- U.S. Netflix subscribers can now binge-watch Law & Order Season 25, which follows a cops-and-lawyers format and deals with a cliffhanger from the previous season.
- Party Down, a workplace comedy created by Paul Rudd and starring Adam Scott and Jane Lynch, is now available on Netflix and follows the lives of showbiz wannabes working for a catering company in L.A.
- Netflix subscribers in the U.S. can now stream all 135 episodes of the legendary Canadian sketch comedy series SCTV, which features classic sketches and iconic characters like Johnny LaRue and Bob and Doug McKenzie.
Quite a weekend is in store for U.S. Netflix subscribers, but also for TV lovers in general, as not only does Saturday Night Live kick off its 52nd season on Saturday (here are some SNL-based movies to get you in the mood). But Netflix has got some seriously excellent and iconic television to binge the heck out of.
If Mariska Hargitay’s superb Emmy-hosting job reinforced your love for Law & Order (I know, she’s on SVU), you’re in luck as a new season landed on Netflix today, ready to be binged. Oh, you say you’ve heard murmurs of an elusive sitcom from the late 2000s starring Adam Scott and Jane Lynch? Then you might want to keep reading. Lastly, my top pick this weekend needs no introduction other than to say that all 135 episodes of this Canadian sketch comedy institution are available to watch in case you want to see SNL‘s scrappy Canadian cousin (and to prep for the documentary about it coming next month).
Law & Order (Season 25)
Dun-dun. That’s it, that’s the subtitle
Law & Order: SVU may be the longest-running primetime drama in history, but Law & Order is the cops-and-lawyers drama that started it all in 1990 and is still going strong, despite its 11-year hiatus. And its pioneering format that spawned a franchise is still intact—each episode tracks a case ripped from the headlines, starts off with a crime and the NYPD rolling up their sleeves before handing it off to the prosecutors in the courtroom.
All 21 episodes of Season 25, now streaming on Netflix U.S., jump back in after last season’s cliffhanger that saw ADA Samantha Maroun (Odelya Halevi) under suspicion after her sister’s suspected killer is acquitted, but winds up dead. Season 25 (which, of course, has already aired to completion on TV) deals with the fallout of that, as tensions run high between Maroun and her boss, Nolan Price (Hugh Dancy).
Some new blood also arrives in the PD as Det. Vincent Riley (Reid Scott) works the new-partner smell out of Theo Walker (Star Trek: Discovery‘s David Ajala), under the watchful eye of Lt. Jessica Brady (Maura Tierney). Season 26 hits NBC on October 8, giving you plenty of time to catch up.
Party Down
The best workplace comedy you’ve never heard of
I’m so excited to see Party Down arrive on Netflix—it’s one of those little-known shows that I missed the boat on when it first aired on Starz back in 2009 and 2010. The brilliantly hilarious workplace comedy, created by, among others, Paul Rudd, suffered an unfortunate demise after flat ratings dive and the fact that its two biggest stars, Adam Scott and Jane Lynch, were poached by a couple of little shows called Parks and Recreation and Glee. But it’s all here now, and I couldn’t be happier.
Party Down follows the lives of a group of showbiz wannabes working for an L.A. catering company servicing everything from glitzy Hollywood corporate events to a sweet 16 and even a funeral. Scott plays failed actor Henry Pollard, who tends bar while maintaining one of TV’s best will-they-won’t-they chemistries with aspiring comedian Casey Klein (Lizzy Caplan). Fans of Freaks and Geeks and Silicon Valley will recognize Martin Starr as cynical sci-fi writer Roman DeBeers, and of course, there’s the legend Jane Lynch as “seasoned” actress Constance Carmell, who dispenses career advice no one asked for. Their hapless boss, Ron Donald, is played by Wet Hot American Summer‘s criminally underrated Ken Marino.
The dialogue is clever, and the guest stars are formidable—Kevin Hart, Ken Jeong, Jennifer Coolidge, Kristen Bell, and Nick Offerman among them. The first original seasons are there, as is the third revival season from 2023 that jumps ahead a decade.
My top pick: a Melonville marathon
Every newborn Canadian gets three things: health care, a hockey stick, and a DVD box set of the complete works of SCTV. OK, the first two are true (more or less), and that last one should most definitely be, but either way, Netflix subscribers in the U.S. right now have a leg up in that they can now stream all 135 episodes of the legendary sketch series.
The Emmy-winning comedy institution, spun off from Toronto’s Second City stage troupe in the late ’70s and ’80s, plays out with each episode as a day of programming on the SCTV network, a low-budget station in the fictional town of Melonville. And it’s that “programming,” and its cast of oddballs, that makes the show a brilliant sandbox of comedy.
The series spawned so many classic sketches, characters, and comedy icons who inspired generations of comics after it. Its legends include self-obsessed star Johnny LaRue (John Candy), lounge singer Lola Heatherton (Catherine O’Hara), bumbling anchor Earl Camembert (Eugene Levy), nerdy Ed Grimley (Martin Short), and hosers Bob and Doug McKenzie (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas). The sketches are bite-sized, so you can graze at will. Then keep an eye out for SCTV: The Greatest Show You’ve Never Heard Of on Netflix October 30.
Consider your weekend officially catered
Whether you choose cracked cases, toppled trays of hors d’oeuvres, or a Mellonville marathon, there’s no possible way your weekend viewing can go wrong with any of these Netflix shows. I’ll be hunkering down with Party Down for sure, but if you want to branch out beyond Netflix, check out Dan Girolamo’s weekly roundup of new shows to watch this weekend, too.
