September call-ups: Netflix adds to its catalog

Good news for anyone looking for new procrastination material after the first few weeks of classes: Netflix is about to shower its catalogue with new movies and TV show seasons.

The streaming site added the new selections  on Sept. 1, as the first wave of a series of original shows that will debut later in the year. The website whatsnewonnetflix.com offers a full list of incoming Netflix content, but we’ve rounded up the highlights.

Among the 30-plus new seasons of television shows Netflix is releasing this month, “Portlandia” (Season 5), “The Blacklist” (Season 2), “Gotham” (Season 1), “The Walking Dead” (Season 5) and “The League” (Season 6) are the most notable as primetime shows on major networks.

Netflix also has several new, hotly anticipated original series in the works that will debut later this year through 2016.

“F is for Family” might be the most interesting of the lot as an animated sitcom created by comedian Bill Burr. According to its IMDB page, it will be a “family comedy” set in the ’70s and will draw its humor from Burr’s standup. Rolling Stone called Burr “the undisputed heavyweight champ of rage-fuelled humor,” making his involvement in a family-type setting hilariously ironic.

It will be hard to compete for headlines against “Fuller House,” though, the anticipated spin-off-slash-continuation of the popular ’80s and ’90s series “Full House,” which will also premiere sometime in 2016. The show finds many of the original cast reprising their roles, including Candace Cameron Bure as D.J. Tanner, Andrea Barber as Kimmy Gibbler and Jodie Sweetin as Stephanie Tanner.

Much of the original cast will also make recurring appearances in guest roles, including Bob Saget, John Stamos, Dave Coulier and Lori Loughlin. Most notably missing from the original cast are Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who will not return to play the youngest Tanner daughter.

The show will center around D.J., now grown up and living in San Francisco, as she tries to raise a family after the death of her husband — a plot strikingly similar to the original. The “Fuller House” will feature D.J. and her three children, aspiring musician Stephanie and Kimmy Gibbler and her daughter.

Also in 2016 we’ll see “The Get Down,” a musical drama about a group of teenagers growing up in New York City. It takes place in the ’70s during the birth of hip-hop, punk and new musical forms during a period synonymous with crime and urban decay. Baz Luhrmann, who directed the musically oriented reboot of “The Great Gatsby” in 2013, is the show’s creator. Though Luhrmann’s decision to include the likes of contemporary musicians Jay Z and Beyonce threw his previous film into controversy, “The Get Down” is Luhrmann’s latest intriguing experiment with modern music.

“Flaked,”Will Arnett’s second project with Netflix, will also debut later in 2016. Arnett, who also voices the character BoJack Horseman in the series of the same name, stars as a self-help guru living in Venice, California, who falls for the same girl as his friend, becoming entangled in a comedic mess of lies. Arnett is an executive producer and co-wrote the series alongside Mitch Hurwitz, creator of the cult favorite show “Arrested Development,” which launched the career of Michael Cera.

Netflix is also bringing in more than 50 new movies this month, including the binge-worthy Rambo trilogy (1982-1988), Hamlet (1990) and Wes Anderson’s charming coming-of-age tale Moonrise Kingdom (2012).

This school year will also see the return of the company’s most popular procrastination inducers for additional seasons. The third and final season of the murder mystery series “Hemlock Grove” will stream as early as Oct. 23, 2015, — just in time for midterm exams. The two-time Emmy nominated show about a fictional steel town in Pennsylvania is produced by horror master Eli Roth (“Hostel”).

“House of Cards,” the political drama that introduced its star Kevin Spacey to millenials as the manipulative politician Frank Underwood,  will stream its fourth season sometime in 2016. The show has won four Emmys and has received 33 nominations throughout its run, making it one of the site’s most critically celebrated shows.

Rivaling “House of Cards” for the most popular series on Netflix is “Orange is the New Black,” which will also return this year for its fourth season. The comedy-drama, based on a memoir of the same name, stars Taylor Schilling as Piper Chapman, who is sent to a women’s federal penitentiary for a crime she committed 10 years prior to the start of the series. “Orange” has won three Emmys and has received 16 nominations.

Other shows Netflix has recently renewed include “Daredevil” and “BoJack Horseman,” both of which are set to premiere their second and third seasons, respectively, in 2016, while “Sense8” and “Trailer Park Boys” do not have a confirmed premiere date.

With all these new seasons, shows and movies, good luck trying not to fail your courses in 2016. Happy streaming!