Short, sweet, and to the point, these shows invoke that ‘just one more’ feeling at 3 a.m., but they don’t overstay their welcome. Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama Starring: Abigail Cowen, Hannah Van Der Westhuysen, Precious Mustapha Created By: Brian Young TV Rating: TV-MA Number of Seasons: 1 Fate: The Winx Saga is a reboot of Winx Club, an Italian animated series that aired on Nickelodeon in the mid-2000s. Best described as a mix between Harry Potter and Riverdale, this live-action version isn’t for kids, but rather for adults who may have grown up with the original show. Genre: Action, Crime, Drama Starring: Omar Sy, Vincent Londez, Ludivine Sagnier Created By: George Kay TV Rating: TV-MA Number of Seasons: 1 If you like the first episode, you’ll want to binge the whole series, so set aside a good chunk of free time. The first five episodes of Lupin are available now, and five more will be out later this year. Although the show is French, all of the dialogue is in English, so you don’t have to worry about subtitles. Genre: Drama, Romance Starring: Phoebe Dynevor, Regé-Jean Page, Nicola Coughlan Created By: Chris Van Dusen TV Rating: TV-MA Number of Seasons: 1 A mere month after the first season dropped, Bridgerton had been streamed by over 80 million Netflix users, making it the most-watched show on the platform. Unsurprisingly, it’s already been renewed for another season. The first eight episodes alone are enough to justify the monthly cost of a Netflix subscription. Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure Starring: Paul-Mikél Williams, Kausar Mohammed, Jenna Ortega Created By: Zack Stentz TV Rating: TV-PG Number of Seasons: 2 Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous fits perfectly into the Jurrasic Park universe, introducing new characters to familiar territory with lots of whimsical surprises. Like the movies, this cartoon is enjoyable for all ages, but especially for young children obsessed with dinosaurs. Genre: Animation, Action, Fantasy Starring: Itzan Escamilla, Michelle Jenner, Nico Romero Created By: Andrés Carrión, Laura Gallego TV Rating: TV-14 Number of Seasons: 2 The plot is pretty dark, but it’s not nearly as violent as some other anime shows on Netflix. The latest season may be the last, so if you want more of The Idhun Chronicles, you’ll have to read the manga series that inspired the show. Genre: Documentary, Sci-Fi Starring: Sophie Okonedo, Stuart Armstrong, Natalie Batalha Created By: Netflix TV Rating: TV-PG Number of Seasons: 1 While the alien species depicted are all speculative, the science on which they are based is solid. Each episode includes interviews with experts who apply their knowledge of Earth’s atmosphere to predict what extraterrestrial habitats would look like. Genre: Action, Fantasy, Mystery Starring: Kento Yamazaki, Tao Tsuchiya, Keita Machida Created By: Haro Aso TV Rating: TV-MA Number of Seasons: 1 If you’ve played the video game The World Ends With You, you’ll likely notice similarities with Alice in Borderland. Indeed, the story of gamers getting trapped inside a video game has been done plenty of times before, but never have the stakes been quite this high. At just eight episodes, you can easily get through the entire series in a weekend. Genre: Drama Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chloe Pirrie, Bill Camp Created By: Scott Frank, Allan Scott TV Rating: TV-MA Number of Seasons: 1 Inspired by a 1983 book by Walter Tevis, The Queen’s Gambit was a sleeper hit for Netflix, earning more views than any other original series in the first month of its release. Having won Best TV Series of the Year at the 2020 IGN Awards, The Queen’s Gambit has enough to keep critics, chess enthusiasts, and casual viewers entertained. Genre: Drama, Mystery, Thriller Starring: Kylie Jefferson, Brennan Clost, Damon J. Gillespie Created By: Michael MacLennan TV Rating: TV-MA Number of Seasons: 1 Tiny Pretty Things has sparked a lot of controversies online for its racy scenes, which has only fueled interest in the series. While the show is about teenagers, it’s clearly meant for audiences 18 and older. Genre: Biography, Drama, Music Starring: Christian Serratos, Madison Taylor Baez, Ricardo Chavira Created By: Moisés Zamora TV Rating: TV-PG Number of Seasons: 1 If you remember the 1997 movie of the same name starring Jeniffer Lopez, don’t think of Selena: The Series as an extended version of that. The series stands on its own, and with only nine episodes, you can easily binge it over a weekend. Genre: Comedy Starring: Gloria Aung, Gabriel Iglesias, Sherri Shepherd Created By: Kevin Hench TV Rating: TV-14 Number of Seasons: 2 Comedies about high school from the teacher’s perspective are rare, and this one knocks it out of the park. Teachers and students alike will identify with the show’s humor and conflicts. Mr. Iglesias manages to be heartwarming without feeling hokey and serious without feeling melodramatic. Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure Starring: Karen Fukuhara, Sydney Mikayla, Dee Bradley Baker Created By: Radford Sechrist, Bill Wolkoff TV Rating: TV-Y7 Number of Seasons: 3 Ultimately, it’s up to young Kipo and her friends (Sydney Mikayla, Dee Bradley Baker, et al.) to broker peace between humans who have fled underground in the face of a technicolor apocalypse and the wonderous beasts that took their place on the surface. Genre: Documentary, Crime Starring: Joe Exotic, Rick Kirkham, Carole Baskin Created By: Eric Goode, Rebecca Chaikilin TV Rating: TV-MA Number of Seasons: 1 With only seven episodes, and a follow up special, it takes some discipline not to just shotgun the entire thing in one sitting. Each installment of Tiger King is more baffling than the last, from Doc Antle’s strange cult of personality to Carole Baskin’s missing husband and the increasingly erratic, and sometimes criminal, behavior of Joe Exotic. Genre: Comedy, Drama, Sports Starring: Alison Brie, Marc Maron, Betty Gilpin Created By: Liz Flahive, Carly Mensch TV Rating: TV-MA Number of Seasons: 3 Genre: Game Show, Reality TV Starring: Michelle Buteau, Sammie Cimarelli, Shubham Goel Created By: Tim Harcourt, Studio Lambert TV Rating: TV-MA Number of Seasons: 1 Some contestants play it straight, or at least claim to, while others are there to “catfish” the others with fake profile pictures and personas. The catch is that when someone is voted off, they can meet with one person of their choice before leaving the show. The contestants essentially being in quarantine feels oddly appropriate for the time frame the series was released in, but you’ll end up bingeing it for the same reason we watch any reality show: to watch alliances form and crumble, personalities clash, and one person ultimately walk away with a prize.
