The best thing about the weekend is that you can park yourself on the couch all day and watch Netflix without any guilt. This long weekend, catch up on recent streaming titles that you might have missed in all of the insanity of recent weeks.
These Netflix miniseries are the perfect duration to watch over a single weekend and range in genre from a gothic-horror show loosely based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, a period drama about a real-life rescue network during World War II and a multi-episode doc about one of the most famously bendy sports stars of all time. If you’re looking for a great but relatively quick watch, here are the best miniseries on Netflix to binge over one weekend.
Transatlantic
Starring Gillian Jacobs, Lucas Englander and Cory Michael Smith, "Transatlantic" is is based on one of the most incredible, true World War II stories that you’ve likely never heard of. The series centers on the Emergency Rescue Committee, a real-life resistance and relief organization that worked to save famous Europeans hiding from the Nazis in unoccupied Marseille after the fall of France in 1940.
Yes, that means some of the world’s most celebrated writers, thinkers and artists pop up throughout "Transatlantic" — we’re talking Peggy Guggenheim (played by Jodhi May), Walter Benjamin (Moritz Bleibtreu) Hannah Arendt (Alexa Karolinski) and Max Ernst (Alexander Fehling), among others. "Each person in this story deserves their own television series," creator Anna Winger told Town & Country and she’s not wrong. But despite the serious subject, the show is a compelling watch even beyond the facts, thanks to its slick pace, sumptuous production design and engaging lead performances.
Episodes: 7 (avg 50 min)
Genre: Historical drama
Rotten Tomatoes score: 95%
Watch on Netflix
Beckham
Given that he’s one of the most recognizable athletes of all time — not to mention a global style icon and half of one of Hollywood’s most enduring power couples — most people already know plenty about David Beckham and his famous family. And yet this four-part docuseries from Academy Award–winning director Fisher Stevens managed to offer up more than a few never-before-seen insights into the sports star, from the depression and death threats that followed the athlete’s infamous red card at the 1998 World Cup, to the marital difficulties he and wife Victoria Beckham faced right before his retirement in 2013.
Though the nonfiction miniseries has interesting things to say about his storied career, the real good stuff is those off-the-pitch moments (who knew Becks keeps bees?!).
Episodes: 4 (avg 70 min)
Genre: Documentary
Rotten Tomatoes score: 91%
Watch on Netflix
Bodies
Before stepping into a brand new year, visit a bunch of old ones. This time-jumping murder mystery recounts the same crime in the same location across four very different years–1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053 — a different detective on the case in each era (played by Kyle Soller, Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Amaka Okafor and Shira Haas, respectively).
However, you soon realize that those seemingly disparate investigations might not be so disparate after all and may be linked to a larger conspiracy that threatens London. Based on the graphic novel by Si Spencer, the thriller is equal parts sci-drama, period piece and police procedural, which should satisfy the TV cravings of all of your post-New Year’s couch comrades.
Episodes: 8 (avg 55 min)
Genre: Crime thriller
Rotten Tomatoes score: 81%
Watch on Netflix
The Fall of the House of Usher
Want to give January a jolt? This jumpscare-filled horror series will do just that. Created by Mike Flanagan — the macabre brain behind Netflix’s "The Haunting" anthology series as well as "Midnight Mass" and "The Midnight Club" — the eight-episode drama takes inspiration from Poe’s eponymous short story and recounts the rise and fall of Roderick Usher (portrayed by Bruce Greenwood and Zach Gilford), here the wealthy and powerful CEO of a corrupt pharmaceutical company.
Given the title and its source material, it’s not exactly a shock when members of the Usher family dynasty begin to get picked off one by one. But it’s the increasingly mysterious and exceedingly gruesome ways in which they go (that acid party! those chimps!) that will keep you guessing.
Episodes: x (avg 60 min)
Genre: Horror drama
Rotten Tomatoes score: 90%
Watch on Netflix
Painkiller
Equally scary is this August 2023 addition to Netflix, a tense true crime drama that explores both the origins and aftermath of the opioid crisis in the US. At the center of the provocative miniseries — which is based on the book "Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America’s Opioid Epidemic" by Barry Meier — is Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of OxyContin, as well as its owners, the Sackler family, portrayed by actors Matthew Broderick, Sam Anderson, Clark Gregg and John Rothman.
“My goal was to capture the DNA that lives deep in the soul of the opioid crisis—a very dense and complex tragedy fueled by greed, corruption, human fragility and more greed,” Peter Berg, who directed all six episodes, told Tudum. Mission very much accomplished.
Episodes: 6 (avg 50 min)
Genre: Drama
Rotten Tomatoes score: 51%
Watch on Netflix
