The best Netflix series you can stream right now in 2023

We've picked the best Netflix series now streaming in 2023, from Stranger Things and Bojack Horseman to classic sitcoms like Seinfeld.

Best Netflix series

What are the best Netflix series to watch? We’ve all been there, wondering what to check out while we scroll through all the shows on Netflix. Maybe a good old rewatch? Or perhaps something lighter, like a makeover reality show? The choice paralysis on streaming platforms is real, and sometimes it eats into that precious watching time.

We’re here to help you be a little more decisive, by giving you the very best Netflix series to be found in the bowels of the service. You can watch everything on this list front to back via your Netflix subscription, and if you’re not in the market to binge a drama series, there are a few choices that are great for sticking on a random episode to relax to as well.

Comedy, period drama, cooking, some choice sci-fi series, Netflix anime, it’s all here, and in many cases, you’ve multiple seasons to dive into. Doesn’t matter if you just need some escapism or you finally have a quiet evening and want to engage in some heady concepts. If you’d like something feature-length, peruse out lists of the best Netflix movies, and best Netflix horror movies.

What are the best Netflix series?

  • Stranger Things
  • Aggretsuko
  • Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun
  • Better Call Saul
  • Queer Eye
  • Orange is the New Black
  • The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance
  • Bojack Horseman
  • The Crown
  • Riverdale
  • RuPaul’s Drag Race
  • Dark
  • Community
  • Seinfeld
  • Love, Death and Robots
  • Lucifer
  • Cobra Kai

Best Netflix TV series: Stranger Things

Stranger Things (2016 – present)

One of Netflix’s breakout hits Stranger Things is a wonderful celebration of pop culture and genre. Inspired by epic ‘80s movies, a group of Dungeons and Dragons-obsessed kids find themselves on an actual fantastic adventure when one of them is sucked into another dimension.

Soon, another child with psychic abilities shows up, dubbed Eleven, and everything continues to get weirder from there. Full of little era-specific nods, it’s the characters, young and old, that make it so watchable.

What’s next? Stranger Things season 5 release date

David Harbour’s gentle detective Jim Hopper, and Winona Ryder’s Joyce Byers give their younger co-stars a run for the spotlight. An awesome synth-wave soundtrack seals the deal. And an array of creepy Stranger Things monsters will keep you up at night!

Best Netflix TV series: Aggretsuko

Aggretsuko (2016 – Present)

Retsuko is a red panda who lets out all the pent up aggression from her boring office job singing heavy metal at karaoke. That should already be enough to convince you, but if it isn’t, her ongoing attempts to find contentment despite social anxiety and other emotional struggles definitely will.

All the colours: The best animated series

Based on a character from the Japanese company Sanrio – the owner of Hello Kitty – Aggretsuko is a charming oddity that switches from an unassuming workplace sitcom to death metal on a whim. Like our protagonist, the art seems simple at first, but give it a chance, and you’ll see there’s much more to learn.

Best Netflix TV series: Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun

Aunty Donna’s Big Ol’ House of Fun (2020)

Australian absurdist comedy at its finest. Aunty Donna are a troupe that has spent the better part of the last decade touring and making web series, before finally making it big on Netflix with their own sketch show. Mark Samuel Bonanno, Broden Kelly, and Zachary Ruane play themselves as housemates, but also recur as various characters, like Nervous Looking Man, Tiny Man, and Mark’s Mother.

The humour is inane, and gags move quickly from simple conversation into musical numbers and choreographed routines. It’s all delivered with a good heart though, and if you need an uplifting chuckle, this is one big ol’ house that’s worth a visit.

Best Netflix TV series: Better Call Saul

Better Call Saul (2015 – 2022)

When it was announced, Better Call Saul sounded like a cynical cash grab on Breaking Bad’s popularity. For the last six seasons, Bob Odenkirk has been proving that assumption wrong at every turn. Jimmy McGill’s gradual transformation into Saul Goodman is a slow-burn examination of how we can become gradually distorted without necessarily realising it’s happening.

Talk it out: The best drama movies

Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould make connections to Walter White’s eventual arrival clear from moment go, intertwining White and Goodman’s destinies. Funnier and surprisingly heartfelt, it consistently finds interesting ways to build out the existing drug-running mythology.

Best Netflix TV series: Queer Eye

Queer Eye (2018 – present)

Sometimes, all you need is a good makeover to get back on track. Each episode, the Fab Five – Antoni Porowski, Karamo Brown, Bobby Berk, Tan France, and Jonathan Van Ness – come in to look at how someone’s living, and find ways to help them find happiness.

We all get stuck in a rut on occasion; Queer Eye is all about helping to dig each other out. It’s a kind, quick-witted show where it doesn’t matter your circumstances, what matters is what happens next. Comfort watching for days when it all feels very dark and grey.

Best Netflix TV series: Orange is the New Black

Orange Is the New Black (2013 – 2019)

Debuting back in 2013, this prison drama was pivotal in establishing Netflix as a major force in original televised entertainment. Since then, it’s gone on to be nominated for numerous awards, including 12 Emmy nominations, and tell a fulsome story about the systemic failures inherent to American jails.

Grim and gritty: The best thriller movies

At the start, Piper Chapman is given a short sentence for transporting drug money for her partner. From there, we meet and live with a range of inmates and officers, each contributing to the narrative tapestry in a unique way. Jenji Kohan adapted the story from the book by Piper Kerman, but the seven seasons go well beyond Kerman’s memoir.

Best Netflix TV series: The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance (2019)

Somehow improves on one the best adventure movies ever made by making it longer, and reproducing its world in greater detail than before. Three Gelflings lead an uprising against the vulturous Skekis to protect the realm of Thra from being darkened. If all that sounds a bit daft, the monumental craft on display in the puppetry and sets is more than worth watching for anyway.

Creature feature: The best monster movies

Co-produced by The Jim Henson Company and Netflix, the castles, forests, and mountains need to be seen to be believed. Snot dribbles out of noses, dozens of characters move individually, and even the wheels on carriages have quirks to look out for. An accomplishment.

Best Netflix TV series: Bojack Horseman

Bojack Horseman (2014 – 2020)

Come for the self-deprecating jokes, stay for the intensely candid commentary on self-destruction. The titular former child star tries to retake control of the limelight by publishing a ghost-written autobiography. The only problem is, that still means completely excavating the past and all the personal problems therein.

Pretty pictures: The best anime movies

Don’t let the pastelles and animal-headed characters fool you, Raphael Bob-Waksberg’s psychological comedy-drama has a tendency to blindside you with its bleakness. Bojack himself is a walking calamity who always seems one step behind his problems, and his nihilism colours the entire worldview. Heavy, but brilliant.

Best Netflix TV series: The Crown

The Crown (2016 – present)

Humanising the British monarchy is no easy task, and many of us scoff at the notion. The Crown manages it without coming across too pompous, instead quietly aware of the overall perception, and not making any excuses for it.

Next in line: The Crown season 5 release date

Behind the cynicism lies the simple truth that Queen Elizabeth II and her family lead a singular existence. All that privilege and internal drama makes for great TV, and by travelling up through the ages, Peter Morgan manages to hone in on exactly why we can’t stop paying attention: we love to hate them. Here too, you may loathe each and every one, and you’ll find it just as hard to turn away.

Best Netflix TV series: Riverdale

Riverdale (2017 – present)

Archie comics reimagined for the 21st century as a YA romantic drama about serial killers, generational conspiracy, and staying in shape for the high school football team. Everything in Riverdale High is life or death, whether that’s getting stabbed, or whatever Betty and Jughead are fighting about at any given moment.

It’s a previous time: The best teen movies

Overwrought narrative arcs are complemented by spectacularly moody lighting, like the characters all set up the scenes themselves for full impact. Savvy of its influences, Molly Ringwald, Luke Perry, and Skeet Ulrich feature as parents, passing the baton of teen angst and hickeys.

Best Netflix TV series: RuPaul's Drag Race

RuPaul’s Drag Race (2009 – present)

One of the filthiest and funniest shows readily available for viewing. Drag icon RuPaul’s game show to find the best queens in the known universe is great for all occasions. Got a promotion? Time for RuPaul. Break up? Time for RuPaul. Just remembered it’s a Wednesday? Time for RuPaul.

Insults are passed around like cheap cocktails, and the creativity ranges from desperate to delicious. Nina Flowers and BeBe Zahara Benet make the first season more than watchable, but if you want to see the series at its best, Bianca Del Rio, Adore Delano, and Courtney Act in season six is a particular high. Forget star signs, ask people who their favourite queen is to learn all about them.

Best Netflix TV series: Dark

Dark (2017 – 2020)

The age of streaming has allowed greater experimentation and wider access to non-English language projects. Dark, a time-travel epic unravelled across three seasons created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, is the exact kind of thing that’s benefitted from a global platform like Netflix.

Timey-wimey: The best science fiction movies

Each ten-episode season is a puzzle in itself, jumping from timeline to timeline without any semblance of explanation. You meet characters, then their younger selves, then their older selves, charting strife, grudges, and unrequited romance through the generations. Watching can feel like work, but this is a project that’s most rewarding.

Best Netflix TV series: Community

Community (2009 – 2015)

We’ve all been there: people find out your law degree isn’t actually legitimate, so you go back to college to earn a real one. Happens to everyone! While at Greendale Community College, Jeff Winger founds a study group in the hopes of impressing fellow student Gillian Jacobs. She brings some friends, and despite his disappointment, Winger grows fond of the company.

Funny stuff: The best comedy movies

Dan Harmon’s ensemble comedy about adults navigating high education uses a very comedically tight cast to navigate the hare-brained realm of university life. Donald Glover, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Yvette Nicole Brown, each adds distinct cadence to the rhythm, and does some of their best work through the six seasons.

Best Netflix TV series: Seinfeld

Seinfeld (1989 – 1998)

One of the great ‘90s TV shows, Seinfeld holds up thanks to the eccentric nature of its cast. Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Elaine, Jason Alexander’s George, and Michael Richards’ Kramer each continually provides Jerry Seinfeld’s, uh, Jerry with plenty of material for his stand-up sets.

Very much a precursor to the absurdist nihilism of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Seinfeld rarely has much time for sentimentality. Instead, it’s all how much worse any given situation could be, especially living in New York City.

Best Netflix series: Love, Death and Robots

Love, Death and Robots (2019 – present)

The Outer Limits as constructed by some of the finest and most creative animators working today. Love, Death and Robots was spearheaded by Tim Miller, director of Deadpool, as a means of letting studios cut loose on whatever wild concepts they could put together.

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The result is a varied hodge-podge of aesthetics and themes. Some work better than others, but everything being so singular means there’s always something to captivate the mind. Miller wanted it to be a spiritual successor to cult magazine Heavy Metal, and Love, Death and Robots is on the right wavelength, to be sure.

Best Netflix series: Lucifer

Lucifer (2016 – 2021)

the Devil as a sharp-dressed nightclub owner in Los Angeles. If that doesn’t intrigue you, we can’t help you. This ruler of Hell comes from the pages of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman, where he became so popular, he wound up with his own book.

Fast-forward a couple of decades, and he’s got his own show as well. Tom Ellis is excellently cast as the suave angel, who takes up police consultation when supernatural murders start happening in his vicinity. Never a dull moment!

best Netflix series: Cobra Kai

Cobra Kai (2018 – present)

Not only one of the better legacy sequels we’ve had, it might genuinely be the best. Cobra Kai captures the ’80s essence of Karate Kid, and brings more character and substance to all the martial arts melodrama.

In the years since losing to Danny LaRusso, Johnny Lawrence has lost his way. Shown as a bully in the 1984 film, Johnny had his own share of problems, and when their rivalry is reignited, it becomes a chance to find closure as adults. Better than it sounds, and that’s without mentioning the needle-drops.

Those are the best Netflix series you can stream right now – have a look at our guide to the best Disney Plus shows if you’d like more potential choices.