Break out your gown and get ready to toss your cap, because graduation season is here! Across the country, students of all ages and at all levels are celebrating the end of a journey and graduating to the next stage in their lives, whatever it may be. No matter where you are on that journey yourself, why not choose your weekend stream in celebration?
Go ahead and mark the milestone as well as the entire quest of learning. Cue up a movie about graduating college, a show about getting through high school, or a docuseries about taking the chance to seek an education in the first place, and the hopes and dreams that inspire it. Happy streaming, and congratulations to the class of 2025!
But first, what’s new on Netflix?
A risky gamble. The new series Bet, based on the Japanese manga Kakegurui by Homura Kawamoto, sees the student body of a prestigious boarding school — where social status is determined by an underground gambling ring — thrown into disarray by a mysterious new student. Not liking those odds? Take a chance on ABBA: Against the Odds instead; James Rogan’s 2024 documentary traces the incredible history of the iconic Swedish pop quartet. Don’t want to lay all your love on that? Turn up the intensity with the latest entry in the American Manhunt collection: The new three-part docuseries American Manhunt: Osama bin Laden chronicles the decade-long hunt for the infamous al-Qaida leader, drawing on rare footage and expert interviews.
If you have just a night …
Hold on with all your might. In Noah Baumbach’s 1995 debut feature, a group of college friends all struggle with quarter-life crises after graduation, crossing the threshold into adult life Kicking and Screaming. Josh Hamilton, Chris Eigeman, Olivia d’Abo, Eric Stoltz, and Parker Posey star in the witty romantic dramedy; their ennui-laden characters may be fighting the major transition the film depicts, but this ensemble cast is hard to resist.
If you have a whole day …
Chase fate. In the engrossing 2017 series Daughters of Destiny, documentarian Vanessa Roth puts the spotlight on a group of girls pursuing their futures despite the odds stacked against them. They are all students of Shanti Bhavan, a school in India that offers free education to children who are otherwise denied the chance to learn due to their low caste. Focusing on five girls of different ages over a seven-year period, the four-part docuseries follows them as they begin school to the time they leave it to enter the outside world.
If you have the entire weekend …
Try something you’ve never, ever done (or try it again, if you already have): Call up Never Have I Ever, the teen dramedy created by Mindy Kaling and Lang Fisher. Depicting one teenage girl’s experience — all leading up, as school tends to do, to the climax of graduation — the series stars Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as our heroine, Devi, as she navigates the triumphs, challenges, and humiliations of high school alongside her best friends (Ramona Young and Lee Rodriguez) while alternately seeking and juggling the attentions of two very different love interests (Jaren Lewison and Darren Barnet).
Don’t forget, you have one last chance …
… for suspense in the suburbs. Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick star in Paul Feig’s wickedly funny 2018 mystery A Simple Favor, in which a mommy vlogger (Kendrick) befriends her child’s classmate’s glamorous mother (Lively) and unravels a web of secrets. After this weekend, it will disappear faster than an ice-cold martini.
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