We’re drowning in too much good TV right now. Even if you stick to one streaming service, you can find yourself scrolling through endless titles and — BAM! — before you know it, you’ve spent who knows how long looking at thumbnail images without actually hitting play on any of them. Luckily, we’ve taken the work out of finding the next great show to watch.
These Netflix dramas may have skated under your radar, but all are certified fresh with at least a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. They include a few shows that ran for just one season (so you can easily stream them all in one weekend), while the longer ones can be savored.
So go make some popcorn, find a comfy spot on the couch, and check out these acclaimed Netflix dramas to watch.
Lupin
Who doesn’t love a good heist? And Lupin, inspired by the Arsène Lupin stories about the gentleman thief, doesn’t disappoint. Part 1 opens with Assane Diop (Omar Sy) planning a heist inside the Louvre to steal Marie Antoinette’s pearl necklace and frame the man who had his father arrested. The show has the same slick look and pacing as the movie Now You See Me, which was also directed by Louis Leterrier.
The show has three seasons that follow Diop as he steals his way through Paris. Like all good heist stories, it dives into the thief as much as his scores. The latest installment, which came out in late 2023, earned a perfect 100% percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
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The Magicians
If you want to get lost in a dark, fantastical world, you should add The Magicians to your list. You’ll have five seasons to sink into the world of Fillory, a land where the air is 5% opium and where magic always comes with a cost. The entire series earned a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, with seasons 3 and 5 hitting 100%.
Unlike the books on which the series is based, The Magicians spends time with a large ensemble cast, featuring Jason Ralph, Hale Applebaum, Summer Bishil, and Stella Maeve, as they bounce between Fillory and Brakebills College of Magical Pedagogy. The show, at its best, leans into gray morality, developing complicated characters who hate to be put in a box.
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Wyonna Earp
If you love Buffy the Vampire Slayer, may I introduce you to a show that will scratch the same itch? Wyonna Earp takes place in Purgatory, USA as Wyonna works as a demon slayer to take down the Revenants, criminals come back from the dead. Kelly Lawler at USA Today wrote that Wyonna Earp “learned all the right lessons from [Buffy] about melding the personal and the supernatural.”
The series earns an overall Rotten Tomatoes score of 92%, with Seasons 2 and 3 soaring to 100%. You can watch all four seasons on Netflix.
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Teenage Bounty Hunters
This is the show to watch if you want something truly “bonkers,” in the words of Globe and Mail. The show follows twins Sterling (Maddie Phillips) and Blair (Anjelica Bette Fellini) Wesley in Atlanta as they navigate attending a Christian high school during the day while working at Yogurtopia and bringing in people who ran out on bail with fellow bounty hunter, Bowser (Kadeem Hardison) at night.
It’s a voice-y show that blends the bite of Saved with the "case of the week" of a standard procedural. When this show first dropped in 2020, several outlets, from Vulture to The New York Times raved about it. TV critic Katheryn Van Arendonk lamented the show gone too soon (the show ran for only one season) — and if you check out its Rotten Tomatoes score of 94%, it’s clear that reviewers agreed with her.
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One Day at a Time
One Day at a Time toes the line between drama and comedy, grappling with serious issues like queerness and affirmative action, as well as alcoholism, depression, and PTSD. The show is a remake of the 1975 original, following Penélope (Justina Machado), a Cuban-American veteran raising two kids alongside her mom (Rita Moreno).
One Day at a Time, which earned a 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, ran for three seasons on Netflix before getting canceled in 2019. However, PopTV (which also aired Schitt’s Creek) picked up the show for its final season, offering viewers a bright spot of comfort in the midst of the beginning of the pandemic. You can stream the first three seasons on Netflix now.
Stream on Netflix
