Streaming services are known for having award-worthy series but also plenty of duds. Our guide to the best TV shows on Netflix is updated weekly to help you know which series you should move to the top of your queue. They aren’t all surefire winners—we love a good less-than-obvious gem—but they’re all worth your time, trust us.
Feel like you’ve already watched everything on this list that you want to see? Try our guide to the best movies on Netflix for more options. And if you’ve already completed Netflix and are in need of a new challenge, check out our picks for the best shows on Hulu and the best shows on Disney+. Don’t like our picks or want to offer suggestions of your own? Head to the comments below.
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Long Story Short
Adult animation is awash with family sitcoms—The Simpsons, Family Guy, Bob’s Burgers, on and on—but they’re all stuck in the perma-present, mixing outlandish events with a never-changing status quo. Not so for Long Story Short, the latest series from BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg. The show follows the thoroughly pedestrian antics of the Schwoopers, jumping between the 1950s and 2020s as it does so. As it ricochets through the lives of parents Naomi and Elliot, and their children Avi, Shira, and Yoshi, it proves itself as a series that balances finding comedy in the mundane—from chaotic bar mitzvahs to anniversaries-turned-interventions—with Waksberg’s penchant for the poignant woven throughout, all brought to life by a fantastic voice cast including Ben Feldman, Abbi Jacobson, and Nicole Byer. Already renewed for a second season, this is one story Netflix hasn’t cut short.
Hostage
With the UK in the midst of a health crisis, prime minister Abigail Dalton (Suranne Jones) is keen to strike a deal for medicine from French president Vivienne Toussaint (Julie Delpy)—standard politics, until Dalton’s husband Alex (Ashley Thomas), a doctor working with Medicins san Frontieres, is kidnapped in French Guiana. With the kidnappers demanding the PM’s resignation, the professional and the personal dangerously blur, while a conspiracy threatens Toussaint’s own position. Tense and masterfully paced, and with striking performances from Jones and Delpy, this five-episode limited series is an excellent political thriller to binge.
Wednesday
After spending the summer honing her psychic powers by tracking down serial killers, Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega) returns to Nevermore Academy—but this school year is more of an Addams Family reunion. With her mother, Morticia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), drawn into an onsite committee role by suspicious new principal Barry Dort (Steve Buscemi), brother Pugsley (Isaac Ordonez) joining the school after developing electric powers, and eccentric Grandmama (Joanna Lumley) turning up, Wednesday barely has a chance to investigate a new string of murders or a conspiracy surrounding a shady psychiatric hospital. The perils of the show’s protracted three-year gap between seasons is hard to overlook in places—Pugsley now towers over Wednesday, explained as a growth spurt, and you’ll almost certainly need to rewatch the first season to remember what’s going on—but this is a welcome return for Netflix’s spooky, ooky teen drama.
Love, Death + Robots
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