Netflix set its late-spring/summer release schedule on Monday (March 2) morning, setting premiere dates for a slew of specials, returning favorites and new shows.
The highest profile of the launch dates is the June 12 drop for Season 3 of “Orange Is The New Black,” which has emerged as an Emmy favorite and a SAG Awards winner since the second season hit last June.
Although Season 3 will be premiering on June 12, “Orange Is The New Black” will, once again, be submitting for Emmy consideration a season behind. Netflix will also have an important decision on its hands with new Emmy regulations superficially defining comedies as half-hour series and hour-longs as dramas.
Netflix will have to specially petition if the streaming service wants “Orange” to be up for the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy for the second straight year. “Orange” will also suffer in the newly redefined Guest Acting categories, since Uzo Aduba won last year for a performance that wouldn't have been eligible this year because Aduba appeared in more than half of the Season 1 episodes. [As a cast regular in Season 2, Aduba was going to be in the Supporting Actress field this year anyway, but presumably there are other actresses with recurring gigs that Netflix had hoped to submit for guest consideration this time around.]
“Orange” will be preceded by a nebulous May premiere for the post-apocalyptic drama “Between,” as well as a June 5 premiere for “Sense8,” a sci-fi drama from Andy and Lana Wachowski.
The last of Netflix's series premiere announcements is the much discussed rebirth of “Wet Hot American Summer.” Subtitled “First Day of Camp,” the “WHAS” series will launch on July 17. The eight-episode Netflix companion to the 2001 cult favorite film will add Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Jon Hamm and Jason Schwartzman to an already star-studded cast.
Netflix also announced that the comedy special “Chris D'Elia: Incorrigible” will drop on April 17, followed by “Jen Kirkman: I'm Gonna Die Alone (And I Feel Fine)” on May 22.
The Sundance Film Festival opener “What Happened, Miss Simone” will premiere on June 26, but you can already see my review here.
In case you've forgotten, other upcoming Netflix premieres include:
“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” – March 6
“Bloodline” – March 20
“Marvel's Daredevil” – April 10
“Grace and Frankie” – May 8
“Crouching Tiger: The Green Destiny” – August 28