The 15 Best TV Shows on Netflix Right Now

From ‘Band of Brothers’ to ‘Seinfeld,’ we’ll show you how to master your streaming domain

Thom Geier,

AARP

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En español

Published August 05, 2024

Olivia Williams and Dominic West standing next to each other with a group of people behind them in a scene from the Netflix series The Crown

Olivia Williams and Dominic West in "The Crown."

Justin Downing/Netflix

There’s no streaming service quite like Netflix, which boasts a daunting amount of entertainment content suitable for just about every age group and taste. The service’s TV shows include award-winning originals like the trippy futuristic series Black Mirror and the stylish new adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s noirish Ripley. But the streaming giant also offers some of the all-time best programs to hit the silver screen, from Seinfeld and Breaking Bad to the WWII-era docudrama Band of Brothers. Here are our picks for the best TV shows for grownups to seek out on Netflix right now, for a long binge (or weeks of bingeing).

Band of Brothers (2001)

1 season, 10 episodes

This 10-part war drama limited series, following “Easy” Company of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division during World War II, is arguably one of the best shows to ever grace a TV screen. Fresh from their work on Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg, 77, and Tom Hanks, 68, reteamed to create the show, based on the late historian Stephen E. Ambrose’s bestseller about the brave men who parachuted into the battlefield in Normandy and led the invasion of Germany and the liberation of concentration camps, including Dachau. It’s a riveting, soul-lifting watch — which also features moving performances by future stars like Damian Lewis, 53, Michael Fassbender and Tom Hardy.

Watch it: Band of Brothers

Black Mirror (2011–present)

6 seasons, 27 episodes

Charlie Brooker’s award-winning anthology show is like a 21st-century Twilight Zone set in the near future, where rapidly evolving technology wreaks havoc on the lives of ordinary people. A woman recreates her dead boyfriend via artificial intelligence and an android. A couple meets up in a simulated reality where the elderly interact with others through their younger bodies. A man seeks proof of his wife’s infidelity with the chip she has implanted behind her ear to record all of her memories. Each episode offers a unique take on how the future appears equally fraught with scientific breakthroughs and unintended consequences.

Watch it: Black Mirror

Breaking Bad (2008–2013)

5 seasons, 62 episodes

Has there ever been an antihero as memorable as Bryan Cranston’s Walter White, the high school chemistry teacher whose diagnosis of inoperable lung cancer spurs him to cook and sell methamphetamine to provide a nest egg for his family. He soon morphs into a ruthless crime boss whose nickname — Heisenberg — underscores his nuclear ambitions. The Emmy-winning show has an almost Shakespearean arc.

Watch it: Breaking Bad

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013–2021)

4 seasons, 90 episodes

The late Andre Braugher’s stone-faced police captain was the hilarious heart of this cop comedy, which was a critical darling despite middling ratings. (After five seasons, it jumped from Fox to NBC for a final three seasons.) The first four seasons, currently streaming on Netflix, capture the controlled mayhem of a precinct full of delightful misfits, from neurotic nerd Amy Santiago (Melissa Fumero) to happy-go-lucky Jake Peralta (Andy Samberg) to tough-as-nails Rosa Diaz (Stephanie Beatriz). There’s a warmhearted daffiness to the show that won it a loyal following.

Watch it: Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Call the Midwife (2012–present)

13 seasons, 109 episodes

There’s a surprising grit to this historical drama following a revolving crew of nurses in post-WWII London. The cast, including the guest actors, are all first-rate, and the writing captures both the hope and the frustrations of so-called modern medicine when it was still in its infancy. While new seasons are still airing on PBS Masterpiece (including Season 13 in 2023), Netflix is the place to binge from the very beginning.

Watch it: Call the Midwife

Chef’s Table (2015–2019)

6 seasons, 30 episodes

Few programs have done more to elevate the “foodie” era than Chef’s Table, a docuseries that offers an in-depth profile of one top chef each episode. The biographical backstories are often fascinating, with well-shot journeys to the places that shaped them. But it’s the mouthwatering cinematography and the detailed explanations of signature dishes that keep viewers hooked. The show has also spawned a buffet table of spin-offs devoted to pizza makers, BBQ pitmasters and French cuisine (bien sûr).

Watch it: Chef’s Table

The Crown (2016–2023)

6 seasons, 60 episodes

The late Queen Elizabeth II had an epic life, and her 70 years on the British throne proved juicy fodder for this equally epic six-season series. While purists have groused about the occasional dramatic liberties taken, creator Peter Morgan, 61, captured the spirit of both a monarch and an era. The Emmy-winning show evolved with its heroine (with prim Claire Foy passing the scepter to Olivia Colman, 50, and then to a staid Imelda Staunton, 68), depicting late-20th-century history in strokes both broad and intimate.

Watch it: The Crown

Documentary Now! (2015–2022)

4 seasons, 27 episodes

Dame Helen Mirren, 79, hilariously introduced this faux PBS-like anthology of supposedly classic documentaries, each an ingenious spoof of a very real nonfiction film. Fred Armisen, 57, and Bill Hader spoof the reclusive Jackie Kennedy cousins from Grey Gardens, while the Muhammad Ali doc When We Were Kings is turned into a showdown between two Welshmen in a rock-throwing competition. Even if you don’t know the source material, the show offers a clear-eyed take on characters who feel real despite the built-in absurdity of their circumstances.

Watch it: Documentary Now!

The Good Place (2016–2020)

4 seasons, 50 episodes

When self-absorbed Eleanor (Kristen Bell) dies at an early age, she finds herself in The Good Place, along with a bunch of seemingly virtuous do-gooders. But nothing is quite as it seems in this uproarious comedy, which features a delicious star turn by Ted Danson, 76, as an afterlife overseer, plus a heavenly host of delightful supporting performances.

Watch it: The Good Place

The Great British Baking Show (2010–present)

7 seasons, 70 episodes

Let us all bow down to the gingham altar! This long-running reality series has created a new generation of bakers who know their ganache from their genoise. Plus, it’s the rare competition where the contestants seem to genuinely root for each other — even as some secure the coveted “Hollywood handshake” from gruff judge Paul Hollywood, 58. The show will air its 15th season this fall, but only the last seven runs are streaming on Netflix (along with a handful of holiday specials).

Watch it: The Great British Baking Show

Lupin (2021–present)

3 seasons, 17 episodes

Netflix may be based in the U.S., but some of its best programming comes from overseas (like the pandemic-era phenom Squid Game from South Korea). This slick French thriller series follows a gentleman thief (Omar Sy) driven to avenge the death of his father, who was accused of stealing a valuable necklace. The seasons unfold like prolonged installments of Mission: Impossible, full of heists and edge-of-your-seat suspense, but there’s a compelling human drama, too, and Sy is an appealing hero.

Watch it: Lupin

The Queen’s Gambit (2020)

1 season, 7 episodes

In this literary adaptation, Anya Taylor-Joy plays an orphan chess prodigy who shakes up the mostly male world of competitive chess in the 1950s and early ’60s. She battles not only her troubled past and the very sexist present but also drug and alcohol dependency that have arisen as a self-coping mechanism. This is an absorbing yarn, with a magnetic star-making turn by Taylor-Joy at its center.

Watch it: The Queen’s Gambit

Ripley (2024)

1 season, 8 episodes

Andrew Scott is a sly and reserved presence as Tom Ripley, the sociopathic antihero of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel, who connives and kills his way into luxe living in 1960s Italy in this show filmed in pristine black and white by There Will Be Blood cinematographer Robert Elswit, 74. Steven Zaillian, 71, an Oscar winner for his Schindler’s List screenplay, wrote and directed all eight episodes of this new adaptation, and his attention to detail shines in every frame. Plus, Dakota Fanning makes a memorable impression as the expat girlfriend of Tom’s first victim who comes this close to being a target herself.

Watch it: Ripley

Russian Doll (2019–2022)

2 seasons, 15 episodes

The sandpaper-voiced actress Natasha Lyonne is a hoot in this Groundhog Day–inspired series about a young woman who finds herself in a series of time loops repeating the same day over and over again. In Season 1, she keeps dying at her own 36th birthday party — searching for clues amid the revelry to break the doom cycle. In Season 2, she’s trapped in the body of her pregnant mother — and embarks on a side quest to recover some lost gold Krugerrands. Both seasons draw a zippy energy from the offbeat star and from scripts that are both smart and propulsively entertaining.

Watch it: Russian Doll

Seinfeld (1989–1998)

9 seasons, 180 episodes

The comedy famously about nothing has had a decidedly not-nothing impact on pop culture. Close talkers. Double-dippers. Festivus. Keep it in the vault. Soup Nazi. Sponge-worthy. Yada yada yada. The show about comedian Jerry Seinfeld, 70, and his wacky Manhattan friends introduced all these now-common phrases — and it still holds up with its wry take on urban life. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Watch it: Seinfeld

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Thom Geier is an AARP contributor and the award-winning former executive editor of TheWrap, senior editor at Entertainment Weekly, film reporter at The Hollywood Reporter and associate editor at U.S. News & World Report.

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