The 10 Original Series That Define Netflix
Faith Roswell is a Senior Writer on Screen Rant's Classic TV team. Since earning her degree in Creative Writing over a decade ago, Faith has written articles on film and TV from a variety of different angles. Faith now combines her knowledge of psychology with her love of monster movies to give more insight into what makes the best ones.
You may have read her Screen Rant lists and features covering horror, sci-fi, and fantasy, or read her Amazon Top 10 book, "Movie Monsters of the Deep."
Faith has had an extensive career as a writer, appearing on BBC live radio, researching true crime for Rotten Mango podcast, and writing for publications including Mental Floss, Atlas Obscura, and The Daily Jaws before beginning here at Screen Rant.
Beginning as a DVD rental service, Netflix has come to dominate streaming with over 325 million subscribers. This pioneering approach was exciting enough, but when Netflix began creating, commissioning, and airing original series, this changed the game for good. Netflix's must-watch original TV shows have not only made it into lists of the greatest TV shows of all time, but some of the first ever made are still bingeable today.
Even though other streaming platforms quickly followed suit, producing their own original projects and even dominating a genre, like Apple TV and sci-fi, Netflix still remains one of the best streaming services for original content. Rather than carving out a niche, Netflix has focused on a tone instead, with many of its original shows being highly bingeable with recognizable faces, created to stand the test of time.
House Of Cards
As Netflix's first original show, an American adaptation of the underrated British TV series House of Cards might have seemed like an odd choice, but the decision paid off, instantly establishing Netflix as a serious contender for prestige drama. While House of Cards has not aged well due to serious allegations against Kevin Spacey, the impact the show had on the platform is significant. House of Cards is arguably Netflix's equivalent to The Sopranos, with the series putting the platform on the map.
Lilyhammer was the first original series to distribute exclusively on Netflix, but House of Cards was the first series specifically created for and produced by Netflix.
House of Cards began as a slow-burn, relying on the standout performances of actors like Robin Wright to tell entire stories within short exchanges and split-second expression changes, and the political thriller theme is timeless and uncomfortably relevant today. The show documents the terrifying Frank Underwood's rise to power through propaganda, crime, and political conspiring on a level to Game of Thrones, without the dragons.
Stranger Things
It is often hard to remember a time in which Netflix was not a household name, and it is the strength of the platform's original shows that have taken it to this level. Stranger Things helped make Netflix into what it is today, beginning with a nostalgic Steven King-style mystery, before evolving into an apocalyptic drama with a final season that holds a record-breaking budget of $50-60 million per episode. The show is now one of many Netflix originals that is now a worldwide brand, and still defines the platform today.
Even people unfamiliar with Stranger Things will likely recognize the main characters, with the show also defining the careers of many of its stars, like Millie Bobby Brown, Sadie Sink, and Finn Wolfhard. The show combined several extremely popular themes like the supernatural, 1980s nostalgia, and small-town horror, resulting in a ratings juggernaut that has even expanded beyond the screen, with a stage play, novels, comics, and virtually every kind of merchandise avaible.
Bridgerton
Netflix's creative partnership with Shondaland resulted in an entirely new kind of period drama, redefining the historical genre. An adaptation of the book series by Julia Quinn, the show has drawn in record numbers of viewers, with season 1 reaching 82 million households in its first 28 days, making it the most-watched Netflix original series when it debuted in December 2020. Netflix is not always the most experimental of platforms, often cancelling strange but promising shows. However, Bridgerton proved that breaking the mold can work.
The show is a visual masterpiece from setting to costumes, combining Recency-era Britain with a modern twist, features surprising new recordings of well-known pop songs, and Bridgerton's steamy love scenes have become infamous. The series follows the lives and loves of the Bridgerton siblings and their friends through the eyes of a mysterious society columnist, who might be closer to home than many imagine.
Orange Is The New Black
One of Netflix's early successes, Orange is the New Black follows Piper as she is incarcerated and must quickly learn how life in prison works. On its surface, the show is a soapy drama, but it can be seen as Netflix's answer to The Wire, with the series exploring the way in which crime can be a symptom of a systemic problem. The characters in Orange is the New Black are an extremely diverse group, kickstarting new casting approaches and demand for more.
While House of Cards proved that Netflix could do prestige drama, Orange is the New Black was a cultural phenomenon, and one of Netflix's groundbreaking shows that changed the way we watch television. The show dropped entire seasons at once, establishing the binge watching model as an alternative for weekly viewing, and while Netflix has gone from strength to strength, the women-focused prison drama is still one of its best shows, even today.
Love, Death & Robots
While Netflix is still best known for bingeable dramas and supernatural-themed shows like Stranger Things, the cyberpunk anthology Love, Death & Robots stands out. With each episode being drastically different from the next, varying in length, theme, and animation style, this unpredictability became the show's greatest strength. Many of Love, Death & Robots' best episodes are self-contained masterpieces that prove an entire world can be built in a few minutes, and the series opened the door for Netflix to become a serious contender in animation.
The anthology became an interesting test case for the streaming platform, as Netflix streamed Love, Death & Robots episodes in different orders to test its user experiences. This resulted in life reflecting the series' cyberpunk theme by sparking a cultural debate, with viewers having different experiences and opinions about this approach. Not all of the episodes will appeal to everyone, but the hyper-violent and often disturbing series is a perfect example of why animation is not automatically a genre for children.
Wednesday
Netflix has adapted existing material before, but its approach to Wednesday highlights just how far the platform has come in terms of both ambition and audience trust. Reimagining and recasting such iconic characters as The Addams Family was a bold move that built on the success of Stranger Things before surpassing its own record, with Wednesday's first season becoming Netflix's most-watched series, with 252.1 million views.
Wednesday has become a cultural phenomenon that introduced Jenna Ortega to a worldwide audience, highlighted Gwendoline Christie's wider range after playing Brienne of Tarth in Game of Thrones, and produced viral moments within just one scene. Ortega's viral "Goo Goo Muck" dance has not yet been beaten, but with another season on the way, Wednesday will likely have plenty more opportunities.
The Queen's Gambit
With the pandemic lockdowns underway, it is hardly surprising that Netflix sparked several major cultural moments in which people binged TV series that might otherwise have gone undiscovered. A show about a chess prodigy might not automatically sound like a recipe for mass-viewing, but The Queen's Gambit was the right series for the time, with the seven-episode miniseries becoming a worldwide hit thanks to its perfect casting and pacing.
Even now, The Queens Gambit is easily one of Anya Taylor-Joy's best TV shows, and while the miniseries made her into a global star, it also highlighted something new for Netflix. Long-running TV show franchises might once have seemed like an obvious goal, but The Queen's Gambit showed that a perfect miniseries could have just as much success as an endless multi-season show, and Netflix has built on this platform-defining project with more excellent miniseries.
Tiger King
Another surprise pandemic hit was the bizarre and sometimes harrowing Tiger King, which told the story of the former zookeeper and self-styled "tiger king," Joe Exotic, who is currently serving a prison sentence for crimes including murder for hire and Endangered Species Act violations. With every episode stranger than the last and larger-than-life characters surrounding a real-life murder mystery, Tiger King was the show that got people talking, with fan theories exploding on discussion platforms.
While the success of Tiger King can partly be linked to the covid-19 quarantines, the fact that it became an overnight hit prompted Netflix to commission more true crime documentaries, many of which being easier to watch than Tiger King, with less animal cruelty and more mystery. The show might not have been the greatest in terms of its approach to the subject, but its mystery provided Netflix with a blueprint for later documentaries.
The Crown
Netflix's original TV shows have taken risks that other streaming platforms might not have done, and one show that flirted with scandal while mostly maintaining its status as prestige drama was The Crown. While the final seasons went off the rails slightly, with controversial portrayals of Princess Diana and Princes William and Harry, the show won 24 Primetime Emmy Awards, with additional acting wins for many of the cast.
|
The Crown's six seasons |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Season |
Year |
Rotten Tomatoes critics' rating |
Rotten Tomatoes audience rating |
|
1 |
2016 |
88% |
95% |
|
2 |
2017 |
89% |
96% |
|
3 |
2019 |
90% |
92% |
|
4 |
2020 |
96% |
94% |
|
5 |
2022 |
71% |
88% |
|
6 |
2023 |
54% |
84% |
The Crown portrayed real life figures in and close to the British Royal Family, as it documented Queen Elizabeth II's ascension to the throne and beyond, incorporating scandals, dilemmas, and portraying many enigmatic figures as humans with unique struggles. While the line between fact and fiction was often blurred, The Crown outperformed other prestige dramas on traditional TV channels, proving Netflix to be a serious contender for viewers.
Squid Game
Following contestants playing a deadly series of games for the chance at winning an enormous cash prize, Squid Game rewrote the rules of streaming, being one of the most significant Netflix original series of all time. The vast majority of shows on Netflix have been in English, following a misconception that viewers would not watch a TV show with dubbing or subtitles. However, the dystopian South Korean drama proved irresistable.
Squid Game took Netflix to an international audience on a level that had not been seen before, resulting in games and spinoffs based on the original series, with the platform transforming its content as a result. Squid Game did not just cause a boom in other K-dramas, but resulted in Netflix commissioning more international shows, from Money Heist to Invisible City.
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