Netflix is adding 13 movies and series this week (April 13, 2025)

Comedy, romance, drama, true crime - but enough about my life. As it turns out, Netflix also has all of that in store for you this week. Get those blue blocker glasses and eyedrops ready, fam - it's binging time again!

It's so fun when Netflix adds a baker's dozen titles. It makes me think of fudge-drizzled French crullers, apple fritters, and raspberry-glazed yeast donuts. Yeah, my diet is going just fine. Why do you ask? Oh yeah, we're here to talk about movies and shows. My bad.

This week, you'll find a few old favorites, another dark and brooding Scandinavian thriller series, a mini-series masquerading as a documentary, a true-crime series, and a documentary on an American disaster—whew, can we lighten the mood here, please?

Oh, thank goodness, I see Tina Fey and Amy Poehler popping up. We also get a new Western series and a heartfelt Korean dramatic series, and—oh, let's just get on with it.

Netflix brings laughs, tears, and all the feels this week

Just one title debuts on Monday, the 2002 romance Life or Something Like It. Told she has a week to live, A TV news reporter (Angelina Jolie) decides to live life as she should have all along. The excellent cast includes Edward Burns, Tony Shalhoub, and Stockard Channing. This one's worth the popcorn.

Wednesday is a bit busier, although I can't believe Netflix didn't add The Tax Collector to its roster just for the day. Instead, we get the seventh season of Young Sheldon; for me, that's taxing enough. We also get a behind-the-scenes look at a new play based on one of the streamer's most popular shows.

Catch Behind the Curtain: Stranger Things: The First Shadow goes you-know-where to capture all the details of the London debut of the play. If ticket prices weren't bad enough, you must fly to London to see the play. Thanks, I'll just watch this for now.

We also get the premiere of that dark Scandi thriller I mentioned earlier, The Glass Dome. At this point, dark, moody thrillers have to compete with IKEA for the top import from Scandinavia. Like the ubiquitous merchant of cool stuff, the series is from Sweden.

As a child, a criminologist was kidnapped and imprisoned in a glass dome. Now, years later, another child is missing. The episode count is as much a mystery as the criminal. Prepare yourself for this one.

Okay, you can breathe again. I told you laughs were coming. The ever-reliable Amy Poehler and Tina Fey bring the joy in Baby Mama. Fey is the no-nonsense businesswoman who hires Pohler to be the surrogate mother for the child she desperately wants. Much nonsense ensues, as you'd expect with these two. For more nonsense, watch Project UFO, a dramatic series about - c'mon, you know what it's about.

Guy Ritchie, master of the caper film, tries his hand at nonfiction with the three-part documentary series The Diamond Heist. Okay, so he's only the executive producer. I'm still watching it. Featuring interviews with the cops and robbers involved, it promises to be a fascinating look at one of the biggest robberies ever staged. We're not passing up a trailer for this.

The comedy continues with I Am Not Mendoza, a Mexican series that shows the lighter side of kidnapping. What else can you say about a show where an average guy is kidnapped, forced to impersonate a corrupt businessman, marry his fiancée, and fool the mob? Well, you could say, I'll be watching this.

Thursday brings us Istanbul Encyclopedia, a dramatic series that follows Zehra, a young student who moves to Istanbul to live with her mother's former best friend. They must overcome cultural and generational conflicts and their personal struggles. Family drama and a deep look into modern Turkish society? Sounds good to me.

In what promises to be the biggest show this week, Netflix debuts Ransom Canyon. Josh Duhamel and Minka Kelly are stars in the modern Western series. As three ranching dynasties collide, all the stuff families collide over in these shows.

This must be the 237th new Western series in the past few years. At this point, I expect to see reruns of Gunsmoke, Rawhide, and Have Gun, Will Travel crack the top 10 in the Nielsen ratings again. Here's the teaser

Friday brings us two more shows, both pretty tense stuff. The first, iHostage, is based on the real-life situation of a gunman taking hostages in an Apple store in Amsterdam. Not to make light of the real story, but that sounds an awful lot like the IOS infrastructure to me.

After that, you can return to one of the darker days in American history with Oklahoma City Bombing: American Terror. It's a new documentary about one of the worst acts of terrorism ever seen in the U.S.

Okay, can we escape some of the grimdark stuff? Well, kinda. The week closes out with
Heavenly Ever After, a Korean romantic fantasy series. When Hae-sook passes away at the age of 80, she is finally reunited with her husband in the afterlife, decades after he died at the age of 30. The only problem is, he's still 30, and she's now 50 years older. Uhh... somebody made a mistake.

April 13

Life or Something Like It

April 15

Behind the Curtain: Stranger Things: The First Shadow
The Glass Dome
Young Sheldon season 7

April 16

Baby Mama
The Diamond Heist
Project UFO
I Am Not Mendoza

April 17

Ransom Canyon
Istanbul Encyclopedia

April 18

iHostage
Oklahoma City Bombing: American Terror

April 19

Heavenly Ever After