52 of the Best TV Shows on Netflix That Will Keep You Entertained

Political drama The Diplomat, starring Keri Russell as American diplomat Kate Wyler in London, returned this fall with its second pulse-pounding season. The first season premiered in 2023 with eight episodes, while season 2 is shorter at just six — making it an ideal weekend binge. The show blends international intrigue and political thrills with soapy marital drama, and now’s the perfect time to catch up: Season 3 is confirmed for fall 2025, and the series is up for two Emmys this year.

The new Netflix original series The Four Seasons turns the 1981 Alan Alda film into a heartfelt cozy dramedy series reimagined by Tina Fey. Fey not only co-stars in the show, but she co-wrote it with 30 Rock writer Tracey Wigfield and Lang Fisher to offer a modern take on the story of three couples whose friendships are turned upside down when one of the couples announces their separation. The show is filled with great performances, including from Colman Domingo, who earned an Emmy nod for his role.

Adolescence, the story of a young boy accused of killing a classmate, has gripped viewers since its release earlier this year and earned 13 Emmy nominations. Beyond standout performances from Owen Cooper, Stephen Graham, Erin Doherty and the rest of the cast, the series became a phenomenon for its unique filming style: each of its four episodes is shot in a single continuous take, giving the whole show a live-theater feel.

Mr. Robot, which ran on the USA Network from 2015 to 2019, was Rami Malek’s breakout role. Malek stars in the dark drama as Elliot Alderson, a cybersecurity whiz who gets recruited by a vigilante hacker known as Mr. Robot (played by Christian Slater) with plans to manipulate data stored by Elliot’s employer. Plagued by depression and hallucinations, Elliot struggles to balance his mysterious double life and his sanity as he finds himself deeply involved in the hacktivist group known as “fsociety.” All four seasons of the show just dropped on Netflix this month, and they’ll definitely keep you up all night. 

Tim Robinson is having a moment now that his first feature film, Friendship, debuted this year, and if you loved that movie, you definitely need to catch up on his absurdist sketch comedy show I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson. The often cringey comedy might not be for everyone, but for a certain subset of comedy fans, it’s a gem. The show features a who’s who of notable talent — stars from Saturday Night Live including Fred Armisen, Vanessa Bayer and Will Forte appear, along with Ayo Edebiri, Fred Willard, Sam Richardson and more. The premises are usually bonkers, often humiliating situations and Robinson has perfected his awkward persona in each of them. If you’re a fan of Robinson’s humor, definitely try the other Netflix series he stars in alongside Richardson, Detroiters, after you’ve finished this one.

This thriller was all anyone talked about when it debuted and for good reason. Hundreds of people in desperate need of cash compete in a series of games that become a fight for survival. If you can handle the grotesque and gory themes throughout this show, it’s an enthralling watch. The third and final season arrived on June 27, so now is a great time to watch the complete series.

Stranger Things is an enthralling medley of horror, drama and nostalgia. Set in the 1980s in fictional small-town Indiana, residents begin experiencing a series of odd events, including the disappearance of a young boy, and begin to search for answers. After months (actually, years) of speculation, Netflix finally confirmed that the final season of the show will be back this fall with four episodes on Nov. 26, three episodes 
on Christmas Day and the final episode on New Year’s Eve. The holidays are about to get turned upside down.

French mystery-thriller Lupin first premiered in 2021 and stars Omar Sy as Assane Diop, a robber inspired by fictional gentleman thief Arsene Lupin. Diop seeks revenge for his father’s death by targeting the family he holds responsible. The acclaimed series has already released three batches of episodes, and part four is currently in production in Paris.

If you’re looking for the antidote to a stressful day, look no further than Love on the Spectrum. The show, now in its third season, is a docuseries about young adults on the autism spectrum who are looking for love, and it is just about as heartwarming and generally wonderful as you can imagine. Each of the show’s three seasons contains either six or seven episodes, making it the perfect binge if you need a rush of dopamine.

Even though Andy Samberg was the face of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which first aired on Fox and then NBC, the police sitcom is truly an ensemble filled with incredible comedic performances. (The late, great Andre Braugher, who was best known for his dramatic roles, was especially brilliant as the 99’s Captain Ray Holt.) Currently, you can catch seasons 3 to 6 on Netflix.

Gossip Girl star Penn Badgley stars in Netflix’s You, which just released its fifth and final season. Based on the books by Caroline Kepnes, You stars Badgley as Joe Goldberg, a charming but dangerous psychopath who becomes obsessed with the women in his life. Each season, Joe adopts a new alias and identity, eventually setting his sights on someone new to stalk. The show has featured great actors throughout its run, notably Severance’s Zach Cherry, Jenna Ortega and Lukas Gage.

For two seasons, Natasha Lyonne starred in Russian Doll, a New York-set fantasy about a woman who’s caught in a time loop and experiences her own death every night, only to wake up very much alive the next day. Lyonne played Nadia, a video game developer who attempts to figure out why this keeps happening to her, when she eventually meets a man named Alan (Charlie Barnett) who’s experiencing the same thing. A little bit of a mystery blended with comedy and sci-fi, the show was co-created by Lyonne, SNL’s Amy Poehler and writer Leslye Headland and features memorable performances from Greta Lee and Chloe Sevigny.

The second season of Netflix’s The Recruit has just arrived, making now the perfect time to binge this political thriller starring Noah Centineo as CIA lawyer Owen Hendricks. When the show began, Hendricks found himself negotiating with a former CIA asset who was attempting to extort the agency. In season two, the drama heads to Seoul when Hendricks finds himself working on a mission with Korean intelligence.

Midnight Mass hails from the mind of horror auteur Mike Flanagan, but it owes a debt to Stephen King. The gory tale, which takes place in a tiny, coastal New England town, seems like it shares plenty of DNA with King’s work, despite the author having no involvement. In the series, Hamish Linklater plays Father Paul Hill, a young priest who has recently arrived at the fishing village of Crockett Island. Soon after his arrival, animals disappear and supernatural occurrences flare up, and the townspeople start to act like religious zealots in response, save for one local, Riley Finn (Zach Guilford), who starts to wonder whether the priest is causing this new, supernatural behavior.

Gabriel Basso stars in The Night Agent, based on the novel of the same name written by Matthew Quirk. In the show’s first season, FBI agent Peter Sutherland (Basso) works at the White House in the top secret Night Agent program, where he gets pulled into a dangerous conspiracy when he learns a mole might be lurking within the government.

One Day, based on the 2009 book by David Nicholls, stars Leo Woodall and Ambika Mod as college students whose unlikely friendship, which first developed on their last night of university, develops into something more over the span of a decade. The show’s wistful, heart-aching tone is matched only by its heartbreaking finale.

Netflix has become a reliable platform for dating shows with a twist, like Love Is Blind, the one where you have to get engaged immediately, or Too Hot to Handle, the one where everyone has to be celibate. On the Japanese series Is She the Wolf? the big twist is more along the lines of The Traitors or The Mole: Planted among all of the legitimate contestants searching for love is a decoy. In the first episode, you learn that one woman brought on the show is not allowed to fall in love, and if someone does fall for her, it’s game over. It’s an emotional roller coaster as the wolf tries not to actually fall in love herself, while trying to keep her identity and motives under wraps. And just to add to the fun, the challenges each couple has to participate are unlike anything else we’re used to, with many of them requiring the contestants to use an old film camera to capture scenic shots of Japanese landmarks (it’s hard to explain but it works, trust me). The show’s 12 episodes are all out now.

A Man on the Inside, created by Mike Schur, is one of Netflix’s best original shows of the past year. The series is essentially a comedy blended with meditations on loss, grief and adult child and parent relationships, all wrapped up in a private investigation over some mysteriously missing jewels. Ted Danson stars as Charles, a lonely widower whose wife died the year before after suffering from Alzheimer’s. When his daughter (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) encourages him to find a hobby, he finds a job assisting a private investigator who is looking into a jewel theft at a local nursing home. Charles moves into the facility, hence the “man on the inside” to look into potential suspects, and finds himself getting too close to the suspects he’s supposed to be investigating.

Praised by CNET’s Aaron Pruner as a “brilliant new take on the anti-hero story,” Netflix’s Ripley is the latest book-to-screen adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel character. Andrew Scott plays the cunning Tom Ripley, a stylish con man who uses morally sketchy methods to get what he wants — even murder.  Filmed in stark black and white, the series won four Emmys including those for cinematography and visual effects, as well as directing for Steven Zallian.

When the spy thriller Black Doves arrived to Netflix last year, it quickly shot into the Netflix Top 10 and was quickly renewed for a second season. The addictive series stars Keira Knightly — who received a Golden Globe nomination for the role — as a spy named Helen Webb married to a politician in the British government who has no idea about her true identity. Ben Whishaw plays Helen’s friend and associate Sam, an assassin battling his own sense of morality, in this action-packed (and very bloody) series filled with espionage and some very dark humor.

Lauded as one of the best television shows of all time, Breaking Bad has all the merits of a standout series: a suspenseful storyline, dynamic characters and shocking plot twists — many of which are not for the faint of heart. It follows high school chemistry teacher Walter White, who turns to cooking meth when he’s diagnosed with cancer and worries about providing for his family. But his knack for producing the illegal substance leads him down roads he never imagined. 

Animated series Blue Eye Samurai unfolds with Mizu, a mixed-race woman warrior who is seeking revenge against four men — one of whom is her father. Set during the Edo period in Japan, the show features Maya Erskine as Mizu with Stephanie Hsu, Ming-Na Wen, George Takei, Masi Oka, Brenda Song, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Mark Dacascos among the cast. Season 1 of the Emmy winner is streaming now. 

The Great British Baking Show (also known as The Great British Bake-Off) has become synonymous with comfort television, and it continues to deliver all the feel-good vibes. Host Alison Hammond, who joined two seasons ago, has proven to be a wonderful addition to the existing cast, which also includes co-host Noel Fielding and judges Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood. The competition show sees 12 bakers engaging in a series of three baking challenges each week, and there are seven more seasons that offer the same cozy comfort.

This comedy-drama follows Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams), a college dropout with no legal background who somehow lands a job at a prestigious New York law firm working for top attorney Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht). They become a powerful team, but have to keep Mike’s lack of legal credentials under wraps. A testament to Suits’ brilliance is that it became the most-watched acquired series when it hit Netflix in 2023. (The star power of Meghan Markle, who plays paralegal Rachel Zane in the show, was likely also a factor.) All seasons are now streaming on the platform.

Griselda Blanco Restrepo was a ruthless Colombian drug lord who was instrumental in setting up narcotics trade networks to New York and Miami in the 1970s and ’80s. Her violent, tragedy-filled life is the basis for this six-part Netflix original series, which debuted in January 2024. Modern Family star Sofia Vergara plays Blanco, who took her “Godmother” nickname so seriously that she actually named one of her children Michael Corleone Blanco. Helmed by Colombian director Andrés Baiz and produced by the team behind Narcos, it’s a classic rise-and-fall crime drama. Vergara’s performance won plenty of critical praise and earned her an Emmy nomination.

Before it landed at Netflix, Derry Girls aired on Channel 4 in the UK and was the most-watched show ever in Northern Ireland. Set in the 1990s during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the series was inspired by creator Lisa McGee’s experiences growing up. The show centers around five teens attending Catholic school amid the political turmoil of the time, set to a soundtrack of perfectly selected mid-1990s needle drops from the likes of The Cranberries, Salt-N-Pepa and Take That. It also made celebrities of its young stars including Saoirse-Monica Jackson and Nicola Coughlan, who stars in another show on our list, Bridgerton.