Stop scrolling through shows. Here’s the definitive guide to the best shows on Netflix.
Best Netflix Shows: Welcome to TechRadar’s guide to the best shows and TV series you can stream on Netflix in the United States.
These days Netflix plays host to some of the best TV shows on the planet, bar none. From originals like Daredevil, Dark, Stranger Things and Altered Carbon, to syndicated content like Archer, Black Mirror and Breaking Bad, if you need to unwind with a great TV show, there’s only one place to go.
That means, if you’re anything like us, you spend a lot of time in front of the Netflix screen. That also means you run out of shows to watch.
To help you keep that IV bag of great TV content dripping, we’ve scoured the video streaming service to create a guide to the best Netflix shows in the US right now. We keep this list constantly updated with the latest television shows that you should be watching, so check back soon for more highlights. August update: The last month in summer isn’t the best in Netflix history but, considering just how much good content came out in late July, this is as good of a month as any to catch up. If you haven’t binged them yet, check out new seasons of Orange is the New Black, Shameless and Last Chance U, now in its third season.
So where should you start? Our list starts with the newest shows first and then goes alphabetically after the most recent releases – so start at the beginning with the latest options or dive straight in to the best of the best, the choice is yours.
Why focus on Netflix? Why not hit up Hulu or tackle Vudu, Crackle or Vimeo? Well, those services are great but, in our opinion, Netflix has the most variety and probably the best shows of any of the other services.
That being said, there’s never been a better time to binge watch, so get stuck into our gallery and let us know if your favorite show isn’t on the list.
Live in the UK, the UAE or Australia? We have guides for those, too! Best Shows on Netflix (Australia) Best Shows on Netflix (Australia) Best Shows on Netflix (UAE) Best Shows on Netflix (UAE) Best Shows on Netflix (UK) Best Shows on Netflix (UK) Check out our in-depth and completely updated Netflix review Netflix review Want to test out the rival? Here’s our Best Amazon Prime Video TV Shows Best Amazon Prime Video TV Shows Want know the best movies on Netflix. Then this is your in-depth guide best movies on Netflix Want to know the worst movies on Netflix? The check out Not On My Watch worst movies on Netflix
Orange Is The New Black is back for its sixth season and is a show that consistently one of the best to watch, with its superb tale of life in a women’s prison. It’s so popular that its makers have announced that the show will be running until at least season seven.
That being said, the show is dark. Tensions and issues with the US prison system brought to the forefront and while the comedy from the first few seasons is still there, it’s slathered with a fair bit of drama.
Seasons on Netflix: 6
ESPN might’ve had the world of sports documentaries well in hand with its 30 for 30 series. But that was before Netflix got the crazy idea to make one of its own. Inspired by an article in GQ magazine, Last Chance U follows student athletes who are one step away from never playing football again. On top of the pressures on the field, students face problems in the classroom where class absences and the fear failing hit harder than a defensive lineman. It’s gritty, heart-wrenching and exactly the kind of series that gives you something to root for all while biting your nails.
Just in time for football season, the third season of the show – which follows a new team in Independence, Kansas – is now available.
Seasons on Netflix: 3
Before we continue on with recommendation, Shameless comes with a warning: this show, a dramedy about a poor family in Chicago, really is shameless. Frank, played by William H. Macy will scheme his way to his next drink… even if that means taking his own kids’ lunch money. If you have ethical problems watching less-than-admirable people doing whatever it takes to make ends meet, Shameless isn’t for you.
All that said, those that don’t mind a bit more … unscrupulous cast of characters will seriously enjoy Shameless’s grittier, sex- and money-driven take on the Modern Family comedy.
Seasons on Netflix: 8
13 Reasons Why tackles tough subject matter in a way that’s both heartfelt and shocking in equal measure. The show is a high school drama that revolves around a student, Clay Jensen, and his friend Hannah Baker. Hannah commits suicide, and the first season covered the 13 reasons why that happened.
As you’d expect, a lot of the topics and themes in 13 Reasons Why might be distressing for some viewers. So really bear that in mind if you’re planning on watching it soon – and consider who you’re planning on watching it with, too.
That said, if you can stomach the source material, 13 Reasons Why offers a well-wrought candid look at the societal pressures put on teens in the technological age.
Seasons on Netflix: 2
Netflix has had a rocky road with sci-fi adaptations – the Wachowski’s Sense8 had grand ambitions but didn’t quite hit the sweet spot for everyone. Altered Carbon is hoping to change that, with its unique blend of dystopian science fiction. Based on the book of the same name by Richard Morgan, the show has sparks of brilliance ( Joel Kinnaman is great) but is also occasionally ridiculous in its outset (James Purefoy hams it up throughout). It strives to be more than it actually is but we admire what it’s trying to do. Oh, and it looks fantastic in 4K.
Seasons on Netflix: 1
If you feel like you’ve been getting too good of sleep recently, American Horror Story is all-too-happy to fix that for you. You’ll find six seasons of the show on Netflix, each of which centers around a different plot line and unique set of fears. Not sure if clowns are all that scary? Watch American Horror Story. Think porous materials are harmless? Again, watch American Horror Story. Anything you love can and will be used to scare you silly.
Seasons on Netflix: 6
Given that Archer is set at the International Secret Intelligence Service (unfortunately abbreviated as ISIS), recent terror atrocities have meant the animation has been getting headlines for the wrong reasons. But don’t let this unlucky nomenclature put you off. Archer is a brilliant send-up of spy movies of yore, complete with some of the best voiceover talent – many of which have been pruned from the cast of Arrested Development. While the fifth season ‘reboot’ wasn’t the success it should have been, Archer is still one of the best cartoon comedies around.
Seasons on Netflix: 6
If it wasn’t for Netflix, Arrested Development would have stayed as a three-season wonder. The streaming giant decided to take a gamble and fund a fourth season of Mitchell Hurwitz’s brilliant family comedy and we are glad it did. While splitting the family up for most of the season meant some of the spark had disappeared – this was done to fit in with the actors’ busy schedules – the fourth season proved that there was still a lot to like about the dysfunctional Bluth family. Filled with season-long in-jokes, perfect site gags and spot-on wordplay, Arrested Development is a comedy that needs to be watched on repeat – and even then you will find something new to laugh at.
Seasons on Netflix: 5
Freddie Highmore was one of the sweetest child actors around in his younger years, playing cherubic children in the likes of Finding Neverland and the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Now he’s a fully fledged adult he’s taken a much darker turn as future Psycho psycho Norman Bates in the show Bate Motel. A prequel of sorts to the Psycho movies, Bates Motel is a fantastic spin on the horror tale, ramping up the relationship Bates has with his mother – a cold and calculating Vera Farmiga – and sprinkling breadcrumbs along the way that point to how he became who he became.
Seasons on Netflix: 5
Better Call Saul is better than Breaking Bad. That’s a sentence we never thought we would write, but it’s now three seasons and it is flawless TV. It doesn’t have the menace or fear that propelled Walter White in Breaking Bad, instead it takes its time to paint a picture of Saul Goodman, someone that was in Bad mainly for comic relief. In his own show, though, creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould have created a well-rounded, means well character whose descent into criminality is a slow burn. Although some characters have started to appear from Breaking Bad, the show doesn’t beg for the appearance of Walter White or Jesse – it’s now it’s own thing and we can’t wait for Season 4.
Seasons on Netflix: 2
Season 4 of Black Mirror is out now and is the darkest, most varied season of the show yet. Comprising six episodes of varying (almost feature) length, Charlie Brooker has concocted another dose of dystopian satire that riffs off everything from Star Trek to, well, schlock-horror The Driller Killer.
Before Black Mirror, Charlie Brooker was best known for his snarky looky at the news in Weekly Wipe and his fantastic, caustic look at meeja types in London’s Shoreditch. Now the show has given him superstar status. For good reason, it’s fantastic TV with each episode taking on a different dystopia topic, mostly framed around technology going very long. The third season was commissioned by Netflix and is in 4K, with most of the episodes being feature length.
Seasons on Netflix: 4
More addictive than the meth pushed by Walt and Jessie, Breaking Bad is brilliant binge-watching television. The initial plot is simple: a straight-laced teacher is told he has cancer and to make sure he leaves his family with the best possible life, he turns to drug making and dealing. There’s method to his madness as he ends up being pretty good at it. Creator Vince Gilligan has created such a good group of characters, he is currently mining the same world again with Better Call Saul. But that has some way to go reach the highest highs that Breaking Bad offers.
Seasons on Netflix: 5
The words ‘food porn’ get thrown around a lot these days, and typically are preceded by a hashtag and proceeded by us viciously rolling our eyes. But Chef’s Table is the real deal – 4K footage of some of the best chefs in the world making their signature dishes and doling out morsels of philosophy to keep your mind just as engaged as your stomach.
Parts of the show come off as a bit too heady for the source material and are prone to veering a bit off course (there’s multiple scenes where a particular chef talks about polygamy for some odd reason) but overall most of the chefs come off as genuinely eccentric masters of their craft.
Seasons on Netflix: 3
When it comes to superhero movies, Marvel are bossing DC thanks to the rich tapestry it has weaved with its cinematic universe. Its TV shows, which now include Daredevil, Iron Fist, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, just keep getting better.
Daredevil is superb television, regardless if you are a superhero fan or not. Matt Murdoch’s (Boardwalk Empire’s Charlie Cox) rise from blind lawyer to vigilante is brutal and steeped in realism. The reason it works so well is that it doesn’t shy away from being violent – each crack and crunch is a world away from Ben Affleck’s terrible movie version. And special mention has to go to Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk, his best role since the tortured Private Pyle.
Seasons on Netflix: 2
Wish your fairy tales were a bit … darker? Dark is a German-language supernatural thriller in which the disappearance of two children in a small town brings the fractured relationships and dark pasts of the people living there to the surface.
Adding a touch of Scandinavian crime thriller to American drama, Dark is an example of foreign-made TV from Netflix that translates into every territory.
Seasons on Netflix: 1
If you like your cultural analysis with a dose of humor, Dear White People is the show for you. Starring Logan Browning at the conflicted Sam White, Dear White People navigates the tricky grounds of race relations in America in the post-Obama-but-yet-not-post-racism era. The first few episodes back away from hitting on anything too heavy but come episodes five and six, you get a biting sense of why this show is so needed at this point in our history. Funny, clever and dripping in wit, Dear White People isn’t so much an attack on American ideals as it is a series about exploring, explaining, defending and deliberating the issues facing people of color in the US.
Seasons on Netlfix: 2
There’s a reason Iron Fist isn’t on our Best Shows on Netflix list: it’s terrible. Which is such a shame as the rest of Netflix’s Marvel series have been hard-hitting, explosive delights. Thankfully The Defenders sees the Marvel TV universe fighting fit once more, with the mini series proving that all of the characters are better together – yes, even glowy fist man. Given its limited episode run – it’s a lean eight episodes – it’s a little strange that it takes a good three episodes to get going but once it does, and mostly because of Sigourney Weaver, it’s great.
Seasons on Netflix: 1
If your life needs a bit more blood and poetic justice in it, check out Dexter, a show about a Miami detective who not only solves homicide cases, but commits them, too. Known previously for his work on HBO’s Six Feet Under, Michael C Hall’s devious, semi-sociopathic persona shines through in his role as the lead character. The show manages to cut deep, often giving you a dozen reasons to care about a man who kills for all the right reasons.
Seasons on Netflix: 8
Created by Netflix and Vox Media, this handy and smart series takes a look at some of the most popular ideas and tech around today and explains them in a way that’s poignant in its presentation without feeling overwhelming to take in.
From the racial wealth gap, cryptocurrency amd why diets rarely work through to K-Pop and the stock market, it’s an insightful look at the problems, ideas and trends around today and the stuff that could shape tomorrow. At the very least, it gives you enough knowledge to have a really good debate down at the pub.
Seasons on Netflix: 1
On the list of shows that were tragically cut down before their prime, Number 1 is Firefly. Number 2, however, is Freaks and Geeks, the show that served as a launching pad for some of our favorite stars in comedy today. Brash, mischievous and hysterical, James Franco, Jason Segel and Seth Rogen provide a perfect counter-balance for the tepid (and completely loveable) Linda Cardellini.
The show scores a spot on our list and in our hearts because at the end of the day we’ve all been Cardellini’s character, Lindsay. We’ve all been picked on, called a nerd and genuinely loved something – whether that’s cellphones, computers, televisions, whatever. And just when you think you’ll never fit in, the right group of people somehow find their way into your life.
Seasons on Netflix: 1
The long-awaited second season of the female wrestling comedy GLOW is finally here. The Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling have returned and this time they’ve been commissioned for a full series of their trashy, hot-pink, hairspray-fuelled wrestling show led by their coked-up director (played by Marc Maron). Early reviews suggest the second season could potentially even outshine the first for its refreshing female-fronted cast and writers and its brilliant balance between empowerment and exploitation. It’s a must-watch.
