Few streamers are trying to keep your attention more than Netflix. The service definitely has plenty of great shows to watch, but actually picking the one you’re most interested in can be more challenging than you might think, especially if watching the show requires some level of commitment.
If you want to avoid starting and failing to finish a bunch of different shows, then we’ve got you covered. We’ve pulled together three under-the-radar series that are all worth checking out on the streamer and are almost guaranteed to keep you riveted throughout their runs.
When you’re done here, check out the best new shows to stream this week, as well as the best shows on Netflix, best shows on Hulu, best shows on Amazon Prime Video, and best shows on Disney+.
Your Honor (2020-2023)
Bryan Cranston will always be best remembered for playing Walter White on Breaking Bad, but the actor’s work on Your Honor is nothing to sneeze at either. Here, he plays a judge who discovers that his son has been implicated in a hit-and-run accident, and does whatever he can to save him.
The series is really just a series of moral and ethical quandaries as Cranston’s judge finds himself wandering further and further from the rules and laws that once governed his life. It’s easy to believe in your principles when they mostly apply to other people, but Your Honor asks what happens when you’re faced with difficult decisions yourself.
You can watch Your Honor on Netflix.
Carol & the End of the World (2023)
A brilliant, small-scale animated miniseries, Carol & the End of the World tells the story of one woman trying to figure out how to live her final days after it’s discovered that another planet is hurtling toward Earth.
In focusing on such a small-scale story, even as the world is literally ending, Carol & the End of the World manages to highlight all the ways that the monotony of our routines can serve as both a comfort and a kind of prison. Ordinary life is beautiful in its own quiet way, and this series gets at that profound idea in a way that winds up feeling genuinely emotional.
You can watch Carol & the End of the World on Netflix.
Top Boy (2011-2023)
A brilliant, long-running British drama series set in the London projects, Top Boy is about two young men living in these projects and doing their best to survive, one way or another. Although the series features some violence and is in large part about the drug trade, Top Boy is also a searing examination of how a country’s social fabric could leave young people with only bad options to choose from.
It might not be quite as good as The Wire, but Top Boy definitely has similar ideas about the systems that shape our lives, and the intractable ways they can constrain our potential.
You can watch Top Boy on Netflix.
