Best New Shows and Movies on Netflix This Week: All Together Now, Cobra Kai

Hey dude, are you looking for the best new shows and movies on Netflix? Nice, here are the best new shows and movies released on Netflix the week of Aug. 28-Sept. 3. 

This week's new releases are the usual mix of young adult stuff, kid stuff, international stuff, true crime stuff, and comedy stuff, and sometimes that stuff overlaps. There's a docuseries about Indian white collar criminals that looks pretty good, for instance. The biggest truly new release is the YA tearjerker All Together Now, which stars Auli'i Cravalho as an aspiring singer who has to overcome personal tragedies, while the biggest TV release is the Netflix arrival of former YouTube series Cobra Kai, which has been rebranded as a Netflix Original now that the streamer has saved it from cancellation. Now more people than ever can watch the first two seasons of this Karate Kid sequel series that's better than it has any right to be (a third season is coming next year). 

All titles debut on Friday, Aug. 28 unless otherwise noted. Here's what came out on Netflix last week.

If you're looking for even more hand-picked recommendations, we have plenty. If you'd like to see what's coming out on Netflix in August, here are our Editors' Picks for Netflix's September releases and everything that's coming to the service in the month. 

The Biggest Releases

All Together Now
Moana (Auli'i Cravalho) stars as Amber Appleton, a talented young singer whose optimism and good performance in school hide a painful secret: She and her mother (Justina Machado) are homeless and live on a school bus. When she gets the opportunity to audition for a slot at the prestigious conservatory at Carnegie Mellon, tragedy strikes, and the girl who always had to take care of herself has to learn how to accept help from others. This movie comes from the producers of Love, Simon, Paper Towns, and The Fault In Our Stars, which means you should have a box of tissues nearby when you watch it. 

Cobra Kai, Seasons 1 & 2
Sometimes you don't realize how desperately you need something until it's right in front of you. That is Cobra Kai, which started out as YouTube Red's (remember that?) follow-up to the beloved '80s film The Karate Kid, but has now been scooped up by Netflix. The incredibly self-aware comedy picks up three decades after the film and finds bad boy Cobra Kai villain Johnny (William Zabka) as a sympathetic down-on-his-luck drunk, while good guy Daniel (Ralph Macchio) is an annoying successful car salesman in the Valley. After Johnny uses his karate skills to defend his young neighbor, he seeks redemption by reopening the Cobra Kai dojo to teach the type of people he once bullied. Now, before you think he just becomes a changed man, you should know that's not true; Johnny is still a pretty big dick for the most part. The first season cleverly flips the script on their rivalry, while the second spends more time with kids in the dojo for a more generic, but still fun, result. Both seasons come to Netflix Friday, with a third original season expected at a later date. –Tim Surette and Kaitlin Thomas (Trailer)

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Everything Else

Chef's Table: BBQ, Season 3
This delicious docuseries will make you want to die and go to pig heaven. The acclaimed Chef's Table franchise focuses its food-romancing lens on notable barbecue chefs, including Tootsie Tomantez, an 85-year-old grandmother who still shovels the coals at her Texas restaurant; Lennox Hastie, a remarkable Australian chef who sources all of his ingredients from the Outback; Rodney Scott of South Carolina, who is known for his whole hog barbecue; and Rosalia Chay Chuc, a traditional Mayan chef who serves cochinita pibil out of her home in Mexico. I've only watched the trailer and I'm already planning a trip down south to worship at these meat temples. (Wednesday, Sept. 2)

I AM A KILLER: Released, Season 1
This spin-off of the I AM A KILLER true crime series follows a convict who is paroled 30 years after being sentenced to death for murdering a worker at a Subway. His loved ones want to believe he's a changed man, but they can't be sure, and the victim's family doesn't want him out. Then he makes a stunning confession that could change everything about his case. (Trailer)

Orígenes secretos / Unknown Origins
This Spanish movie has a nifty premise: A detective is on the trail of a serial killer who recreates superhero origin stories. Like he kills a man and a woman in an alley in front of their son and rips the woman's pearls off. So the detective has to team up with comic book geeks and cosplayers to catch this aspiring supervillain. It looks like a European vision of the big dumb action movies that are Netflix's bread and butter, by which I mean it looks like a lot of fun. (Trailer)

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Bookmarks: Celebrating Black Voices, Season 1
This is a live-action collection of twelve five-minute episodes featuring prominent Black celebrities and artists including Lupita Nyong'o, Common, and Tiffany Haddish reading children's books from Black authors that highlight the Black experience. (Trailer / Tuesday, Sept. 1)

The Boss Baby: Get That Baby!
You get to be the Boss Baby's boss in this interactive special. You can tell him to make a business deal or change his diaper. (Trailer / Tuesday, Sept. 1)

Felipe Esparza: Bad Decisions / Malas Decisiones
Honk-voiced Mexican American comedian Felipe Esparza does two versions of the same set, one in English and one en Español, in this stand-up special. Watch them both and decide which language he's funnier in. (Trailer / Tuesday, Sept.1)

La Partita / The Match
A youth soccer coach seeks redemption while his best player seeks a way out of their poor Roman suburb in this gritty Italian sports drama. You know what they say, "when in an impoverished suburb just outside of Rome..." (Trailer / Tuesday, Sept. 1)

True: Friendship Day
"When a giant Grippity-Grab snags Grizelda's friendship bracelet and turns her into a mermaid, True heads under the sea with magic wishes to save the day." I always tell my friends they gotta watch out for those Grippity-Grabs. (Trailer / Tuesday, Sept. 1)

Bad Boy Billionaires: India, Season 1
India's biggest schemers and scammers get profiled in this docuseries that charts their rises and falls. If you like to get self-righteously pissed off about greed and corruption and the evils of capitalism, this will do it for you. (Trailer / Wednesday, Sept. 2)

Freaks – You're One of Us 
Gooble gobble, gooble gobble, one of us, one of us! An ordinary German woman learns she has superpowers and links up with a crew of other "freaks" in this character-driven superhero drama. (Trailer / Wednesday, Sept. 2)

Alfonso Padilha: Alma de Pobre 
Alfonso Padilha is a Brazilian comedian who grew up poor. This special features stories about his childhood. Based on the trailer, the references seem to be distinctly Brazilian, but maybe international audiences can find something to relate to. (Trailer / Thursday, Sept. 3)

Love, Guaranteed
Formulaic rom-com about a lawyer (Rachael Leigh Cook) who takes on a case representing a guy (Damon Wayans Jr.) who's suing an online dating website for his failure to find love. He's been on 986 dates and is still single. But then they fall in love, you know the drill. Cook and Wayans are an interesting pairing, because they're from different eras and don't feel like peers, but RLC was so young when she was popping in the late '90s/early '00s that they're actually pretty close in age. (Trailer / Thursday, Sept. 3)

Young Wallander,Season 1
Depressive, cranky, difficult Swedish detective Kurt Wallander gets Sheldonified in this prequel series that finds him investigating his very first case. (Trailer / Thursday, Sept. 3)

Stop searching, start watching! TV Guide's Watch This Now! page has even more TV recommendations. And check out our picks for the best Netflix shows and movies to watch in August.

PHOTOS: The Best Netflix Originals of 2020 So Far