The 25 Best Shows on Netflix to Watch in November
Weâve all been overwhelmed by streaming TV choices, only to give up and watch something weâve already seen. But this curated list of the best shows on Netflix is here to narrow down your decision-making and help you figure out exactly which titles you want to sample next.
Beef (2023)
Amy (Ali Wong) is an entrepreneur in the middle of a protracted negotiation to sell her independent store to a huge home-improvement chain. Danny (Steven Yeun) is a contractor and handyman desperately trying to scrape together enough money to buy a plot of land on which he can build a house for his parents, who moved back to their native Korea after losing their family motel. Thereâs no reason Danny and Amy should ever know each other, never mind end up as one anotherâs sworn enemies. But after the two have an unfortunate parking lot run-in, they both become obsessed with avenging themselves in this pitch-black comedy, which cut a swath through awards season last year. Season 2 is coming in 2025, with an all-new cast.
Black Mirror (2011-)
Comedy writer Charlie Brooker stepped out of his primary genre for this sci-fi anthology series. In the style of The Twilight Zone, each episode tells a self-contained story, generally about a dystopic application or evolution of technology we are familiar with. (The titular Black Mirror refers to the look of a TV, computer, or phone screen when itâs turned off.) What if you lived in a bunker and pedaled a stationary bike for hours on end to earn âmeritsâ for your food and entertainment? Can a computer simulation permit our consciousness to outlast our physical forms? What if a popular streaming platform eavesdropped on your phone and turned your life into a drama series starring a CGI Salma Hayek? These are just a few questions raised over Black Mirrorâs run, which will continue soon: Season 7 is coming in 2025.
BoJack Horseman (2014-2020)
The titular BoJack (voice of Will Arnett, now one-third of the wildly successful podcast Smartless) was, back in the â90s, the star of a wildly successful family sitcom called Horsinâ Around. In the 2010s, heâs a has-been barely hanging onto his acting career. As part of a comeback attempt, he hires Diane Nguyen (Alison Brie) to ghost-write his memoir, drawing her into his world of substance use and depression. But Bojack really is a comedy! Paul F. Tompkins deserves special note for his work as BoJackâs one-time sitcom rival turned frenemy, a Labrador Retriever named Mr. Peanutbutter. Thought Bojack aired its finale four years ago, creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg has just set up his next show at Netflixâmeaning the time is right to catch up on one of Netflixâs most critically acclaimed animated shows.
Borgen (2010)
Need something to take your mind off American politics? How about the politics of a whole other country? As this Danish series begins, Birgitte Nyborg (Sidse Babett Knudsen) is the leader of the fictional center-left political party the Moderates and is heading into a federal election she does not expect her party to win. Then the prime ministerâs wife embroils him in a minor but embarrassing financial scandal, andâto make a long parliamentary story shortâNyborg ends up as Denmarkâs first female PM. The original series ended in 2013, and it was followed in 2022 by a sequel, Borgen: Power & Glory.
The Boyfriend (2024)
Netflix has no shortage of unscripted dating shows, but none are quite like The Boyfriend. At an elegant house nicknamed The Green Room, the cast of six Japanese and East Asian menâall of whom identify as gay or bisexualâassemble for a temporary stay. (More cast members join as the season progresses.) Offscreen producers select one houseguest each day to run a coffee truck offsite, and that man then gets to choose one man to join him on his shift. The pair at the truck then have the opportunity to get acquainted away from the busier atmosphere at the house. Thereâs no competition elementâjust cute, eligible guys testing out their connections with each other. Find out why Them commentator Michael Cuby wrote that The Boyfriend âsets an exciting, interesting precedent for the future of LGBTQ+ reality dating programming.â
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-2021)
The numbers show that NYPD detective Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) is great at closing cases. But he still finds time to goof around at the station with Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero), his main rival and the target of most of his pranks; as well as with Charles Boyle (Joe Lo Truglio), the best friend who hero-worships Peralta. In the beloved sitcomâs series premiere, the equilibrium at the Nine-Nine gets a shake-up with the arrival of new captain Ray Holt (Andre Braugher), a strictly regimented administrator with, it seems, zero sense of humor. The show comes to us from creator Dan Goor and executive producer Michael Schur, both of whom formerly worked on Parks and Recreationâso, of course, this is absolutely one of the very best workplace sitcoms on Netflix. And October is the perfect time to program your own mini marathon of all the Halloween heist episodes.
Cobra Kai (2018)
Forty years agoâalmost exactlyâLucille LaRusso (Randee Heller) moved her son Daniel (Ralph Macchio) from Newark to the Los Angeles suburb of Reseda. There, Daniel found out the hard way not only that Valley bullies didnât play; they also had real fighting skills honed under toxic sensei John Kreese (Martin Kove) at his Cobra Kai dojo. Eventually, Daniel hooks up with Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) to learn karate and face off against his main antagonist, Johnny Lawrence (William Zabka) at a local competition. The feature film The Karate Kid was followed by three sequels, a remake, and finally a series, which picks up with Daniel and Johnny in middle age. Since their fraught teen years, things have changed: Johnny is an underdog scraping together a living as a handyman, while Daniel is the Valleyâs most successful car dealer. Karate is still the main preoccupation of everyone in the region, but now itâs Daniel and Johnnyâs kids who are learning how to use it against each other. The show is unserious in the very best way, and both Zabka and Macchio are clearly having the time of their lives. The second part of season six drops November 15.
Dash & Lily (2020)
With the holiday season nearly upon us, the time is finally right to check out, or revisit, one of the most charming rom-coms on Netflix. Adapted from Rachel Cohn and David Levithanâs YA novel series Dash & Lilyâs Book of Dares, the show revolves around the titular characters (Austin Abrams and Midori Francis, respectively) not quite meeting but deepening their knowledge of each other through notes and dares in a notebook that they take turns leaving in locations all over New York City. Also: Itâs Christmas!
Detroiters (2017-2018)
When Tim (Tim Robinson) was a kid, his father Big Hank (Kevin Nash) was a legend in the world of local ad production in Detroit. Then Big Hank went to what Tim refers to as âthe nuthouse,â leaving his ad agency for Tim to take over. What Tim lacks in natural talent, he makes up for in enthusiasm, intensity, and platonic love for Sam (Sam Richardson), his business partner and best friend. The show really filmed in Detroit, and it is crammed with references to actual local ads that Robinson and Richardsonâboth favorite sons of the cityâknow from their youth. Guest and recurring stars include such comedy luminaries as Conner OâMalley, Keegan-Michael Key, and Jason Sudeikis, making this by far one of the funniest sitcoms on Netflix.
Documentary Now! (2015-)
Saturday Night Live alumni Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Seth Meyers, and (director) Rhys Thomas co-created this anthology series, in which each episode is a painstakingly specific parody reimagining a real noteworthyâif not Oscar-winningâdocumentary film. Though its future is uncertainâthese are busy people, and one episode of this show takes a lot of workâthe four seasons weâve got so far are impeccable. Spoof subjects include The Kid Stays In The Picture, The Thin Blue Line, When We Were Kings, and in a rare departure, the Netflix docu-series Wild Wild Country; you quite simply canât call yourself a fan of musical theater if you havenât seen âCo-op,â the showâs take on Original Cast Album: Company. Guest stars include Cate Blanchett, Owen Wilson, RenĂ©e Elise Goldsberry, Alexander SkarsgĂ„rd, and Maya Rudolph, and none other than Helen Mirren, who appears to introduce each and every episode.
Evil (2019-2024)
Cocreators Robert and Michelle King are best known for The Good Wife and The Good Fight, legal dramas filled with elegant people in sharp suits vigorously arguing for their clients in court. But what the uninitiated may not know is that while the Kingsâ marquee shows have the veneer of prestige TV, theyâre actually surprisingly weird, and the shows theyâve made outside the Good universe are even stranger. For instance: Evil, in which forensic psychologist Dr. Kristen Bouchard (Katja Herbers) joins seminarian David Acosta (Mike Colter) and tech expert Ben Shakir (Aasif Mandvi) to investigate potentially supernatural events, all under the auspices of the Catholic Church. Which cases are actually the work of the devil? Are any? And what might the extremely sketchy rival psychologist Leland Townsend (Michael Emerson) have to do with them? The show just ended its four-season run on Paramount+ to such acclaim that horror eminence Stephen King publicly asked for someone to bring it back. Perhaps Netflix will be the home of an all-new fifth season.
Feel Good (2020-2021)
Mae Martin charmed audiences last year as a contestant on the British panel show Taskmaster; anyone who wants to see what they can do with material thatâs less absurdist should check out their breakthrough role in Feel Good. In this highly autobiographical, now-concluded dramedy co-created and co-written by Martin and Joe Hampson, Martin plays Mae, a Canadian standup comic living in England who falls in love with George (Charlotte Ritchie, star of the U.K. Ghosts AND another past Taskmaster contestant). The road to happiness is rough for the couple, however; Mae is a drug addict in recovery, but still has lingering issues; and George is hesitant about coming out to loved ones. The showâs deep bench of supporting cast members includes Minx star Ophelia Lovibond, Four Weddings And A Funeral alumna Sophie Thompson, Buffyâs Anthony Head, and Lisa Kudrow (now starring in AppleTV+âs series adaptation of Time Bandits) as Maeâs mother Linda.
Fisk (2021-)
Helen Tudor-Fisk (Kitty Flanagan, who co-created the series with Vincent Sheehan) was a successful lawyer in Sydney before her marriage fell apart. Seeking comfort, she moves back to her hometown of Melbourneânearer her dad Anthony (John Gaden), a retired judge, and his new-ish husband Viktor (Glenn Butcher). Largely on the strength of her connections through Anthony, Helen is hired at Gruber & Gruber, a small sibling-run firm specializing in probate law. Working on wills and trusts doesnât come naturally to the prickly Fisk, and seeing how she figures out how to relate to clients in times of heightened sensitivity is part of what makes this one of the most unexpectedly winning sitcoms on Netflix; we canât wait to see what future seasons will bring.
Friday Night Lights (2006-2011)
The small (and fictional) town of Dillon, Texas doesnât have much going on, but there is one obsession all residents share: Dillon Panthers football. Loosely adapted from H.G. âBuzzâ Bissingerâs nonfiction book of the same name, the series revolves around Coach Eric Taylor (Kyle Chandler), the new head coach at Dillon High School. Expectations for his performance are already impossibly high, and the pressure on him only grows after a catastrophe befalls his quarterback, Jason Street (Scott Porter), in the series premiere. The much-lauded show, which concluded its run on NBC 13 (gulp) years ago, also features Connie Britton in the breakout role of Tami, Coachâs eminently patient, impeccably coiffed wife; later seasons also boast future Creed star Michael B. Jordan. With the new NFL season ramping up, this can help you fill the time between games.
GLOW (2017-2019)
Alison Brieâs Ruth is tryingâand mostly failingâto make it as an actor in 1985 Los Angeles. After she blows yet another audition, a casting director gives her a tip on an unconventional production Ruth might be right for: highly choreographed womenâs wrestling. Bringing in a bunch of actorly baloney doesnât help the notably unathletic Ruth make a great first impression on director Sam Sylvia (Marc Maron), but before she entirely washes out, her frenemy Debbie (Betty Gilpin) storms in to confront Ruth about a recent wrong, and Sam sees a great face/heel duo in the making. Gilpinâpremiering this month in the Starz original series Three Womenâearned Emmy nominations in the category of outstanding supporting actress in a comedy series for all three of the showâs seasons. (A planned fourth wound up being a casualty of the pandemic.) Thereâs no wrong time to dig into one of the best ever comedies on Netflix; you wonât be sorry you did.
The Great British Baking Show (2010)
Ten-ish years into the reality competition boom, a show came along that was the exact antithesis of the cutthroat gamesmanship of Survivor or even Top Chef. The amateur contestants of The Great British Baking Show are genuinely warm and helpful to each other, the hosts and judges are gentle and encouraging, and everyoneâs striving to produce their very best work in order to win an engraved glass cake stand and absolutely no cash at all. The brand-new season started streaming September 27, so jump on the sweetest reality competition show on Netflix before you fall too far behind.
Heartstopper (2022-)
Adapted by Alice Oseman from her graphic novel of the same name, Heartstopper tells the story of British high school students Charlie (Joe Locke, now costarring in Agatha All Along on Disney+) and Nick (Kit Connor). Charlie has been outâand not by his own choiceâfor the past year before meeting Nick. Since Charlie believes Nick is straight, the two start as platonic friends. Over the course of the first season, their relationship evolves. Season three drops October 3, with more to come after that.
Lost (2004-2010)
The passengers on Oceanic Airlines Flight 815 all board thinking theyâre in for a routine flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. Alas, it is not to be: the plane crashes on a remote island, having gone off its original course and disappeared somewhere over the Pacific Ocean. The survivors have enough problems just figuring out what resources are available and how to remain alive until help can find them. But before long, they realize thereâs more to this island than they could possibly imagine. Reasonable people can disagree on where (or whether) the show went on longer than it should have by the time it finally ended in 2010; what is not in dispute is that this game changer is one of the most culturally significant TV dramas on Netflix.
Love Is Blind (2020-)
The Bachelor franchise is fine as far as it goes, but with dozens of seasons of both The Bachelor and The Bacheloretteâto say nothing of Bachelor in Paradise, Bachelor Pad, and The Bachelor Presents: Listen To Your Heartâyou might be Bachelored out. If so: This is the time to embrace the suite of reality romance shows from chaos king Chris Coelen. Love Is Blind challenges brave singles to try dating partners they canât see. Women and men are kept apart at the showâs filming location and communicate only while in pods connected by an opaque panel. If they make enough of a connection for one to propose marriage to the other, they (finally) get to see each other. Then they live together for a time planning their wedding, and only at the altar do they both state whether they actually take one another in lawful matrimony. In addition to its US seasons (season seven premieres October 2), the show has spawned Brazilian and Japanese versions. Not sated? Coelen also created The Ultimatum, in which couples who havenât decided to get married figure out their issues by dating other people for a while. Netflix also has select seasons of Married At First Sight, which is exactly what its title promises. And as of February 2023, Coelenâs suite of titles includes Perfect Match, a dating show that lets alumni from various Netflix reality shows try to find love with each other. Season 7 just wrapped up with its reunion special October 30.
Maid (2021)
Stephanie Landâs memoir Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, And A Motherâs Will To Survive provided the source material for this limited series. Alex (Margaret Qualley, now in the acclaimed film The Substance) is a young mother whose decision to leave her abusive boyfriend Sean (Nick Robinson) is fraught with peril: severely limited finances, Kafkaesque bureaucracy, and insufficient support from the people closest to her. Alexâs determination to create a safe and happy life for her daughter Maddy (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet) and to become a writer keep her pushing through extremely challenging obstacles.
Mindhunter (2017-2019)
The 1995 nonfiction book Mindhunter: Inside the FBIâs Elite Serial Crime Unit provides the inspiration for this scripted series, created by playwright Joe Penhall and executive-produced by David Fincher, who also directs multiple episodes. FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) partner with psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv) to pioneer the bureauâs Behavioral Science Unit. As part of their work, they visit prisons to interview some of the eraâs incarcerated serial killers, most notoriously Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton), David Berkowitz, a.k.a. the Son of Sam (Oliver Cooper), and Charles Manson (Damon Herriman). Though we only got two seasons, fans of true crime will call this one of the best crime shows on Netflix.
Narcos (2015-2017)
How did Pablo Escobar go from a comparatively low-level smuggler to one of the worldâs most notorious drug kingpins to (uh, spoiler?) his death at the hands of an international law enforcement task force? Steve Murphyâa real DEA agent, since retired, who worked on the caseâis portrayed here by Boyd Holbrook, who also narrates the story of the DEAâs investigation into Escobar (Wagner Moura); Murphyâs DEA colleague Javier Peña is played by future Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal. The series was followed by a companion series, Narcos: Mexico, in 2018.
Simone Biles Rising (2024)
Gymnast Simone Biles is one of the most dominant Olympians aliveânot just in her own sport, but across all events. She has won 11 medals, seven of them gold. But her story canât be contained in a network clips package, starting with her surprising decision to withdraw from the 2020 Tokyo Games for the sake of her mental health. In this documentary series, filmmaker Katie Walsh delves deep on the complexity of Bilesâs virtuosic performances and her private struggles.
UnREAL (2015-2018)
Sarah Gertrude Shapiroâs 2013 short film Sequin Raze is the inspiration for this drama series, set behind the scenes at Everlasting, a fictional reality dating show, and Shapiro co-created the show with Marti Noxon, formerly a producer on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Our anti-heroine protagonist is Rachel (Shiri Appleby), a producer who, as UnREAL begins, is just returning to Everlasting after a mental breakdown. Rachel is bringing some very dark mother issues to the project, which is part of why sheâs so susceptible to manipulation by Quinn (Constance Zimmer), Everlastingâs toxic bitch queen of an executive producer. Though later seasons lost the plot a bit, the first is pretty impeccable. After seeing the ways Rachel messes with the minds of Everlastingâs flock of aspiring bridesânot to mention Adam (Freddie Stroma), the man theyâre all vying forâyou may never be able to watch The Bachelor the same way again.
White Collar (2009-2014)
From Suits to Monk to Royal Pains, the USA Networkâs trademark âblue skyâ content has been going strong on Netflix for quite some timeâand depending on what you were doing in the late aughts and early teens, there might be more thatâs new to you in White Collar. Matt Bomer plays Neal Caffrey, a brilliant con artist whose crimes fall firmly in the titular category and finally gets arrested by Peter Burke (Tim DeKay), his determined opponent at the FBI. But when Neal breaks out of prison just months ahead of his scheduled releaseâand Burke catches him againâNeal suggests a deal that could benefit them both: Heâll turn against other white-collar criminals as a consultant to the FBI. The supporting cast includes Beverly Hills, 90210 alum Tiffani Thiessen as Burkeâs wife Elizabeth and the late Willie Garson as Mozzie, Nealâs best friend and fellow con artist. If you love Catch Me If You Can but have always felt like its feature film running time is too short, White Collar is for you.
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