Right now, everyone watching Netflix is likely still reeling over The Boroughs or letting The Crash docuseries sink in, but if you’re quite ready to move on from those buzzy hits, a new month has brought a fresh roster of newly-added movies to the service for U.S. subscribers. And I’m here to help you sift through them with a few highlights.
For this week (June 1 to 7), I’ve zeroed in on a certified classic, genre-defining martial arts movie, a football drama that tells the story of obsession and perseverance in small-town America, and a boxing movie that revitalized an epic franchise and helped propel its star to the A-List.
3
The Karate Kid
Sweep the leg, Johnny!
I can only speak for me and the little punks living in my neighborhood growing up, but The Karate Kid is single-handedly responsible for the massive boom in signups at the local dojo near where I lived. Everyone wanted to be Daniel LaRusso (and a few Johnny Lawrences, too), and the school playground was full of kids doing crane kicks and sweeping the leg.
This iconic and genre-defining underdog story from 1984 stars Ralph Macchio as Daniel, a New Jersey kid who moves to California with his single mom for a fresh start. But what Daniel finds is a school full of karate-trained bullies, led by blond-haired Johnny (William Zabka), who takes to beating the heck out of Daniel over the affections of Ali Mills (Elisabeth Shue). But soon, Daniel meets Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita), a mild-mannered handyman who happens to be a karate master. Miyagi trains Daniel in his special karate ways and strikes a deal with Johnny’s dodgy sensei (Martin Kove) that if Daniel can beat Johnny in the local karate competition, his students will leave him alone.
Morita earned an Oscar nomination for his performance, that crane kick became the stuff of legend, and the film holds an 81% RT score. Netflix is currently streaming the entire original trilogy—including Part II (1986) and Part III (1989)—and the 2010 Jaden Smith reboot. Additionally, if you haven’t checked out its sequel series, Cobra Kai, it’s one of Netflix’s best shows and is worth a watch, too.
2
Friday Night Lights
A Texas town lives and dies by Friday night football
Peter Berg’s 2004 football drama, Friday Night Lights, is the film that gave us five TV seasons of Kyle Chandler’s Coach Taylor and more “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose” tattoos than we probably could have used. But let’s give the movie some love for a change, because it’s excellent and has an 82% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Quiz
Which Netflix hit is this quote from?
Trivia challenge
These lines could belong to almost any show — but only one is right.
Sci-FiDramaHorrorActionMystery
Which show contains the line: “The darkness doesn’t scare me. It never did. It’s the light that lies.”
Correct! This brooding line belongs to Wednesday Addams in Wednesday, perfectly capturing her gothic worldview and distrust of cheerfulness. The show leans heavily into Wednesday’s sardonic philosophy, making lines like this feel entirely at home in her deadpan delivery.
Not quite — this line is from Wednesday. While Dark and Stranger Things both deal heavily with darkness and fear, this particular sentiment belongs to Wednesday Addams, whose entire worldview is built on embracing shadow and suspecting the sunny side of life.
Which show contains the line: “We didn’t travel through time to save the world. We traveled through time because someone had to remember it.”
Correct! This reflective line is from Dark, the German sci-fi thriller that made time travel feel less like adventure and more like a haunting responsibility. Dark is known for its philosophical weight, and its characters often speak about time with grief rather than wonder.
Not quite — this one belongs to Dark, Netflix’s mind-bending German series. Stranger Things uses time and alternate dimensions too, but Dark treats time travel as a tragic burden rather than an exciting power, and that distinction shows in lines like this one.
Which show contains the line: “I didn’t come this far to be someone else’s story. I came to write my own.”
Correct! This defiant declaration is pure Monkey D. Luffy energy from One Piece. Netflix’s live-action adaptation kept the spirit of Eiichiro Oda’s original manga alive, and Luffy’s dream of becoming King of the Pirates fuels lines exactly like this one throughout the series.
Not quite — this line is from One Piece. Squid Game is also about survival and self-determination, but its tone is far bleaker. One Piece thrives on bold, adventurous declarations of freedom, which makes this quote a natural fit for Luffy and his crew chasing the Grand Line.
Which show contains the line: “They don’t come from another world. They come from the part of this one we buried.”
Correct! This line is from K-Pop Demon Hunters, where the mythology ties demonic forces directly to suppressed cultural trauma rather than alien dimensions. The show cleverly roots its supernatural horror in the idea that what humanity represses eventually resurfaces in monstrous form.
Not quite — this is from K-Pop Demon Hunters. It’s easy to guess Stranger Things here since the Upside Down has similar vibes, but K-Pop Demon Hunters distinguishes itself by framing its monsters as manifestations of buried history and cultural wounds rather than extradimensional invaders.
Which show contains the line: “The rules were never meant to protect us. They were meant to protect the people who made them.”
Correct! This line cuts to the heart of Squid Game’s central critique of capitalism and systemic inequality. The show’s entire premise is built on the idea that the powerful design games — and societies — in ways that guarantee their own survival at everyone else’s expense.
Not quite — this one is from Squid Game. One Piece also challenges corrupt authority figures like the World Government, but Squid Game delivers this message with raw, contemporary urgency. The show uses its brutal game format as a direct metaphor for economic systems rigged against the vulnerable.
Which show contains the line: “I’ve seen things in that lab that would make you stop believing in coincidence forever.”
Correct! This line belongs to Stranger Things, where Hawkins National Laboratory serves as the epicenter of government experimentation and supernatural horror. The show repeatedly frames the lab as a place where the boundaries of science and ethics were catastrophically crossed, changing everything for the town of Hawkins.
Not quite — this is from Stranger Things. While Dark also features scientific experiments with devastating consequences, the specific reference to ‘that lab’ points directly to Hawkins Lab, the shadowy government facility that accidentally tore open a gate to the Upside Down in season one.
Which show contains the line: “Smiling is the costume everyone wears before they show you who they really are.”
Correct! Classic Wednesday Addams. This line is from Wednesday, and it captures her signature suspicion of warmth and social performance perfectly. The show is full of her sharp, cynical observations about human behavior, delivered with the same flat affect that made the original character iconic.
Not quite — this is from Wednesday. Squid Game might seem like a strong guess since it’s all about masks and hidden motives, but this particular brand of dry, gothic cynicism belongs squarely to Wednesday Addams. Her entire character arc in the show involves learning — reluctantly — that not every smile hides a monster.
Which show contains the line: “Every stage you survive just means they’ve found a better way to kill you next time.”
Correct! This line is from Squid Game, where the escalating lethality of each game is both the show’s dramatic engine and its darkest joke. Contestants quickly learn that surviving one round is never cause for relief — the next challenge is always designed to be more psychologically and physically devastating.
Not quite — this one is from Squid Game. The show’s genius is in how it turns children’s games into elimination rounds with mounting dread. Stranger Things has its own escalating monster threats, but Squid Game makes the manufactured, deliberate cruelty of each new stage a core part of its social commentary.
Your Score
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Based on the 1990 book, Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream, by Berg’s cousin, H.G. Bissinger, Billy Bob Thornton plays Gary Gaines, coach of Odessa, Texas’ high school football team, the Permian Panthers, as he navigates the impossible expectations of the community that puts the sport above everything else. The movie’s main action follows running back Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), who must redefine himself after a season-ending injury, and quarterback Mike Winchell (Lucas Black), who battles his personal demons to lead the team to victory.
1
Creed
Rocky trains the son of his greatest rival
Twenty years before Michael B. Jordan wowed us all with his Oscar-winning performance in last year’s superb Sinners, the then 28-year-old actor made a huge mark on the Rocky universe playing the son of the franchise’s legendary character, Apollo Creed, in this Ryan Coogler-written and directed hit, Creed. The second of five career-defining films Jordan has done with Coogler, which includes Fruitvale Station, two Black Panther movies, and the aforementioned Sinners, Creed reinvigorated the Rocky-verse for a new generation.
Jordan stars as Adonis Johnson, the son Apollo never met. A young boxer on the verge of greatness, he tracks down a weary Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) and talks the retired legend into training him for a title fight with “Pretty” Ricky Conlan, the world light heavyweight champ. Rocky channels Mickey as the older, wiser, sweat-and-tears trainer, as he gets Adonis ready. Tessa Thompson also stars as Bianca, a musician whom Adonis falls for.
Creed is as solid a sequel as you’ll ever find, and the 95% Rotten Score is proof positive of that. Stallone also landed his first Oscar nomination in nearly four decades for playing Rocky, a feat that put him in a rare club of actors nominated twice for playing the same character. Creed II and Creed III, as well as all the Rocky movies except number II, are also streaming on Netflix in the U.S.
No guts, no glory with these three picks
Sometimes the best thing on Netflix is a movie you’ve already seen—a comfort-watch for the ages that’s like a warm blanket. June has arrived with a new swath of licensed movies you can start making your way through for the month, and there are some real gems. For more worth queuing up, though, check out How-To Geek’s other streaming roundups every week.
- Subscription with ads
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Yes, $8/month
- Simultaneous streams
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Two or four
- Live TV
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No
- Price
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Starting at $8/month
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
