There’s more TV now than ever. That’s good news, but it’s also terrible news because it means that finding something you actually want to watch is also more difficult than ever. There’s great stuff on every streaming service, including Netflix, but the problem isn’t always finding great stuff, it’s choosing the best stuff to actually sit down and watch.
We all know, though, that decision fatigue is a real problem in the streaming era, and you can wind up spending more time scrolling than streaming. Thankfully, we’ve got your back. This list of the best shows on Netflix should give you plenty to watch without scrolling through anything at all. You can also check out our list of the best Hulu series, best Amazon Prime series, best Disney+ series, and best Netflix movies after you’ve made best web series to watch through the series listed below.
Squid Game (2021)
One of the top web series to watch. A true international phenomenon, Squid Game is a dark story that is originally in Korean but also available with English dubs. The show follows a group of strangers who participate in a series of kids games with a deadly twist, and discover that only one of them is going to make it out alive.
Arrested Development (2003)
Netflix top web series following the largely despicable Bluths, a very wealthy family who finally discover that their wealth has been founded on lies and deceit after their patriarch is arrested, Arrested Development is one of the best comedies in TV history. Seemingly the only sane one in the family, Michael Bluth must attempt to keep everyone else above water as their way of life crumbles around them. This shows features some of the most quotable lines in comedy history, and Netflix even revived it for a more recent run.
The Great British Baking Show (2010)
Many competitive food shows tend to feature intense, cut-throat culinary challenges, but The Great British Baking Show is the exact opposite of that. This lovely Netflix cooking show is full of sweet treats and calming British accents, all set amid the beautiful English countryside. This is one of the best web series to watch on netflix.
Wednesday (2022)
Best web series on netflix, web series on netflix is this. After a minor indiscretion at her “normie” school—releasing flesh-eating piranhas into a pool of swim-team bullies—the dismal doyenne of the Addams Family is sent to the imposing monster boarding school of the Nevermore Academy. Initially desperate to escape the horror high school cliques—goths are vampires, jocks are werewolves, and stoners are gorgons—and her alarmingly peppy roommate, Wednesday is soon drawn into a prophecy dating back decades, and a murder mystery that incriminates her own family.
Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities
If the recent release of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio has left you wanting more, this delectably dark anthology of macabre tales is the perfect follow-up. Taking cues from the likes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents or The Twilight Zone, del Toro himself introduces each episode, with stories including classic horror shorts, Lovecraftian adaptations, and original concepts. A rogue’s gallery of directorial talent—Vincenzo Natali, Ana Lily Amirpour, Catherine Hardwicke, and Keith Thomas among them—draws viewers into these strange worlds where monsters inevitably lurk, and while each grisly slice of horror allows directors to showcase their individual cinematic talents, the series is unified by del Toro’s signature approach to physical effects and prosthetics. Expect shambling masses of demonic tentacles, ravenous rats, and ancient sepulchres aplenty, all rendered magnificently in one of Netflix’s most visually mesmerizing—if frequently unsettling—new shows in years. One of the top web series on netflix.
Inside Job
Moon landings? Fake. Reptoids orchestrating world politics? Real. Welcome to cognito, Inc—a shadow organization covering up every outlandish conspiracy you’ve ever heard of. This animated workplace comedy with a twist focuses on hyper-competent but socially awkward Reagan Ridley, reluctantly partnered with the all-American, people-pleasing goofball Brett Hand. After the first season saw Reagan’s alcoholic ex-agent father stage a coup to take control of Cognito, the new crop of episodes flips the script, with Reagan and her irresponsible coworkers—including a half-dolphin supersoldier and a sentient psychic mushroom from Hollow Earth—staging a counteroffensive and partnering with Cognito’s archrivals: the Illuminati. Expect more weird science, shadowy elites, and even swordfights in the rain with Keanu Reeves as Inside Job.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
While the core Cyberpunk 2077 game from developer CD Projekt Red divided audiences when it launched in 2020, this adaptation instead strikes gold on its first try. Almost like an animated Breaking Bad, Edgerunners follows an enterprising teenager named David Martinez, whose promising life in the futuristic, corporate-controlled Night City collapses after his mother dies in a random act of violence. Unlike Breaking Bad though, David has the benefit of an advanced cybernetic implant that grants him bursts of superhuman strength and speed, and with the aid of Lucy, a netrunner living on the outskirts of society, he begins rising through the ranks of the criminal underworld. Dynamically animated by Studio Trigger—the Japanese studio behind anime masterworks Kill la Kill and BNA: Brand New Animal—Edgerunners is an exquisite exploration of corruption
The Sandman
The Sandman is one of the most beloved comic series of the past 40 years. A dark fantasy about dreams, reality, stories, and the mercurial relationship between them, Neil Gaiman’s books have endured as essential reading for goth teens and literati alike. While attempts to bring the saga of Dream of the Endless—sometimes known as Morpheus, immortal embodiment and master of the nightlands, fierce and terrible in his wrath—to the screen have been underway practically since the comic debuted in 1988, this long-in-development Netflix adaptation is worth the wait. It’s a perfect translation of the first two graphic novels in the series and follows Dream (a sombre and imposing Tom Sturridge) as he restores his power and kingdom after being held in captivity for a century by occultists who snared him instead of his sister Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste).
Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events
Adaptation: a word that here means “perfectly translating a deliciously dark series of young adult novels to a visual medium without sacrificing any of the otherworldly strangeness of the source material”—right down to the carefully considered dialog and fourth-wall-breaking bookends delivered by Lemony Snicket himself (or, if you’re picky, Patrick Warburton). Netflix’s take on Snicket’s 13-book series is a spectacular accomplishment, telling the full saga of the desperate Baudelaire orphans—Violet, Klaus, and baby Sunny—as they repeatedly escape the machinations of the foul Count Olaf (a scene-stealing Neil Patrick Harris) in the wake of their parents’ suspicious deaths. Forget the truncated 2004 movie version—this three-season masterpiece is the definitive vision of Snicket’s macabre world.
Love, Death + Robots
Developed by Deadpool director Tim Miller, Love, Death + Robots is perhaps Netflix’s most daring animated offering to date. In this anthology series, where the only common thread is each episode’s unique interpretation of that eponymous trio of themes, viewers are treated to wild concepts that include deadly gladiatorial twists on Pokémon-style beast battles, sentient yogurt, super-powered exoplanetary colonists, and adorable robots that have outlived humanity only to be confused by the world we’ve left behind. Wildly experimental, Love, Death + Robots isn’t afraid to play around with animation styles and genre, allowing a phenomenal roster of creators—including David Fincher, making his animation directing debut—freedom to tell whatever stories they want. The show is brimming with ideas and practically vibrating with visual energy, and you never know what you’re going to get—which is half the fun.
