From thrilling crime series to amusing action comedy, check out our critics’ picks of the best shows to watch on Netflix right now. The experts have chosen their top 20 programmes, as well as reviewing new releases. Read on to find out what to watch this weekend…
The Kitchen
Dystopian London-set thriller co-directed by Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
Jump forward a few decades and London’s wealth gap has widened ever further than it is now, with the less well-off being pushed further and further out of the city. The Kitchener Estate – known to locals as The Kitchen – is one of the few social housing estates still hanging on. It’s violent and dangerous, but also has an odd sense of community in and among the gang war and crime.
Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya co-directs this cyberpunk thriller about a man desperate to escape The Kitchen and a young boy braving its mean corridors to hunt for a lost family. It’s stylish, edgy stuff that also boasts a cameo appearance by football pundit Ian Wright as a powerful figure on the estate. (107 minutes)
Griselda
Fact-based drama about a female crime boss starring Sofia Vergara
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Netflix
Almost unrecognisable under a raft of prosthetics designed to mimic the hawk-faced profile of real-life drug boss Griselda Blanco Restrepo, Modern Family star Sofia Vergara is icily impressive in this six-part miniseries. A story of female empowerment and brutal criminality in equal bloody gobbets, it charts the Colombian immigrant’s rise to become one of the most powerful and feared drug importers in Miami. It’s all the more powerful a story because, when she first arrives with children in tow, Griselda’s position is very precarious indeed. You can see the vulnerability in her face, although it doesn’t last too long.
Created by many of the same team behind Narcos and with Vergara acting as producer, it’s exciting, dark and no-holds-barred stuff that brings the freewheeling cocaine underworld of the 1980s US to dangerous life. Episode one grabs you by the throat right from the start with this quote from Pablo Escobar: ‘The only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco’. You’ll see why in short order. (Six episodes)
The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent
Nicolas Cage spoofs his own reputation in this amusing action comedy
Year: 2022
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
Nic Cage gleefully sends up his own reputation for excess and bad film choices as he plays a thinly veiled version of himself in this wonderful action comedy. ‘Nick Cage’ (note the extra K) is a past-his-best movie star who is hired for a fee of $1 million to attend the birthday party of ultra-rich uber fan Javi Gutierrez (The Mandalorian’s Pedro Pascal), a man with a very dubious past. But what’s Nick to do when the CIA get in touch and ask him to start spying on Javi for them?
Part Hollywood send-up (Neil Patrick Harris is sublime as Nick’s reptilian agent), part full-throttle buddy movie, Unbearable Weight is an absolute riot from start to finish. (107 minutes)
Queenpins
Suburban crime caper comedy starring Kristen Bell and Kirby
Year: 2021
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
The Good Place star Kristen Bell makes a loveable criminal mastermind in this light and frothy crime caper. She plays Connie, a midwestern US housewife who hits on a scheme to get rich by forging shopping vouchers and selling them on the internet. It’s not long before she and her best mate JoJo (The Sandman’s Kirby) are rolling in cash, but their efforts draw the attention of supermarket enforcer Ken (Paul Walter Hauser) who’s determined to bring them to justice.
It’s a sweet, funny and wholeheartedly enjoyable movie with a surprisingly poignant emotional core, given energy by a talented cast. Almost everyone in it feels like a familiar face with Vince Vaughn, Community’s Joel McHale and Stranger Things’ Eduardo Franco providing support. (110 minutes)
Lift
Kevin Hart turns into an action hero in a heist movie extravaganza
Year: 2024
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Netflix
When it comes to action movies, Kevin Hart is best-known for playing the comedy sidekick to the likes of Dwayne Johnson. But this movie sees the comic step up to take the lead, and he does a bang-up job. He plays Cyrus, the leader of a gang of thieves who are recruited by the government to steal a gold shipment before it can reach the vaults of a bunch of terrorists. There’s just one problem: they’re going to have to steal it from a plane in midair…
Chockful of slick caper nonsense, high-tech gadgetry, laughs and action, this is part Ocean’s 11, part The Fast And The Furious. In short? The perfect Friday night Netflix movie. (104 minutes)
The Brothers Sun
Action comedy series about a crime family starring Michelle Yeoh
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
When the head of a brutal Taipei crime gang is murdered, his eldest son Charles (Justin Chien) – himself also a ruthless killer – heads to Los Angeles to protect his estranged mother (Michelle Yeoh) and younger brother Bruce (Sam Li) from assassins sent by rival gangs.
Feeling like a merrily gory mix of martial arts, black comedy and The Godfather, this eight-episode comedy thriller centres around Bruce’s clueless attempts to get used to the idea that he’s part of a clan of murderous crooks, but it really belongs to the deadpan Yeoh, who steals every scene she’s in as Charles and Bruce’s merciless mom. (Eight episodes)
Society Of The Snow
Spanish drama based on the infamous 1972 Andes plane crash
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
The 1972 plane crash that stranded a Uruguayan rugby team deep in the Andes mountains with little hope of rescue is infamous. The story of how the survivors eventually resorted to cannibalism in order to survive has already inspired one movie (1993’s Alive) and surely features in the DNA of the hit series Yellowjackets, but this Spanish-language retelling of events is perhaps the most hard-hitting and complex of the lot.
The sense of isolation, cold and hopelessness it conveys is crushing as the teammates make momentous decisions in order to stave off death long enough to find a way back to civilisation. (144 mins)
Fool Me Once
Richard Armitage stars in a thriller series based on a Harlan Coben book
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
Prepare for more shock revelations and domestic thrills as Netflix adapts another Harlan Coben thriller for the screen. Maya (Michelle Keegan) believes her husband Joe (Richard Armitage) was brutally murdered. But long after his funeral, she’s shocked to find new footage on the nanny cam of someone who looks an awful lot like Joe entering the house. As she sets out to discover whether Joe really is alive, Maya’s taken to some very dark places…
Tense and often scary, this is another satisfyingly brain-twisty British adaptation of a Coben thriller. Joanna Lumley and Adeel Akhtar line up alongside Keegan and serial Coben star Armitage, who also starred in adaptations of The Stranger and Stay Close for Netflix. (Eight episodes)
Captains Of The World
Insider look at the 2022 FIFA World Cup
Year: 2023
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Netflix
From Fulwell 73, the same company that brought us the excellent Sunderland ‘Til I Die, this six-parter provides a behind-the-scenes guide to all the drama of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The level of access is impressive – there are interviews with Harry Kane, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kylian Mbappé, Gareth Bale, Lionel Messi and Simon Kjær – and the way all the perspectives on the tournament are stitched together turns it into a thrilling and very human ride, one that should even be of interest to non-sports fans. That level of universal appeal is always a good test of a documentary’s quality, and Captains Of The World certainly scores on that front. (Six episodes)
Maestro
Bradley Cooper stars in a bold biopic of musical legend Leonard Bernstein
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
A titan of the American musical scene in the mid-20th century, Leonard Bernstein combined work as one of the most passionate conductors of classical music with a career as a composer of everything from symphonies and film scores to undying musicals such as West Side Story.
Directed by and starring Bradley Cooper as Bernstein himself, this ambitious film swirls dizzying amounts of great music around the audience but never forgets that relationships drive films. Here it’s the passionate and difficult love between the composer and his wife Felicia, played with incredible sensitivity by Carey Mulligan, that powers proceedings. Expect both actors to be in the running come Oscar time. (129 minutes)
American Nightmare
Series investigating whether a US couple faked a headline-grabbing kidnapping
Year: 2024
Certificate: 18
Watch now on Netflix
In 2015, Aaron Quinn told US police that an armed man in a wetsuit had broken in, tied him up and kidnapped his girlfriend Denise Huskins. Just a few days later, though, Denise turned up, with no ransom having been paid, claiming her kidnappers had simply released her.
The sceptical local cops immediately assumed that the couple had faked the kidnapping and began investigating them instead of looking for the alleged kidnappers, as the press likened the whole case to the book and film Gone Girl.
This twisty and instantly gripping hit series from the makers of The Tinder Swindler documentary asks if the police were too quick to rush to judgment. Could Aaron and Denise actually have been telling the truth? (Three episodes)
Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget
Cracking sequel to Aardman Animation’s hit adventure movie
Year: 2023
Certificate: PG
Watch now on Netflix
A playful spin on Second World War prisoner-of-war movies (not least The Great Escape), 2000’s Chicken Run saw Aardman (the animators behind Wallace & Gromit) craft a loveable tale of a gang of chickens plotting their escape from a poultry farm before the farmers can turn them all into pies.
Now this very welcome sequel picks up the tale a few years later with the escaped hens now leading an idyllic life on a remote island. But when Molly (voiced by The Last Of Us’s Bella Ramsey), the daughter of Ginger and Rocky (now voiced by Thandiwe Newton and Zachary Levi), decides to venture back to the mainland, the feathered few find themselves embroiled in a new adventure. The result is as bright-eyed and gleeful as the original, with Jane Horrocks, Imelda Staunton and Miranda Richardson returning alongside new voices courtesy of Romesh Ranganathan, Daniel Mays and Nick Mohammed. (101 minutes)
Love On The Spectrum
US reality show following people with autism as they search for romance
Year: 2022-
Certificate: 12
Watch now on Netflix
Finding love in the modern world is never easy, but it’s even harder for those on the autism spectrum. This show follows neurodiverse men and women across America as they dip their toes in the dating waters with various degrees of success.
Like its Australian predecessor, it takes a light and often soapy approach to the romantic encounters on display, but audiences swiftly become seriously engaged in the struggles and triumphs of its cast. The fact that many familiar faces from series one return in the second run alongside new romantic hopefuls will be welcome news for the show’s fans. (Two series)
Painkiller
A powerful series about drug company greed starring Matthew Broderick
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
The epidemic of legal opioid addiction that has swept America in recent decades remains a hot topic for lawmakers and the media. This slick and powerful six-part drama series comes at it from all angles, looking at the ordinary lives ruined by over-prescription of the intensely addictive pain medication, as well as portraying the drug company bosses behind the epidemic.
Matthew Broderick is on extremely creepy form as Richard Sackler, a real-life senior executive at Purdue Pharma, whose gleeful greed overrules all considerations of the effect that his firm’s drug OxyContin is having. Attempting to bring him and his firm down is Uzo Aduba’s Edie, an investigator leading the charge against the recklessness of Big Pharma.
The way each episode opens with real-life testimony about the impact of OxyContin gives the drama added bite, and while Painkiller isn’t quite up there with Michael Keaton’s Dopesick in the sharpness of its portrayal of this tragic situation, it hits a powerful groove once you get to part two – and doesn’t release that grip until the end. (Six episodes)
Nyad
Annette Bening and Jodie Foster make a splash in this swimming biopic
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
At the age of 60, American long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad decided to come out of retirement to attempt an incredible swim – the 110-mile open ocean crossing from Cuba to Florida. It’s a story that makes a fantastic subject for a stirring sports biopic, with Nyad’s defiance of her age and multiple failed attempts bringing real drama to the film.
What makes it truly special, though, is the cast. Jodie Foster and Rhys Ifans are excellent as Nyad’s best friend/swim coach and her open-water navigator, while Bening is simply outstanding as Nyad herself, unafraid to be flinty and unlikeable as she channels the spirit of a stubbornly determined figure. It will be no surprise if all three bag Oscar nominations for their efforts here. (120 minutes)
Six Nations: Full Contact
Series revealing the dramas behind the scenes of international rugby
Year: 2024
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
The fierce rivalries and crunching tackles of the annual Six Nations international rugby tournament provide ample opportunity for the team behind Formula 1: Drive To Survive to work their magic on yet another sport.
Focusing on behind-the-scenes dramas and little-known personal stories as much as the big on-the-field results, they showcase a whole new side to the games as the players and coaches of France, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Italy not only battle for points in the 2023 tournament but make their final preparations for the World Cup that follows it. With this year’s Six Nations due to start in February, this is the perfect show to binge in preparation. (Eight episodes)
The Crown (Series 6)
The final series of Netflix’s generation-spanning royal epic
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
It’s the beginning of the end as Netflix releases the first four episodes of the final series of one of its biggest hits (the remaining six will arrive on 14 December). The trials and tribulations of the House of Windsor remain as compelling as ever, with fantastic performances from Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, alongside Dominic West, Olivia Williams and Elizabeth Debicki as Prince Charles, Camilla Parker-Bowles and Princess Diana respectively.
The undoubted focus of this opening tranche is the death of Diana in 1997, which we jump ahead to in the opening episode, then flash back and steadily build towards. Episodes track her evolving romance with Dodi Fayed and the motivations of his father in it all, while also focusing on Charles’s desire to legitimise his relationship with Camilla.
Break Point
Documentary series about the tensions of the professional tennis circuit
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
In the series Drive To Survive, Netflix gave viewers a look behind the roaring engines and high-speed racing of Formula 1 to find the human dramas that truly power the sport. They’ve also done the same for the globe-trotting circus that is professional tennis. Cameras follow the rising male and female stars of the sport (including Australia’s controversial Nick Kyrgios) across the entire 2022 season, catching the off-court tensions as well as the surprising moments of weakness.
It’s dramatic and engaging in equal parts, and you find yourself rooting for some unfamiliar faces as they try to unseat the Rogers, Venuses and Novaks from their positions at the top of the sport. If you’re primarily interested in Wimbledon, seek out episodes six and seven of series one.
The second series does the same but for the 2023 season, tracking the fortunes of players familiar from series one, including Ajla Tomljanovic, and Nick Kyrgios, and new additions such as Ben Shelton, Tommy Paul, Holger Rune, Alexander Zverev and Coco Gauff. (Two series)
The Diplomat
Keri Russell plays a US ambassador in an addictive, high-stakes drama
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
She was undercover for six years on spy thriller The Americans, but how is Keri Russell going to handle being thrust into the political spotlight? That’s the question posed in this sharp drama as she takes on the role of Kate Wyler, a career diplomat who finds herself unexpectedly posted to London as the new US ambassador. With no patience for all the press hullabaloo, she just wants to get on with her job, but everyone – including her political highflyer husband (Rufus Sewell) – wants to tell her what she should do.
Written by a former writer and producer on The West Wing, The Diplomat marries sharp-edged dialogue to genuine political intrigue to fantastic effect and, once you finish watching this excellent first series, you’ll be very pleased to know that a second is in the pipeline. And, while you’re waiting for that to come along, take a look at this story from Jeremy Vine and compare it to a tale that’s told about Rory Kinnear’s Prime Minister on the show. That can’t be an accident… (Eight episodes)
Beef
Two people’s lives are consumed by a road-rage incident
Year: 2023
Certificate: 15
Watch now on Netflix
Everyone who drives can relate to a sense of irritation at other people on the road. Who are all these selfish people? Why are they making our lives difficult by driving like idiots? Have they never heard of indicating?
A road-rage incident is the trigger for Netflix’s drama from studio-of-the moment A24, the company behind Everything Everywhere All At Once. The two people involved (played by The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun and the comedian Ali Wong) are both at the ends of their tether with their own lives, and the rage-fuelled moment steadily consumes both of them as it escalates well beyond the road into a comically vicious tit-for-tat. The question you have while watching is, will the expression of all this rage lead to a good place? While you wait to find out, the exploration of both their lives introduces us to some fascinating characters, and watch out in particular for the close-ups on Wong’s face. She conveys a lot with a little. (Ten episodes)
