July 17, 2026

Heartstopper Forever ends the saga today, and a glowing-reviewed ghost-slaying K-drama leads the rest of Friday's Netflix drop

Six titles land on Netflix US this Friday, led by the Heartstopper finale film and The East Palace, a Korean supernatural palace drama the critics are calling the first K-drama blockbuster of 2026. A German refugee-rescue drama, a Spanish grief romance, a Mexican erotic thriller, and a weekly Japanese romantic thriller round out the new arrivals. Land of Bad's last day is today and the eight-film Saw franchise departs Sunday.

The pick of the day: Heartstopper Forever

Heartstopper Forever arrives on Netflix today as the feature-length finale to the three-season queer teen romance, and it is the closest thing to an event on the Friday docket. Nick (Kit Connor) is heading to university, Charlie (Joe Locke) is finding his feet as a confident Head Boy, and the nearly two-hour film asks the question the show has been circling since the first kiss: do teenage relationships actually last. Creator and graphic novelist Alice Oseman wrote it, Wash Westmoreland (Still Alice) directed, and Connor and Locke serve as executive producers for the first time, a detail the BBC notes they wanted as "a mouthpiece for the cast."

• It is a Nick-and-Charlie story first. The Wrap's review flags that fan-favorite ensemble members like Tara, Darcy, Imogen, and Isaac "evolve through exposition rather than true character development," and City AM concedes the supporting cast have "scaled back roles." This is a goodbye to the central couple, not a group send-off.
• The reviews lean warm but are not unanimous. City AM gives it four stars ("bucketloads more queer joy," "compelling as hell") and the Wrap calls it "profoundly romantic, emotionally enlightened and essential viewing," but there is no Rotten Tomatoes or Metacritic critic consensus yet, and one dissenting YouTube review pans it as "unnecessary" and "a string of endless montages." The series itself carries a very high Rotten Tomatoes score, so the floor for fans is high.
• One cast swap to know going in: Anna Maxwell Martin steps in as Nick's mother Sarah, replacing Olivia Colman from the series. It is a TV-MA film this time, more grown-up in its depiction of sex and mental health (eating disorders, alcohol dependency) than the Children & Family Emmy-winning show. A five-episode companion, Heartstopper Forever: The Official Podcast, drops alongside it.

For: anyone who has already cried over Nick and Charlie. If you are new to Heartstopper, start with Season 1, not here.

The East Palace

The East Palace is the standout of the rest of the drop, a Korean dark-fantasy period drama landing all eight episodes today. Nam Joo-hyuk (Twenty-Five Twenty-One) plays Gu-cheon, a sarcastic swordsman who can cross into a crimson spirit realm, hired by a desperate king (Cho Seung-woo, Stranger) to slay the ghost killing off his heirs one by one. Roh Yoon-seo (Crash Course in Romance) is Saeng-gang, a court lady who hears the dead and is secretly spying on him. It is the first role for Nam since his military discharge, and his first since the school-bullying allegations that derailed his career were resolved when two informants were found guilty of criminal defamation in 2024.

The early reviews are unusually strong for a Netflix K-drama. Collider calls it "the first K-Drama blockbuster of 2026" and "unmissable," the Korea Times dubs it a "genre masterpiece," and ScreenRant says the first half is "stupendous." Writers Kwon So-ra and Seo Jae-won previously made the occult series Bulgasal and The Guest; director Choi Jung-kyu helmed The Devil Judge.

"The first K-Drama blockbuster of 2026." — Collider

For: Kingdom and The Witcher fans who want palace intrigue with their ghosts. Eight episodes, roughly 45 minutes each, all out now, and Collider's reviewer says they stayed up to finish the lot.

The rest of today's drop

• 23,000 Lives — German drama, 1h 52m, TV-MA, inspired by the true story of the Jugend Rettet NGO, whose volunteers crowdfunded a boat and rescued more than 23,000 refugees in the Mediterranean before facing criminal charges in Italy. Louis Hofmann (Dark) leads, with Mala Emde, Maria Dragus, and Frederick Lau, plus cameos from Franka Potente and Katja Riemann. German critics admire the mission but find the film itself too slick: Filmstarts calls it "a Wikipedia entry in pictures," and film-rezensionen.de says it stays "oberflächlich und glatt" (superficial and smooth) where it should dig in. Worth it for the subject, not the craft.
• The Map of Longing — Spanish limited series, six episodes, TV-MA, adapted from Alice Kellen's bestselling novel. Greta (Alícia Falcó) was born as a stem-cell donor for her leukemia-stricken older sister Lucy (Georgina Amorós, from Elite); when Lucy dies she leaves behind a "map of longings," a game that pushes Greta toward self-discovery and a guarded young man named Will (Pablo Álvarez). No reviews yet. For romance viewers who want their grief with a puzzle attached.
• Desire — Mexican erotic thriller, 1h 37m, TV-MA. Ludwika Paleta plays a married lawyer whose affair with her daughter's new swim coach (Óscar Casas) spirals into obsession and, per the logline, a murder. The reviews are rough: Heaven of Horror gives it 2/5 ("unlikable" characters) and Leisurebyte calls it "a terrible movie" with no chemistry. Guilty-pleasure territory at best.
• 25 Years of You — Japanese romantic thriller, TV-14, premiering weekly on Netflix (episode 1 today, then Fridays). Hokuto Matsumura (Suzume) plays a man who has secretly fixated on one woman for 25 years, a devotion tied to a brutal incident from their childhood that blurs the line between pure love and obsession. It aired on NTV in Japan on July 11; Netflix has the global rights. For J-drama suspense fans who like their romance with a knife's edge.
• Holly Hobbie (Seasons 1-3) — surprise catalog pickup of the Canadian teen drama that began life as a Hulu Original in 2018, starring Ruby Jay as a small-town singer-songwriter. A Daytime Emmy nominee and Canadian Screen Award winner, pitched for the Alexa & Katie, Baby-Sitters Club, and Anne with an E crowd. Wholesome, complete, and cancellation-proof back catalog. (The Netflix page lists three seasons; the later BYUtv seasons are not included.)

New episodes of ongoing shows

• Agent Kim Reactivated episode 7 — the Korean action series starring So Ji-sub as a mild-mannered dad who dusts off his black-ops skills when his daughter goes missing, adapted from the Naver webtoon Manager Kim. It drops two episodes a week, Fridays and Saturdays, and has been a ratings monster in Korea (episode 6 hit a 22.3% nationwide share). The 10-episode run wraps July 25.

Leaving this weekend

A few departures worth flagging before the calendar flips, all confirmed against Netflix's Tudum leaving list:

• Land of Bad (2024), the Liam Hemsworth and Russell Crowe military action film, has today, July 17, as its last full day on Netflix (it is removed July 18).
• The Cursed (2021), the well-regarded folk-horror film from director Sean Ellis, leaves Sunday, July 19, alongside the Saw franchise. Tomorrow, July 18, is the last full day.
• The Saw franchise leaves Sunday, July 19, and Tudum specifies the "eight-installment" run: Saw, Saw II through VI, Saw: The Final Chapter, and Jigsaw. Saturday, July 18, is the last full day to binge the lot. (Spiral is not part of this batch.)

Weekend-watch pick

It is a two-track weekend. If you want a single sitting, Heartstopper Forever is the emotional, nearly-two-hour goodbye, and it pays off best if you have already been with Nick and Charlie. If you want a binge, The East Palace is the call: eight episodes, the best-reviewed title on the board by a wide margin, and the kind of lush supernatural palace drama that rewards a weekend on the couch. Pair the two and you have covered the high and the low of today's drop, with 25 Years of You queued up as a weekly slow-burn for the Mondays ahead.