Gripping reality series Unlocked: A Jail Experiment and 5 more Netflix new releases to watch this weekend

Heartbreak High returns and the Pedro Pascal film Strange Way of Life drops! Here's what's worth watching on Netflix April 13-14.
Baby Reindeer. Ed Miller/Netflix.
Baby Reindeer. Ed Miller/Netflix. /
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Get ready for another weekend of excellent television and film on Netflix! The streaming service has released some really great content this week, most of it stuff you might not have heard of that would normally fly under the radar but that's why we're here to inform you of the things you might otherwise have missed out on.

Unlocked is a compelling new reality show while Baby Reindeer is a riveting and brutally honest series from the mind of comedian Richard Gadd. There's lots more to check out this weekend, so keep reading to see our top picks!

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Unlocked: A Jail Experiment. (L to R) Prisoners John McAllister, Ty Clement and Dre at the Pulaski County Detention Facility from episode 105 of Unlocked: A Jail Experiment. Credit: Courtesy of Netflix © 2024 Netflix, Inc. /

Unlocked: A Jail Experiment

Unlocked: A Jail Experiment is a bold new reality show on Netflix that follows a group of inmates in a dentention facility in Arkansas. The group at the center, known collectively as the H Unit, are used to being on lockdown for about 23 hours a day. Sheriff Eric Higgins wants to try a social experiment in which he and his deputies unlock all of the cell doors and allow the inmates to work together in their communal space to get along and create a community. Spread across six weeks, Unlocked follows the experiment as we watch these men try as they interact and learn from one another, for better or worse.

Strange Way of Life

This short film from director Pedro Almodóvar is a Spanish Western starring Ethan Hawke and Pedro Pascal. In order to protect his son from a murder accusation, cowboy Silva (Pascal) starts a relationship with his ex-lover, Sheriff Jake (Hawke), in hopes he can influence him to drop the charges. It's a bittersweet queer western that delivers excellent acting turns from both Pascal and Hawke. If you're fans of the two actors, I suggest checking it out this weekend.

TRUE CRIME : NETFLIX
Anthracite: Secrets of the Sect. Cr: CHRISTINE TAMALET/Netflix /

Anthracite: Secrets of the Sect

If you're looking for a short crime drama that makes a compelling weekend binge then look no further than Anthracite: Secrets of the Sect. The series follows a tech-savvy woman named Ida who gets pulled into a strange mystery concerning a cult that was suspected of the brutal murder of a young woman in the 1990s. When Ida's father returns to the scene of the crime, a sleepy little alpine village, in 2024, he gets kidnapped and Ida must jump into action to find out what happened to her dad before it's too late.

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Heartbreak High S2. (L to R) Chika Ikogwe as Jojo, Ayesha Madon as Amerie, Gemma Chua-Tran as Sasha, Sherry-Lee Watson as Missy, Brodie Townsend as Ant, Bryn Chapman Parish as Spider, Angus Sampson as Voss in Heartbreak High S2. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2024 /

Heartbreak High season 2

The Australian teen soap returns for its second season on Netflix this week! Our beloved SLTs must face off against a new group of students known as the "Puriteens," a group who believes that abistence is the only way forward. The series follows the students of Hartley High as they navigate what it means to be a teenager in this coming-of-age drama that serves as a reboot of the popular 1990s series of the same name.

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Baby Reindeer. Ed Miller/Netflix. /

Baby Reindeer

Easily Netflix's best new series of the year thus far, Baby Reindeer is an unflinching and often heartbreaking story about the abuse and harassment suffered by one man. Comedian Richard Gadd created the series based on his award-winning one-man show and it chronicles a story that really happened to him. He plays a struggling comedian named Donny who is stalked by a woman after one giving her a cup of tea on the house one night. The show chronicles Donny's disturbing relationship with her and how it forces him to confront a buried trauma.

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