It’s only been a few months but 2023 has already been a good year for Netflix. Returning series You and Shadow and Bone are still going strong, and new shows The Night Agent, The Diplomat, and Beef debuted to strong numbers and even stronger critical acclaim.
The collection of original projects available on the service is constantly changing, with new shows coming to Netflix throughout each month. In order to help you choose what to watch next, we’ve carefully scanned through the entire library to provide this list of the best original series on Netflix.
If you want to know the latest additions to the Netflix library, be sure to check out our list of what’s new on Netflix this month, the best movies on Netflix, and the best shows on Netflix.
Recently added to Netflix
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The Diplomat2023 -
BEEF2023
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Florida Man2023
1 Season
Genre
Drama
Cast
Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell, Ali Ahn
Created by
Debora Cahn
At the personal request of President William Rayburn (Michael McKean), crisis management expert Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) reluctantly accepts her new role as the U.S. Ambassador to the U.K. But any opportunity for Kate to catch her breath and repair her marriage to Hal (Rufus Sewell) is lost when an international incident makes Kate’s new position even more important to the interests of her country. While The Diplomat is largely concentrated on political drama, there are plenty of thrills as well.
1 Season
Genre
Drama, Mystery
Cast
Gabriel Basso, Luciane Buchanan, Hong Chau
Created by
Shawn Ryan
It’s a good time for action in the streaming universe, and The Night Agent is at the top of our list. Gabriel Basso stars as Peter Sutherland, an FBI agent who stumbles upon a suspect attempting to detonate a bomb on a train. However, Peter’s heroism only leads him to become a suspect. As a result, he is demoted to a night shift which places him on standby for emergency situations when undercover operatives are in danger.
A grudge like this can only fester and grow, and by the end, revenge is the only thing that matters to either one of them. Fortunately, it makes for some terrific stories, and this is likely to be Netflix’s breakout hit for the month.
1 Season
Genre
Mystery, Crime, Comedy, Drama
Cast
Edgar Ramírez, Anthony LaPaglia, Abbey Lee
Created by
Donald Todd
Netflix is diving back into the realm of dark comedy crime shows with Florida Man. The series follows Mike Valentine (Ramírez), a former cop who finds himself working for a mob boss, Moss Yankov (Emory Cohen). After spending years away from Florida, Moss forces Mike to return and find Moss’ missing girlfriend, Delly (Abbey Lee).
What Moss doesn’t know is that Mike was having an affair with Delly before she vanished. And once Mike is back in Florida, the darker secrets of his own family start coming out. To complicate things even further, Mike’s ex-wife, Iris (Lex Scott Davis), is still a cop and she follows Mike to discover what he has been up to.
1 Season
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Cast
Rob Lowe, John Owen Lowe, Fred Armisen
Created by
Rob Lowe, Victor Fresco, John Owen Lowe
Have you ever had a boss that you just hated working for? You know the type: a total narcissist who is all about himself, with little regard for everyone else around him. Jackson Dragon (John Owen Lowe) can relate, because said boss is his father, Ellis Dragon (Rob Lowe). And since the death of Ellis’ wife, the elder Dragon is spiraling out of control.
But Unstable isn’t just about Ellis’ pathos. It’s also a workplace comedy that finds Jackson struggling to find his place in his father’s world, even as he attempts to keep his dad from falling into even greater despair.
2 Seasons
Genre
Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Cast
Jessie Mei Li, Archie Renaux, Freddy Carter
Created by
Eric Heisserer
Need some fantasy in your drab life? Shadow and Bone is back for its second season on Netflix. And if you’re unfamiliar with the world of the show, it does get you up to speed fairly quickly. The short version is that it takes place in an alternate world, much like our own, which has been divided by literal darkness. And in this world, magic is real…and often lethal.
Alina Starkov (Jessie Mei Li) is a Sun Summoner who has the ability to control light and perhaps to free her world from the darkness. Now, she just needs to survive her confrontation with her Shadow Summoner counterpart, General Aleksander Kirigan (Ben Barnes).
4 Seasons
Genre
Mystery, Crime, Drama
Cast
Penn Badgley, Lukas Gage, Charlotte Ritchie
Created by
Greg Berlanti, Sera Gamble
You has been such a megahit for Netflix that it’s easy to forget that it was once a Lifetime original series that was canceled before Netflix swooped in to renew the show. In You‘s recently completed fourth season, serial killer Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley) has relocated to London in an attempt to reinvent himself yet again. This time, Joe is really trying to cut back on his murderous tendencies. But old habits die hard. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
1 Season
Genre
Comedy
Cast
Debra Jo Rupp, Kurtwood Smith, Callie Haverda
Created by
Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner, Gregg Mettler, Lindsay Turner
Hanging out…down at Netflix?!? Red and Kitty Foreman and their wonderful basement hang-out spot are back in this revival of That ’70s Show, which finds the teenage daughter of original series characters Eric and Donna visiting with her grandparents for the summer. While there, she falls in with a new generation of teenage slackers and proves that some aspects of the teen experience never change, no matter which era it is.
1 Season
Genre
Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Cast
Laurence O'Fuarain, Sophia Brown, Michelle Yeoh
Created by
Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, Declan de Barra
This prequel series set in the universe of The Witcher unfolds more than a thousand years before the events of that show and follows a group of seven characters forced to unite their efforts in order to save the world from a terrible force. Recent Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh leads the ensemble cast of the series, which sets the stage for the saga to come in The Witcher.
2 Seasons
Genre
Drama, Mystery, Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Created by
Yoshiki Watanabe, Yasuko Kuramitsu
A slacker gamer named Arisu (Kento Yamazaki) suddenly finds himself and his two best friends transported to an eerily empty Tokyo in this series based on the manga of the same name by Haro Aso. They soon discover that they have to compete in deadly games to survive, and must do so while trying to solve the mystery around their strange predicament.
Alice in Borderland is like Battle Royale mixed with The Hunger Games It was renewed for a second season almost immediately after the series premiered. The next chapter of the mind-boggling saga premiered late last year.
3 Seasons
Genre
Drama, Mystery, Crime
Cast
Christina Applegate, Linda Cardellini, James Marsden
Created by
Liz Feldman
When Jen’s (Christina Applegate) husband dies in a tragic hit-and-run, she becomes determined to solve the crime. When she meets optimistic free spirit Judy (Linda Cardellini) at a grief support group, their polar opposite personalities strike up an unlikely friendship. As they bond over wine and a shared affinity for The Facts of Life, Judy realizes that she holds the key to a shocking secret that may destroy Jen’s life. It may also be the key for Jen to move on with her life, though. Dead to Me is a dark comedy that explores the entertaining sides of grief, loss, and forgiveness. It’s about maintaining your sense of humor in the face of tragedy. The third and final season is available now.
1 Season
Genre
Drama, Mystery
Cast
Bobby Cannavale, Naomi Watts, Jennifer Coolidge
Created by
Ryan Murphy, Ian Brennan
Based on a true story, Ryan Murphy’s The Watcher is propped up by its A-list cast that includes Naomi Watts and Bobby Cannavale as a married couple who move with their two kids to what they believe is their dream home. They overextend themselves to afford it but expect to have an ideal lifestyle there until they realize the neighborhood might not be what it seems. Not only are the neighbors intrusive, rude, and downright creepy, but the couple continuously receives strange letters from someone who calls himself The Watcher. He claims to have been tasked with watching the home for decades, and now, he’s watching them. It’s spooky, edge-of-your-seat tension, and while reviews are mixed, The Watcher is a quick seven-episode binge if you’re looking for something exciting, tense, and frightful.
1 Season
Genre
Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Drama
Cast
Tom Sturridge, Boyd Holbrook, Vivienne Acheampong
Created by
David S. Goyer, Neil Gaiman, Allan Heinberg
Tom Sturridge stars as Dream/Morpheus, the personification of dreams and nightmares. After escaping from the clutches of an occult trap after 106 years, Dream goes on a mission to restore order to his realm, The Dreaming. Based on the Neil Gaiman-authored DC Comics comic book of the same name, The Sandman has been decades in the making. The payoff has been positive, with critics lauding everything from the production design and costumes to the visual effects and lead performances. Keep an eye (and ear) out for supporting and recurring characters like Game of Thrones’s Gwendoline Christie as Lucifer Morningstar, ruler of Hell, and Mark Hamill as the voice of Mervyn Pumpkinhead, a janitor with a head shaped like a jack-o-lantern. The Sandman is equally weird and wonderful.
2 Seasons
Genre
Animation, Comedy, Family
Cast
Frank Todaro, Tru Valentino
Created by
Dave Wasson
It’s completely ridiculous, but that’s precisely the point when it comes to the animated slapstick comedy The Cuphead Show!, which is loosely based on the Canadian video game Cuphead. At the heart of the show are Cuphead and Mugman, anthropomorphic dishware brothers who live with their grandfather who is … what else … a kettle. The storylines are silly as the pair often finds themselves in some kind of trouble they need to get out of, typically while being hunted by the Devil. With a talented voice cast that includes Marcia Gay Harden, Wayne Brady, and Chris Kattan, there’s little substance to the show, with episodes that run about 12 minutes long each. But it’s mindless viewing fun for adults and kids alike.
5 Seasons
Genre
Action & Adventure, Drama
Cast
William Zabka, Ralph Macchio, Courtney Henggeler
Created by
Hayden Schlossberg, Josh Heald, John Hurwitz
Originally made for YouTube Red, this series sequel to the Karate Kid franchise has found a new home on Netflix. Picking up 30 years after the 1984 All Valley Karate Tournament, Cobra Kai finds down-and-out Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) desperate to find redemption from his epic loss. To do so, and after encountering a young man who is being bullied, he reopens the infamous Cobra Kai karate dojo. This reignites his rivalry with the Karate Kid himself, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), who decides to open a karate dojo of his own in response. But it’s not easy to go back to karate, maintain balance and find peace after the passing of his mentor, Mr. Miyagi. Meanwhile, a new generation of kids struggles to find themselves through learning very different approaches to the philosophy behind karate through their dueling senseis. With five seasons and multiple Emmy nominations under its belt, it’s likely Cobra Kai will return for a season 6.
1 Season
Genre
Drama
Cast
Julia Garner, Anna Chlumsky, Arian Moayed
Created by
Shonda Rhimes
Earning Julia Garner an Emmy nomination for her performance as the real-life con-woman Anna Sorokin (a second for Garner alongside her nomination for Ozark as well), Inventing Anna was also nominated for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. It’s a story that seems almost too fantastical to be true. Garner sets out to re-create the life and rise of Sorokin, a Russian woman who assumed the fake identity of socialite Anna Delvey. She fooled some of the biggest companies and wealthiest individuals into giving her cash, goods, and services. Based on the New York article How Anna Delvey Tricked New York’s Party People, there’s a ton of creative license taken, as clearly noted in a title card at the beginning of each episode. But mega-hitmaker Shonda Rhimes adds to her award-winning roster with this miniseries that’s a must-watch.
1 Season
Genre
Drama, Crime
Cast
Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Neve Campbell, Becki Newton
Created by
David E. Kelley
Fans might recognize the name from the 2005 Michael Connelly novel as well as the 2011 legal thriller starring Matthew McConaughey. This iteration transfers the story from the sequel novel, The Brass Verdict, a legal drama delivered in episodic form. But the premise remains the same: Mickey Haller (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) is a talented defense attorney who prefers to work on the go, dealing with his high-profile (and smaller) Los Angeles cases from his Lincoln Navigator. With a second season in the works and top viewing numbers for season 1, the show is filled with quirky storylines and tense moments as Haller’s latest case puts his life in danger. David E. Kelley, the man behind huge hit shows like Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, and Goliath, is no stranger to the genre, so it’s no surprise The Lincoln Lawyer fits right in among his best.
1 Season
Genre
Drama
Cast
Kit Connor, Joe Locke, William Gao
Created by
Alice Oseman
Heartstopper is a British coming-of-age story, and Alice Oseman wrote the webcomic and graphic novel on which the show is based, as well as the show itself. Set in the complicated world of high school, Charlie (Joe Locke) is a young gay man who falls for his classmate Nick (Kit Connor). Through a series of events, conversations, and conflicts, fans follow the relatable journey of a young man simply trying to find himself. Praised for its positive representation of the LGBTQ community, Heartstopper has a Certified Fresh 100% rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes with critics saying its feel-good, adorable, even predictable elements all add to the charm. The series received a second and third season renewal less than a month after season 1 premiered, indicating that fans are hungry for more.
4 Seasons
Genre
Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery, Drama
Cast
Winona Ryder, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard
Created by
Matt Duffer, Ross Duffer
This throwback sci-fi series set the world ablaze in the summer of 2016, igniting a bonfire of nostalgia while simultaneously telling a gripping story that gets more exciting with each episode. Now, it’s back for Season 4. When 12-year-old Will Byers goes missing in the small town of Hawkins, Indiana, his mother, Joyce (Winona Ryder, in a comeback performance), thinks she’s losing her mind, believing that Will has been taken by supernatural forces. Meanwhile, Will’s friends work to find and rescue him, with the help of a mysterious young girl named Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown), who appears seemingly out of nowhere. The mystery gets deeper and darker as the show goes on, while more and more members of the Hawkins community get drawn into the creepy tale. Few shows have been as willing to let children drive the story, and Stranger Things is better for it. The show is a clear homage to Spielberg’s coming-of-age films and ’80s horror, and superb performances across the board make this a must-watch.
6 Seasons
Genre
Crime, Drama
Cast
Cillian Murphy, Paul Anderson, Sam Claflin
Created by
Steven Knight
Although it’s made for the BBC, Netflix distributes Peaky Blinders in the United States as a Netflix original, so it makes this list. It’s also one of Netflix’s most popular shows, and the diehards are finally rewarded in June with the long-awaited Season 6. The hard-boiled gangster drama centers on the Peaky Blinders, a notorious gang in Birmingham, England in the 1920s. The Blinders are run by the Shelby family, primarily the second-eldest brother, Tommy (Cillian Murphy). Tommy and his brothers have returned from World War I with distinguished war records, but also with deeply rooted, little-understood trauma that both haunts and informs their everyday decisions. In an England torn by post-war horror, economic depression, and the Bolshevik Revolution on the other side of the continent, the conditions are ripe for crime. Tommy has every intention to ride this opportunity to the top.
4 Seasons
Genre
Crime, Drama
Cast
Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Sofia Hublitz
Created by
Mark Williams, Bill Dubuque
Jason Bateman has had as interesting a career as anyone in the limelight. He burst onto the Hollywood scene in the early 1980s as a young heartthrob, starring in stuff like Teen Wolf Too and The Hogan Family before experiencing a major career renaissance in the late aughts with shows like the brilliant comedy Arrested Development. Ozark marks a different look for Bateman than many have seen, as he plays a financial planner-turned-money launderer who relocates his family to the remote Ozark mountains in Missouri to avoid attention from the law. Unsurprisingly, the law finds him anyway, and Marty (Bateman) must scramble to stay afloat while paying off debts to a Mexican cartel. Laura Linney is awesome as Marty’s wife, who gets caught up in the scheme, and Julia Garner is particularly good as the odd local girl Ruth Langmore. Though Ozark will naturally draw comparisons to Breaking Bad, its scope isn’t nearly as grand, but Bateman seems to improve with each passing episode.
2 Seasons
Genre
Drama, Romance
Cast
Phoebe Dynevor, Regé-Jean Page, Adjoa Andoh
Created by
Chris Van Dusen
Every now and then, a Netflix show becomes a cultural phenomenon. At the moment, that’s the role that Bridgerton is filling. This period romance series has already made a star out of Regé-Jean Page for his role as the Duke of Hastings, Simon Bassett. The show takes place in 1813 as Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) tries to find suitable husbands and wives for her eight children. The breakout relationship in the first season follows Daphne Bridgerton (Phoebe Dynevor) and Simon as their friendship grows into love before veering into even more complicated territory. This story is just beginning, and it’s likely to be on Netflix for years to come.
1 Season
Genre
Action & Adventure, Mystery, Drama
Cast
Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Jung Ho-yeon
Created by
Hwang Dong-hyuk
An acquisition from South Korea, Squid Game hit Netflix like a bolt of lightning, quickly becoming the most-watched show the platform has ever hosted. The viral sensation took off largely through social media and word of mouth by captivating and horrifying audiences with its sadistic premise. A cadre of ultra-wealthy elites round up desperate people and offer them the chance to become rich beyond their wildest dreams simply by competing in a few children’s games. Only, in these games, losing is not an option.
Digital Trends streaming roundup
1 Season
Genre
Drama
Cast
Anya Taylor-Joy, Bill Camp, Moses Ingram
Created by
Scott Frank, Allan Scott
Based on Walter Tevis’ novel, this limited series takes audiences into a surprisingly captivating world: Competitive chess in the 1950s. The series follows Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy), a Kentucky orphan who discovers an aptitude for chess when she sneaks away from choir practices to play with the orphanage’s custodian. After her adoption as a teenager, Beth leans into the competitive chess scene, supported by her single, hedonistic adoptive mother. But although Beth is a female superstar in a male-dominated world, she’s haunted by personal demons and plagued by addiction and an obsessive personality.
2 Seasons
Genre
Comedy, Crime, Drama
Cast
Tyler Alvarez, Griffin Gluck
Created by
Dan Perrault, Tony Yacenda
After 27 cars in the high-school faculty’s parking lot are vandalized with crude phallic images, the school’s resident slacker and class clown is expelled, but when two fellow students initiate a documentary-style investigation into the incident, everyone becomes a suspect in this surprisingly compelling and hilarious series. A satire of true-crime documentaries like Making a Murderer and Serial, American Vandal is a mockumentary that manages to channel much of the same “Did he really do it?” uncertainty into its story, while also offering a very funny and impressively clever spin on the typical docuseries format. Much like the true-crime series that inspired it, the first season of American Vandal is packed with narrative twists and turns that keep the audience guessing. It’s supremely binge-friendly as you push to discover the next revelation in this seemingly minor incident that consumes the lives of the characters involved in it. The first season of the series earned rave reviews, prompting Netflix to commission a second season, which premiered to even more critical acclaim. Sadly, that might be the last we see of the series, as Netflix abruptly canceled it in October 2018 as part of a wave of cancellations of projects Netflix co-produced with other studios.
5 Seasons
Genre
Sci-fi, Psychological Thriller, Dystopia
Cast
Daniel Kaluuya, Wyatt Russell, Bryce Dallas Howard, Daniel Lapaine
Created by
Charlie Brooker
What happens when technology goes too far? That’s not an unreasonable question to ask oneself in 2019, and Black Mirror (originally broadcast on British Channel 4, before being acquired by Netflix) is a wildly entertaining, if depressing, answer to that question. Most of the episodes of this chilling anthology series ponder hypothetical eventualities resulting from the unchecked advancement of technology, often charting courses that are disturbingly well-connected to the way we work and live today. The show’s production value keeps getting better, and the fourth and fifth seasons — produced by Netflix — include a bevy of household names, from Miley Cyrus to Gugu Mbatha-Raw (whom creator/writer Charlie Brooker uses to great effect). The first two seasons — including the epic holiday special White Christmas — are also must-see programming. The series broke new ground in late 2018 with the release of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, a stand-alone movie that features an interactive, “choose-your-own-adventure”-style narrative that broke new ground for the medium.
4 Seasons
Genre
Biography, Drama, History
Cast
Claire Foy, Olivia Colman, Matt Smith
Created by
Peter Morgan
Easily the most celebrated British period piece since Downton Abbey, The Crown follows Queen Elizabeth II — the still-reigning Queen of England, at 93 years old — across different periods of her life, beginning with her 1947 marriage to Prince Philip of Edinburgh. Reception to the series has been overwhelmingly positive, as nearly every aspect of the show — acting, production value, historical accuracy — has been widely praised. The series’ interesting format sees Netflix recasting the role of Elizabeth and other characters season-to-season; Claire Foy starred in seasons 1 and 2 alongside Matt Smith (Dr. Who) and Vanessa Kirby, while Olivia Colman (Peep Show) takes the royal reins in seasons 3 and 4, the latter of which introduces Lady Diana Spencer (Emma Corrin) to the fray, as the show begins its portrayal of her ultimately tragic story. Netflix plans to produce a total of 60 episodes over six seasons.
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