The 16 best Netflix Originals to watch right now

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Sometimes it's really hard to decide what to watch on Netflix. There are hundreds of shows and seasons of programmes – it's quite overwhelming. So, what are the best Netflix series to watch right now?

Here is a list of the top and most popular Netflix Original shows that you should definitely be tuning in to. You can't watch these shows anywhere else. From dramas, to true crime and horrors – these are the best Netflix series, in no particular order.

Black Mirror

Black Mirror, created by Charlie Brooker, is an anthology series which focuses on advancements of social media and technology. Each episode explores something different and is a dramatised look at what the world might be like one day.

It's always based on something that is spooky and futuristic enough to make it interesting, but still maintaining the realness to make it feel as though you're watching what the world might be like one day.

If you don’t think the world is messed up already and love your phone, this is the best Netflix series to seriously change your mind.

Stranger Things

Stranger Things is hard to explain. Season three was released this summer and everyone binge watched, it was incredible. It's a sort of science thriller fictional drama.

Based in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, the show is set in the '80s. The first season focuses on the investigation into the disappearance of a young boy amid supernatural events occurring around the town. This includes the appearance of a girl with weird powers. The cast will become your best friends and you will become VERY invested in this show if you're not already.

Here's a full recap of season one and two if you just need to catch up on the latest season.

Ozarks

Ozarks is a Netflix original thriller and drama series. It is about a financial advisor who drags his family from Chicago to the Missouri Ozarks where he must launder $500 million in five years to keep a drug boss happy.

So far there are two seasons of the series, but the third has been confirmed and is expected before the end of the year.

Dark

Dark is all about two children who go missing in a small German town. This exposes the town's sinful past, along with the double lives and fractured relationships that exist among four families as they search for the missing children.

The series is listed as mystery thriller that is "mind-bending, chilling and ominous". Dark is the first German original series produced for Netflix.

Queer Eye

Queer Eye is one of the best shows to come from Netflix, ever. Nobody can make you look as incredible as Jonathan can, Tan will style you like never before and Karamo's soothing words will ease any troubles. And that's just the start.

In each episode, The Fab Five travel to visit a nominated member of the public and literally change their life. It's unbelievable.

Unbelievable

The limited Netflix series Unbelievable is based on the real life events of Marie Adler, who as a teenager was sexually assaulted but then told the police she had lied. She changed her story after detectives constantly made her re-tell her version of events and doubted her because of inconsistencies in her story. Those closest to Marie also didn't believe her.

Since the eight-part mini series was released on Netflix, the real life Marie Adler has spoken out about the show. She called its portrayal of her story "perfect" and said it gave her "closure".

When They See Us

When They See us on Netflix is based on the real life story of the Central Park Five.

The real life story is about one evening in 1989, when a group of teenagers were hanging out in Central Park, New York. Some of them were causing trouble and harassing the public. The same night, a young woman had been jogging in the park.

She was later found beaten and sexually assaulted. She was known then as the "Central Park Jogger". Five men were arrested and found guilty of the crime, and they became known as the "Central Park Five."

But they never committed the crime.

Sex Education

Sex Education follows a bunch of 16-year-old sixth formers who are all either trying to figure out how to have sex or how to have better sex. The son of a sex therapist teams up with his edgier and cooler classmate to set up their own sex clinic, and earn some cash.

The cast are all fun and fit, the show nailed diversity and season two is coming soon.

Orange Is the New Black

It's not often you come across someone that has never watched Orange Is the New Black on Netflix. It's literally the most popular show on Netflix ever.

Without any spoilers, the Netflix original series is based on the book of the same title. It's a comedy drama about the author's experiences at FCI Danbury, a minimum-security federal prison.

You

Last year, one of Netflix's stand-out shows was You. The show is set in New York and follows Joe Goldberg (played by Penn Badgley) as a sort of more deranged version of Dan Humphrey from Gossip Girl.

He's obsessed with Beck, a young blonde, and his obsession escalates from zero to a hundred pretty quickly.

Season two has been confirmed and it looks even wilder than the first one. There's a new cast and Netflix accidentally leaked the start date. Oops!!

Making a Murderer

Making a Murderer is an American true crime documentary series written and directed by Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos. It is known as starting the Netflix true crime phase and being one of the original documentaries out there.

The show tells the story of Steven Avery, who served 18 years in prison for the wrongful conviction of sexual assault and attempted murder of Penny Beerntsen. He was again charged in 2005 and convicted in 2007 for the murder of Teresa Halbach. Avery says he is innocent.

The Crown

If you haven't watched The Crown already, where have you been? This is the period drama you didn't know you needed until now.

Netflix describes the show as a "drama following the political rivalries and romance of Queen Elizabeth II's reign and the events that shaped the second half of the 20th Century."

Series three of The Crown drops next month and a super-cool Cambridge grad plays Princess Diana.

The Disappearance of Madeleine McCann

The eight-part, true crime series tells the story of Madeleine McCann, who famously vanished from her family’s apartment on holiday in Pria da Luz, Portugal.

Her parents left her while they had dinner with friends in a nearby tapas restaurant and she has never been found.

The Netflix show covers the entire story, filled with all the possible theories of what happened to Madeleine and the sightings of her since she went missing.

Dead To Me

The first season of tragedy comedy series Dead To Me follows a widow called Jen (played by Christina Applegate), who is trying to figure out who killed her husband Ted in a hit-and-run car accident. Jen meets Judy (played by Linda Carellini) at a grief support group. They become best friends, and Judy helps Jen find out who killed Ted. Then the relationship is nothing short of a whirlwind, with shocks and horrors along the way.

The first season will leave you with so many questions, but season two has been confirmed so hopefully we will soon have the answers.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

You definitely read the books or watched the film as a child, and the Netflix series based on Lemony Snicket's novels is just as good. There's three season's of the Netflix original adaptation following the Baudelaire orphans. Perfect for binge watching.

Top Boy

The latest series of Top Boy has been picked up by Netflix. It sees new cast members join the old ones and a whole bunch of recognisable London filming locations.

It's returned after six years and is all about life in London for young people. There's a lot of drugs and references to gang culture – but Top Boy nails complex issues without judgement or glorifying them.

Find every single Netflix original on the site right now here.

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