Last Updated: April 12th
The best kind of TV is the kind that can be binged.
From animated comedies to tiger crime sagas, there’s a little something for everyone here, but they all have one very important thing in common — they’re mostly one or two season shows (so far anyway), so you can knock them out in one lazy weekend.
Related: The Best Guilty Pleasure Shows On Netflix Right Now
Narcos: Mexico
2 seasons, 20 episodes | IMDb: 8.4/10
Good news: Narcos is back. Even better news: This new season is basically an entirely revamped show, which means you don’t need to be familiar with past installments to enjoy the wild ride. Diego Luna plays the new big bad, a drug lord looking to expand his reach, while Michael Pena plays the fed tasked with busting his operation. Luna looks to be thoroughly enjoying playing the sleazeball gangster-type, and since this installment is set in the 1980s, expect plenty of decadence, a killer soundtrack, and a ton of cocaine.
Big Mouth
3 seasons, 30 episodes | IMDb: 8/10
The animated, coming-of-age comedy from Nick Kroll is full of familiar voices and even more familiar life problems. Centered on a group of pre-pubescent friends, John Mulaney voices a kid named Andrew, who’s going through some embarrassing life changes like inconvenient erections and strange wet dreams and bat-mitzvah meltdowns. All these traumatizing and hilarious happenings are usually caused by Maurice, Andrew’s own Hormone Monster (voiced by Kroll), who (literally) takes pleasure in abusing the poor kid. As painfully accurate as the show is, if you’re lucky enough to be removed from that angst-ridden era of life, you’ll probably appreciate the humor. Considering the show got picked up for a third season, now’s the best time to catch up.
Tiger King
1 season, 7 episodes | IMDb: 8/10
There are stories to bizarre, too mind-boggling to be true… and then there’s this seven-part docuseries. Cults, queer romance, exotic cats — this true crime binge has it all. Is Joe Exotic, a gay, gun-loving conman running an exotic zoo out of his home in Oklahoma, a criminal or an American hero? Did animal rights activist Carole Baskin murder her husband and feed him to her tigers? Why are so many zoo employees missing limbs? These are just a few of the questions you’ll ask while watching this train wreck. Have fun, kids.
Bodyguard
1 season, 6 episodes | IMDb: 8.2/10
The UK’s most popular new drama has made its way across the pond. The procedural thriller stars Game of Thrones‘ Richard Madden as David Budd, a military vet turned police officer tasked with protecting a high-profile politician during a particularly dicey time. There’s plenty of suspense and action to string you along, coupled with a vulnerable performance by Madden, who ditches his King of the North swagger to play a man conflicted by his past and his present duty to his country. But the best thing about this series is how completely in the dark you’ll be until the final episode airs. The show takes the kind of twists, turns, and risks that just don’t happen these days, and they’re done so masterfully, with more thought put into character development than actual shock and awe, that the cliffhanger endings of each episode will only leave you wanting more.
Russian Doll
1 season, 8 episodes | IMDb: 7.9/10
Natasha Lyonne stars in this Groundhog Day-from-hell remake about a woman who’s forced to relive the last day of her life over and over again. It’s been done before, but this series stands out thanks to its mix of dark humor and a tinge of the supernatural. Lyonne is one of the often overlooked OITNB stars, but it looks like this series is giving her a chance to show off her comedic chops as her character, Nadia, endures a constant loop of partying, dying, then waking up to do it all over again. As bleak as the premise is, Lyonne manages to find a silver lining, a universal message that basically read, “The world is sh*t, let’s help each other out if we can.”
The Haunting of Hill House
1 season, 10 episodes | IMDb: 8.9/10
Mike Flanagan knows how to do horror, and his latest series for Netflix, The Haunting of Hill House, is proof of that. The show, like the book off which it’s based, follows the fractured Crain family as they try to make peace with their dark and twisted path. Of course, through some carefully-timed flashbacks, we see why the Crain siblings are so messed up: They lived in a haunted house as children, a house that eventually caused the death of their mother. There are plenty of thrills and frights to keep horror fans interested, but the real point of this show is investigating trauma and its lingering effects while testing the bonds of family. Makes sense that horror is the best way to do that.
Happy!
2 seasons, 18 episodes | IMDb: 8.3/10
On paper, Happy! feels more like an Adult Swim-inspired fever dream than a Syfy series. Disgraced detective-turned-hitman Nick Sax (Christopher Meloni) meets his new best friend and partner, a lovable blue unicorn that only Sax can see named Happy (voiced by Patton Oswalt), who tasks him with rescuing a young girl who’s been abducted by a maniac Santa Claus. It’s a ridiculously violent and dark, with Sax getting hurt more than Harry and Marv in both Home Alone movies combined, with enough comedy and twists to keep you bingeing episode after episode. It’s a fun, over-the-top show, and it relishes in its unique elements.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat
1 season, 4 episodes | IMDb: 7.8/10
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat is the kind of food show you probably haven’t seen before. For starters, it features more female chefs and cooks of color than any show of its kind, led by host, author, and chef Samin Nosrat. It’s also less concerned with focusing itself in one area – it’s not a competition show, a profile series, or a travel documentary – instead, seeking to find the commonalities between different food communities around the world. It’s also demystifying the art of cooking good food so any aspiring chefs, take note.
The Sinner
2 seasons, 16 episodes | IMDb: 8/10
Another great mystery series, this drama starring Jessica Biel and Bill Pullman puts its own spin on the genre. Instead of working towards the whodunnit of a crime, the series jumps off with Biel bloodying up a stranger on a family beach outing. From there, we’re left to work out the “why” of the crime, a journey that takes the characters decades into the past and visits some questionable characters along the way. It doesn’t always work, but when The Sinner does get it right, it’s an excellent meditation on trauma and how the psychological effects of it can ruin a person’s life.
Dead To Me
1 season, 10 episodes | IMDb: 8.2/10
Christina Applegate returns to TV with this grief-com about a woman trying to pick up the pieces after her husband is murdered in a horrible hit-and-run accident. Applegate plays the angry, grieving widow with equal parts humor and empathy while Linda Cardellini plays her sunny, optimistic best friend. The two meet in a grief group and navigate the challenges of moving on after loss while also solving a murder mystery. There’s no way you’ll know what to expect here, which is half the fun of watching, plus with only 10 episodes at half an hour each, this is a show you can easily consume in a day.
Last Updated: April 12th
A mini-series is much more than just a “10-hour movie.” It’s a self-contained story, one that expands over the course of just a handful of episodes. It has a captivating beginning, a thrilling middle, and (hopefully) a satisfying end. It’s a complete binge-watching experience normally filled with prestige actors and award-worthy storytelling. And Netflix is host to more than its fair share of compelling limited series in every genre.
From mind-bending comedies to true crime retellings, period spy dramas and more, here are the best miniseries on Netflix just waiting to be binged right now.
Unbelievable
1 season, 8 episodes | IMDb: 8.5/10
Toni Collette, Merritt Weaver, and Booksmart’s Kaitlyn Dever star in this mini-series that covers some heavy material. Dever plays Marie, a young woman charged with lying about her sexual assault. Collette and Weaver play the lone female detectives who become invested in her case and search for the truth while trying to prevent her rapist from striking again. It’s an interesting look at how we process trauma, and it’s held up by some powerhouse performances.
When They See Us
1 season, 4 episodes | IMDb: 9/10
Director Ava DuVernay’s limited series about the wrongfully accused men in the Central Park Five case is an emotionally heavy reimagining of a truly tragic event in our history. The series sheds light on racial profiling and corruption in the NYPD as a group of young Black men are targeted for a heinous crime and put on trial with little evidence. It’s a gripping, heartbreaking retelling, but one that feels sadly relevant.
Godless
1 season, 7 episodes | IMDb: 8.3/10
Written, directed, and created by Scott Frank, who wrote Logan and Out of Sight, Godless, is equal parts a feminist Western and s a show about fathers and sons. The series is set in the 1880s in the small mining town of La Belle, where nearly all of the town’s men have died in a mining accident. Enter Roy Goode (Jack O’Connell), a charming gunslinger on the run from the mentor he double-crossed, Frank Griffin (Jeff Daniels), who — along with his crew out desperadoes — had already murdered everyone in another small town for harboring Goode. The series ultimately pits a town of mostly women against a brutal, merciless outlaw gang. Scoot McNairy, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Sam Waterston play lawmen, but the standouts in Godless are Downton Abby‘s nearly unrecognizable shotgun-wielding pioneer woman Michelle Dockery and Merritt Wever, a bisexual woman all out of f*cks to give. It’s a tremendously good series buoyed by beautiful cinematography, poetic language, a few great shoot-outs, and fine performances from the entire cast.
London Spy
1 season, 5 episodes | IMDb: 7.5/10
This BBC drama imagines a clandestine love affair between two men from very different worlds. Ben Whishaw plays Danny, a club-loving hedonist who meets Alex (Edward Holcroft) and instantly falls in love. Alex is reserved and mysterious, something Danny only truly realizes when he turns up dead and news breaks that he was a secret intelligence officer. Danny goes looking for his killer and reconciles his love for a man he barely knew in the process.
Tiger King
1 season, 7 episodes | IMDb: 8/10
There are stories to bizarre, too mind-boggling to be true… and then there’s this seven-part docuseries. Cults, queer romance, exotic cats — this true crime binge has it all. Is Joe Exotic, a gay, gun-loving conman running an exotic zoo out of his home in Oklahoma, a criminal or an American hero? Did animal rights activist Carole Baskin murder her husband and feed him to her tigers? Why are so many zoo employees missing limbs? These are just a few of the questions you’ll ask while watching this train wreck. Have fun, kids.
Maniac
1 season, 10 episodes | IMDb: 7.8/10
Cary Fukunaga’s limited series starring A-listers like Emma Stone, Jonah Hill, and Justin Theroux, is a real mind f*ck. It follows Stone and Hill, who are voluntarily being experimented on using some questionable methods that force them to live out alternate realities. Yeah, we got a headache just typing that but really, who doesn’t enjoy a batsh*t crazy series that keeps you guessing until the very end? There’s a bit of romance, some sci-fi, and even a Lord of the Rings nod in this one — so really, it’s an insane rollercoaster the whole family can enjoy.
The Pharmacist
1 season, 4 episodes | IMDb: 7.9/10
Netflix has a deep well of riveting docuseries to choose from and yet, this show feels distinctly compelling. Maybe it’s because it follows an everyday hero, a small-town pharmacist named Dan Schneider who, after losing his son to drugs, takes on Big Pharma for its role in the Opioid Crisis. Schneider first finds justice for his son’s death in a drug-related shooting before vowing to protect the countless young people overdosing on Oxycontin in his hometown by investigating the sinister dealings of pharmaceutical companies pushing dangerously addictive painkillers on doctors. It’s the kind of story that would make for an Oscar-winning drama, but it’s even better as a docuseries.
The Spy
1 season, 6 episodes | IMDb: 7.9/10
Sacha Baron Cohen dons a new identity in this limited series for Netflix, but it comes with noticeably fewer laughs than his more famous characters. That’s because Cohen inhabits the identity of an Israeli intelligence agent named Eli Cohen, who served undercover for years in ’60s era Syria assuming the name Kamel Amin Thaabet. Cohen (the operative, not the actor) posed as a wealthy importer/exporter who infiltrated the highest echelons of Syrian government during a dangerous period for the two countries and Cohen (the actor, not the operative) does a bang-up job of delivering his most serious performance to date in this war-time thriller.
Dead Set
1 season, 5 episodes | IMDb: 7.8/10
A zombie outbreak overtakes the set of Big Brother, but don’t be fooled into thinking that this will be a Shaun of the Dead satire of the genre. It’s gruesome. It’s gory. It’s a strong entry in the walking/running undead. All you need to know is that it’s written by Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker, meaning it’ll be bleak as hell. Much like Black Mirror, Brooker also draws underlining parallels within Dead Set about the global obsession with TV and its perversion of reality. With just five episodes, it’s around just long enough to set itself apart from a cluttered genre before its bloody end.
Alias Grace
1 season, 6 episodes | IMDb: 7.9/10
Alias Grace, adapted by Sarah Polley from a Margaret Atwood novel which itself is based on a true story, is set in Canada in the middle of the 19th century, where a house servant Grace Marks (Sarah Gadon) has been convicted of a double murder. After spending time in a mental asylum and while serving time in prison, an early version of a therapist is called in to try and discern if Grace is guilty, innocent, lying or telling the truth. Grace’s account of the murders is as confounding to the viewer as it is the doctor, but the truth is not the point. The point of Alias Grace is to illustrate how the men in her life and the lives of the women around her have tyrannized and abused them. They are the product of that abuse, of a system controlled by men, and if a woman were to rise up and murder her terrorizer, who could blame her? It’s a smart, brilliantly acted, and entertaining series, but more than that, it’s an important one for these times.
It was reported earlier this week that SNL would return after a lengthy break (for obvious reasons) with an at-home, remotely produced episode featuring “original content,” including a Weekend Update segment and the involvement of the entire cast. Other than that, no one knew what the heck the episode would look like. It turns out, it would look every other time Tom Hanks hosted, with a twist: his monologue was filmed in his house.
Hanks, who was one of the first celebrities (along with his wife Rita Wilson) to go public with a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, assured viewers that he was doing better now, and “ever since being diagnosed, I have been more like America’s dad than ever before since no one wants to be around me very long and I make people uncomfortable.”
He also made fun of SNL‘s reputation.
“Will it be weird to see sketches without big sets and costumes? Sure. But will it make you laugh? Eh, it’s SNL, there will be some good stuff, maybe one or two stinkers, you know the drill. Stay safe. We are in this for the duration, and we are going to get through this together. We are going to thank our hospital workers, our first responders, and all of our helpers… the men and women who are keeping this country going when we need them more than ever. We’re going to take care of them, and we’re going to take care of each other.”
Watch it below.
Ladies and gentlemen, Tom Hanks! #SNLAtHome pic.twitter.com/jCmEnBjSzq
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) April 12, 2020
