13 Criminally Underrated Netflix Shows That Deserve Your Undivided Attention

30 January 2018, 21:45 | Updated: 22 May 2018, 16:00

By Nicky Idika

@adulthumanbeing

You're about to be booked on Netflix for the next month.

Netflix is responsible for some of the biggest shows on television right now. From Stranger Things to Orange Is The New Black, the platform is producing hits year after year. But what about the shows that are still brilliant but don't get quite the same buzz? Here are some of our favourite underrated Netflix shows that definitely deserve your undivided attention.

1) Travelers

via Netflix/Travelers

Travelers imagines a world where highly skilled operatives are sent from the future to occupy the bodies of people on the brink of death in order to change 21st-century events. As far as time travel shows go, this has to be one of Netflix's most underrated and genuinely engaging dramas.

2) Grace and Frankie

via Netflix/Grave and Frankie

Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are a joy to watch on screen. Netflix is four seasons into the light-hearted comedy and each episode still leaves you with achy cheeks from smiling so damn much. Their chemistry is the stuff of legends and the world deserves at least four more seasons.

3) American Vandal

via Netflix/American Vandal

American Vandal lampoons the true crime genre in a lighthearted and intriguing way. By the end of the first episode you, too, will be asking, "who drew the dicks?"

4) Friends From College

via Netflix/Friends From College

Friends From College is so so SO good. The ensemble cast of comedic actors are well matched, genuinely exciting to watch on screen, and fantastic at capturing the comedic and emotional beats of the stories. It feels like one of those rom coms (you know, the ones where the guy is an architect and the girl works in advertising) but actually enjoyable.

5) Sense8

via Netflix/Sense8

Sense8 has had such a dramatic life on Netflix. Canceled then slightly un-canceled. It's hard to keep up with what's really going on with Sense8. Either way, the show is really textured, diverse, and visually stunning. If you haven't already gotten on the Sense8 train, do yourself a favour.

6) Last Chance U

via Netflix/Last Chance U

Last Chance U is a docu-series that chronicles the stories of charismatic, but often misguided, athletes looking to revive their pro-league dreams. You'll become personally invested in these guys as they try to overcome difficult personal circumstances that have led them away from NFL stardom.

7) Easy

via Netflix/Easy

Easy is probably the future of hyper-realistic television writing. The show features vignettes of couples in varying stages of their relationships--from unsatisfied marrieds to couples in the early relationship glow phase. The sex scenes are properly sexy and, like many Netflix shows, it has the pull of established Hollywood names and familiar faces.

8) Ozark

via Netflix/Ozark

Netflix gave viewers a crash course in money laundering via last year's gripping crime-ish drama, Ozark. Jason Bateman does double duty as director and series lead for this one. Ozark is dark, addictive, and seriously intense viewing.

9) Alias Grace

via Netflix/Alias Grace

Alias Grace will mess with your head 15 different ways. It's a mini-series, so you can definitely finish it in a day. Just be prepared for the inevitable head-scratching conclusion.

10) Big Mouth

via Netflix/Big Mouth

Netflix's latest animated coming of age series, Big Mouth, is laugh out loud funny, nostalgic, and even emotional, at times. Think Bojack Horseman (but younger and prepubescent).

11) The OA

via Netflix/The OA

The OA is a fantasy drama that constructs a wonderfully strange universe with The Original Angel at the centre of it. It's one of Netflix's weirder projects, but the storytelling at the heart of it is really something else.

12) Dark

via Netflix/Dark

Dark was definitely one of the best things Netflix released in 2017. My advice is to watch the series in the original German language with English subtitles. Thank me later.