Netflix changed the game when they shifted from mailing something called “DVDs” to sending the shows straight to our TV back in 2007. They changed it again when they made it clear that they weren’t content to stream other production companies’ movies and TV series — aiming a moonshot at making their own original programming in the hopes that they’d become a dominant studio as well as the spot where you can binge old episodes of Frasier. Make their mark, they did. Within only a few years, they became a powerhouse of original programming, due to a massive budget and the ability to say yes to some unusual ideas that became top Netflix series.
Here are the 40 best original series on Netflix you can watch right now.
Last updated on August 1, 2023.
40. In From The Cold
Year: 2022-present
Cast: Margarita Levieva, Cillian O’Sullivan, Lydia Fleming, Charles Brice, Alyona Khmelnitskaya, and Stasya Miloslavskaya
Genre:Action Thriller, Conspiracy, Sci-Fi
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1: 8 episodes
Created By: Adam Glass
Trailer: Watch here
As you might guess from the le Carre-evoking title, this spy story cares as much about the human pawns as it does the labyrinthine plot. Jenny Franklin has a ton on her plate: she’s newly divorced, has to chaperone her daughter and a bunch of teens on an international trip, and the CIA thinks she’s the legendary Soviet spy nicknamed “The Whisper.” That last part is true, which is good for her because the CIA was going to kill her if she wasn’t. Instead, they offer her an outstanding deal to either help them track down a new assassin or face life behind thick, thick bars. Jenny aka Anya aka The Whisper has little choice but to help them out, but her past quickly catches up with her, complicating her new mission and threatening to end the life she’s built outside of her spy craft. As a bonus, there’s a sci-fi bent that adds a dash of fun to the heart-pounding action.
39. Sex Education
Year: 2019-present
Cast: Asa Butterfield, Gillian Anderson, Ncuti Gatwa, Emma Mackey, Conor Swindells, Kedar Williams-Stirling, Mimi Keene, Aimee Lou Wood, Patricia Allison, Tanya Reynolds, and Mikael Persbrandt
Genre:Comedy, Sex Comedy, Drama, Coming-Of-Age
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-3: 24 episodes
Created By: Laurie Nunn
Trailer: Watch here
After three seasons, this sweet, raunchy comedy hasn’t lost a step. What started as the story of an awkward boy, embarrassed that his mother is a sex therapist, giving sex advice to his classmates has morphed into a gorgeous ensemble of people reaching out to touch someone. Anderson is a phenomenal anchor, of course, but the young cast is outstanding, and the writing manages to navigate the thorniest issues with grace and massive laughs. The show continually proves what our great-grandparents always said: life is tough and sex is funny.
38. The Diplomat
Year: 2023 –
Cast: Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell, David Gyasi, Rory Kinnear, Ali Ahn
Genre: Drama/Thriller
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (8 episodes)
Created By: Debora Cahn
Trailer: Watch here
The Diplomat: Keri Russell isn’t quite an anxiety-provoking spy in this series, but this show does call back her old FX stomping grounds. Here, Russell portrays a career-consumed diplomat who’s also struggling to maintain a complicated marriage. Spy or not, this show still sits squarely within the same meat-and-potatoes, mainstream-appealing arena as the similarly-toned The Night Agent, so expect the binging to happen, along with the nostalgia associated with seeing Russell back on TV.
37. House Of Cards
Year: 2013-2018
Cast: Robin Wright, Michael Kelly, Jayne Atkinson, Corey Stoll, Kate Mara, Kristen Connolly, Rachel Brosnahan, and Mahershala Ali
Genre:Political Thriller
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-6: 73 episodes
Created By:
Trailer: Watch here
It’s been ten years since House of Cards debuted on Netflix, marking a huge shift in what used to be a company that mailed you DVDs of The Mask that you promised to mail back. The incisive political drama offered a cutthroat view of rising to the top, remaining an ugly gem even as it dropped its star Kevin Spacey and turned its focus completely on world-class sociopath (and President) Claire Underwood. It’s a cruel show, and watching it in 2023 only makes it seems less fictional.
36. Big Mouth
Year: 2017-present
Cast: Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Jessi Klein, Jason Mantzoukas, Jenny Slate, Fred Armisen, Maya Rudolph, and Jordan Peele
Genre:Adult Animation, Comedy, Coming-of-Age
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-6: 61 episodes
Created By: Andrew Goldberg, Nick Krolll, Mark Levin, Jennifer Flackett
Trailer: Watch here
Nick Birch and Andrew Glouberman are having a tough enough time navigating 7th grade without the comically horny hormone monsters that live on their shoulders shouting at them to do the most depraved stuff they can dream up. This series is a hilarious ride through puberty’s highs and lows, making huge laughs out of the most awkward time of everyone’s lives. Kroll does heavy lifting by voicing a dozen or so characters, with the rest of the cast a who’s who of comic all-stars. But it’s the absurdist bent that sets it apart from other animated shows about vulgar kids, dropping ridiculous, fantastical manifestations in front of the pre-teens, like the ghost of Duke Ellington and a talking Adderall pill. The kids get “advice” from all kinds of sources, and it’s always ridiculously funny.
35. The Umbrella Academy
Year: 2019-present
Cast: Elliot Page, Tom Hopper, Emmy Raver-Lampman, David Castañeda, Robert Sheehan, Aidan Gallagher
Genre: Action, Drama, Superhero, Sci-Fi
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-3: 30 episodes
Created By: Steve Blackman
Trailer: Watch here
The adaptation of the bombastic comic book from Gerard Way (yes, the dude from My Chemical Romance) and Gabriel Ba continues to unfold in bizarre and fantastical ways. It features a dysfunctional team of supers who were all born of a confounding event wherein 43 women all gave birth at the same time on the same day even though none of them were pregnant. What’s the right response? If you’re eccentric billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves, you adopt a bunch and see what weird powers emerge. It often follows traditional superhero storytelling with villains, fights, time travel, and the combination of cool powers, but it’s consistently transgressive in vibrant, colorful divergences from the tropes that have been burned into our brains by Marvel.
34. Grace and Frankie
Year: 2015-2022
Cast: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Sam Waterston, Martin Sheen, Brooklyn Decker, Ethan Embry, June Diane Raphael, and Baron Vaughn
Genre:Comedy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-7: 94 episodes
Created By: Marta Kauffman, Howard J. Morris
Trailer: Watch here
Grace and Frankie don’t really like each other, but when their husbands announce they’re in love with each other, the two strong-willed ladies are forced to live together and navigate the fallout. While the first season is a little rocky, the show about this thoroughly modern odd couple finds its feet quickly in the second and soars throughout the rest of the very bingeable run. Whoever thought to put Tomlin and Fonda together should get a raise, but it’s also a no-brainer, so it’s shocking that it hasn’t been done like this until now.
33. Godless
Year: 2017
Cast: Jack O’Connell, Michelle Dockery, Scoot McNairy, Merritt Wever, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Kim Coates, Sam Waterston, Jeff Daniels
Genre: Western, Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1: 7 episodes
Created By: Scott Frank
Trailer: Watch here
We’re in a bit of a Western resurgence, and Godless is a major part of dusting off the old tropes. Released the same year as Frank’s Logan (or Western Wolverine), it takes the genre seriously even as it slyly reinvents the wagon wheel. O’Connell plays an outlaw on the run from his crime lord after stealing his loot, taking refuge in a town populated almost entirely by women following the horrific collapse of a mine that killed all the men. Life is nasty, brutish, and short, and now they’ve got a fugitive from a revenge-hungry bastard heading right for them. Every character could be described as not taking no guff from no one, and everyone in this murderer’s row cast understood the assignment. A stellar series where the premise is simple so that everything else can be complicated.
32. The Night Agent
Year: 2023
Cast: Gabriel Basso, Luciane Buchanan, Fola Evans-Akingbola, Sarah Desjardins, Eve Harlow, Phoenix Raei, Enrique Murciano, D.B. Woodside, and Hong Chau
Genre:Action Thriller, Spy, Conspiracy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1: 10 episodes
Created By: Shawn Ryan
Trailer: Watch here
This twisty action show shoots straight as an arrow with its concept and its execution. It’s not trying to reinvent the thriller wheel, focused instead on making the chases, fist fights, and gun play as intense as possible while the hard left turns leave audience jaws on the floor. It focuses on FBI Agent Peter Sutherland, a bomb-finding hero who is assigned to the Tippy Top Top Secret “Night Action” unit where he’s tasked with the pulse-pounding job of answering their phone that barely ever rings. Fortunately, when it does, it draws him deep into a potential conspiracy with a highly-placed mole, a powerful tech entrepreneur, and a horrific plot that they will either thwart or maybe doesn’t actually exist. It’s a fun ride that should come with motion sickness meds for as quicks as the twists come.
31. Santa Clarita Diet
Year: 2017-2019
Cast: Drew Barrymore, Timothy Olyphant, Liv Hewson, Skyler Gisondo
Genre: Horror, Comedy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-3: 30 episodes
Created By: Victor Fresco
Trailer: Watch here
When Sheila Hammond turns into a zombie, she and her family have to figure out how to transition into a slightly more murdery lifestyle. A girl’s gotta eat, right? But beyond the inconvenience of regularly scheduled killings, the biggest change is that Sheila has almost zero impulse control. Great for parallel parking confidence, but bad for just, you know, general living in society type stuff. There’s probably a version of this show that’s gritty and surreal and dominating an alternate universe HBO, but Fresco and the team decided to go super goofy with it, establishing a hilarious series where Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant can smile their way through it all, no matter how much blood is on their business casualwear.
30. The Woman In The House Across The Street From The Girl In The Window
Year: 2022-present
Cast: Kristen Bell, Michael Early, Tom Riley, Mary Holland, Cameron Britton, Shelley Hennig, and Samsara Yett
Genre:Parody, Comedy, Mystery, Thriller
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1: 8 episodes
Created By:
Trailer: Watch here
Anna is mourning a dead daughter and the end of her marriage by drinking entire bottles of red wine and reading twisty thrillers with cliched titles. Then, she drops right into the middle of her own thrilling murder plot when she (maybe) thinks she (possibly) saw her hunky neighbor kill his girlfriend. Since no one trusts our lush hero who mixes pills with booze and hallucinates, she takes it upon herself to solve the crime. That might not have happened. Clearly drawing send-up inspiration from Gillian Flynn novels and their copy cats (including Netflix’s own movie The Woman In The Window), Bell offers a fantastic performance of deadpan brilliance.
29. Arcane
Year: 2021-present
Cast: Hailee Steinfeld, Ella Purnell, Kevin Alejandro, Katie Leung, Jason Spisak, Toks Olagundoye, Harry Lloyd, JB Blanc, Reed Shannon, and Mick Wingert
Genre:Animation, Steampunk Adventure
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: Seasons 1: 9 episodes
Created By: Christian Linke, Alex Yee
Trailer: Watch here
It’s Top Siders versus Undercity in this boundary-pushing animation set in the League of Legends universe. Boasting some knockout art style and a compelling story of revenge and magic, Arcane fills in that video game world unforgettable characters and difficult choices. Vi and Jinx are sisters, but they’re caught in a citywide conflict about to boil over, and they’re being pulled in far different directions. Even though represents a potential future for video game tie-in shows, it’s easily accessible to those who’ve never played a minute, and, as she’s proven with the Spider-Verse, Steinfeld is a stellar voice acting talent.
28. You
Year: 2018-present
Cast: Penn Badgley, Elizabeth Lail, Zach Cherry, Shay Mitchell, Victoria Pedretti
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-3: 30 episodes
Created By: Greg Berlanti, Sera Gamble
Trailer: Watch here
The hit show that dares to ask the question: “Is it okay for me to like this?” Based on Caroline Kepnes book series, the show stars Badgley as a handsome, charismatic stalker sometimes named Joe who…we’re supposed to root for? It’s gross and manipulative and so, so, so compelling. It’s Talented Mr. Ripley run through the romance ringer where the narrator’s voice in our heads is the man of many names who should really be in prison. The magic of the series is in watching this American psycho get away with following his worst impulses while surrounded by an enthusiastic cast of characters (some of whom are just as bad as he is). The fourth season lands February 9th, and it very well could run as long as “Joe” can. Even then, jail probably wouldn’t put an end to the show’s potential.
27. Beef
Year: 2023
Cast: Ali Wong, Steven Yeun
Genre: Dramedy
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (10 episodes)
Created By: Lee Sung Jin
Trailer: Watch here
Road rage: it doesn’t pay. Resist it at all opportunities, but do watch this A24 series that made waves as one of the best shows of the year so far. One flip of the bird transforms two dissatisfied lead characters’ lives into sheer madness while Ali Wong and Steven Yeun feed us the full spectrum of human emotions. These two went through virtual hell (and their bodies paid the price) while they filmed this project, which is also a lesson in not eating random berries, no matter what. That’s two valuable life lessons in one show, and somehow, the show delivers an adrenaline-fueled ride share that you won’t be able to stop watching, so carve out some binging time.
26. Lupin
Year: 2021-present
Cast: Omar Sy, Ludivine Sagnier, Clotilde Hesme, Soufiane Guerrab
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1: 10 episodes
Created By: George Kay, Francois Uzan
Trailer: Watch here
Slick, smart, twisty. This French riff on the iconic thief did most of its heavy lifting by casting Sy, who has perhaps never been in the Bond conversation because he’s too cool. In Lupin, he plays a second-generation Senegalese immigrant named Assane Diop who is gifted an Arsene Lupin book by his father — a humble man who is wrongly arrested for stealing a valuable diamond necklace, leading to his committing suicide in prison. The show weaves heists into an ongoing tale about Assane trying to get revenge while balancing his complicated personal life. With directors like Louis Leterrier behind the camera, the series is a fun crime spree with a lead worth cheering on.
25. The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Year: 2015-2019
Cast: Ellie Kemper, Tituss Burgess, Carol Kane, Jane Krakowski, Daveed Diggs
Genre: Comedy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-4: 52 episodes
Created By: Tina Fey, Robert Carlock
Trailer: Watch here
After 30 Rock, everyone wanted to know what Tina Fey and Robert Carlock would do next. Their follow-up concept couldn’t have been further from the sketch show writer’s room. It takes a world-class comedic brain trust to turn a childhood victim of kidnapping and sister wife brainwashing into belly laugh gold. Kimmy missed out on her youth, attacked by Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne (Jon Hamm) and locked in a bomb shelter with several other women until they’re all rescued as adults. Now, she’s trying to adjust to the modern world with the curiosity and mind of a middle schooler. Fortunately, even though New York City is a hell of a town, she has human firework show Titus and cranky landlady Lillian to guide her toward independence.
24. Emily In Paris
Year: 2020-present
Cast: Lily Collins, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Ashley Park, and Lucas Bravo
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-3: 30 episodes
Created By: Darren Star
Trailer: Watch here
While shows about men breaking bad and doing crime end up at the top of the Best Of All-Time list, it’s important to remember that delightful things can be the best things, too. Emily is single, she’s in Paris, and everyone on the show is absurdly attractive. It’s a potent foundation for a lot of fun. Maybe there’s a little heartbreak thrown in for good measure, but that’s all balanced out by the champagne and flirtation. Maybe it makes fun of French stereotypes too much (an American tradition since we first forgot we couldn’t have won the Revolutionary War without them), but it’s a quirky romantic spree with postcard cinematography and a plucky lead who owns the spotlight.
23. Dead To Me
Year: 2019-2022
Cast: Christina Applegate, Linda Cardellini, James Marsden, Max Jenkins, Natalie Morales, and Ed Asner
Genre:Black Comedy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-3: 30 episodes
Created By: Liz Feldman
Trailer: Watch here
When Jen’s husband is killed in a hit-and-run, she befriends the free-spirited Judy at a grief support group. Their bond grows through their individual losses, a great sense of a humor, and a helpful lack of knowledge that Judy is the hit-and-run driver who killed Jen’s husband. A sunny black comedy ensues, careening straight through a police procedural and a masterclass in going off the rails in a good way. Applegate and Cardellini are magic together, and the show gets funnier and funnier the tenser it gets.
22. Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
Year: 2022-present
Cast: Even Peters, Richard Jenkins, Molly Ringwald, Niecy Nash, Penelope Ann Miller, and Michael Learned
Genre: True Crime, Thriller
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1: 10 episodes
Created By: Ryan Murphy, Ian Brennan
Trailer: Watch here
Debate rages about how shows glorify serial killers and the question of making a true crime dramatization that may harm living victims and their families. Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story is at the heart of that debate, and while each viewer’s moral mileage will vary, the series is still a powerful showcase of Peters’ acting talent as one of the most famous killers in American history. It’s a gruesome tale, and the deep dive into the muck here pulls zero punches in delivering us perhaps too close into the mind of a monster. Yet it also presents cases of investigative malpractice and police incompetence — a fascinating antidote to the Law & Order worship of quick and perfect actors in the justice system. Monster dramatizes those failures to apprehend Dahmer up through his eventual conviction and aftermath.
21. Bridgerton
Year: 2020-present
Cast: Adjoa Andoh, Julie Andrews, Nicola Coughlan, Regé-Jean Page, Jonathan Bailey, Phoebe Dynevor
Genre: Regency Romance, Historical Fiction
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-2: 16 episodes
Created By: Chris Van Dusen
Trailer: Watch here
Courtship. Is. War. Stamped with the Shondaland pedigree, Bridgerton has the plot of a ’90s teen rom-com in the bodice of a Regency era romance. Oh, and a little Gossip Girl thrown in for good measure in the form of Lady Whistledown’s hand-delivered rumor rag. Festooned with all the gorgeous costuming and set decoration befitting something of its high title, the show focuses on Daphne Bridgerton, a young woman newly presented to society but deemed unworthy of marriage. She strikes up a mutually beneficial deal with the highly sought-after Duke of Hastings, who both agree to pretend to be attached to each other to solve their problems. But will it develop into something real?
20. Midnight Mass
Year: 2021
Cast: Hamish Linklater, Zach Gilford, Kate Siegel, Rahul Kohli, Annabeth Gish
Genre: Horror, Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1: 7 episodes
Created By: Mike Flanagan
Trailer: Watch here
Mike Flanagan had tried to get Midnight Mass made since the earliest part of his career, keeping the passion project alive first as a fictionalized novel in his movie Hush, and then using the fake book as an Easter egg in other projects like Gerald’s Game. When he finally got the chance to tell the tale, he nailed it right to the church door. Brimming with his continual obsession with “hauntings,” Flanagan’s series focuses on a declining island where a slew of strange things start happening when a cagey priest rides into town. Pro tip: if hundreds of dead cats show up on a beach after a weird priest shows up, get out of town. At least for a little while. Take everyone who will listen with you.
19. Orange Is The New Black
Year: 2013-2019
Cast: Taylor Schilling, Laura Prepon, Kate Mulgrew, Uzo Aduba, Natasha Lyonne, Samira Wiley, Dascha Polanco, Laverne Cox, Diane Guerrero
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-7: 91 episodes
Created By: Jenji Kohan
Trailer: Watch here
The original hit is still one of the best Netflix has to offer. Kohan’s Weeds follow-up delved into deeper into the world of crime by jumping inside a woman’s prison. A bit of a Trojan Horse, the show initially focused largely on Schilling’s character — a middle class white woman who was in prison on a kind of fluke — but quickly morphed into an ensemble piece about women from all backgrounds and walks of life. Based on Piper Kerman’s memoir, the series continually pushed boundaries, utilizing a format which gave us deeper and deeper backstories into dozens of prisoners that layered a tight, complex plot about these people who all had to live together against their own will. They found love, hate, violence, and grace while rattling their cages.
18. Unsolved Mysteries
Year: 2020 –
Genre: True crime documentary
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 3 (21 episodes)
Trailer: Watch here
This revival recently cracked a cold case with hopefully more to come with this true-crime bread and butter that remains impossible to ignore. These quietly-executed episodes stay compelling like the original while inviting audience participation by anyone who has clues on how to solve these crimes. The ghost of former full-time host Robert Stack looms large, and in the end, this revival feels both fresh and faithful to its predecessor.
17. Master of None
Year: 2015-2021
Cast: Aziz Ansari, Eric Wareheim, Noel Wells, Lena Waithe, Kelvin Yu, Alessandra Mastronardi, and Naomi Ackie
Genre:Comedy, Drama, Rom-Com
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-3: 25 episodes
Created By: Aziz Ansari, Alan Yang
Trailer: Watch here
Dev is a struggle actor whose biggest hit so far is a yogurt commercial, and he’s making his way through the New York City dating scene with mixed results. Luckily, he’s got great friends who love to eat pasta almost as much as he does. It’s a simple, tried-and-true concept maybe masterful by Ansari’s singular comic style, a stellar supporting cast, an unreal list of guest stars, and an experimental vibe that’s willing to send the entire show to Italy for the second season just for kicks. Just like its lead character (and presumably Ansari himself), the series is whimsical and, delightfully, can’t sit still.
16. Russian Doll
Year: 2019-present
Cast: Natasha Lyonne, Greta Lee, Charlie Barnett, Elizabeth Ashley, Chloe Sevigny
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Urban Fantasy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-2: 15 episodes
Created By: Natasha Lyonne, Leslye Headland, Amy Poehler
Trailer: Watch here
This show is an absolute delight. A harsh-lipped riff on Groundhog Day where a snarky software engineer keeps dying at her 36th birthday party. Honestly, the start of your late 30s can feel that way. She, appropriately, freaks out before using her seemingly infinite lives (all restarting in a bathroom to an infectious Harry Nilsson jam) to figure out what the hell is happening. Then she meets a man experiencing the same thing. The show’s unique blend of comedy, nihilism, and personal tragedy is a tightrope walk of perfection that the whole team manages episode after episode. Like other repeating day stories, it’s about righting wrongs, but Russian Doll does it with both a towering sense of glee and a big middle finger stuck high in the air.
15. Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story
Year: 2023
Cast: India Amarteifio, Corey Mylchreest, Golda Rosheuvel
Genre:Drama/History/Romance
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (6 episodes)
Created By: Shonda Rhimes
Trailer: Watch here
Unlike with The Witcher, this spinoff enhances and is arguably even better than the original series. We get a different focus upon Shondaland’s corset-filled, 19th century soap opera of a world when the series travels back in time to take in Charlotte’s origin story as portrayed by India Amarteifio, along with regular visits with Golda Rosheuvel as her present-day incarnation. It’s heartbreaking to know how this couple turns out in later life (Corey Mylchreest steps in as the younger version of King George), but at least we’ll always have that Snorting Habit to bring some relief.
14. Black Mirror
Year: 2011-present
Cast: Annie Murphy, Salma Hayek, Himash Patel, Michael Cera, Zazie Beetz, Aaron Paul, Josh Hartnett, and Kate Mara
Genre:Black Comedy, Sci-Fi, Horror
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-6: 27 episodes
Created By: Charlie Brooker
Trailer: Watch here
For years, Black Mirror has imagined a world emerging from our own, exploring the wonders of technology, and gleefully displaying the profound torture it will bring us. The newest series is sure to divide (doesn’t it always?), but the show is pushing its own boundaries and testing limits, especially as it dives deeper into classic-feeling horror. Not only is the very first episode still available to shock your new in-laws with, series 6 features a woman whose crummy life seems to be the basis of a streaming show, a documentary project that turns hard left into true crime territory, a pair of astronauts in orbit using robotic doubles back on Earth, and a one-two punch of horror-tinged tales.
13. Narcos/Narcos: Mexico
Year: 2015-2017/2018-2021
Cast: Wagner Moura, Boyd Holbrook, Pedro Pascal, Michael Pena, Diego Luna
Genre: Drama, Crime, Biographical
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-3: 30 episodes/Seasons 1-3: 30 episodes
Created By: Chris Brancato, Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro
Trailer: Watch here
There are few outlaw figures in the modern era we’re more obsessed with than Pablo Escobar. The drug lord with the biggest mug shot smile of all time has been the subject of tons of books, movies, and TV shows, but the crime drama Narcos is at the top of the powdery heap. Escobar (played with fantastic intensity by Wagner Moura) faces off against rivals and the DEA while trying to expand his cocaine market dominance through brutal terrorist acts. The show, and its companion series Narcos: Mexico shifts smartly beyond Escobar to explore other drug reigns over a combined 6 seasons of pulse-pounding genius. It’s a good show to watch before you try your hand at the global illicit drug trade because it’ll convince you to take up kite flying or literally anything else.
12. American Vandal
Year: 2017-2018
Cast: Tyler Alvarez, Griffin Gluck, Jimmy Tatro
Genre: Mockumentary
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-2: 16 episodes
Created By: Dan Perrault, Tony Yacenda
Trailer: Watch here
The most important question of the last ten years: who drew the dicks? Parodying Serial might have been simple in a sketch comedy kind of way, but the team behind American Vandal went all in to create a full series focused, first, on the drawing of 27 penises on cars in the faculty lot of a public high school and, then, on the truly corruptive act of putting laxative in a Catholic school’s cafeteria lemonade. The temptation to wink throughout both seasons must have been excruciating, but everyone involved never flinches as they treat these sophomoric pranks with the deadly seriousness of overturning a wrongful murder conviction.
11. The Sandman
Year: 2022 –
Cast: Tom Sturridge, Gwendoline Christie, Boyd Holbrook, Patton Oswalt, Mason Alexander Park, Kirby Howell-Baptiste
Genre: Fantasy, comic book adaptation
Rating: TV-MA
Seasons: 1 (11 episodes)
Created By: Neil Gaiman, David S. Goyer, Allan Heinberg
Trailer: Watch here
A second season of this series will one day arrive to deliver more breathtaking glory, and Neil Gaiman’s legion of fans will be ready after waiting three decades for this deserving adaptation of his lugubrious comic book series. Tom Sturridge plays Morpheus in all of his angular glory, and Kirby Howell-Baptiste is pitch-perfect as Death. Gwendoline Christie’s Lucifer Morningstar is on par with the other Gaiman version rolling around on Netflix (in Lucifer, starring Tom Ellis, obviously), and Patton Oswalt was destined to voice Matthew the Raven. That’s only the beginning of the ensemble cast who really brings it, so enjoy this gorgeous tapestry infused with mythology, which floats in like a Dream. “The Sound Of Her Wings” turned out to be the most beautiful TV episode of 2022, too.
10. GLOW
Year: 2017-2019
Cast: Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin, Marc Maron, Chris Lowell, Sydelle Noel, Kate Nash
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-3: 30 episodes
Created By: Liz Flahive, Carly Mensch
Trailer: Watch here
Way, way back in the 1980s, Ruth Wilder was an inch away from giving up on her dream of becoming an actress. She was broke, cheating with her friend’s husband, and then she was drawn like a moth to the flame of a vague audition. A last chance. If she’d known what it was for, she probably wouldn’t have gone because it was for a rinky dink wrestling show angling for an F- grade from OSHA. Inspired by the real-world creation of Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, this show gave a safe place to a dozen weirdos all looking for a tribe. And health work-life balance. Sometimes you only get to pick one. It’s hilarious and heartfelt, unleashing the intense pressure these women are under as kinetic energy in the ring. Plus, any show with a Rocky IV-esque robot with drugs inside it is an automatic winner.
9. Maid
Year: 2021
Cast: Margaret Qualley, Nick Robinson, Anika Noni Rose, Tracy Vilar, Billy Burke, Andie MacDowell
Genre: Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1: 10 episodes
Created By: Molly Smith Metzler
Trailer: Watch here
Stephanie Land’s memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and a Mother’s Will to Survive opens with the line, “My daughter learned to walk in a homeless shelter.” It’s an unflinching look at the strain of poverty, the hatred baked into the red tape system of public assistance, and the struggle to bring up a child when you can’t afford to take care of yourself. The series based on the book carries that unflinching spirit, led by an outstanding performance from Margaret Qualley as a young woman fleeing with her toddler from an alcoholic, abusive partner with no money in her pocket and almost no options. She gets a job cleaning houses, and the daily struggle continues. And continues. And continues.
8. Wednesday
Year: 2022-present
Cast: Jenna Ortega, Gwendoline Christie, Riki Lindhome, Emma Myers, Hunter Doohan, Christina Ricci
Genre: Comedy, Horror, Drama, Supernatural
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: Seasons 1: 8 episodes
Created By: Alfred Gough, Miles Millar
Trailer: Watch here
The Addams Family has existed for almost a century, and who could have guessed that the morbid family that first graced issues of The New Yorker would one day go viral for a limb-bending dance sequence on a Netflix show? This series is a huge hit because it focuses in on a single member of the family — offering the scene-stealing Wednesday a chance to lead her own YA horror show — and because Jenna Ortega is a blast in the role. She’s creepy. She’s kooky. She’s altogether ooky. Stuff all that into a winning YA formula of a private school for special/weird kiddos, mix in some nostalgia bombs, set it all to a Danny Elfman score, and you’ve got a show that’s more fun than burning down a summer camp.
7. Ozark
Year: 2017-2022
Cast: Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Sofia Hublitz, Skyler Gaertner, Julia Garner
Genre: Drama, Crime
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-4: 44 episodes
Created By: Bill Dubuque, Mark Williams
Trailer: Watch here
Here’s the deal: there are a lot of crime shows on this list. There are a lot of crime shows on television. We love watching people commit crimes — especially big ones that dominate their entire lives and continue on for years and years as they evade capture and death. What makes Ozark special is how the Byrde Family all pull their weight when they have to relocate from Chicago to Missouri to expand a money laundering scheme. It’s miraculous that they kept the plates spinning so fast for four full seasons, performing a circus act of deception and violence that made for hellaciously dramatic television. Bateman (him?) is fantastic in the against-type role, and Linney commands every scene, whether they’re butting heads with low level criminals or the, no kidding, Kansas City Mafia.
6. Squid Game
Year: 2021-present
Cast: Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, HoYeon Jung, O Yeong-su, Wi Ha-joon, Heo Sung-tae
Genre: Drama, Survival, Thriller, Horror
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1: 9 episodes
Created By: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Trailer: Watch here
It’s easy to see the young woman from Maid being targeted to play the Squid Game. Another series exploring the cruelty heaped upon impoverished people, the South Korean phenom features a group of people all trying to survive a sadistic game show for the pleasure of the wealthiest business people from around the globe. The smirking design of children’s games where you can get shot by a giant doll or tug-of-warred off a high ledge is deviously clever, but the appeal of the show goes far beyond the plot concept. Seong Gi-hun offers us a man to root for, cheering this broken divorcee with a gambling addiction who only wants to get enough money to buy his daughter a nice birthday present. That sweet instinct lures him into a horrorscape of late night fights, fallen friends, and an ever-growing piggy bank of cash.
5. The Queen’s Gambit
Year: 2020
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Harry Melling, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Bill Camp
Genre: Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1: 7 episodes
Created By: Scott Frank, Allan Scott
Trailer: Watch here
Elizabeth Harmon is so cool that I wish chesswere a real game. All jokes aside, this show is whip smart and turned an ancient game into a global powerhouse of popularity. Starting in her troubled years as an orphan, the limited series, which one 11 Emmys including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, follows Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy) as she discovers a natural gift for chess and develops it to international acclaim while her home life with adopted parents collapses. A colorful cast of characters flows in and out of her life as she finds a home and a giant mountain of sexism inside the professional chess world. It cruises through the cool styles of the 1950s and 1960s while making chess a sexy clash of big intellects. It’s addictively easy to binge and will have you hooked before you can even Google “En Passant.”
4. Cobra Kai
Year: 2018-present
Cast: Ralph Macchio, William Zabka, Courtney Henggeler, Xolo Maridueña, Tanner Buchanan, Mary Mouser, Jacob Bertrand, and Peyton List
Genre:Comedy, Drama, Martial Arts
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: Seasons 1-5: 50 episodes
Created By: Josh Heald, Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg
Trailer: Watch here
This is the show that may have single-handedly made people stop rolling their eyes when a legacyquel project gets announced. A follow-up to Karate Kid? All these years later? Guess what. It works. So, so well. Even though it stays true to many of the same themes as the original movies (the haves and have nots, pride through humility, waxing both on and off), the show puts its two leads through the paces of midlife crises. Karate isn’t the only answer to their issues, but it gives them an excellent discipline to orbit, and both Macchio and Zabka prove that they should have had much bigger careers in the intervening years.
3. The Crown
Year: 2016-present
Cast: Claire Foy, Olivia Colman, Imelda Staunton, Matt Smith, Tobias Menzies, Jonathan Pryce, Vanessa Kirby, Helena Bonham Carter, Lesley Manville, John Lithgow, Gillian Anderson
Genre: Historical Drama
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-5: 50 episodes
Created By: Peter Morgan
Trailer: Watch here
It’s hard to overstate the scale of ambition it takes to produce a show about 8 decades of Queen Elizabeth II‘s life. Somehow, through the clatter and acclaim and scandal, Morgan and a seasoned cast have made it happen. At least, they’re five seasons in, up through the 1990s, with still a little ways to go, but so far the results are impeccable. From the ashes of WWII through Thatcher and Princess Diana, the show has been a jaw-dropped that always edged slightly more toward soap opera salaciousness than historical truth. The results are magnificent, crafting a through line of history that offers fascinating context once it lines up with people and places we recognize from our own childhoods and beyond. A peerless life, drawn in lush costuming, high drama, and memorable performances.
2. Stranger Things
Year: 2016-present
Cast: Millie Bobby Brown, Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Natalia Dyer, Charlie Heaton, Noah Schnapp, Joe Keery, Sadie Sink
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Rating: TV-14
Runtime: Seasons 1-4: 34 episodes
Created By: The Duffer Brothers
Trailer: Watch here
Somehow the Duffer Brothers found a Nostalgia Tree and tapped it, letting flow raw, pure nostalgia into a giant tin bucket before dumping it over all of our heads. Naturally, we couldn’t stop asking for more. The series where a group of Dungeons and Dragons-loving kids have their fantasy monster game spill out into real life has evolved since the early days of little science experiment/orphan Eleven telekinetically fighting back against bullies. They’ve grown up a bit, had hearts broken, and explored places as wild as Soviet gulags and the food court at the mall, all while staying true to a wicked 1980s aesthetic that clashes with the muddy hellscape of the Upside Down. It’s a fun ride unafraid to shred Metallica while the monsters close in, and still the best advertisement for frozen waffles.
1. BoJack Horseman
Year: 2014-2020
Cast: Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, Paul F. Tompkins, Aaron Paul
Genre: Black Comedy, Drama, Satire, Surreal Animal Pun Delivery Service
Rating: TV-MA
Runtime: Seasons 1-6: 77 episodes
Created By: Raphael Bob-Waksberg
Trailer: Watch here
One of the best (if not the best) television show of the 21st century, it’s impossible to describe the tonal balance of all human emotion to be found in a cartoon show about a talking horse who used to be the star of a wholesome ’90s sitcom who’s trying to claw his way back to relevance in Hollywoo. It is a show about fame, about addiction, about found families, about trust, about life, the universe, and everything. Couched in the colorful world of talking animals and world-class puns, it’s impossibly silly while presenting the depths of depravity of a broken man. No show is as funny or as sad, and beyond its sarcasm and sorrow, several episodes experimented with form in a way almost no other series would dare to even conceive. An absolute all-timer.
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