Netflix enters with one of its stronger month-by-month lineups in recent memory, anchored by the highly anticipated second season of Beef and the arrival of five Mission Impossible films to the platform's library. The month also delivers the animated Stranger Things: Tales From '85, a second season of basketball comedy Running Point, and a cluster of new original films and series spread across four weeks. It is not a perfect month for Netflix subscribers, but it is a meaningful one, particularly in the first half.
The timing is complicated by a price increase that took effect this month. Netflix's standard plan without ads now costs $19.99 per month, up from its previous pricing, continuing the platform's multi-year pattern of incremental increases. The ad-supported tier is now $8.99 per month. Current subscribers are seeing the change reflected on their next billing cycle. For context on how this compares to the broader streaming pricing environment, our earlier coverage of Netflix's 2026 price increases and the industry-wide shift toward ad-supported tiers lays out the full picture.
Beef Season 2: The Big One
Beef Season 2 arrives on with a completely new cast, going full anthology after its first season won the Emmy for Outstanding Limited Series in 2023. This season centers on two couples: Charles Melton and Cailee Spaeny play country club employees who film a nasty confrontation between their employers, played by Oscar Isaac and Carey Mulligan. The footage ignites a self-destructive blackmail war between all four.
The casting alone makes this one of the more interesting new installments on any platform this month. Isaac and Mulligan have both delivered career-defining work in recent years, and creator Lee Sung Jin's ability to build compelling, escalating character conflict was thoroughly established in Season 1. The anthology format means new viewers can come in cold, without watching the Danny McBride and Ali Wong season first, though doing so misses the original's specific brand of sustained, darkly comedic chaos.
Going the anthology route with a whole new cast, Season 2 involves a pair of country club employees who film a nasty fight between their boss and his wife, igniting a self-destructive blackmail war.
MarketWatch, April 2026 streaming guide
The first season of Beef ran 10 episodes and is available in full on Netflix ahead of the new season premiere. Both seasons are worth the time investment. Season 2's five-episode count has not been confirmed, but the series has historically released all episodes simultaneously.
Mission Impossible and the Library Additions
Five Mission Impossible films landed on Netflix on : the original, Mission: Impossible II, Mission: Impossible III, Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, and Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation. For subscribers who have not yet seen the franchise, or who want to revisit it before any upcoming installments, the run from Ghost Protocol (2011) through Rogue Nation (2015) represents the franchise at its most consistently entertaining.
The library additions also include Oscar-winning Bohemian Rhapsody, Atonement, and A Quiet Place Part II (arriving ). For horror subscribers, Him (April 19), a Jordan Peele-produced film, and Thrash (April 10), a hurricane-and-sharks survival thriller that makes no apologies for what it is, round out the genre offerings.
| Title | Date | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Mission Impossible films (1, 2, 3, Ghost Protocol, Rogue Nation) | Library addition | |
| XO, Kitty: Season 3 | New season | |
| Beef: Season 2 | New season | |
| Running Point: Season 2 | New season | |
| Stranger Things: Tales From '85 | New series | |
| Man on Fire | New series |
New Series Worth Noting
Running Point Season 2 (April 23) returns Kate Hudson as the unconventional female executive running an NBA franchise. Season 1 was a modest success for Netflix, generating enough viewership to earn a quick renewal. Hudson has been a consistent presence in the show, and the basketball-world setting gives it a slightly different angle than the standard workplace comedy.
Big Mistakes (April 9) stars Daniel Levy, Taylor Ortega, and Laurie Metcalf as disorganized siblings who stumble into organized crime. Levy's involvement after Schitt's Creek brings immediate audience awareness, though the show's premise requires a specific tonal balance, dark enough to earn its genre but light enough not to betray its comedic core, that does not always translate.
Unchosen (April 21) is a limited series about a young mother in a religious cult, played by Molly Windsor, who begins an affair with an outsider while her controlling husband (Asa Butterfield) is watching. The premise sits in territory that British drama has navigated well in recent years, and the cast suggests this could be one of the month's more quietly accomplished entries.
Closing out the month on is Man on Fire, a series adaptation of the novel and earlier Denzel Washington film, starring Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as a former Special Forces soldier in Rio de Janeiro. Mateen has become one of the more reliably watchable actors working in prestige television, and the source material has proven durable across its earlier adaptations.
The Price Question
Netflix's most popular plan, standard without ads, now costs $19.99 per month. The ad-supported standard is $8.99. Premium lands at $26.99. This is Netflix's second price increase since the start of 2025, and it comes at a moment when streaming subscribers across the industry are increasingly making cost-conscious decisions about which services to keep and which to drop.
The honest assessment of April's Netflix lineup is that Beef Season 2 carries the month. Everything else is supplementary. Subscribers who were already on the fence about whether Netflix's current pricing reflects its content value will not find a conclusive answer in April's lineup alone. Beef Season 2 is worth watching. The question is whether it is worth $19.99 for a single month, or whether the surrounding content makes the case for keeping the subscription year-round.
The animated Stranger Things: Tales From '85 lands on the same date as Running Point Season 2, which gives the final week of April a cluster of content that could push subscribers who are on the edge toward keeping the service. For a full breakdown of what's worth your time across all platforms this month, including HBO's considerably stronger lineup, our streaming comparison guide is useful context.
