHI’s Diary – Voyage (New Episodes, Netflix Documentary)

The first two episodes of a documentary series about a Japanese boy band. Further episodes will be uploaded monthly. 

Licensed content:

• Beyond the Lights
• Constantine
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• High Noon
• His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass
• Isle of Dogs
• Land of the Dead
• Moneyball
• October Sky
• Phantom Thread
• Pitch Perfect 3
• RuPaul’s Drag Race: Untucked!: S11
• RuPaul’s Drag Race: S11
• Shaun of the Dead
• Thank You for Your Service
• The Producers
• Vanity Fair
• What a Girl Wants
• Wimbledon

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 3

Taylor Tomlinson: Quarter-Life Crisis (Netflix Comedy Special) 

The first Netflix comedy special of the month stars Tomlinson, previously seen in Netflix’s “The Comedy Lineup.” When she filmed this special, she had just turned 25, and she’s here to tell us that being in your 20s isn’t as much fun as people my age think it is.

Licensed content:

Ready Player One

Leaving Netflix on Mar. 4

Marvel Studios’ Black Panther

Pitch Perfect

Pitch Perfect 2

The Purge

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 4

Licensed Content:

Coal Miner’s Daughter

Drag Me to Hell

Fear

National Lampoon’s Animal House

Riverdale (weekly episodes)

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 5

Castlevania: Season 3 (Netflix Anime) 

This horror/fantasy series, based on the Konami video game, has been one of Netflix’s biggest animated hits. The first two seasons covered the plot of one of the games in the series, where Trevor Belmont (voiced by Richard Armitage) fights Count Dracula. This season’s plot and source material are still mostly under wraps, but we know that Belmont and his ally and possible love interest Sypha (Alejandra Reynoso) will try to settle down for some piece and quiet in a village where things are not as peaceful and quiet as they seem.

Mighty Little Bheem: Festival of Colors (Netflix Family)

A holiday special for the computer-animated series about a super-strong baby.

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 6

Guilty (Netflix Film)

One of Netflix’s most prolific content providers, Karan Johar, produced this thriller starring Kiara Advani as a young musician whose boyfriend (Gurfateh Singh Pirzada) is accused of rape by another woman. She sets out to clear his name, but discovers how hard it can be to learn the truth.

I am Jonas (Netflix Film)

Originally released in France in 2018, this film cuts back and forth between the title character in the present day (Félix Maritaud) and his teenage self (Nicolas Bauwens), who had an affair in high school that may hold the key to his current problems.

Paradise PD: Part 2 (Netflix Original) 

Another of Netflix’s dark cartoons in the vein of Bojack Horseman, this semi-serialized animated series (whose first season was released almost two years ago) is about a dysfunctional father/son team of cops in an even more dysfunctional town.

The Protector: Season 3 (Netflix Original) 

Continuing the story of Hakan (Çağatay Ulusoy), who discovered in the first season that he’s inherited special powers and the title of Protector, sworn to protect humankind from the threat of evil Immortals. 

Spenser Confidential (Netflix Film)

Co-written by L.A. Confidential writer Bryan Helgeland, this is not a sequel to that movie; it stars Mark Wahlberg as Spenser, the detective from the mystery novel series by Robert B. Parker (who was previously played by Robert Urich in the TV series “Spenser for Hire”), as he unravels a murder mystery in Boston. Frequent Wahlberg collaborator Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) directed. 

Twin Murders: The Silence of the White City (Netflix Film)

In this Spanish thriller, based on a series of books, a detective (Javier Rey) investigates a series of murders that seem to mimic the murders committed by a man who was sent to prison many years ago. 

Ugly Delicious: Season 2 (Netflix Documentary)

See introduction for details

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 8

Sitara: Let Girls Dream (Netflix Film) 

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is one of Pakistan’s most internationally-honoured filmmakers, winning multiple Emmy awards and two Academy awards for her documentaries. Her latest project, financed by Vice Studios and with Gloria Steinem as one of the executive producers, is a silent animated short intended to encourage girls to follow their dreams: it takes place in the 1970s and tells the story of Pari, a teenaged girl who is expected to enter into an early arranged marriage, but who really wants to become a pilot. Obaid-Chinoy said that she intends “Sitara” to be a film that to be a film that “encourages parents to invest in their girls’ dreams, freeing their daughters from the burdens of early marriage.”

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 10

Carmen Sandiego: To Steal or Not to Steal  (Netflix Family)

Another entry in the long-running Carmen Sandiego franchise: Carmen’s regular pursuers Ivy and Zack have been taken prisoner, and the viewer gets to choose interactive options to decide what Carmen will do to save them.

Marc Maron: End Times Fun (Netflix Comedy Special)

The prolific comic returns with his first comedy special in three years, filmed in Los Angeles.

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 11

The Circle Brazil (Netflix Original) 

The Brazilian version of the reality show format that has already aired in British and American versions: like many shows, it revolves around a bunch of strangers living in the same building, but the twist is that none of them are allowed to meet in person; they have to create online personas and see which fake persona is the most appealing.

Dirty Money: Season 2 (Netflix Documentary)

Each episode of this documentary series (whose six-episode second season is being released more than two years after the first), looks into a case of corruption in the business world. One of the episodes this season looks at the business practices of Jared Kushner, a real-estate magnate who also happens to be the senior advisor and son-in-law of the current president of the United States. 

On My Block: Season 3 (Netflix Original) 

Continuing the adventures of four teenagers in a Los Angeles high school, who rely on each other to get through the problems of adolescence. 

Licensed content:

Summer Night

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 12

Hospital Playlist (Netflix Original) 

A drama series about the friendship between five residents in the VIP wing of a busy South Korean hospital (think Scrubs, but an hour-long drama).

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 13

100 Humans (Netflix Original) 

In this reality show, 100 people from all ages and backgrounds have been selected to be human guinea pigs, performing a series of tests of how their different ages and backgrounds affect their performance. The tests are evaluated by a team of scientists, who would be this show’s equivalent of a celebrity panel.  

BEASTARS (Netflix Anime) 

Based on the manga by Paru Itagaki, this anime series is about a high school where all the students are talking animals, but half of them are predators and half of them are plant-eaters. The main character is a wolf with forbidden feelings for a rabbit.

Bloodride (Netflix Original) 

Norwegian writer-director Kjetil Indregard created this anthology series whose stories aim to combine horror and tongue-in-cheek humour.

Elite: Season 3 (Netflix Original) 

Continuing the series about poor kids who are transferred to Spain’s most snobbishly elite private school, where seemingly everyone has a rich and corrupt parent, and where murders seem to happen on a semi-regular basis.

Go Karts (Netflix Film)

Top Gear director Owen Trevor made this Australian family film, whose premise sounds like The Karate Kid with go-karts: after a teenaged boy moves to a new town with his single mom, he gets interested in go-kart racing and a wise old mentor trains him to become a champion.

Kingdom: Season 2 (Netflix Original) 

It’s The Walking Dead meets Game of Thrones in this horror/fantasy/historical series, set in Korea’s Joeson era, where a prince must deal with royal intrigue and political plots, but also with a plague that turns people into zombies. 

Lost Girls (Netflix Film)

Based on a true story, this film stars Amy Ryan as a woman whose search for her missing daughter may lead to the truth about the disappearances of many other young women. The film, which was directed by documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus and also stars Gabriel Byrne as a police commissioner, was originally announced as an Amazon release before switching to Netflix.

The Valhalla Murders (Netflix Original) 

In Iceland, a newly-arrived detective (Björn Thors) must work with a local cop (Nína Dögg Filippusdóttir) to investigate the murders committed by Iceland’s first-ever serial killer. Over the course of the series, they learn that the murders may be connected to Valhalla, a former boys’ home with a dark secret.

Women of the Night (Netflix Original) 

This 10-episode Dutch drama series focuses on Xandra (Karina Smulders) who leads a double life: by day, the wife of an ambitious government official, by night, an escort addicted to drugs, sex, and Amsterdam nightlife.

Licensed content:

Restaurants on the Edge: Season 1

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 16

The Boss Baby: Back in Business: Season 3 (Netflix Family)

DreamWorks couldn’t get Alec Baldwin back to voice the title character, but they still successfully went ahead with a spinoff of their animated franchise about a highly intelligent, ambitious talking baby. 

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 17

Bert Kreischer: Hey Big Boy (Netflix Comedy Special)

The second Netflix special for the American comic (“Bert the Conqueror”), whose gimmick is doing comedy without a shirt on.  

Licensed content:

Shaun the Sheep: Adventures from Mossy Bottom

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 19

Altered Carbon: Resleeved (Netflix Anime)

See introduction for details

Feel Good (Netflix Original)

See introduction for details

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 20

A Life of Speed: The Juan Manuel Fangio Story (Netflix Documentary)

Biographical documentary about the five-time Formula One racing champion and how he revolutionized the sport.

Archibald’s Next Big Thing: Season 2 (Netflix Family)

A cheerful young chicken (voiced by series creator Tony Hale) wanders away and gets into educational adventures in every episode of this animated series.

Buddi (Netflix Family)

Animated series aimed at preschoolers, about five best friends or “Buddis.” 

Dare Me (Netflix Original)

This Toronto-filmed drama about competitive cheerleading in a small town, sort of Friday Night Lights for cheerleading (Friday Night Lights film director Peter Berg is one of the producers), airs on the USA network in the U.S., but Netflix picked up the Canadian rights.

Dino Girl Gauko: Season 2 (Netflix Family)

Animated series about a girl named Gauko who turns into a lovable family-friendly dinosaur whenever she gets angry.

Greenhouse Academy: Season 4 (Netflix Family)

Alex and Hayley Woods continue to deal with secret conspiracies connected to the elite boarding school they both attend.

The Letter for the King (Netflix Family)

Based on Tonke Dragt’s book, this series takes place in medieval times and concerns young Tiuri (Amir Wilson), who is assigned to deliver a top-secret letter to the King, back when delivering letters was a job that took six episodes to accomplish.

Maska (Netflix Film)

A romantic comedy about an aimless millennial with dreams of movie stardom, whose life is changed by the experience of romance. Starring Manisha Koirala, Prit Kamani and singer Shirley Setia.

The Platform (Netflix Film)

Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia directed this allegorical film, originally shown at the 2019 Toronto Film Festival, about a dystopic prison where food is distributed from the top of the prison down to the bottom, meaning the people at the top take all the good food and those at the bottom go hungry.

Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker (Netflix Original)

Octavia Spencer stars in this biographical film about the famous African-American businesswoman Madam C.J. Walker, who worked her way up from being a poor orphan and died with the biggest self-made fortune of any woman in the U.S. Based on A’Lelia Bundles’s biography of Walker.

Ultras (Netflix Film)

Italian film, directed by Francesco Lettieri, about an odd friendship between two soccer fanatics from different generations. 

Tiger King (Netflix Documentary)

Subtitled “Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” this documentary series is about the owner of an animal park and an alleged attempt to kill an animal-rights activist for protesting the conditions at the park.

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 23

Sol Levante (Netflix Anime) 

Remember hand-drawn animation? Hollywood doesn’t, but Japan does. This short film is a co-production between Netflix and the anime studio Production I.G., and it’s billed as the first attempt to produce a hand-drawn short created entirely in 4K high definition.

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 24

Licensed content:

Life of the Party

Leaving Netflix on Mar. 24

A Wrinkle in Time

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 25

Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (Netflix Documentary)

Netflix’s latest documentary from Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company (their first production, American Factory, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary) celebrates the 30th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act by profiling a pioneering summer camp called Camp Jened (the title is its nickname), which gave dignity and respect to disabled people in the early 1970s.

Curtiz (Netflix Film)

Hungarian writer-director Tamas Yvan Topolanszky made this film about one of the country’s most famous film directors, Michael Curtiz (Ferenc Lengyel) and the personal and professional pressures he undergoes while shooting his most famous film of all, Casablanca.

The Occupant (Hogar) (Netflix Film)

Written and directed by David Pastor and Àlex Pastor, this suspense thriller stars Javier Gutiérrez as a man who becomes obsessed with the current occupants of his former apartment.

Riverdale: Season 4 (Netflix Original)

Signs (Netflix Original)

A new cop in a Polish town must investigate a murder that mimics an unsolved murder from the previous decade.

YooHoo to the Rescue: Season 3 (Netflix Family)

A new season of Netflix’s first animated show from South Korea, based on the popular stuffed toy line. 

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 26

7SEEDS: Part 2  (Netflix Anime) 

Animated adaptation of Yimi Tamura’s manga, about people who emerge from deep-freeze after an apocalyptic event destroys the rest of humanity.

Black Lightning: Season 3 (Netflix Original)

Only a couple of weeks after the CW superhero series airs its third season finale, Netflix has the whole third season available for binge-watching. 

Unorthodox (Netflix Original)

Yes, it’s a story about a Jewish character fleeing to Germany: this miniseries, an adaptation of Deborah Feldman’s 2012 book, concerns a young woman (Shira Haas) from an ultra-traditionalist Brooklyn family, who refuses to go ahead with the marriage they have arranged for her and moves to Berlin to try and start a new life. 

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 27

Car Masters: Rust to Riches: Season 2 (Netflix Original)

The gang from Gotham Garage, which specializes in fixing up cars for their use in Hollywood movies, tries to perform makeovers on ordinary people’s classic cars.

The Decline (Netflix Film)

Netflix’s first original Québécois film, directed by Patrice Laliberté, about a group of people who take a class on how to survive a disaster, and what happens to them after a disaster happens 

Dragons: Rescue Riders: Hunt for the Golden Dragon (Netflix Family)

A special spinoff of the “Dragons: Rescue Riders” animated series, itself a spinoff of the “How to Train Your Dragon” movies. 

Il processo (Netflix Original)

Alessandro Fabbri created this Italian courtroom drama about the prosecuting and defence attorneys involved in the trial of a wealthy person accused of murdering a teenaged girl.

Ladies Up (Netflix Comedy Special)

A stand-up comedy anthology focusing on female comics from India: Prashasti Singh, Kaneez Surka, Supriya Joshi and Niveditha Prakasam.

Mark of the Devil (Netflix Film)

Two sisters unleash demons after opening an old forbidden book. 

Ozark: Season 3 (Netflix Original)

Jason Bateman’s answer to Breaking Bad continues with the adventures of Marty, who lives with his family in a small community in the Ozarks, but has to run a money-laundering business to stay alive.

True: Wuzzle Wegg Day (Netflix Family)

Holiday spinoff special of the “True and the Rainbow Kingdom” animated series.

Uncorked  (Netflix Film)

A young man (Mamoudou Athie) wants to make wine for a living, while his father (Courtney B. Vance) wants him to go into the family barbecue business. Written and directed by Prentice Penny. 

Licensed content:

There’s Something in the Water 

Coming to Netflix on Mar. 31

Licensed content:

Chip and Potato: Season 2

Pineapple Express
Sense and Sensibility

Step Brothers