5 Netflix shows that are impossible to stop watching after the first episode

As a voracious consumer of television shows, nothing excites me more than a premiere episode so good that it’s impossible to avoid rolling right into the next one. These shows have characters that feel alive, narrative twists you never see coming, and cliffhangers that have you promising yourself that you’ll stop after just one more episode.

Below are five recommendations for Netflix shows where taking a break from streaming is not an option. Our top pick, to no surprise, is one of the platform’s most compelling historical fiction series to date, and more from its gritty universe is on the way.

5

Stranger Things

A nostalgic cultural phenomenon

One of Netflix’s biggest and most popular sci-fi shows is Stranger Things, a five-season mind-bender from the Duffer Brothers. What starts off as a simple missing persons case in Hawkins, Indiana, quickly descends into a chilling mystery that defies imagination.

Set in the 1980s, the series kicks off when young Will Byers (Noah Schnapp) goes missing after a night of playing Dungeons & Dragons with friends. While his family and local law enforcement search for him, Will’s friends encounter a mysterious telekinetic girl on the run from a nearby government laboratory. The group uncovers a massive conspiracy that forces them to fight to protect their town from strange, malevolent creatures emerging from a terrifying parallel dimension known as the Upside Down.

Because of its expert fusion of sci-fi and horror with a coming-of-age drama, Stranger Things is considered a masterpiece of modern television. Not only does it feature incredible world-building and a narrative that appeals to all ages, but the show also excels by anchoring terrifying, interdimensional stakes in deeply relatable character relationships, pairing phenomenal child acting with a heavy dose of 1980s nostalgia.

4

Dark

Stranger Things for adults

Thrilling sci-fi gem Dark is a German time-twisting saga that will have you trading sleep for more episodes. Spanning three seasons and 26 episodes, the show unfolds across one town’s past, present, and future, all of which include the mysterious disappearances of children.

Set in the small German town of Winden, Dark follows four families whose lives intertwine across timelines. Two things remain constant in the town: a nuclear power plant that is hiding something deeply unsettling and a deep, mysterious cave in the woods that is actually a portal across time. As some of these families move around inside this closed loop, their actions across the decades snowball into an endless cycle of cause and effect that will have your heart pounding.

A slow burn with an extraordinary payoff, the show features an excellent cast of characters, terrifying seasons, and the existential dread of wondering if we’re all doomed to make the same predetermined choices in a locked, never-ending cycle across time. This one is a potent puzzle that is such an engrossing head-scratcher; it demands your full attention. In short, Dark is highbrow sci-fi perfection.

3

Ozark

Family life unravels into organized crime

As one of Netflix’s best crime series ever made — in addition to Peaky Blinders — Ozark is a four-season show that follows one family’s descent into the criminal underworld as they navigate dangerous local criminals, a drug cartel, and the FBI. You will stay glued to your screen right from the first episode.

Jason Bateman (DTF St. Louis) stars as Marty Byrde, a Chicago financial advisor who relocates his family to the Missouri Ozarks after a money-laundering scheme for a Mexican drug cartel goes horribly wrong. To appease the cartel and save his family, Marty must launder $500 million within five years. As his fractured family’s fate hangs by an unraveling thread in the balance, dire circumstances force them to reconnect on a level they never imagined.

Bateman gives a masterful performance, as does the show’s breakout star Julia Garner as Ruth Langmore. Additionally, its fast-paced, high-tension thrills combine with a gripping narrative, suspenseful storytelling, complex character development, and intensely violent high stakes to make Ozark one of Netflix’s most compelling and obsessive watches.

2

The Last Kingdom

An epic tale of Saxons and Vikings

If you’re a fan of historical fiction series, you already know how impossible it is to look away from the masterpiece that is The Last Kingdom. Based on author Bernard Cornwell’s novel of the same name from his Saxon Stories series, the show tells how the nation of England began under King Alfred the Great. It then goes a giant step further to explore a much more fascinating tale.

As a young Saxon noble, Uhtred of Bebbanburg (Alexander Dreymon) is kidnapped by Danish Vikings and raised as one of them in Ragnar Ragnarsson’s kingdom, but not the Ragnar you’re thinking of — different time periods. Uhtred is woven into Danish life for years before being placed in the service of King Alfred of Wessex (David Dawson). From there, the show examines Uhtred’s loyalties to his birth country as well as to those who raised him as he fights to protect them all.

What makes the show such a riveting watch are its impeccable battle sequences, multidimensional characters, and copious amounts of brutality, emotion, and entertainment. Once you finish all five seasons, be sure and wrap up Uhtred’s story with the Netflix Original movie Seven Kings Must Die.

1

Peaky Blinders

A Roma-origin gangster family saga

Peaky Blinders is perhaps the fiercest example of a Netflix show that you won’t be able to stop yourself from binge-watching. Then again, you probably knew that because of the hype surrounding the series’ anticipated ending and its future. As one of the platform’s biggest shows of all time, there’s never been a better time than right now to dive into this riveting story.

The gritty crime series from creator Steven Knight (Taboo) is a fictionalized version of a real-life British crime gang that operated in Birmingham, England. Its narrative follows the prismatic, emotionally and morally complex crime boss Tommy Shelby (Oppenheimer’s Cillian Murphy) as he elevates his family from bickering, nomadic Gypsies to the height of British aristocracy, only to burn it all down in the end and ride away, literally on a white horse, to return to his roots and find himself again.

Aside from the show’s superb, tight writing and phenomenal performances, led by Murphy’s mesmerizing portrayal of Thomas Shelby, its cinematic visuals, thrilling modern soundtrack, and nerve-wracking, high-stakes plotting brilliantly blend gritty 1920s historical fiction with deep family dynamics that make it unforgettable and completely binge-worthy.

More in store

With so many high-quality originals, Netflix makes it difficult to avoid the binge. Other shows audiences can’t turn away from include Squid Game, Wednesday, Bridgerton, All of Us Are Dead, Beef, and the Monster anthology series, to name a few.