When it comes to today’s give-me-something-to-watch-right-now streaming era, Netflix reigns supreme, as eponymous to random-night couch programming as Xerox was to the photocopier. Still, who among us hasn’t bounced off a Netflix show three or four episodes in? Hell, who among us actually finished one of the 10-episode gauntlets of the streamer’s early era? While Netflix is known for a deep well of movies and TV shows, it’s not as well known for hits that whisk you along to a finale and stick with you for years after the credits roll.
But there are a few. To help you find something you might genuinely love — like, love — we put our heads together to recommend three shows we really believe you’ll stick with and devour until the last bite. We know because we were you once. Binge-watcher tested, binge-watcher approved.
Bodies
Paul Tomalin’s adaptation of the DC Vertigo graphic novel of the same name begins in 2023 when a London detective monitoring a far-right demonstration chases down a suspicious man and stumbles upon a naked corpse. Things get much weirder as the show’s perspective shifts between detectives in 1890, 1941, and 2053 who all come across the same body.
The twisty miniseries for fans of Predestination and Looper follows the investigators as they each grapple with the prejudices and perils of their own time while uncovering an impossible mystery. Stephen Graham (Adolescence, Venom: Let There Be Carnage) steals the show as the leader of a cult-like conspiracy with the unsettling mantra “know you are loved,” but Bodies is filled with strong performances. Jacob Fortune-Lloyd particularly shines as a corrupt cop looking for something like redemption in the chaos of the Blitz. The likeable characters make Bodies’ darker moments all the more harrowing, but it’s well worth sticking with it to the end to watch all the pieces fit together. —Samantha Nelson
This animated action drama made our list of the best shows of 2023 and, frankly, we’re still thinking about it. So is Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin. Might be time for a rewatch tbh.
Blue Eye Samurai trades the familiar engines of revenge drama for something quietly obsessive and personal. We pick up Mizu, a biracial swordsmaster with bones to pick, on a hunt for one of four violent men tied to her past. Every episode wedges the mystery open a little further, but what kept me glued to Blue Eye Samurai was the texture around the core mission. The supporting trio — the unflappable noodle-maker Ringo; the honor-seeking Taigen; and Akemi, the highborn woman trying to carve her own life — all deepen the stakes with their own arcs. Mizu can feel invincible at first, but her ability to weave through personal relationships is her trouble area. It’s an animated series that revels in performance. The hybrid 2D-3D style, papered with splashy, painterly backgrounds, means you’re not just sitting there waiting for the next twist to drop. This is art, man.
Good news if that sounds too heady: the series finishes like a boss fight — not just because director Jane Wu stages brutal, imaginative action, but because the violence always serves the character work. The big set pieces (the dojo massacre, the fortress episode, the fifth-episode showdown) are designed to awe, but they also rewire our understanding of Mizu: her improvised fighting style, her hidden gender and biracial shame, the metaphor of blended steel — all of it converges toward an emotional conclusion you can’t help wanting to see. In short, Blue Eye Samurai hooks you with a mystery, holds you with rich supporting arcs and hypnotic visuals, and then pays off with action that actually matters to the story — which is exactly why, once you begin, you’ll almost certainly make it to the end. —Matt Patches
Plenty of horror creators have found dark story resonances in the similarities between Christian ritual and pagan sacrifice: the death-and-rebirth imagery, the pageantry around submission, the many, many songs about blood. But Doctor Sleep director Mike Flanagan pushes the idea to its logical, horrible extreme in the one-and-done seven-episode story Midnight Mass, a slow-burn bloody horror story about religion being weaponized against the faithful — not all of whom are unwilling.
When a mysterious young priest (Gen V‘s Hamish Linklater) comes to an isolated island to replace an insular community’s beloved elderly priest, he brings along something dark and hungry. Miracles follow, some of them terrible, and there’s plenty of blood sacrifice along the way. It all builds up to a spellbinding, explosive, and very final conclusion. —Tasha Robinson
