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Best shows on Netflix to watch right now (January 2022)

Stranger Things and Black Mirror
Stranger Things and Black Mirror. Pic credit: Netflix

What are some of the best shows to watch on Netflix?

The good news is that there are a ton of great choices to watch on Netflix, and this includes original series as well as shows that they have licensed to stream.

What makes the streaming service so great is that Netflix offers fans a chance to binge-watch an entire series – or at least catch up on a TV show that you might have missed.

What is tough is that unless it is a Netflix original series, there is a chance a show could disappear in any given month. There is also plenty of new series hitting the streaming giant every month.

Here is a look at the best shows to watch on Netflix as of this month. We will update this page monthly as shows come and go from the streaming service.

Updated in January 2022: Every month, Netflix drops many series from its streaming service, outside of its original efforts. With that said, they are always adding more shows, as well as creating their own original series for fans to watch.

When Netflix removes series from its streaming service, we will offer new options for you to watch, and over time, we will add on shows to this list to give you a lot of great options for binge-worthy series to watch.

Squid Game

Squid Game on Netflix
Squid Game on Netflix. Pic credit: Netflix

The latest hit Netflix drama arrived in September with Squid Game.

The Korean drama was the biggest ever opening for Netflix and was viewed by 111 million viewers since its debut. This beat out Bridgerton’s 82 million households.

The show is a contest where 456 players in deep financial debt put their lives at risk to play a series of children’s games for the chance to win a $45 billion prize.

The series follows one specific man who wants to raise money for his ill mother, but he soon learns there is more behind the game than he expected.

Giri/Haji

Giri Haji
A scene from the British series Giri/Haji. Pic credit: BBC

Giri/Haji is Japanese for Duty/Shame and is a British crime drama series that aired on BBC and Netflix in 2019-20.

The series stars Takehiro Hira as Kenzo Mori, a Tokyo detective who travels to London to search for his brother, who he initially thought was dead.

There is also the threat of a gang war that will escalate if it is true that his brother killed the nephew of a Yakuza member. While in London, he befriends a Metropolitan Police DC named Sarah (Kelly Macdonald) and ends up facing the criminal underworld in London

Voir

Voir
Voir. Pic credit: Netflix

Voir is a new Netflix documentary series for people who love movies.

The series is a series of video essays about movies throughout history, all produced by David Fincher (Fight Club).

The six episodes focus on Jaws and the arrival of blockbusters, Lady Vengeance and revenge cinema, Lawrence of Arabia and The Godfather’s use of unlikable protagonists, Disney interviews, the blurred line between TV and movies, and the systematic racism on display ion 48 Hrs.

Lupin

Lupin Season 2 release date and cast latest
Omar Sy in Lupin. Pic credit: Netflix

Lupin is a French series based on the beloved French character Arsène Lupin, created by writer Maurice Leblanc in 1905.

French actor Omar Sy stars as Assane Diop, a con man with a heart of gold able to turn his outsized presence into an uncatchable master of deception. He is a huge fan of Arsène Lupin.

His father Babakar (Fargass Assandé), an immigrant from Senegal was framed for stealing the necklace. His dad died by suicide while in prison, leaving an orphaned Assane with a copy of the classic Lupin stories and a desire for vengeance.

Assane starts off trying to steal Marie Antoinette’s necklace, lost for 25 years, from the Louvre. There are only five episodes in Season 1 at 43 minutes each.

Seinfeld

The cast of Seinfeld
The cast of Seinfeld. Pic credit: NBC

One of the most successful sitcoms in history hit Netflix in October 2021.

Seinfeld was the most-watched sitcom on television for most of its run. That original run was from 1989 through 1998 and featured nine seasons and 180 episodes.

The show starred Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Michael Richards, and Jason Alexander in a show that prided itself about being about nothing.

During its original run, Seinfeld was in the top 2 most-watched shows on television from 1994-1998 and was the most-watched in its sixth and ninth seasons. The entire series is now on Netflix.

Schitt’s Creek

Schitt's Creek
The cast of Schitt’s Creek. Pic credit: Pop TV

There are now six seasons of Schitt’s Creek on Netflix and for those who have never watched, now might be the time to catch up.

The first season was a bit uneven, but after that, the show really picked up its pace and now the entire world is hearing about it.

This is because the final season of Schitt’s Creek won all seven major comedy awards at the Primetime Emmys, the first time this refer happened.

The show followed the previously wealthy Rose family when they lost their money and ended up moving to a town they purchased once as a joke called Schitt’s Creek. They now live in a motel there and try to get used to living poor.

Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara headline the cast.

30 Rock

Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey in 30 Rock
Alec Baldwin and Tina Fey in 30 Rock. Pic credit: NBC

30 Rock has been airing on Hulu for a long time now, but Netflix just lured it away and it joined its streaming service starting in August 2021.

This allowed one of the funniest sitcoms of the last two decades to place all seven seasons on Netflix for the unforeseen future.

The NBC series stars Tina Fey as the lead writer for a sketch comedy show, and the troubles that start when Alec Baldwin’s network executive takes over and demands she hire a troubled actor, Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan).

There are 139 episodes, so this is a big binge-watch for anyone who wants to laugh a lot.

Friday Night Lights

The football team in Friday Night Lights
The football team in Friday Night Lights. Pic credit: NBC

Based on the novel by H.G. Bissinger, Friday Night Lights tells the story of high school football in the West Texas oil towns where it is one of the most important things to the community.

The towns in the book were Midland and Odessa, two cities only a few miles from each other, but as different as they can be. It is also about two of the best high school football teams of their time, both fighting for the state championship.

The 2006 TV series transferred the story to a fictional town, but the themes remained the same.

At the end of the day, it was about kids who have the weight of their town in their hands, and for some, it is too much of a load to carry.

Community

Community
The cast of Community. Pic credit: NBC

One of the most beloved cult comedy television series of the last two decades was Community, created by Dan Harmon.

This sitcom initially aired on NBC, but when the network canceled it after five seasons, fans revolted. The fervency of the fans convinced Yahoo! Screen to pick it up for a sixth season to end the story.

The series focused on adults attending a community college with Joel McHale, Yvette Nicole Brown, Alison Brie, Donald Glover, Ken Jeong, and Chevy Chase bringing star power to the comedy series.

Community won an Emmy in 2011 for animation for the episode “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas.”

Bridgerton

Bridgerton
The cast of Bridgerton. Pic credit: Netflix

Based on the popular book series by Julia Quinn, Bridgerton is set in Regency London high society’s ton.

Executive produced by Shonda Rhimes (Grey’s Anatomy), the Netflix original series focuses on two families during the annual season where the elite hold events to try to find suitable marriages for their children.

Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) is the widowed mother of eight — four boys & four girls. The second family in the series is the Featheringtons, with mother Portia (Polly Walker) having three daughters of her own.

Cobra Kai

Cobra Kai Season 3 release date
William Zabka in Cobra Kai. Pic credit: YouTube

One of the best sports inspirational family movies of the ’80s was Karate Kid with Ralph Macchio.

Kids all over the world celebrated with Daniel-San as he beat Johnny and won the karate tournament and the girl.

However, Cobra Kai takes place years later and puts the viewer in the shoes of Johnny, whose life has fallen apart, and watched Daniel become a smug car lot owner.

Cobra Kai is moving to Netflix exclusive for Season 3 and both of the first two seasons have arrived already for fans to catch up if they missed it when it aired on YouTube.

The Umbrella Academy

The Umbrella Academy
The cast of The Umbrella Academy. Pic credit: Netflix

The Umbrella Academy has two seasons on Netflix so far, with the second even better than the first.

The first season saw the death of the team’s mentor and the foreboding realization that the end of the world is coming when one of their ranks returns from the apocalyptic future.

The second season saw the world saved, but all the members were sent back in time, right before the death of John F. Kennedy. Once again, there is the threat of the end of the world.

A third season is coming.

Locke & Key

Locke & Key spoilers: Netflix original's ending explained
The Locke children in Locke & Key. Pic credit: Christos Kalohoridis/Netflix

Locke & Key is based on a comic book series by Stephen King’s son Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez.

This Netflix original is a fantasy series about the Locke family after the death of their father. They move into the historic Key house that their family-owned and discover keys around the house that have special powers.

However, there is also a demon buried under the house that wants the keys and will do whatever it needs to in order to get that power.

A second season is in the works.

Crazyhead

Crazyhead
Cara Theobold and Susan Wokoma from Crazyhead. Pic credit: Netflix

Crazyhead was a 2016 Netflix original fantasy series that offered a new look at the Buffy the Vampire slayer-styled story.

Cara Theobold is Amy, an unhappy bowling alley employee who finds out that she can see demons hiding in society. Susan Wokoma is Raquel, a socially awkward girl who can also see demons and starts to hunt them.

Crazyhead has only six episodes in one season, and while it has a perfect 100 percent ranking on Rotten Tomatoes, it never got a second season. The lack of more seasons was due to U.K. partner Channel 4 pulling out of future production.

Lucifer

Lucifer
Tom Ellis and Lauren German on Lucifer. Pic credit: Fox

Lucifer is another great series that started out on another network before moving to Netflix.

Lucifer, a spin-off of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic book series, started out on Fox and has moved on to Netflix, where it will wrap up its run.

There are five seasons on Netflix right now, as Lucifer tired of ruling in Hell and chose to instead move to Los Angeles and run his own nightclub.

While there, he found humor in helping a local police detective solve crimes, and that is where the show found its stride.

13 Reasons Why

13 Reasons Why
The cast of 13 Reasons Why. Pic credit: Netflix

13 Reasons Why was one of the most-watched shows on Netflix when the original drama series hit the streaming giant.

It was also very controversial. The first season dealt with the suicide of a girl named Hannah Baker, and each episode dealt with a cassette she made before taking her own life that placed part of the blame on one of her classmates.

The show continued with a school shooting storyline and then the murder of a high school rapist, which all led to the final season, where everyone had to face their fates.

There were four seasons and 49 total episodes.

Stranger Things

The best fantasy shows on Netflix
The cast of Stranger Things. Pic credit: Netflix

Stranger Things was the biggest Netflix original hit – a fantasy series where a group of kids in the ’80s had to battle an evil organization and monsters that lived within the world.

Stranger Things started with a girl named Eleven, who arrives in a small town. She has mysterious powers and ends up teaming with a group of children who set out to find a friend who disappeared.

There have been three seasons and 25 episodes, and there are two more seasons to go before the story comes to an end on Netflix.

Narcos

Narcos
The cast from the crime drama Narcos. Pic credit: Netflix

Narcos is a Netflix crime-drama series that tells the story of the DEA as they try to bring down some of the most notorious drug lords south of the border.

Narcos told the story of the DEA agents trying to bring down Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura). Also starring in the episodes were Boyd Holbrook and Pedro Pascal as the DEA agents.

Narcos had three seasons and 30 episodes.

There is also a spin-off series with Narcos: Mexico, which opens up the show to the illegal drug trade in Mexico.

The Haunting of Hill House

The Haunting of Hill House
The cast of The Haunting of Hill House. Pic credit: Netflix

Based on the haunted house novel by Shirley Jackson (The Haunting), The Haunting of Hill House is one of the best horror series on Netflix.

The series follows the Crain family, first as they moved into Hill House when the kids were young, and then later in the future when the children were grown up and messed up as a result of the death of their mother in the house.

There will be a second season, but it will be based on a different story called The Turn of the Screw by Henry James. That season will be titled The Haunting on Bly Manor.

Big Mouth

Big Mouth
Big Mouth. Pic credit: Netflix

Don’t let the animation fool you. Big Mouth is not a kid’s show and is one of the funniest Netflix animated series available today.

Created by Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg and based on their childhood, Big Mouth showcases kids as they reach puberty.

What makes the show so unique is that Big Mouth uses what they call hormone monsters that try to lead them into young adulthood, usually with the most insane recommendations ever.

There are three seasons of Big Mouth so far, with a total of 31 episodes. There will be a total of six seasons.

Peaky Blinders

Peaky Blinders
Cillian Murphy on Peaky Blinders. Pic credit: BBC

Peaky Blinders is a Netflix crime drama series that initially aired on BBC.

Cillian Murphy leads an all-star cast that tells the story of a British crime family known as the Shelbys that rises to power after World War I.

Murphy is Tommy Shelby, who returns from war and tries to expand the family’s control in Birmingham of the world of crime. The story has officially ended in 2019 with five seasons and 30 episodes.

Peaky Blinders won several awards over its run, including the Best Director award for Season 1 and Best Drama Series for its fourth season.

Mindhunter

Mindhunter
Jonathan Groff and Holt McCallany on Mindhunter. Pic credit: Netflix

For fans who love Criminal Minds, Netflix has an original drama crime series that focuses on the formation of the FBI Behavioral Science Unit.

The first season mostly focuses on the FBI agents interviewing incarcerated serial killers as they build up their database of traits that turns someone into a serial killer.

The series is dark as the FBI agents delving into the psychology of these killers that causes them to see the darkness in the world around them. The second season deals with an actual case – the murders in Atlanta (1979-81).

Breaking Bad

Breaking Bad
Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad. Pic credit: AMC

Initially airing on AMC, Breaking Bad is available in its entirety to stream on Netflix.

Bryan Cranston stars as Walter White, a high school science teacher who learns he has terminal cancer. He uses his intelligence to begin to produce meth to build up money for his family after he is gone.

However, as he delves deeper into the criminal underground, White realizes there might be things worse than cancer in his future. All five seasons are available, with a total of 62 episodes.

On top of Breaking Bad, the prequel Better Call Saul is also on Netflix, although that series is still in production.

Dark

Dark
The German series Dark on Netflix. Pic credit: Netflix

Dark is a German fantasy-thriller series that hit Netflix in 2017. There are three total seasons, and all are available on the streaming service.

The story has a small German town where children begin to disappear. When some of the local kids look into it, they find a portal or a wormhole. This wormhole leads them to alternate timelines in the past and future.

The timeframes are in 2019, which is the present day and the past in 1986, 1953, 1921, and 1888. There is also a point in the future in 2052. The actors in the series play different versions of their characters in alternate timelines.

The Crown

The Crown
Olivia Colman on The Crown. Pic credit: Netflix

The Crown is a Netflix original drama series that has high ambitions.

The series tells the story of Queen Elizabeth, from her early days to her later years. The series also recast the roles when the character grew older, with Claire Foy as the Queen in the first two seasons and Olivia Colman replacing her in Season 3.

Three seasons and 30 episodes are available on Netflix, and there will be a total of five seasons when it finally comes to a close.

Glow

GLOW season 3 release date featured
GLOW is returning to Netflix for Season 3. Pic credit: Netflix

GLOW is a biopic series about the real-life women’s wrestling promotion from the ’80s called Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling.

Alison Brie stars as Ruth Wilder, a woman who joins the promotion when it was starting to get its footing and gained national television attention.

The series picked up Emmy Awards in both 2018 and 2019.

There are three seasons with 30 episodes and it showed the rise and then the fall and struggles of the promotion. There will be a fourth season of the series coming that will wrap up the story of the promotion.

Altered Carbon

The best fantasy shows on Netflix
Anthony Mackie in Altered Carbon. Pic credit: Netflix

Altered Carbon is an exciting series that takes place in a dystopian future where people can transfer themselves into other bodies, helping those with money live forever.

In the first season, a former mercenary Joel Kinnaman) from a past rebellion was brought back to help solve a murder. A wealthy man wants him to find out who killed his most recent host body.

A second season hit in 2020 with Anthony Mackie replacing Kinnaman in the lead role, although it is the same mercenary character in a different host body.

Black Mirror

Why are there only 3 episodes of Black Mirror in season 5?
Striking Vipers was one of just three episodes of Black Mirror in season 5. Pic credit: Netflix

Black Mirror is a Netflix version of the anthology TV shows like Twilight Zone, but it deals mostly with the fear of technology.

Since it was initially released, there have been five seasons, but only 22 episodes and they are critically acclaimed as some of the smartest sci-fi horror stories on TV.

The first two seasons had three episodes each, and they were initially aired on Channel 4 in the U.K.

Netflix picked it up in Season 3 and had two seasons of six episodes each. There was also a fifth season with three episodes. Outside of that were two specials.

The second, titled Bandersnatch, was an interactive choose-your-own-adventure version of the show and was one of the most watched for the series.

The Witcher

The best fantasy shows on Netflix
Henry Cavill on The Witcher. Pic credit: Netflix

One of the newest Netflix series that fans binge-watched the second it hit was the fantasy series The Witcher.

Henry Cavill (Man of Steel) starred as Geralt of Rivia, a monster hunter with supernatural powers known as a Witcher. The story takes place in three different timelines, with the other two dealing with a sorceress and a princess.

The Witcher is based on the novels by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, which also spawned a bestselling trilogy of video games based on Geralt and his monster-hunting adventures.

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