Netflix boasts an impressive back catalog of TV shows available to stream, ensuring subscribers have plenty of older network series and new streaming titles to choose from. However, the sheer quantity of shows on the platform can be overwhelming at times, and it often leads to lesser-known series getting lost. And these hidden gems are well worth diving into.
Some of them even best much bigger names on Netflix, but simply haven’t got the attention they deserve. Either these shows were criminally underrated by audiences and critics alike, or they didn’t have the budget to propel themselves to the front of the shop window. Either way, these are underappreciated buried treasures that every Netflix subscriber should watch.
6
The Playlist
2022
The Playlist is to Netflix TV what The Social Network is to cinema: a slick, slightly satirical dramatization of how one of today’s most ubiquitous digital media behemoths was built. It tells the story of Spotify, from Daniel Ek’s humble beginnings as an SEO boffin who pirated his music to its takeover of music streaming.
The Playlist’s final episode is the fictional story of a hypothetical congressional hearing about Spotify’s negative effect on the music industry for small, independent artists.
While this Swedish miniseries might not be quite as sharp-edged as David Fincher’s movie about Facebook, it certainly doesn’t pull any punches in its depiction of how music’s Big Three were convinced to join Spotify’s freemium features revolution. For fans of true-story dramas involving tech tycoons, this hidden gem is not to be missed.
5
I Hate Christmas
2022–2023
I Hate Christmas
- Release Date
-
2022 – 2023-00-00
- Network
-
Netflix
- Directors
-
Marco Servidei
- Writers
-
Elena Bucaccio
Quite simply the best Christmas-themed sitcom on TV, I Hate Christmas is a charming, warmly authentic tale set in the stunning Venetian town of Chioggia. It’s about a young hospital nurse’s struggles in the romance department. Available in Italian with subtitles and dubbed in other languages, this show is impossible not to fall for.
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Christmas comedies are notoriously difficult to pull off without coming across as cloying or clichéd, but this one avoids all the pitfalls of the genre brilliantly. What’s more, it wasn’t a one-hit wonder, with I Hate Christmas season 2 proving even better than the show’s first outing.
4
Kleo
2022–Present
Alongside the time-travel show Dark, Kleo is one of the best German-language series on Netflix. This humorous action-thriller about an assassination in the East German intelligence service during the Cold War is lightning-quick on its feet and very handy with a Luger pistol.
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There’s something for everyone in the show, from murder mystery enthusiasts to fans of black comedy. Kleo has just about everything going for it, and more than its two existing seasons to look forward to in the coming years.
3
Snabba Cash
2021–2022
Snabba Cash is the closest thing you’ll find to The Wire currently on Netflix. This gritty crime drama about poor migrants getting roped into the drugs trade in Sweden is superbly produced, with some compelling performances from its main cast.
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The series stands up alongside some of the best crime shows of its kind, and it ought to be seen by a wider audience outside its native Scandinavia. It may only contain 12 episodes, but every one of them is a scintillating classic. It’s a title that Netflix subscribers should absolutely have on their radars.
2
Turn of the Tide
2023–Present
Turn of the Tide
- Release Date
-
May 26, 2023
- Showrunner
-
Augusto Fraga
- Directors
-
Augusto Fraga, Patricia Sequeira
- Writers
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Augusto Fraga, Hugo Gonçalves, João Tordo
If Turn of the Tide’s premise weren’t based on a true story, its script would have been rejected for being too outlandish. The tale of remote island villagers happening upon a ton of cocaine brought to their shores by a Sicilian mafia boat shipwrecked in a storm might sound fanciful, but it’s inspired by what really happened to the community of Rabo de Peixe.
Lost fans should love this series.
Set in the Azores, almost 1,000 miles away from mainland Europe, Turn of the Tide is a gripping drama about finding a way out of isolation and poverty in the unlikeliest of places, only for that way out to haunt those who took it. Lost fans should love this series, which has already been renewed by Netflix for season 2.
1
The OA
2016–2019
The OA
- Release Date
-
2016 – 2019-00-00
- Network
-
Netflix
Featuring one of the most mindblowing cliffhangers in TV history, The OA is a show every sci-fi fan with a subscription to Netflix should have watched by now. If you haven’t, it’s likely because the series really hasn’t been promoted enough since it first arrived on the platform in 2016.
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Opening with the mysterious reappearance of a girl who went missing years before the events of the show, The OA has the feel of a latter-day Twin Peaks, as it isn’t afraid to lean into the supernatural and surreal to add depth to its mystery. This is high praise, but the show earns it. The OA will likely grow into a cult classic in its own right, but for now, you can discover it while it’s still one of Netflix’s hidden gems.
