Labor Day weekend has arrived, which means there are just a few more precious days of break before it’s time to head back to school. Summer’s been fun while it lasted, but nothing gold can stay, right? Right? Wow, English class really can’t come back fast enough. 

You needn’t despair, though! If you’re struggling to feel inspired for the return to the academic year, just call up a stream as a helpful reminder of how enriching and dynamic an education can be. You could watch a pair of movies that bring you back to the magic of childhood learning, a docuseries about a group of young women on an unconventional course of study, or a collection of imaginative stories that portray school through the lens of a different, darker genre. Any way you stream it, you’ll feel ready to hit the books before the first bell on Tuesday morning. Good luck this year! 

But first, what’s new on Netflix?

Just a little KAOS. Charlie Covell’s new dark comedy stars Jeff Goldblum as no less than Zeus, king of the gods of Mount Olympus, as he takes out his mid-immortal-life crisis on those around him while a trio of puny humans pose an unlikely threat. Not hitting you like a thunderbolt? Try spooking yourself with The Deliverance, the new horror film from Lee Daniels starring Andra Day as a single mom (alongside Glenn Close as her mother) who encounters demonic activity when she moves her family into a new home. 

If you have just a night… 

Go back to basics. Reunite with two of the first — and most beloved — teachers many American children ever learned from by streaming a pair of documentaries about their groundbreaking educational TV shows. Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb’s 2022 doc Butterfly in the Sky: The Story of Reading Rainbow looks back on the history of the series in which legendary host LeVar Burton spread the joy of reading and celebrated all kinds of stories. Pair it with Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, Morgan Neville’s 2018 documentary about the extraordinary life and legacy of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood creator and host Fred Rogers. 

If you have a whole day… 

Declare a major in pop stardom. That’s what’s on the syllabus in Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE, the new documentary series that details the formation and development of a new global girl group for South Korean entertainment powerhouse HYBE in collaboration with the American record label Geffen Records. In an intense program modeled after the K-pop training system, 20 talented young women compete in a series of assignments testing their singing and dancing abilities for expert judges as well as the voting public. Finally, six superstars-in-training — the official members of KATSEYE— are named top of the class. 

If you have the entire weekend… 

Let your studies take a turn for the twisted. A trio of back-to-school stories inflected with a bit of dark magic will send you on your witchy way into the new academic year. Start with Paul Feig’s The School for Good and Evil, based on the YA novel by Soman Chainani. The 2022 fantasy stars Sophia Anne Caruso and Sofia Wylie as a mismatched pair of best friends who are whisked away to a magical boarding school — where both girls believe they’ve been placed in the wrong program. Follow it with the tale of some teens who are definitely not where they should be in Megan Trinrud and Nate Trinrud’s 2023 supernatural drama School Spirits, in which a teenage girl (Peyton List) navigates high school in the afterlife, where she investigates her own death alongside her ghostly new classmates. Finally, get creepy and kooky with Wednesday: the Emmy-nominated 2022 mystery series reimagines the Addams Family by centering the teenage Wednesday (Jenna Ortega) as she enrolls at the shadowy Nevermore Academy.  

Don’t forget, you have one last chance… 

… for some crazy ex-capades. The cult-hit musical dramedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend stars co-creator Rachel Bloom as Rebecca Bunch, a lawyer who leaves her high-powered New York life behind to pursue a long-ago ex-boyfriend in California. Over four seasons, which originally aired from 2015 to 2019, Rebecca’s ill-conceived mission takes her on a journey of romantic misadventures, cringey humor and maybe, eventually, some self-discovery and acceptance — all set to music. But after next week, it will leave you to generalize about men on your own.  

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