With Halloween just two weeks out, Netflix is stocking its shelves with scream-inducing things to watch. Josh Hartnett’s and his Newfie accent are making waves with the sea-creature thriller Below, and the Filipino horror series Balaraw: Blood Island is set to arrive on October 29.

But not everyone wants to sleep with the lights on, though, so Netflix has also added some scare-free new seasons to its U.S. lineup this week as well, including an animated sitcom with aliens in suburbia, a reality dating show that thrives behind closed doors, and my top pick, a new season of the best political thriller on TV, which just nabbed an Emmy.

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Solar Opposites season 6

The animated alien family’s last hurrah lands on Netflix

From Rick and Morty veterans Justin Roiland and Mike McMahan, this adult animated sci-fi sitcom from Hulu has logged a reported 110 million viewing hours since it landed on Netflix last fall. If you haven’t been watching Solar Opposites, you should be, because it’s one of the weirdest and most entertaining shows on streaming, and you’re going to want to watch all six seasons.

The half-hour show follows four aliens stranded in suburbia after their home planet was destroyed. Their mission, though, is to eventually terraform Earth and remake it in their home world’s image, but the power to do it lies with the Pupa, a baby-like creature destined to destroy the planet and everyone on it, including them. The Pupa, however, grows fond of them and Earth and decides to wait.

In the sixth and final season, which premiered on Hulu last year, a broken diamond-making machine forces Korvo (Dan Stevens), Terry (Thomas Middleditch), Yumyulack (Sean Giambrone), and Jesse (Mary Mack) to pinch pennies and (gasp!) get jobs. Additionally, the Solars must protect the Pupa from an outside threat while Yumyulack’s shrunken human society, The Wall (an entire show within the show), reaches its endgame.

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Love Is Blind season 11

The pod-dwellers get a Boston accent

Netflix’s Emmy-nominated dating experiment reality show became a lockdown-era phenomenon in 2020 and has since inspired versions all over the world—from Brazil, the Netherlands, and Japan to France, the UK, and Poland.

Season 11 of Love Is Blind gets “wicked smaht” and takes the pods to Boston, the show’s first-ever New England stop, where 30 singles get to know each other through a wall, get engaged without ever having laid eyes on one another, and then find out whether the spark survives meeting face-to-face before moving in together to plan their wedding. If that sounds like a lot, it really is—and it’s all for our entertainment.

Hosts Nick Lachey (yep, the 98 Degrees Nick Lachey) and wife Vanessa Lachey (NCIS: Hawaii) are back to referee all the chaos. Five episodes are streaming now, an easy weekend catch-up before new batches arrive on October 21 and 28, ahead of the November 4 finale.

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The Diplomat season 4

It’s Kate versus the U.S. President, and worse, her own husband

Netflix’s The Diplomat is the hottest political drama/thriller on TV right now, and it just earned the right to say so after picking up a huge Emmy win last month—Best Supporting Actress for Allison Janney (her eighth win overall), who plays the volatile U.S. President Grace Penn.

Season 3 ended on a potentially nuclear (literally) note with U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) figuring out that her newly minted vice president’s husband, Hal (the excellent Rufus Sewell), and the president had just masterminded the theft of a Russian doomsday weapon called the Poseidon, right from under the nose of its British ally.

Season 4 doesn’t miss a beat as the fallout begins and Kate finds herself trying to manage the potentially catastrophic “chemistry” between Hal and Grace. She even forms an uneasy pact with the First Gentleman, Todd Penn (Janney’s former West Wing costar Bradley Whitford), to rein in their power-hungry spouses. Eight hour-long episodes are up, making for a tidy two-night binge.

More shows to watch this weekend

If you’re a fan of Marvel Television, VisionQuest on Disney+ is one of our new shows to watch this weekend. If you head to Paramount+, you can check out some of its best sci-fi shows, including the majority of Star Trek.

Subscription with ads

Yes, $8/month

Simultaneous streams

Two or four

Live TV

No

Price

Starting at $8/month