You would never know there’s a writers strike if you only subscribe to Netflix. That’s because new shows are coming to Netflix on a weekly basis alongside fresh seasons of existing series. In this month alone, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, FUBAR, and XO, Kitty have been heating up Netflix’s TV rankings. And there are more shows coming this summer.
There are so many series to keep track of that it would be easy to miss anything that’s not immediately a breakout hit. But that’s why we’re here to provide this list of the best original series on Netflix. Follow our recommendations, and you’ll never miss out.
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.
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FUBAR2023
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XO, Kitty2023
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Sweet Tooth2021
God save the queen. Bridgerton fans have made sure that the first spinoff series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, is already a chart-topping hit. This is a prequel that follows Charlotte (India Amarteifio) decades before the events of the primary show. It’s also an origin story for Bridgerton itself as Charlotte’s marriage to King George III (Corey Mylchreest) has an amazing effect on the world around them. Unfortunately for Charlotte, a happy ending and true love will not come as easily.
This show doesn’t ignore the events of the primary Bridgerton series, as the older Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) finds herself facing some serious questions about who will inherit the crown after she is gone.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is making the leap to television in his first-ever series, FUBAR. And to be honest, FUBAR does play like a collection of Schwarzenegger’s greatest hits, especially if you like True Lies.
For decades, Luke Brunner (Schwarzenegger) has been the top agent in the CIA, and he’s ready to finally leave it all behind. The problem is that the CIA has a new top agent: Luke’s daughter, Emma (Monica Barbaro). She and her father have been lying to each other for years about what they really do for a living. Now that the truth is out, that’s a lot of tension to put into a relationship right before they have to team up for the sake of the free world.
The To All the Boys trilogy may be over, but the universe continues in the spinoff series, XO, Kitty. Anna Cathcart’s Kitty Song Covey has been promoted from supporting character status to a leading role as she begins her own quest for love. In the third movie, Kitty set up a long-distance relationship with Dae (Choi Min-young), a boy who lives in Korea. But when that’s not enough for Kitty, she decides to move to Korea to give herself more time with Dae.
However, Kitty may have bitten off more than she can chew, as the culture shock of living in Korea pales in comparison to the personal drama ahead. There are even some long-buried revelations about Kitty’s mother that may affect Kitty in the present.
Sweet Tooth is based on the comic book series by Jeff Lemire, and it’s also the nickname of Gus (Christian Convery), a young boy who is half-human and half-deer. Hybrid children like Gus are on the rise in this post-apocalyptic landscape which has left unaltered humans barely clinging to power. That leads some fanatics called the Last Men to blame the hybrids before attempting to hunt them down.
Yet for Gus, nothing is more important to him than reuniting with the mother he never knew. That’s why Gus is leaving the safety of his home to find his mom in the company of his new companion, Tommy Jepperd (Nonso Anozie). But in this world, Gus is going to have to grow up fast if he wants to survive.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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’ 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.
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.
The throwback sci-fi series Stranger Things is 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), 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.
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.
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