What To Watch
23 Critically Acclaimed Netflix Shows for When You Crave Prestige TV
Award winners, nominated gems, and cinephile favorites unite!
By Ananda Dillon
April 16, 2026
23 Critically Acclaimed Netflix Shows Like BEEF for When You Crave Prestige TV - Netflix Tudum
It’s the perfect water cooler topic, the best go-to small talk subject, and the easiest way to weed out friends from enemies — TV shows. OK, so maybe that last bit is extreme, but we do tend to bond with others just as much over what we hate as what we love. TV can be a middle ground, a common playing field, and sometimes even a way to judge character.
However, wading through the myriad of series options in the media world can feel like a never-ending task. How to find the shows you know will be worth your time, will get you invested in characters and storylines, and, with hope, will give you plenty of conversational fodder the next time someone asks, “What have you been watching?”
The answer: Follow the pros. The critics, the experts, the industry insiders. The ones who write about TV for a living and those who nominate the cream of the crop for awards and accolades. These are the prestige TV shows, the ones that get people talking, provoke deep thoughts, set trends, inspire memes, and set the bar for what defines “great” TV.
Here are 23 critically acclaimed Netflix Original series that have earned their reputations in award nominations, wins, and rave reviews. Not only are you likely in for high production value and high-caliber acting, but after watching, you too can join the cultural conversation — not to mention understand those inside jokes. So get to streaming these highly awarded, much-discussed shows!
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Adolescence
Lucy Mangan of The Guardian called Adolescence “the closest thing to TV perfection in decades” in her 2025 review. If that doesn’t immediately mark the series as distinguished, then just watch the first 65-minute episode and observe the single take it was filmed in, which, in fact, is how all four episodes of the limited series are shot. And then take in the fact that Owen Cooper, who plays 13-year-old murder suspect Jamie Miller, had never acted in anything before taking on this harrowing and complicated role, and was subsequently nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie. Cooper won the Emmy making him the youngest person to win the award in the category as well as the youngest male actor to win an Emmy. The series also won the Emmy for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series. These details all make Adolescence impressive, but the devastating and absorbing story of one young boy’s seemingly nonsensical actions and the profound effect they have on his family and community will keep you thinking deep thoughts far beyond the series’ final credits.
Baby Reindeer
Equal parts dark comedy, twisted thriller, and moving drama, it’s hard to believe while watching Baby Reindeer that it’s inspired by creator, writer, and star Richard Gadd’s real-life experiences and adapted from his autobiographical one-man show. Gadd plays a fictionalized version of himself, Donny Dunn, a struggling comedian working as a bartender who takes pity on a distraught customer, Martha (Jessica Gunning), offering her a cup of tea. What seems like an innocent act of kindness quickly turns into stalking and obsession as Martha invades every aspect of his life. The series won multiple awards, including the Emmy for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, as well as the Golden Globe for Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television, and a Peabody; Gadd and Gunning also took home several awards for their performances.
BEEF
Earning Emmy and Golden Globe awards for both its lead actors, Steven Yeun and Ali Wong, BEEF also won both the Emmy and the Golden Globe for Outstanding Limited Series and Best Limited Series, respectively. It’s precisely these highly reviewed performances that make the series the taut, nerve-racking, can’t-stop-watching production that it is. While simply summed up as the tale of two people’s chance encounter in a store parking lot that leads to a mutual obsession for revenge, the show is somewhat hard to describe. Film critic Brian Tallerico speaks to its many facets in his review, saying BEEF is “a tonally daring piece of television, one that vacillates wildly from comedy to drama to thriller and back again.” Season 2 of the anthology series — starring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Cailee Spaeny, and Charles Melton — also garnered high praise, with Slant Magazine’s Ross McIndoe writing, “The show’s second season is just as sharply written and darkly funny as the first.”
Big Mouth
When the animated series Big Mouth premiered in 2017, Hank Stuever from The Washington Post wrote, “It’s charming and repulsive all at once.” It may be hard to believe that a show focusing primarily on the physical, hormonal, and mental changes wrought by puberty, featuring the basest and cringiest scenarios a preteen could possibly imagine –– not to mention the hormone monsters who crudely guide the young characters through these changes –– could also be considered heartwarming. It wrapped after eight seasons and a multitude of distinguished award nominations, and will certainly be remembered as one of TV’s definitive coming-of-age series.
BoJack Horseman
On the surface, BoJack Horseman is an animated comedy about an anthropomorphic horse once famous for his role on a ’90s sitcom and now a washed-up actor looking to restore his fame with an autobiography written with his ghostwriter, Diane (Alison Brie). But any fan or enthusiastic critic will tell you the six-season series holds emotional depth and profundity. Created by Raphael Bob-Waksberg and starring Will Arnett as the voice of BoJack, the series explores depression, addiction, trauma, self-destruction, and so many more weighty issues, cushioned by absurd humor. The series won four Critics Choice Television Awards for Best Animated Series, and some name it among the most influential animated series ever created.
Bridgerton
While Bridgerton has earned plenty of award nominations over its four seasons, especially in regard to its elaborate costuming and unique music, it is the fierce fandom around the show that keeps it at the forefront of pop culture. Romance book lovers and historical drama enthusiasts are easily united over the colorful imagery and breathtaking will-they-wont-they love affairs. Based on the books by Julia Quinn, the series imagines an alternate Regency-era England where the widowed Lady Violet Bridgerton (Ruth Gemmell) manages her eight children while introducing the eldest to society in the hopes of successful marriages. Daughter Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) is the focus of the first season’s love match, while her brother Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) leads in the second season, and her brother Colin (Luke Newton) commands the third season. The fourth season focuses on the second son, Benedict (Luke Thompson). The series charms with its wit and steamy intrigue and even inspired a spin-off, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story.
The Crown
With 24 Emmys — and more than a hundred other awards — The Crown has enough bling to rival the Queen herself. Released in 2016, the series is equal parts highbrow and guilty pleasure, giving a rare (if dramatized) look at the inner workings of England’s royal family. In its six seasons, the show chronicles almost six decades of Queen Elizabeth II’s life, from before her accession to the throne, to the early 2000s and the marriage of Prince William. The amount of talent on display is boosted by new actors portraying the characters every other season as they age, each adding their own flair to the role. Come for some essential British — and world — history, but stay for the cinematic storytelling that earned the series its accolades.
Dark
Pay close attention to this twisty German sci-fi mystery series, which follows the residents of the small town of Winden after a child goes missing. The surrounding woods are dark and deep, but the locals wouldn’t be quite so spooked if the same thing hadn’t also happened decades earlier. At the center of it all are four families — the Kahnwalds, Nielsens, Dopplers, and Tiedemanns — whose involvement in an eerie time-travel conspiracy stretches across multiple generations. This has potentially dire implications for the town’s past, present, and future. BBC included Dark on its list of 100 greatest TV series of the 21st century, and Los Angeles Times reviewer Robert Lloyd called creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese’s series a “beautiful, German-made minor-key tone poem in the shape of a puzzle-box sci-fi mystery television series.”
Dead to Me
Filled with dark humor and depicting one of the most true-hearted female friendships found onscreen, Dead to Me starts as the story of two women, Jen (Christina Applegate) and Judy (Linda Cardellini), who meet at a grief support group and connect over the loss of their partners. Judy is the sunshiny optimist to Jen’s angry, stewing cynic, and somehow they are exactly what the other needs … until the greater truth of their connection is revealed. At times murder mystery and crime caper, the series centers on the strength of the women’s bond. Applegate received a myriad of award nominations for her nuanced portrayal of the complexity of grief, and the two lead actors garnered critical acclaim for their palpable chemistry.
The Diplomat
With a fourth season on the horizon, this political thriller starring Keri Russell as US diplomat Kate Wyler quickly gained repute among critics and viewers for its sharp wit, constant thrills, and engaging drama. Caught in an international crisis and recently assigned as ambassador to the United Kingdom, Kate juggles mediating political conflict at work and her failing marriage at home. The show has been nominated for seven Golden Globes and three Primetime Emmy Awards.
Lupin
This three-season French mystery thriller — which is returning for a fourth later this year — has been nominated for two Golden Globes. USA Today’s Kelly Lawler wrote:
“Between [Omar] Sy’s sparkling charm as the thief with a heart of gold and the beauty of Paris as a backdrop, Lupin certainly steals the screen.” When Assane Diop (Sy) was a child, his father (Fargass Assandé) was falsely accused by his employer, Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre), of stealing Marie Antoinette’s necklace from a safe. Assane’s father was thrown in prison, where he died by alleged suicide, and Assane was left to fend for himself on the streets of Paris. In this thriller inspired by Maurice Leblanc’s legendary gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, Assane returns 25 years later to seek revenge on the wealthy Pellegrini family. Using his charm, disguises, and hard-won skills as a master thief, he vows to expose the Pellegrinis’ crimes and topple their empire.
Making a Murderer
It’s 2015 and still the Wild West of docuseries. Podcasts like Serial are gaining traction among true crime enthusiasts, and filmmakers realize an episodic format allows for far more details and nuance when it comes to exploring more complicated crimes. And few murder trials are as complicated as Steven Avery’s. Exonerated for one crime after serving 18 years in prison, Avery is arrested on suspicion of murder barely a year after his release on the very day he files a civil suit against the county that wrongfully convicted him. The series showcases the alleged crimes, but its focus is on the myriad evidence that suggests Avery’s innocence and new questions to be considered. As Erik Kohn of Indiewire writes in his initial review, “It not only consolidates the bizarre events of a small town American community…it may actually have the power to change them.” The series was nominated for six Emmys and won four, including Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Series.
MINDHUNTER
Between true-crime documentaries, horror movies, and crime series, the murders and inner workings of serial killers have been portrayed from every angle. But what about those who pursue them? Much more than just a detective story, Mindhunter is based on the real-life FBI team that essentially wrote the book on profiling serial killers. Jonathan Groff is Holden Ford, who works in the newly formed FBI Behavioral Science Unit in the late ’70s. They are a small team researching common threads among serial killers by interviewing convicted felons who fit the bill. With their insight, they start to put together a profiling list that will allow them to predict how serial killers think and anticipate their intentions. Highly reviewed and nominated for multiple awards, the series is dark and gritty and thrillingly portrays the early, harsh, and undeveloped landscape of psychological investigation.
Monsters
It’s a true crime tale told more than a few times, but Ryan Murphy puts his signature flair on this second installment in his Monster anthology series (the third, Monster: The Ed Gein Story, is now streaming). The story of Lyle and Erik Menendez — who were accused, tried, and found guilty of the 1989 murders of their parents — expands and imagines different perspectives of those involved in the case over nine episodes, leaving interpretation up to the viewer. Garnering 11 Primetime Emmy Award nominations including Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, the performances also earned multiple nominations: Cooper Koch (Erik Menendez) for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, Javier Bardem (José Menendez) for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, and Chloë Sevigny (Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez) for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie.
Nobody Wants This
Nobody Wants This is the romantic comedy series everybody did, in fact, want. When it premiered in 2024, it quickly gained attention from critics, who applauded the show’s ability to both showcase its two leads’ clear onscreen chemistry, but also for being a modern and complex, while also hilarious, take on the rom-com. Here we have Noah (Adam Brody) and Joanne (Kristen Bell) who meet at a party and have an instant spark. Despite numerous obstacles — Noah is a Jewish rabbi and Joanne is a sex and dating podcaster — that make them an unlikely couple, they navigate what a relationship between them could be. Nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, as well as acting nominations for both Brody and Bell, at the 2025 Primetime Emmy Awards, the series’ hype continued in its second season — with a third on the way.
Orange Is the New Black
Premiering in 2013 as Netflix’s first original dramedy series, Jenji Kohan’s show about a women’s minimum security prison racked up considerable acclaim in its seven seasons. Based on the book of the same name by Piper Kerman, the show follows a middle-class white woman, Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling), who is sent to prison for aiding her drug-smuggling girlfriend a decade prior. The show revolves around the colorful cast of incarcerated women, the politics of the institution, and the shortcomings of the American carceral system. Among the series’ many award nominations over the years are 21 Emmy nominations (earning four awards), six Golden Globe nominations, eight SAG Award nominations (earning five awards), 14 NAACP Image Award nominations (earning one award), and a Peabody award.
Our Oceans
Barack Obama won an Emmy for Outstanding Narrator for this sweeping five-part docuseries that dives –– no pun intended –– into the abundant marine life and fascinating patterns of the Earth’s vast body of water. Covering the Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, and Southern Ocean, each is shown with vibrant cinematography and such close detail, it feels like you’re right there with the flora and fauna, well below the surface. It’s hard not to root for each episode’s cast of creatures, even while acknowledging their greatest threats are often man-made.
Ozark
Who knew a tree-lined lake resort town in the Midwest would be a compelling setting for what has become a highly lauded crime drama series? Ozark stars Jason Bateman and Laura Linney as a couple forced to uproot their family from Chicago to Lake Ozark, Missouri, in order to launder a massive amount of money for the drug cartel their business associate stole from. The series doesn’t start with hapless normal people trying to learn how to be criminals, but instead focuses on smart people trying to navigate a new community with its own local criminals, while desperate to get their illegal businesses up and moving. Nominated for 45 Primetime Emmy Awards, and plenty more wins for the series’ cast and writers, this one has just as many twists as it has praise, and will take you for a thrilling ride across four seasons.
The Queen's Gambit
When this limited series came out in 2020, it not only gained traction for its beautiful imagery and captivating performance from Anya Taylor-Joy, it was also praised by professional chess players for the accuracy of its depiction of the game. Chronicling the rise of fictional chess prodigy Elizabeth (Beth) Harmon (Taylor-Joy), the series begins with Beth at the orphanage she was sent to after her mother died in a car accident. There she learns chess from the establishment’s janitor, quickly picking up the game with her innate ability to visualize the steps needed to win. Years later, after being adopted, she enters herself into a chess tournament without any prior experience competing. Her adopted mother realizes there is money to be made with Beth’s talent, and pushes her onward to the highest ranks of worldwide players, while behind the scenes Beth struggles with drug and alcohol abuse. Anya Taylor-Joy won a Golden Globe award, a SAG award, and an Emmy nomination for her performance.
Queer Eye
As a reboot of the wildly popular 2003 Bravo series, Queer Eye debuted in 2018 and gave us five new lifestyle experts in a wholly different time period than the original: a world with greater queer representation and less expected stereotypes, and a heartfelt center. In the new series, the Fab Five expand their agenda beyond heterosexual men, spending time with even more “heroes” and advising them on how to level up in different areas of their lives with a more pronounced sympathy, understanding, and patience. With 12 Emmy Awards and 10 seasons, it's clear why the show earned its reputation as a feel-good must-watch that just happens to also provide inspiration for how to live, decorate, and generally boost self-confidence.
RIPLEY
With every cinematic detail of this neo-noir psychological thriller, you’ll feel like you’re watching an old film, be it Hitchcock or Fellini. The music, the lighting, the sound design, the costuming and, of course, the inspired performances give Ripley a cultivated and classic feel. As Linda Holmes writes in her NPR review, the series is “a meticulously built piece of filmmaking that references classic noir and … Italian cinema greats, and just looking at it shot by shot is a profound pleasure.” The series revolves around Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott, in a multi-award nominated role), a small-time con man in 1961 New York, who is hired by a wealthy man to travel to Italy and convince the man’s son, Dickie (Johnny Flynn), to return home after years wandering abroad living a life of leisure and artistry. But when Tom arrives, he’s sucked in by the allure of Dickie’s life, leading to obsession, fraud, and murder.
Stranger Things
There’s a reason this 1980s-set sci-fi series became a cultural phenomenon. Centered around the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, and a band of young people who work together to find their missing friend, it also features a shady experimental government facility, an escaped psychokinetic girl, and an alternate dimension full of terrifying creatures. Critics applauded the series for its homage to ’80s sci-fi adventure and buddy films, and the nostalgic tone it emanates. With Season 5 having wrapped up earlier this year, Stranger Things maintained its buzzy cultural relevance for a decade. The show’s whopping 57 Primetime Emmy Award nominations (12 wins) speaks plenty to its excellence, and its four Grammy Award nominations suggest it’s a feast for your ears as well as your eyes.
Squid Game
Squid Game holds the distinction of being the first non-English series to receive nominations and wins at the 2022 Primetime Emmy Awards. Lead actor Lee Jung-jae won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for his portrayal of Seong Gi-hun, making him the first Asian actor to do so in the history of the category. The show is a dystopian thriller set on a remote island off the coast of South Korea where desperate, cash-strapped citizens are secretly recruited to compete in children’s games where the penalty for losing is death, but the winner gets a 45.6 billion won prize (roughly $40 million). A scathing answer to the very real problem of class disparity within the country, Squid Game is full of vivid characters and terrifying scenarios, making it rife for social and cultural discourse.
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