6 Greatest Netflix Shows That Are Worth Watching Over and Over, Ranked
Jennie Richardson is a TV Features and Lists Writer for Collider, and a graduate student pursuing an MFA in Fiction Writing. In other words, she really loves stories.
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Netflix has a number of phenomenal TV series in its catalog, and some of the very best television shows of the last couple of decades have been Netflix originals. The streaming platform boasts mind-bending science fiction series, suspenseful drama series, and laugh-out-loud funny comedy series. That said, many of Netflix's standout shows are best for a one-time watch, whether that be due to plot twists that spoil the series for a rewatch, or endings that didn't quite stick the landing.
It is a rare and impressive feat when a truly great TV series also makes for an excellent rewatch. For an amazing drama series, the show needs to hit hard emotionally even when viewers know what's coming next, and it needs to be full of little details that resonate more with each watch. For a comedy series, the show's jokes need to be consistently funny no matter how many times viewers hear them, and the show needs to be grounded in an emotional core that hits harder with every watch. These are the greatest Netflix shows that are worth watching over and over, ranked.
'A Man on the Inside' (2024–Present)
A Man on the Inside is a detective comedy that follows Charles Nieuwendyk (Ted Danson), a retired college professor who's been grieving since the death of his wife. Charles' daughter, Emily (Mary Elizabeth Ellis), is concerned about how isolated he's become, so she suggests that he get a job or a hobby to fill his time. Inspired, Charles responds to an ad in the paper. Private Investigator Julie Kovalenko (Lilah Richcreek Estrada) is looking for someone to go undercover as a resident at a nearby retirement community to investigate a theft, and Charles decides that this is the perfect next chapter for him.
Charles doesn't know anything about being undercover, though, and he slips up quite a bit at the beginning before getting the hang of things. While trying to crack the case, though, Charles starts to find a place for himself at Pacific View Retirement Community. He enjoys the activities and the community, and he even makes some good friends. The only problem is, Charles has a case to solve, and he's lying to all of his new friends to do so. A Man on the Inside is a funny and heartfelt series with hilarious dialogue and a compelling central mystery each season. The series makes for an excellent rewatch, even knowing how each case ends, because it's a very cozy comfort series even outside each season's main storyline.
'Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt' (2015–2019)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt follows Kimmy Schmidt (Ellie Kemper), a 29-year-old woman who was abducted from her small Indiana hometown alongside several other women by a man who called himself the Reverend (Jon Hamm) and held in an underground bunker for 15 years. This whole time, Kimmy and the other victims were forcibly indoctrinated into a doomsday cult and led to believe that the world had ended, leaving them the only people left alive. The series kicks off when the bunker is found and the women are saved. Immediately after, they are pulled into the public eye and brought to New York City to be interviewed.
While in New York, Kimmy decides that this is the perfect place to start the next chapter of her life. With no money and very little knowledge of the world, Kimmy optimistically tries to make it on her own in the city. She finds an apartment with a roommate named Titus Andromedon (Tituss Burgess), and she gets hired as a nanny for the son of an immensely wealthy socialite named Jacqueline Voorhees (Jane Krakowski). Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a hilarious sitcom with sharp writing and phenomenal characters. It is also the perfect rewatch, and it truly never gets old.
'Dark' (2017–2020)
Dark is a German science fiction thriller series set in a small town called Winden. The series starts off with two main timelines. In the present day, in 2019, the residents of Winden are shaken up after a child suddenly and mysteriously disappears. This isn't the first time this has happened in Winden, though. The past timeline, in 1986, follows the first disappearance of a child from Winden. Both of these disappearances somehow connect back to the four families at the center of the show: the Kahnwalds, the Nielsens, the Dopplers, and the Tiedemanns.
Dark is a phenomenally well-written and intricately crafted time travel series, and it is an unforgettable first watch. Every plot twist is brilliantly executed, and it is incredible to watch every piece of the puzzle slowly fall into place as more information is revealed. That said, Dark only gets better with every rewatch. It is impossible to pick up on every detail the first time, and the level of care put into the show can only be appreciated upon several rewatches. Additionally, while the plot of Dark is excellent, its themes and characters make the show worth coming back to even for viewers who already know what will happen.
Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Netflix Character Would Be Your Best Friend? Dustin · Emily · Wednesday · Gi-hun
Some friends drag you out of the house. Some sit with you on the worst night of your life. Netflix has written both, plus the one who tells you the truth you have been avoiding all week. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually do friendship, and find out which of them was always going to end up in your corner.
🧢Dustin(Stranger Things)
🗼Emily(Emily in Paris)
🕷️Wednesday(Wednesday)
🟢Gi-hun(Squid Game)
01
How do you usually end up making a new friend? The origin story says a lot about the friendship that follows it.
02
What is a perfect Saturday with your best friend? Friendship is mostly built out of very ordinary hours.
03
You call them at two in the morning. What happens? This is the real test of a friendship, and everybody knows it.
04
What do you want from them when you are clearly wrong? The best friendships are the ones that survive being corrected.
05
What do your friends actually value about you? The friend you attract says something about the friend you are.
06
You have a falling out. How does it go? How a friendship repairs itself matters more than how it breaks.
07
What do you actually need a best friend for? Everybody is missing something. The right friend fills that gap.
08
Ten years from now, what keeps the two of you close? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who you get.
The Group Chat Has Spoken Your Best Friend Is…
Four Netflix characters, four completely different ways of showing up for somebody. This is the one who fits how you actually do friendship, and what having them in your life would be like.
Dustin Henderson
You do not do friendship at half volume, and neither does he. What you want is somebody who says yes to the plan before you have finished describing the plan.
- Dustin is the friend the entire show runs on: loyal past the point of sense, enthusiastic about everything, and incapable of leaving anybody behind.
- You have the same instinct. Your friendships are loud, specific and slightly ridiculous, and they last for decades because of it.
- He is also the one person who would take your strangest interest completely seriously, which is far rarer than it sounds.
- You would have a group chat. It would never once be quiet.
Emily Cooper
You are the friend who makes things happen, and so is she. Together you would be mildly exhausting to everyone around you and completely delighted with yourselves.
- Emily treats an ordinary Tuesday as something that could be turned into an occasion, which is either the best or the worst quality in a friend depending on your energy levels.
- You share her refusal to sit still. Neither of you has ever accepted a night in when something was happening somewhere else.
- She is far more loyal than people give her credit for. She defends her friends loudly, publicly, and occasionally before checking the facts.
- She would post the photo without asking. You would forgive her, because it is a very good photo.
Wednesday Addams
You have no patience for pleasant lies, and she has no ability to tell them. What looks like coldness from the outside is the most reliable friendship on this list.
- Wednesday never says a kind thing she does not mean, which makes the rare ones count for an enormous amount.
- You would rather be told the truth than be made comfortable. She is constitutionally incapable of offering you anything else.
- Underneath all of it she is ferociously protective. She simply refuses to make a performance out of caring.
- Do not expect a birthday message. Do expect her to ruin anyone who wrongs you.
Seong Gi-hun
You look after whoever is having the worst day. So does he. It is the least strategic way to move through the world and the best possible quality in a friend.
- Gi-hun is not the strongest player in Squid Game, or the cleverest. He is the one who keeps choosing to protect somebody else, over and over, at genuine cost to himself.
- You have the same instinct. You notice who is struggling and you stay with them, long after anybody would blame you for leaving.
- He is a flawed friend, and that is part of why it lands. He lets people down, then comes back and tries again, which is more than most manage.
- He would give you his last chance and never once mention that he had done it.
'Julie and the Phantoms' (2020)
Julie and the Phantoms is a teen fantasy comedy series that follows a teenage girl named Julie Molina (Madison Reyes) who's been grieving since the death of her mother a year earlier. Julie and her mother shared a love of music, so in her grief, Julie was unable to play or sing music. Because of this, she's being kicked out of her school's music program. At the same time, Julie and her family are trying to move forward by selling and moving out of their house. When Julie goes to clean out her mom's old studio in the garage, she accidentally wakes the ghosts of three bandmates who used to practice there before their collective death 25 years earlier: Luke (Charlie Gillespie), Alex (Owen Patrick Joyner), and Reggie (Jeremy Shada).
For the ghosts, it feels like no time at all has passed since they died. They were all a part of Sunset Curve, a band that was on the rise. In the hours leading up to the performance that was supposed to change their lives, they died of food poisoning. The ghosts and Julie strike up an unlikely friendship, and they push her to fight for her place in the music program. Soon, they realize that they can be seen while performing with Julie, so the four of them start a band together, pretending the ghosts are holograms. Julie and the Phantoms is a sweet and emotional series with excellent music and memorable characters, and once you watch it once, you'll want to rewatch it again and again.
'The Haunting of Bly Manor' (2020)
The Haunting of Bly Manor is a beautiful and heartbreaking horror series inspired by the works of Henry James, most of all The Turn of the Screw. In the present day, in 2007, an older woman (Carla Gugino) attending a wedding tells the other guests a story. The story, set in 1987, follows an American woman named Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti) who has just been hired as an au pair in England for a wealthy family called the Wingraves that has two young, orphaned children. Haunted by a past tragedy, Dani tries to start over fresh in her new job, but she quickly realizes that Bly Manor holds a number of dangerous secrets.
Bly Manor is the perfect horror setting, with a terrifying past that dates back centuries. Most recently, the au pair before Dani, Rebecca Jessel (Tahireh Sharif), died suddenly and mysteriously. Now, Dani struggles to move forward from her past while taking care of the two Wingrave children, and while trying to figure out what exactly is going on at Bly. At the same time, Jamie starts to feel at home at Bly Manor, growing close with the other people who work there: the gardner, Jamie (Amelia Eve), the housekeeper, Hannah (T'Nia Miller), and the chef, Owen (Rahul Kohli). The Haunting of Bly Manor is scary, stunning, and utterly gut-wrenching. It also makes for a great rewatch, particularly because there are so many important and clever details that viewers won't be able to pick up on the first time.
'BoJack Horseman' (2014–2020)
Now a decade since it first premiered on Netflix, BoJack Horseman stands out as one of the very best Netflix original series to date. The dark comedy series follows BoJack Horseman (Will Arnett), the washed-up former star of a hit '90s sitcom called Horsin' Around. Now, BoJack struggles to get his career back off the ground, with the help of his agent, Princess Carolyn (Amy Sedaris). The series kicks off when BoJack is pushed into trying something new to restart his career: writing a memoir, with the help of ghostwriter Diane Nguyen (Alison Brie). Each season of BoJack Horseman is framed around a different career venture for BoJack, starting with his memoir in Season 1.
BoJack Horseman is a truly phenomenal series from start to finish. It is a hilarious, outlandish, and biting satire of the entertainment industry. At the same time, it is also a heartbreaking and complex character study of a deeply flawed and self-destructive individual who became famous in his early '20s. Over the course of its six seasons, BoJack goes through a horrifying and gut-wrenching character arc, all while the show explores themes like morality, fame, generational trauma, and mental health with remarkable nuance and care. BoJack Horseman has so many amazing little details that stand out with each rewatch, from the layers to every joke, to the background visual gags, to the subtle foreshadowing many of the painful moments to come.
BoJack Horseman
- Release Date
- 2014 - 2020-00-00
- Network
- Netflix
- Showrunner
- Raphael Bob-Waksberg
- Directors
- Amy Winfrey, JC Gonzalez, Adam Parton, Joel Moser, Martin Cendreda, Peter Merryman, Matt Mariska, Mike Roberts, Mollie Helms, Tim Rauch
-
BoJack Horseman / BoBo the Angsty Zebra (voice)
-
Todd Chavez / Emperor Fingerface (voice)
- Writers
- Joe Lawson, Joanna Calo, Jordan Young, Kate Purdy, Vera Santamaria, Scott Chernoff, Alison Flierl, Laura Gutin, Minhal Baig, Amy Schwartz
- Main Genre
- Animation
- Seasons
- 6
- Producers
- Aaron Paul, Alexander Bulkley, Corey Campodonico, Noel Bright, Steven A. Cohen, Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Will Arnett, Blair Fetter, Richard Choi, Elijah Aron, Nick Adams, Shauna McGarry, Mike Hollingsworth, Mehar Sethi
- Story By
- raphael Bob-Waksberg
- Streaming Service(s)
- Netflix
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