In the mood for a true-crime doc? Comedy? Drama? Look no further than our picks of the best Netflix shows
Netflix has a treasure trove of different genres in movies but when looking for more than just two-hour commitment, it’s got endless of great TV series to keep you occupied for days or even weeks on end.
Now Netflix becomes one of the go-to platforms for entertainment in worldwide because of the lockdown, with its seemingly endless stream of content. Every day with new titles appearing on the site.
If you just finished a good series and need a new one to fill the void, Netflix is the place to go, given the administration’s exceptional mix of great, current, and unique programming. Below, we’ve gathered together the best shows on Netflix right now:
1. Breaking Bad (9.5 IMDb) – In addition to being one of the best TV shows to tackle the drug theme with the highest rating 9.5, the captivating story of Walter White is also widely considered one of the best shows to ever hit the small-screen, period. One of the most critically acclaimed and highly rated series of all time, AMCs show about a struggling high school chemistry teacher (Bryan Cranston) who turns to a life of crime with former student Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul) has earned countless awards (including 16 Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes) and it’s not hard to see why.
From Cranston and Paul’s astounding performances to the riveting storytelling, Breaking Bad is a must-see show. All five seasons of the lauded series are currently available for streaming on Netflix.
2. Avatar: The Last Airbender (9.2 IMDb) – The Last Airbender felt revolutionary when it aired back in 2005. When it comes to children’s animated TV shows at the time, the goal was to simply continue the story for as long as humanly possible, so the stories had no end built-in. The Fairly OddParents, Rugrats, Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius, and particularly Nickelodeons biggest hit ever, SpongeBob SquarePants are as episodic as animated shows get, and they follow the number 1 unspoken rule of sitcoms: things can’t change and people can’t be content. The moment this becomes untrue, the show ends, and there’s no more money to get out of it. But The Last Airbender featured an epic story told continually across 3 contained seasons.
In a war-torn world of elemental magic, a young boy reawakens to undertake a dangerous mystic quest to fulfill his destiny as the Avatar, and bring peace to the world.
3. When They See Us (8.9 IMDb) – Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they’re falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park.
The “Central Park Five,” as these boys became known, are the subject of Netflix’s hit true crime-based miniseries, When They See Us. Created by esteemed director Ava Duvernay (Selma, 13th), the series aims to tell the story of the boys’ wrongful incarcerations from their perspectives the perspectives that were so rarely seen during the media storm that surrounded their trials and convictions.
The shows’ success highlights the genre’s power to shape public perception. But if the series is a viewer first or only exposure to the Central Park case, parts of what happened that night are missing.
4. Stranger Things (8.8 IMDb) – When a young boy vanishes, a small town uncovers a mystery involving secret experiments, terrifying supernatural forces, and one strange little girl.
The show takes place in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana in the early-to-mid 1980s.
Stranger Things had already claimed a viewership record with the streaming service, with 40.7 million households watching, according to its in-house calculations. Perhaps more impressive than that, Netflix also claimed that 18.2 million subscribers had already gotten through all eight episodes of the new season in its first four days alone. Stranger Things audience count continued to expand, and it raked in a whopping 64 million views and making it the most-watched season of a Netflix original so far.
5.Peaky Blinders (8.8 IMDb) – In the aftermath of WWI, Britain is a hotbed for despair, and criminal acts as returning soldiers, regular citizens, and local gangs fight for survival amid economic upheaval. This drama set in 1919 centers on the infamous Peaky Blinders gang led by Thomas Shelby (Cillian Murphy), a war hero who aspires to someday go legitimate. His daily operations are threatened by the arrival of Inspector Chester Campbell, a hotshot out of Belfast looking to rid Britain’s streets of the rampant crime.
Peaky Blinders has received praise for its writing, acting, visuals, and stylish cinematography. The show has been particularly celebrated for its stylish cinematography and charismatic performances, as well as for casting an eye over a part of England and English history rarely explored on television.
6. Black Mirror (8.8 IMDb) – Black Mirror is a British television anthology series created by Charlie Brooker that features speculative fiction with dark and sometimes satirical themes that examine modern society, particularly concerning the unanticipated consequences of new technologies
The first two seasons of the series were produced by Zeppotron for Endemol. The show was first broadcast on Channel 4 in 2011. In September 2015, Netflix commissioned a third season of 12 episodes. The commissioned episodes were later divided into two seasons of six episodes; the third season was released on Netflix worldwide on 21 October 2016. The fourth season was released on 29 December 2017, followed by a special Bandersnatch that was released on 28 December 2018. The fifth season was released worldwide on 5 June 2019.
The first series has been praised as being creative and shocking with twists-in-the-tale reminiscent of The Twilight Zone. Michael Hogan of The Daily Telegraph described the first episode, “The National Anthem”, as “a shocking but ballsy, blackly comic study of the modern media”.
7. Dark (8.8 IMDb) – Netflix’s Dark, an intriguing sci-fi series that’s been labeled with an unfair comparison to Stranger Things, weaves a complex, time-traveling mystery throughout its 10-episode first season. The show opens in 2019 and introduces a large group of characters, only to begin a series of flashbacks to two other periods: 1953 and 1986. That means that while you’re trying to solve the mystery of where when Mikkel Nielsen disappeared to, the pool of characters is only widening and getting more confusing.
All of this is to say that Dark is a fun watch that left me thinking less about what it means to be human and more what it means to be a creature constrained by the boundaries of space and time. It’s beautiful, mysterious, and a little bit maddening, and you’d want to take in every little second of the show even if it wasn’t in German with English subtitles because every aspect of it matters.
8. The Haunting of Hill House (8.7 IMDb) – Netflix’s horror series, The Haunting of Hill House, uses Shirley Jackson’s famous novel as a road map to explore this house-as-body metaphor, and it does so with profound and precise tenderness. Creator and director Mike Flanagan crafts a wholly unique haunted-house fable abandoning the books paranormal investigation plot using the hollow halls of a disordered mansion to tell the story of the disordered family who lives there.
The hidden ghosts of Hill House aren’t nameless spooks trapped between spiritual realms; they are personal manifestations for the people they haunt, visual aids for the truths they must accept and vanquish. It’s not a paranormal story so much as a meditation on the distinct way grief and trauma maim the living. And it is scary as hell.
9.Mindhunter (8.6 IMDb) – Mindhunter, the Netflix drama based on the true story of the man who pioneered the science of profiling serial killers, you’re probably wondering just how much of it is true. The shows fictional profiler, FBI agent Holden Ford, makes reference to infamous criminals like Charles Manson and David Berkowitz, but what about the other serial killers who appear on the show? Is Wayne Williams a real person? Where the good guys inspired by actual FBI agents? Below, we separate fact from fiction to explain what’s real and what isn’t in Mindhunter.
So, enter special agent Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff), an up-and-coming FBI agent who truly, desperately wants to understand the psychology of these seemingly unknowable killers, and older agent Bill Tench (Holt McCallany). The pair travel the country teaching local police officers what they know about the new brand of murderers popping up nationwide, while also trying to understand the threat themselves. Eventually, the men will come in contact with more serial killers than they expected, leading to the kind of drama one would expect from a made-for-Netflix-binges series like Mindhunter.
10.Queer Eye (8.5 IMDb) – As a spin-off of the television series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Netflix’s version of Queer Eye makes over heroes of all genders and backgrounds, from the liberal mayor of a small town to a teacher who has a deep relationship with her son and her church. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry. It’s a show that’s definitely worth the watch.
The show is a re-vamp of a previous incarnation that aired in the early 2000s. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was first created in 2003, won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Reality Programme in 2004, and continued for five series until the show finally ended in 2007.
Fast forward 11 years and Netflix has brought back Queer Eye for an eight-episode run, with an all-new Fab Five on hand to help the men of Georgia, USA.
Together, they are the Fab Five. Apart, the cast of Netflix’s Queer Eye is just as successful. Jonathan Van Ness, the grooming expert, became Essie’s’ first male ambassador, later coming out as nonbinary. In his free time, Van Ness practices ice skating and hosts his podcast, Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness.
The Fab Five is the name for the group of men who lead the show, appearing in each episode offering up their expertise. The group is made up of Karamo (an expert in culture), Tan (an expert in fashion), Jonathan (an expert in grooming), Bobby (an expert in interior design) and Antoni (an expert in cooking.)
11. After Life (8.5 IMDb) – After Life tells a familiar story. A bitter man, this time hardened by the untimely death of his wife, lashes out at a world he believes isn’t worth living in until he opens himself up to the possibility of new and different happiness. He stubbornly clings to his caustic words and attitude until he finally can’t, or maybe more significantly, doesn’t want to. It’s a redemption story, sure; but more than that, it’s a story about learning to live with clarity and compassion even when doing so feels completely impossible.
What makes After Life so fascinating is that this version writer, director, and the star is Ricky Gervais. Since creating The Office and Extras, Gervais has cultivated a public persona of defiant candor that hell often say makes him a person non grata in Hollywood, although he has hosted the Golden Globes four times and signed a lucrative deal with Netflix that so far includes two stand-up comedy specials, three movies, and now, After Life.
