We’ve added three new shows to our list of the best TV series on Netflix right now, and if you squint really hard, you can pretend that at least two of them exist in the same universe. The Diplomat is rolling after an acclaimed third season, which furthers the story about the conspiracies plaguing the United States government and the political sleight of hand used to keep it all hush hush, and the new animated series Splinter Cell: Deathwatch is an espionage thriller based on the popular Ubisoft video game series. Are we pretending that The Diplomat‘s Kate Wyler makes a decision that sends Splinter Cell: Deathwatch‘s Sam Fisher into the field? Yes we are.
Plus, Netflix has recently added the third season of AMC’s excellent thriller Dark Winds to its library. The drama about Navajo Tribal Police officers is set in the 1970s, decades before either of those other series, but it’s certainly got enough intrigue to pair well with them.
This list is weighted toward the best shows to watch on Netflix right now, which means recently released Netflix Originals take priority, though you’ll find legacy Netflix shows further down the list. These are only the most relevant and worthwhile shows to watch on Netflix.
Last updated Oct. 29; newer additions are at the top.
The Diplomat
The Diplomat has become Netflix’s smartest and most entertaining political drama over its three-season run, and Season 3 may be its best yet. The show follows Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), an American diplomat who becomes the ambassador to the United Kingdom and becomes embroiled in some conspiracies that go all the way to the top. Just as complicated is her marriage to her husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell), a politician willing to do anything for his job, even if it destroys his relationship with Kate. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
Splinter Cell: Deathwatch
Even though we’ve overcome the curse of video game TV adaptations being hollow and uninspired cash grabs (thank you Fallout and Season 1 of The Last of Us!), I’m still surprised when one comes along and is pretty good. Netflix, in particular, has been good with its animated vidya adaptations (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Castlevania, etc.), and its latest, Splinter Cell: Deathwatch, continues that trend. Ubisoft’s stealth espionage game starring the company’s best known character not named Lara Croft gets turned into a paranoid action thriller with Liev Schreiber voicing the enigmatic (and now almost geriatric) superspy Sam Fisher, a man who can get into any building without so much as making a squeak, yet always leaves it guns a-blazin’ or snapping necks in hand-to-hand combat. Deathwatch nails the action and adds a solid conspiracy story on top of it, and it’s all told with a perfectly serious tone that doesn’t belittle the gaming audience. If this were live-action and on dad-show central Prime Video, it would be a massive hit, but it should still be popular for a niche audience. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
Dark Winds
The great Zahn McClarnon leads AMC’s under-the-radar thriller Dark Winds, based on Tony Hillerman’s Leaphorn & Chee novel series. McClarnon plays Leaphorn, a Navajo Tribal Police officer in the 1970s grieving a personal loss while investigating twisted cases that always seem to put him in harm’s way. He’s joined by Kiowa Gordon as Chee, his new deputy, and Jessica Matten as Bernadette, a razor-sharp sergeant. Dark Winds is a consistently likable and tense mystery series that’s capable of gorgeous detours into the surreal; a third season episode that finds Leaphorn hallucinating while fighting for his life in the desert is a series highlight. And it’s worth noting that the late Robert Redford is among its executive producers. Redford’s last on-screen role was a cameo appearance in Season 3; look for him playing chess opposite his fellow executive producer George R.R. Martin. –Kelly Connolly [Trailer]
Interview with the Vampire
Interview with the Vampire — which TV Guide named the best show on TV in 2024 — is a wholly unique experience: a deeply felt romantic drama combined with Grand Guignol vampire horror. A reimagining of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles novels, the series follows Louis de Point du Lac (Jacob Anderson) through over 100 years of his afterlife as he recounts his life story to cynical journalist Daniel Molloy (Eric Bogosian): his relationships with volatile Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid), who turned him into a vampire, and caring Armand (Assad Zaman), as well as his surrogate daughter, Claudia (Bailey Bass in Season 1 and Delainey Hayles in Season 2), who is cursed to be 14 forever. Anytime Interview with the Vampire has the opportunity to go for it, it takes it. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Alice in Borderland
Alice in Borderland, adapted from the manga series of the same name, follows Arisu (Kento Yamazaki) as he finds himself in an alternate Tokyo where most humans have disappeared. He has no idea what happened, but must enter the mysterious competitions in order to earn “visas” that will prevent him from being executed. Along the way, he crosses paths with Usagi (Tao Tsuchiya), a rock climber who becomes Arisu’s partner in figuring out what is going on. -Kat Moon [Trailer]
Black Rabbit
Jason Bateman (who also directs the first two episodes) and Jude Law star in this gritty New York City crime thriller as two brothers who own a nightlife hotspot and are in serious financial trouble. As they try to come up with the cash to pay off the very dangerous people they owe, their toxic, codependent bond threatens to bring them down together. It’s very intentionally trying to be Ozark meets Uncut Gems. It’s very imperfect, but it’s watchable; the tension never lets up and the cinematography is great. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Orphan Black
This sci-fi series starts when Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany) witnesses the suicide of a woman who looks exactly like her. She assumes the woman’s identity — she was a detective — and discovers that they’re both clones. They were made as part of a secret, illegal program, and there are many more of them throughout the world — and someone is after them. It’s a Canadian-made series that premiered in 2013 on BBC America stateside. Maslany won an Emmy in 2016 for her performance, which is really five-plus totally distinct performances. If any show deserved to get a Netflix bump a decade later, it’s this one. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Long Story Short
The new animated comedy from BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg follows the three adult siblings of the Schwooper family— Avi (Ben Greenfield), Shira (Abbi Jacobson), and Yoshi (Max Greenfield) — as they face the ups and downs of life and look back at their very religious Jewish upbringing. “The point of Long Story Short is to depict, through the prism of one multigenerational family, nothing less than the breadth of human experience: the raising of children, the evolving relationships with siblings, the struggles with spirituality, the decisions to build and unravel marriages, and the trauma we unwittingly inflict on the people we love the most,” Jen Chaney writes in her rave review. —Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Wednesday
From Stranger Things to K-Pop Demon Hunters, most of Netflix’s biggest hits are at least somewhat unexpected. When Wednesday premiered in 2022, everyone expected it would be successful, thanks to star Jenna Ortega’s charismatic performance as droll teenage goth Wednesday Addams and director Tim Burton’s knack for finding his own whimsically macabre take on old material (in this case, The Addams Family). But no one expected that it would become Netflix’s biggest English-language show ever. Ortega’s dance number had to go viral on TikTok for that to happen. The show follows Wednesday as she investigates murder mysteries at her Hogwarts-like school while navigating life as a social outsider. -Liam Mathews [Trailer | Review]
WWE: Unreal
This pro wrestling documentary series does something unprecedented: it breaks kayfabe, which is the illusion that everything that happens in and around the ring is real. It takes fans behind the scenes and even inside the WWE’s writers’ room, which would have been unthinkable even a few years ago, when the company was still run by now-disgraced former chairman Vince McMahon. But now Triple H is in charge of content, WrestleMania is on Netflix, and things are different. Because here’s the thing: even though wrestling isn’t “real,” the people putting on the show are. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
The Hunting Wives
What if The Real Housewives of Dallas were killers? That’s something like the premise for this sexy, scandalous soap. Brittany Snow stars as Sophie, a woman who moves from Cambridge, Mass. — where Harvard is, of course — to Texas, where she falls in with a friend group of rich and intimidating housewives, led by Margo (famously Swedish actress Malin Akerman). They seem fun at first, but they have dark secrets they’ll do anything to keep hidden. The cast also includes Jaime Ray Newman, Chrissy Metz, and Dermot Mulroney. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Mr. Robot
Mr. Robot, the Emmy-winning cult hit hacker thriller, stands to make its cult a lot bigger now that it’s on Netflix. For the past 10 years, Robot fans have been making the claim that creator Sam Esmail’s paranoid and prescient thriller is one of the best shows of the 2010s, with a unique cinematic style, great performances (especially from Rami Malek as disaffected computer hacker Elliot Alderson), and topical sociopolitical themes that are still relevant today. It’s never too late to join fsociety and bring down sinister corporation Evil Corp. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Squid Game
Who remembers playing childhood games for fun on the playground? Who remembers playing them FOR YOUR LIFE? The unexpected hit Korean drama Squid Game is more the latter, as a group of people in bad need of money are taken in by a secret organization that has them play games — like Red Light, Green Light — for money. The catch? They lose, they die. Violently. What separates this from something like Saw is the humanity given to the characters. You’ll care about some of these people… and then they will die. It’s Netflix’s biggest show; scratch that, it’s the world’s biggest show. All three seasons are now streaming. –Tim Surette [Trailer | More shows like Squid Game]
Blindspot
This action series that premiered on NBC in 2015 and ended in 2020 is the latest old show to enjoy a Netflix bump. Jaimie Alexander stars as a woman who wakes up naked in a duffel bag in Times Square with no memory of who she is or how she got there. Her body is covered in tattoos, each one of which represents a different clue to solving the mystery of who she is and the conspiracy she’s part of. She’s helped by FBI Agent Kurt Weller (Sullivan Stapleton), who later becomes her husband. It ran for five seasons and exactly 100 episodes, and features some of the most fun action ever seen in primetime. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Dept. Q
This detective drama comes from The Queen’s Gambit creator Scott Frank. It transports the psychologically-driven police procedural style of Nordic noir to Edinburgh, Scotland, where prickly detective Carl Morck (Matthew Goode) has been put in charge of a ragtag cold case unit. As they investigate the case of a lawyer (Chloe Pirrie) who vanished without a trace four years earlier, the members of the squad face down their own demons. It’s a slick, well-executed mystery that looks great and has a great cast of characters, including motormouthed deputy Rose Dickson (Leah Byrne) and stoic investigator Akram Salim (Alexej Manvelov), who was a policeman in Syria before he fled to Scotland. Scott Frank is one of the best at stuff like this. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Sirens
Rising stars Meghann Fahy (The White Lotus Season 2, Drop) and Milly Alcock (House of the Dragon, the upcoming Supergirl movie) star in this darkly funny limited series about money, class, and family from Maid creator Molly Smith Metzler. Fahy plays Devon, who stayed in gritty Buffalo taking care of her father (Bill Camp) while her sister Simone (Alcock) went off and started a new life working as the assistant to an eccentric, New Age-y billionaire, Michaela (Julianne Moore, in prime high-strung Julianne Moore mode), where she keeps her humble roots hidden. When their father’s health takes a turn for the worse, Devon travels to Michaela’s beachfront estate to try and get Simone to come home and help. But when she gets there, she finds cult-like conditions and realizes that Simone might actually need her help, loathe as she is to give it. And she finds herself drawn into Michaela’s intoxicating chaos. Sirens is a sharp dramedy that’s like a beach read in the best possible way. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Forever
An adaptation of Judy Blume’s book of the same name, Mara Brock Akil’s Forever tells the story of two athletes becoming each other’s first love. The series is directed by Regina King and stars Lovie Simone and Michael Cooper Jr. as the lead characters Keisha Clark and Justin Edwards, respectively. The young adult romance has excitement, agony, confusion, passion — all the feelings that come with a first love. -Kat Moon [Trailer]
The Four Seasons
Tina Fey is the main draw to this grown-up comedy series — she co-created it and stars in her first regular TV role since 30 Rock — but she’s just one member of a stacked ensemble that also includes Academy Award nominees Colman Domingo and Steve Carell (you probably forgot Steve Carell is an Oscar nominee, but he is!). They’re all members of a group of college friends who take quarterly vacations together, and the series follows them over the course of a tumultuous year. It’s different than Fey’s usual joke-packed style, and has more in common with the well-heeled, middle-aged milieu of Nancy Meyers, but it’s a smart, funny, and unexpected series overall. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
You
You is one of Netflix’s most successful pickups (the first season aired on Lifetime; 2018 was a different time), and arguably one of the streaming service’s signature shows. Over the course of five seasons, the darkly funny and highly creepy psychological thriller follows Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgely), a very sick man who stalks women and will kill to keep his secrets hidden. Joe has gone from New York to L.A. to the Bay Area to London and back to New York, where it all began, for the fifth and final season. It’s one of the smartest and darkest dramas on Netflix. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Black Mirror
This dystopian sci-fi anthology is one of Netflix’s longest-running shows. Over the course of 14 years and seven seasons (and counting), Black Mirror
Love on the Spectrum U.S.
This heartwarming series is an American edition of the Australian reality documentary series following the dating lives of people on the autism spectrum. Like the original, the U.S. version is empathetic and deeply moving as it follows these lovable young people on their journeys to find love. Over the course of three seasons, you’ll become incredibly invested in their journeys. It won the Emmy for Outstanding Unstructured Reality Program in 2022. It’s maybe the least exploitative reality show ever made. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Adolescence
It’s still to be determined whether this four-episode British drama will be considered one of the best shows of the year, but it certainly will be one of the most technically impressive. The series about a 13-year-old boy who is accused of the murder of a classmate was filmed in four hour-long, single-take shots — no cutaways, no camera tricks — adding tension and deeply exploring the process of the justice system (as well as how long it takes to get from the suspect’s home to the police station). Prolific character actor Stephen Graham, who co-created the series with equally prolific writer Jack Thorne, stars, and Philip Barantini directs. -Tim Surette [Trailer]
Running Point
Kate Hudson stars in this Mindy Kaling-produced comedy series as the ambitious yet overlooked Isla Gordon, who becomes president of the fictional NBA team the Los Angeles Waves after a scandal forces her brother (Justin Theroux) to resign. It’s sort of like if Shiv Roy got dropped into a Ted Lasso situation. The Other Two‘s Drew Tarver also stars. It’s already been renewed for a second season. –Allison Picurro [Trailer]
Cobra Kai
It’s hard to believe that a series following the lives of Johnny (William Zabka) and Daniel (Ralph Macchio) from The Karate Kid would be as good as Cobra Kai is, but there’s some sort of indescribable magic going on that makes it work. Following up on Johnny in the present day, Cobra Kai wonders what would happen if his rivalry with Daniel continued into their adult lives, culminating in them creating their own karate dojos where a new generation of martial artists fight for respect, rumble with their parents, and get into love triangles. The show’s self-awareness holds everything together, but it’s the twisting (albeit predictable) plot that makes it so bingeable. The complete six-season run is now on Netflix. -Tim Surette [Trailer]
Surviving Black Hawk Down
This three-part docuseries goes deep inside what really happened during the 1993 Battle for Mogadishu, a disastrous military operation that was dramatized in Ridley Scott’s 2001 film Black Hawk Down. With candid interviews with surviving Army Rangers, actual footage, and dramatic reenactments, Surviving Black Hawk Down plays out like an action-packed psychological thriller, getting into the minds of those who were there. But what really sets this apart — and makes amends for what the movie missed — are the interviews with Somalis, including fighters and innocent bystanders, who complete the picture of the horrific incident. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
Sweet Magnolias
This special brand of small-town drama is a fan favorite for its coziness, following the daily goings on of female friends Maddie (JoAnna Garcia Swisher), Helen (Heather Headley), and Dana Sue (Brooke Elliott) in the made-up town of Serenity, South Carolina. Expect some obstacles — but nothing too over the top — as the women navigate big and small issues with romance, careers, and family. It goes down like a cold glass of sweet tea. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
Mo
Ramy fans don’t need an introduction to comedian Mo Amer, and they probably won’t need any introduction to Mo, either. But for everyone else (is there anyone else?), here’s the scoop: This two-season Netflix comedy, created by Amer and Ramy Youssef and produced by A24, stars Amer as Mo Najjar, a Palestinian refugee living in Houston with his family and hustling to support them. If you like Ramy, you’ll like this, and if you don’t like Ramy, you haven’t watched it. –Kelly Connolly [Trailer]
The Night Agent
TV creator Shawn Ryan has produced some great shows — The Shield, Timeless, Terriers — and while his latest, The Night Agent, might not be on the same level of his other hits, it’s an easy binge that stays in Ryan’s lane. The political action-thriller is based on Matthew Quirk’s book, following a low-level FBI agent who mans a secret phone line in the basement of the White House. His job is a bore… until the phone rings! Then it’s all about uncovering a conspiracy that goes — say it with me — all the way to the top. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
XO, Kitty
Return to the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before Cinematic Universe (the TATBILBCU) with this series spun off from the hit Netflix films. XO, Kitty, created by Jenny Han (who also wrote the books that inspired the movies), follows Kitty Covey (Anna Cathcart) as she moves to Seoul to attend the same boarding school her late mom went to. It doesn’t hurt that her long-distance boyfriend, Dae (Choi Min-young) goes there, too. But when that relationship hits a snag, Lara Jean’s younger sister has to figure out what she really wants. –Kelly Connolly [Trailer]
Virgin River
Do you like it your TV to feel like one long Hallmark movie? If that’s the case, you should know that few other shows are currently doing that better than Virgin River. In this adaptation of the novels by Robyn Carr, Alexandra Breckenridge stars as Mel, a nurse practitioner from Los Angeles who, after having her heart broken one too many times, starts a new life in a remote Northern California town. As these things go, she quickly meets Jack (Martin Henderson), a bartender who makes her want to love again. This show really has everything: long lost twin brothers, bombshell pregnancies where it’s a mystery who the father is, and main characters getting shot by mysterious gunmen. -Allison Picurro [Trailer]
Black Doves
Keira Knightley picked a good show for her first TV series. She stars as Helen, a deep cover spy working for a private espionage agency known as the Black Doves. When her lover is murdered, she goes on a mission to find out who did it and why, and if she’s next. Helping her and protecting her is Sam (Ben Whishaw), a professional assassin with demons of his own. Black Doves is a slick, darkly funny thriller that makes great use of Knightley and Whishaw’s considerable charms. -Liam Mathews [Trailer | Review]
A Man on the Inside
For his first show since The Good Place, star comedy writer-producer Michael Schur linked back up with one of the stars of that beloved series, Ted Danson. Their reunion is only natural, because Schur is fond of saying that Danson is the greatest TV actor of all time, so why wouldn’t he want to work with him again? Danson stars as a lonely widower who takes a job working for a private detective (Lilah Richcreek Estrada) on a special assignment. He has to go undercover as a new resident of a retirement community in order to find out what happened to a missing ruby necklace. What he really finds, however, is a community. It’s a sweet and poignant comedy inspired by the Oscar-nominated Chilean documentary The Mole Agent, which you can also find on Netflix. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Nobody Wants This
The producers knew what they were doing with this rom-com’s ironic title. Two of TV’s most likable actors, Kristen Bell and Adam Brody in lead roles supported by scene-stealers like Timothy Simons, Justine Lupe, Sherry Cola, and Tovah Feldshuh? A culturally specific story — in this case, an agnostic woman falling in love with a Hot Rabbi — that feels fresh? Genuinely funny jokes? A pleasant atmosphere where the drama isn’t overly dramatic but not so low-stakes that it feels meaningless? A pace that moves so fast you’ll say “wait, they’re doing this already?” Everybody wants this. That’s why it’s already been renewed for a second season. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Outer Banks
The golden-hued adventure drama Outer Banks is one of Netflix’s most popular teen shows, and one of the only ones that isn’t supernatural (though there are fantastical elements like buried treasure). They grow up in Season 4, though, as there’s a plotline that revolves around paying property taxes. What’s the point of finding buried treasure if you have to pay taxes on it?! The complete fourth season is on Netflix now, and it’s already been renewed for a fifth and final season. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Detroiters
I think you should leave… whatever you’re watching and binge Tim Robinson’s excellent sitcom Detroiters, one of the greatest products of Comedy Central’s golden era of the 2010s. Detroit native Robinson and real-life bestie Sam Richardson star as Detroit natives and besties Tim and Sam, who are the creatives at a small-time advertising firm in the Motor City. I said “bestie” twice in the previous sentence because it’s important to hammer home that the series is all about the duo’s friendship, an unconditional bromance that’s as wholesome as their adventures are wacky. Don’t worry, you’ll get some snippets of Robinson’s uber-popular sketch series I Think You Should Leave in Detroiters as Tim hatches ridiculous schemes, gets trapped in awkward situations, and screams, but it’s the kindness and diversity of Detroiters that really makes it work. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
Penelope
This coming-of-age series, which comes from Mel Eslyn and Mark Duplass, follows disillusioned 16-year-old Penelope (Megan Stott) as she heads into the Washington wilderness to find herself and hug some trees. It’s a quiet series about finding yourself, sort of like a YA Into the Wild, and it’s the self-reflection and calmness of the show that makes it such a treasure in a day when the loudest shows make the most noise. The slow shots of the Pacific Northwest will make you want to pack a rucksack and hop on the nearest freight train to wherever fate takes you. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
The Perfect Couple
Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson) was about to have the wedding of the season. She’s marrying into the richest family on Nantucket, and her future mother-in-law Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman) is known to be the hostess with the mostest. But planning for the celebration comes to a halt when a dead body appears on the beach. Amelia, along with the Winburys, find themselves in the middle of an investigation that threatens to uncover far more than the truth behind the death. Also joining the star-studded cast are Liev Schreiber, Billy Howle, Dakota Fanning, and Meghann Fahy. –Kat Moon [Trailer]
A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder
If there’s anything the BBC does well, making engrossing thriller shows is it — and A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, which has been licensed to Netflix in the U.S., is the latest solid example of this phenomenon. This story follows a teen girl (Wednesday‘s Emma Myers) who gets in over her head investigating a murder that happened five years earlier that everyone else thought had been solved. This is the sort of vibey and intense mystery that sucks you all the way in. -Phil Owen [Trailer]
Bridgerton
Since the start of Bridgerton, Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan) has harbored feelings for Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton). Season 3 finally explores this friends-to-lovers relationship, and make Penelope — who is secretly Lady Whistledown — the subject of her own gossip column. Bridgerton is based on Julia Quinn’s historical romance novels, and the first two seasons chronologically followed the love stories in the original titles. Season 3 skips the third book, An Offer From a Gentleman, which is focused on Benedict Bridgerton (Luke Thompson), and adapts the fourth, Romancing Mister Bridgerton. It’s #Polin time. –Kat Moon [Trailer]
Geek Girl
Based on the YA novel by Holly Smale, Geek Girl is a modern-day fairy tale about an awkward high schooler (House of the Dragon‘s Emily Carey) who goes from pushover to makeover when she’s discovered by a modeling agency and makes a splash in the business. It’s an easy-breezy series that has a positive message about being yourself, and thanks to some enlightening depictions of neurodiversity — Carey’s Harriet is never labeled as autistic, but there are certainly indicators that she is — it’s more important than some of its peers. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
Evil
If your definition of prestige television isn’t big enough for a streaming procedural about exorcism, Evil will change that. Robert and Michelle King’s supernatural drama returned for its fourth season May 23 on Paramount+, but if you don’t have Paramount+ and you do have Netflix, this is your chance to catch the first two seasons. Evil — which stars Katja Herbers, Mike Colter, and Aasif Mandvi as a trio of investigators looking into claims of demonic activity on behalf of the Catholic Church — is sublimely cool, using its case-of-the-week formula to tell barbed parables about modern anxieties, all while having more fun than anything else on TV. The cast, which also includes Michael Emerson as our heroes’ gleeful antagonist, nails Evil‘s tricky, off-kilter tone, which dances between winking playfulness and the creeping sense that something is really wrong here. On Evil, it ultimately doesn’t matter whether the shadow in the corner is a demon or it’s all in your head. What matters is that you can’t look away. –Kelly Connolly [Trailer] [More shows like Evil]
Baby Reindeer
Based on a true story that was turned into a stage play by creator and star Richard Gadd, Baby Reindeer follows a middling stand-up comedian named Donny (Gadd) whose chance encounter with a lonely woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning) turns his life into a nightmare. The series is about more than just a stalker, though. The second half of Baby Reindeer details Donny’s experience as a victim of grooming and sexual abuse by a TV writer who promises to further Donny’s career, and how that informs all aspects of his life — from his evolving sexuality to his difficulties with intimacy, and even his relationship with Martha. –Tim Surette [Trailer] [More shows like Baby Reindeer]
Parasyte: The Grey
This South Korean sci-fi horror TV series from Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho is a live-action spin-off of the manga by Hitoshi Iwaaki, and depicts all the awful things that happen when parasitic organisms from outer space come to Earth and turn humans into killing machines. What’s more, all sorts of disgusting tentacles and tendrils pop out of the host bodies’ heads like jack-in-the-boxes. The story isn’t too complicated, but the action sequences will keep you glued to the screen. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
Ripley
What if the story of The Talented Mr. Ripley was depicted as it truly is: a chilling tale of a sociopath whose lust for deviancy leads to a murdering spree? Creator Steven Zaillian takes Patricia Highsmith’s story and turns it into a polar opposite of the popular 1999 Matt Damon and Jude Law movie, filming everything in stark black and white and spending more time getting in the head of con man Thomas Ripley (played exquisitely by Andrew Scott) while he heads to Italy to convince a wealthy layabout to return home to America at the request of the father. Ripley has divided viewers, with some saying Scott is too old and the pacing is too slow, but I loved the tension and the careful character examination. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
3 Body Problem
Netflix’s biggest new series in a long time is this adaptation of Cixin Liu’s epic sci-fi novel from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and True Blood‘s Alexander Woo. Set across multiple timelines and in different countries, 3 Body Problem is a global thriller about scientists attempting to thwart an impending alien invasion. Unlike its peers in the genre, 3 Body Problem is heavily rooted in science, and the invasion will take 400 years to arrive, so it plays with theoretical solutions rather than building a big gun. Though its heady approach is not for everyone, you should at least watch through Episode 5 to see what happens to a boat carrying pro-alien cultists. It’s rad. –Tim Surette [Trailer] [Review]
Girls5eva
One of TV’s best comedies of the 2020s had the distinct disadvantage of being a Peacock original, but with a new life on Netflix, it’s turning in some of its best work ever. Girls5eva follows a semi-successful ’90s girl group that tries to make a comeback in the 2020s, with age, a changed entertainment business landscape, and a disinterested population getting in the way. It’s produced by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock and created by Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt‘s Meredith Scardino, so it’s packed with rapid-fire jokes and has its sights dead set on pop culture. The main cast — Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Busy Philipps, and Paula Pell — is phenomenal, and a steady stream of well-known guest stars and original songs keep it fresh. Both Peacock seasons are now on Netflix, as is an all-new Netflix-exclusive Season 3. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
Warrior
Warrior is a breakthrough in Asian representation on the screen, but that’s just a bonus of this action drama that’s reaching a new audience on Netflix after a quiet life on Cinemax and Max. Based on the writings of Bruce Lee and brought to the screen by his daughter Shannon, Warrior‘s depiction of the Tong Wars in San Francisco in the late 1800s is appropriately gruesome and takes more turns than Lombard Street, showing a time, place, and people that television somehow always overlooks. It’s Peaky Blinders with an added layer of racial issues. It’s Gangs of New York with more flying kicks. But it’s also wholly original as a story of immigrants making their way in a country that only barely tolerated them and fighting back against that hatred. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
One Day
True love doesn’t happen overnight, despite what romantic dramas would lead you to believe, and in this adaptation of David Nicholls’ book, it takes decades. Leo Woodall and Ambika Mod will make you believe in love at 1000th sight, as we follow Dexter (Woodall) and Emma (Mod) on one day each year from the late ’80s to the ’00s, with all the ups and downs in between. The 14-episode limited series may seem intimidating at first, but the abbreviated run times (about 30 minutes each episode) make this a breezy binge. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
Boy Swallows Universe
Australian author Trent Dalton’s debut book Boy Swallows Universe gets adapted for Netflix in this seven-episode limited series that’s for anyone looking for a coming-of-age story with a dash of crime and a warm heart. It follows Eli Bell, a young teenager whose mom is a former drug addict, stepdad is a heroin dealer, brother is mute, and father is in prison, as he stumbles into a life of crime to help out his family. Despite that setup, it’s a warm family drama with plenty of humor to keep it humming. Look out for strong performances from Travis Fimmel and Phoebe Tonkin, as well as a star-making turn for young Felix Cameron. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
Blue Eye Samurai
Netflix is on a hot streak with animation — just look at the next few entries on this list — but the best of the bunch might be Blue Eye Samurai, a French-American co-production about a half-white half-Japanese female samurai (Onna-musha) in 17th century Japan on a quest for vengeance against four men. The critically acclaimed series features the voice talent of Maya Erskine, Darren Barnett, Masi Oka, George Takei, and Brenda Song. It ain’t for kids though; in addition to digit-severing violence, there’s nudity that would make your mom blush. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
Sex Education
There are so many coming-of-age television series out there, but few are as brazenly honest and endearing as this one. The comedy, which just completed its fourth and final season, is a raunchy-on-the-outside and sweet-on-the-inside charmer about a teen boy who inadvertently becomes his school’s go-to sex therapist. The series explores teen sexuality in a refreshingly non-judgemental, authentic way, and it posits that whether you’re the most popular kid in school or the outcast eating lunch alone, there’s a universal and terrifying confusion in growing up that can be made more manageable by a supportive community and communication. Plus, Gillian Anderson co-stars as Otis’ eccentric divorcée mom, who is an actual sex therapist and has a house full of phallic statues, which is just a lot of fun. -Allison Picurro [Trailer]
Heartstopper
This cute and gentle British teen drama is based on a webcomic-turned-graphic novel that’s beloved by fans of romantic coming-of-age stories. Heartstopper follows Charlie Spring (Joe Locke), an openly gay secondary school student who develops an unlikely friendship with Nick (Kit Connor), a jock with a kind heart who invites Charlie to join the rugby team. And their friendship just might be developing into something more. It’s a sweet little show that keeps some comic book-inspired stylistic flourishes. Fans of the comic, and teen drama in general, will love it. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
Never Have I Ever
Mindy Kaling’s warm, wickedly funny spin on a classic high school comedy stars Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Devi Vishwakumar, a high achiever desperate to reinvent herself after the sudden death of her father (Sendhil Ramamurthy, joining the ranks of TV’s hot dads even in flashbacks). As she navigates a love triangle and denies the depth of her grief, short-tempered Devi’s inner life is narrated, hilariously, by tennis legend John McEnroe. Who knew we all needed to hear John McEnroe say “thirst trap”? The series also ends with solid finality; Devi doesn’t tiptoe around her feelings. –Kelly Connolly [Trailer]
I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
Sometimes what you want is to see your id, your most base animal instincts, the unhinged thoughts you definitely have but rarely voice, reflected on screen. You may or may not remember Tim Robinson from his time on Saturday Night Live; honestly, they didn’t really know what to do with him over there, and in retrospect it’s clear that what he needed was something of his own where he could really let his freak flag fly. That’s I Think You Should Leave in a nutshell! It’s a madcap roller coaster of a sketch series that features Robinson playing a host of weirdo characters with big personalities and strong convictions about things that don’t really matter, such as his highly memeable hot dog mascot who refuses to admit he was the one who crashed his car into a storefront. Like anything that’s really, truly hilarious, it’s sort of impossible to describe. You just have to watch it to understand. -Allison Picurro [Trailer]
Beef
This meaty dark comedy stars Steven Yeun as a troubled contractor and Ali Wong as a seemingly-has-it-all entrepreneur whose lives collide when they get into a road range incident. Each determined not to let the other get the upper hand, they embark on a battle of wills as their personal lives crumble around them. Yeun is fantastic in this, and the endless parade of unfortunate circumstances that force both of them into their laser-eyed focus on destroying each other is a nice bit of schadenfreude. Who knew hate could be so fun? This is in the conversation of the best Netflix originals ever. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
Stranger Things
Stranger Things is Netflix’s biggest show. Season 4 is out in its entirety after being divvied up into two lengthy parts and setting streaming records, adding a new villain, new characters, and new locations. But you’re here to hang out with your old friends, like Steve. You rule, Steve! -Tim Surette [Review | Trailer]
Peaky Blinders
Peaky Blinders is one of the defining shows of the era when Netflix was ascendant — its first season came out the same year as House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black — and now it’s over. The sixth and final season of the Netfflix/BBC collaboration is now streaming, alongside the previous five seasons. It’s a stylish crime drama starring Cillian Murphy as antihero Tommy Shelby, the leader of the titular gang consisting of his relatives, as they rise to the top of the criminal underworld in interwar Birmingham. The costumes are glamorous, the anachronistic PJ Harvey-heavy soundtrack is cool, and the supporting performances from big stars like Tom Hardy and Anya Taylor-Joy are entertaining. If you never got around to Peaky Blinders, there’s no reason to not start now. -Liam Mathews [Trailer]
The Baby-Sitters Club
There’s a tween girl inside all of us who just wants to watch a charming show about young girls trying to start a baby-sitting business. Embrace your inner Emily or Jayden or Madison and watch The Baby-Sitters Club, a true safe space in a world that wants to keep you down. Season 2 adds a few more members to the club, but the care to flesh out all its characters is still there. –Tim Surette [Trailer]
