Make sure you are getting the best out of your account with our best shows on Netflix guide.
Best Netflix Shows: Welcome to TechRadar’s guide to the best shows and TV series you can stream on Netflix in the United States.
Want to know what the best Netflix TV shows and best Netflix series are right now? Well pull up a seat, you’ve come to the right place.
We’ve scoured the video streaming service to create a guide to the best Netflix shows in the UAE right now. We’ll keep this list constantly updated with the latest television shows that you should be watching and also tell you why. November update: November promises to be a great month for the streaming service. It’s riding the success from Stranger Things Season 2’s launch in late October (which is excellent, by the way), while fans of Marvel shows have The Punisher to look forward to when it debuts on November 17. Also expected in November are Godless, Frontier and Alias Grace.
To that end, we’ve chosen over 30 Netflix shows that you need to watch. Whether you are into meth-laced dramas (Breaking Bad) or fear-inducing dystopias that hit far too close to home (Black Mirror) there’s something for you on the list.
With so much choice, however, it can be tough to find that next great show. But that’s why we’re here. We’ve binge-watched hundreds of hours of TV so you don’t have to. (I know, I know, some heroes don’t wear capes.)
But more than great shows, Netflix is inventive. It’s trying new things, such as Klingon subtitles on Star Trek: Discovery and is a big advocate for 4K and HDR content. Oh, and it finally did something it said it never would — allow you to download many of its shows to watch Netflix offline. Klingon subtitles on Star Trek: Discovery watch Netflix offline
There’s never been a better time to bag yourself a Netflix subscription and binge watch, so get stuck into our gallery and let us know if your favorite show isn’t on the list. Without further ado let’s dive into the best shows on Netflix! 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
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: 8
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: 3
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: 1
There’s no better person to portray not-so-distant future dystopias than Charlie Brooker. He’s been holding a warped mirror up to the ridiculous nature of the world’s media for years, mixing cutting comments with comedy, but Black Mirror sees him entering darker territory. Each series is just three episodes long but they are all standalone treats, twisting reality in their own unique way while commenting on things we seem to hold dear today — namely technology and television.
Seasons on Netflix: 3
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
Castlevania is a new anime-lite animated series from comic book writer Warren Ellis that expertly transcribes the franchise’s history for the small screen. It’s bloody, brooding and a bit outlandish at times, but what else could you expect from a series about vampire hunters and an army of the undead?
While there’s still plenty of room for improvement when season two rolls around, the first season of Castlevania is without a doubt the best adaptation the series has ever seen, and well worth the one hour and twenty minutes it takes to watch all four 20-minute episodes.
Seasons on Netflix: 1
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
What would Jack Bauer do if he was the president of the United States? How can you go wrong with a premises like that. Except that it’s not really Jack Bauer but Kiefer Sutherland.
America’s fate rests in the hands of a low-level official after an attack on Washington decimates the government in this gripping political thriller.
Seasons on Netflix: 2
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
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
Alison Brie already proved she had comedic chops in Community but GLOW cements her as a comedy genius who can turn on the seriousness when she needs to. In GLOW (gorgeous ladies of wrestling) she plays Ruth Wilder, a struggling actress in ’80s LA who turns to women’s wrestling to make a star of herself. The show is a look at the underground sensation of ladies wrestling, with all the wit and gender stereotype reversing you would expect from the maker of Orange Is The New Black. It’s a great, highly original watch, with a superb cast that includes British singer Kate Nash.
Seasons on Netflix: 1
If there ever was a poster boy for Netflix, House of Cards would be it. Funded completely by the streaming service, Cards’ first season boasted direction by David Fincher and acting by Kevin Spacey and was addictive television. The reason: Netflix positively wanted you to binge watch, putting all episodes up at once. Now going into its fifth season, Netflix’s Card trick is still impressive and shows just how far Netflix has come, given it’s shot in both 4K and HDR. 4K HDR
Seasons on Netflix: 5
And there was us thinking that Daredevil’s subject matter was dark. Jessica Jones is another tale set in Hell’s Kitchen that may be under the Marvel banned but is about as far removed from the bromance of Thor and Iron Man that you are likely to see.
Breaking Bad’s Krysten Ritter is superb as the titular Jones, a private detective with superpowers and super issues. This is nocturnal noir that moves in the same circles as Daredevil — figuratively and literally as both characters will eventually team up in the Defenders. It may not have the bone-crunching violence that Daredevil is famed for, but there’s enough booze, sex and black humor on the screen to make this a cracking comic-book caper that’s strictly adults only.
A second season has been announced and it has also been revealed that shooting of The Defenders will happen later this year.
Check out our Jessica Jones review Jessica Jones review
Seasons on Netflix: 1
This awkward rom-com has been penned by Judd Apatow and it’s yet again another hit for Netflix Originals. It’s a similar bedfellow to Master of None, but it improves on the themes of dating, love and city life with characters that are more rounded and a touch more believable as they fail, give up and start over again in rapid succession. Community’s Gillian Jacobs is great as the prim Mickey, while Paul Rust is effortless as slacker Gus. The show stealer, though, is Apatow’s uber talented daughter Iris who plays a frankly horrible child star.
The ‘will they, won’t they?’ shenanigans continue in the second season — those expecting a plot-heavy season will be disappointed, though, as Love meanders through its storylines — which is no bad thing (and more realistic) if you ask us.
