10 Netflix Shows Without A Single Bad Season

We all know that making a television show is hard work, let alone one that can strike a chord with audiences and critics alike. It’s also hard for a series to maintain a consistent level of quality from beginning to end, no matter how popular a show is at its peak. This remains especially true of the streaming era, with so many shows trying to stand out from an abundance of content. Even Netflix’s best original series of all time aren’t exempt from this. After all, is anyone rushing to defend “Stranger Things” Season 5?

But there are a handful of Netflix series that managed to pull off a solid run from top-to-bottom. While some seasons may inevitably be better than others, the shows we’re highlighting here maintain an overall consistent air of quality that keeps us invested in the whole ride. For the purposes of this list, we’re only including Netflix originals that have wrapped, though some of these legacies have lived on through spin-offs and sequel series. Here are 10 Netflix shows without a single bad season, all thoroughly enjoyable for the entirety of their respective runs.

BoJack Horseman

From “F Is for Family” to “Big Mouth,” Netflix has produced an impressive and growing line of adult animated comedies. That said, the show that’s far and away the best of the bunch is “BoJack Horseman,” which debuted in 2014 and ran for six seasons. The show starts out as a satire of life in Hollywood and faded glory days, albeit through the context of a world populated by anthropomorphic animals. However, as has-been sitcom star BoJack (Will Arnett) begins to descend into self-destructive vices, the tragedy and drama of his and the other characters’ lives comes into sharp focus.

There’s a strong argument to be made that “BoJack Horseman” is one of the best TV shows of the 21st century, largely because of how it evolves. With six seasons’ of real estate, the series not only gets us invested in its eclectic cast, but makes its dramatic shift feel all the more earned and natural. The gags keep coming, but there is an increasing melancholia as the characters’ cavalier ways catch up to them. A show guaranteed to leave you in tears, but also find the humor in life’s idiosyncrasies, “BoJack Horseman” is a modern masterpiece.

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

After helming the acclaimed network sitcom “30 Rock,” Tina Fey teamed up with collaborator Robert Carlock to create their first streaming series, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” Ellie Kemper, who was fresh off starring on “The Office,” plays the wide-eyed titular protagonist. Kemper is joined by an absolute murderers’ row of comedic talent, including Carol Kane, Jane Krakowski, and Tituss Burgess. This talented ensemble fills out the story of sequestered young woman, Kimmy Schmidt, finding herself in New York City after being rescued from a doomsday cult.

In developing a show for a streaming platform rather than network television, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” was able to double down on the absurdist comedy present in “30 Rock.” Like Fey and Carlock’s preceding sitcom, the gags come in fast and furiously, populating each conversation with numerous punchlines. Even the “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” interactive special retains the series’ quality across its branching paths, though it has since been delisted. Retaining Fey and Carlock’s penchant for rapid-fire verbal comedy with an exceptional cast, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” keeps the laughs coming across its four-season run.

Narcos

While he might be better known for starring in “The Last of Us” these days, “Narcos” is one of the best Pedro Pascal TV shows. Premiering in 2015, Pascal stars as Javier Peña, a DEA agent working alongside Steve Murphy (Boyd Holbrook) in Colombia in the ’80s. The duo leads their team against the cartels as part of the United States’ war on drugs, initially against Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura). While the broad strokes of the real-life story are retained, this dramatization is considerably more action-packed, veering into crime thriller territory.

Running for three seasons, “Narcos” maintains its intensity across the series, even after Escobar’s inevitable downfall at the end of Season 2. A lot of that appeal comes down to the strength of its lead actors, even though Pascal is the only one of the three to remain for the entire run. The show’s spin-off, “Narcos: Mexico,” similarly keeps its quality consistent throughout, but the original series just hits different and better. A high-octane thrill ride buoyed by chemistry between Pascal and Holbrook, with Moura delivering a star-making performance, “Narcos” is a great Netflix show nobody talks about anymore.

The Crown

One of the most lavishly ambitious British Netflix original series is “The Crown,” which ran for six seasons from 2016 to 2023. The show centers on the lives of Queen Elizabeth II and Philip Mountbatten, and their subsequent family across the 20th century. What makes the series and its inclusion here all the more impressive is that every season covers a number of years within a given generation. This is illustrated by a rotating ensemble cast as the main characters grow older, culminating in “The Crown” series finale as Elizabeth faces her own mortality.

“The Crown” doesn’t spare its royal figures in depicting the scandals and indiscretions that rocked the family in the public eye, fueling much of the melodrama. But what keeps the show grounded is its multi-generational scope, always placing Elizabeth in the focus, no matter what her children and the country around her get into. It helps tremendously that the series is immaculately cast, particularly when it comes to the casting of Elizabeth, as Claire Foy, Olivia Colman, and Imelda Staunton each do marvelous work. The ultimate British period piece drama on Netflix, “The Crown” delves deeply into the goings-on at Buckingham Palace while retaining complex emotional stakes.

Castlevania

If there was ever evidence that video game adaptations in film and television have overcome their shoddy reputation, “Castlevania” deftly dispels the notion. Adapting Konami’s long-running video game franchise of the same name, the animated series follows a hearty band of vampire hunters in 15th century Transylvania. Leading this ensemble is Trevor Belmont (Richard Armitage), who sets his sights on Dracula (Graham McTavish) and his monstrous associates. The series doesn’t pull any punches with its sex and violence, maintaining its deliriously gory carnage for all four seasons.

“Castlevania” is one of the best gothic horror TV shows, taking advantage of its atmospheric premise and period piece setting. Each season steadily ups the ante, growing into a full-on war against a vampiric council plotting to subjugate humanity with sanguine intensity. The series has since received a sequel series in “Castlevania: Nocturne,” chronicling the adventures of Trevor and Sypha’s ancestor, Richter Belmont, with similarly consistent quality. Easily one of the best Netflix original animated series, “Castlevania” is a gleefully gruesome translation of the video games.

Ozark

Just like “The Sopranos” and “Breaking Bad” before it, organized crime turns into a family affair in the 2017 series “Ozark.” The show centers on Marty (Jason Bateman) and Wendy Byrde (Laura Linney), a married couple laundering money for the cartel while in rural Missouri. This places them at odds with local crime syndicates, which informs the major conflicts throughout the series. These conflicts rapidly dial up the show’s tension, paying off in plot twists that remind viewers that no one in the story is truly safe.

Like “Breaking Bad,” “Ozark” is the story of a domestic crime empire’s steady rise, but there’s something darker and messier about this narrative. Bateman and Linney both deliver some of the best performances of their careers, and certainly the most morally complex as two crooks who grow bolder and more desperate. This is matched by Julia Garner’s role as Ruth Langmore, imbuing every scene that she’s in with volatile unpredictability. A crime thriller that becomes more tautly staged and viciously surprising as it progresses, “Ozark” is a four-season crime saga done right.

Mindhunter

Filmmaker David Fincher helmed “Mindhunter,” one of the best crime shows streaming on Netflix, as executive producer, showrunner, and occasional director. Created by Joe Penhall, the show depicts the early days of psychological criminal profiling by the FBI in ’70s and ’80s. Leading this tour into the true crime heart of darkness are agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany), interviewing notorious serial killers of the era. Given the premise, the series falls right into Fincher’s dark thriller wheelhouse, with the added benefit of having two seasons to weave a comprehensive tale.

If fans are still clamoring for more “Mindhunter” three years after the series officially died at Netflix, the series definitely did something right. The cast and crew were able to craft a hauntingly evocative world full of twisted figures and those brave enough to face them head-on, drawing viewers in. This only increases in the second season, as Ford and Tench put what they’ve learned to the test as they hunt for serial killers on the loose. Mixing psychological thriller suspense with true crime trappings, “Mindhunter” is one of the most cinematically staged crime shows ever made.

What is easily one of the best sci-fi shows streaming on Netflix, and yet not as widely recognized as “Stranger Things,” is the German series “Dark.” Debuting in 2017, the show follows a group of families in a small European town across multiple time periods, with each generation experiencing the disappearance of a child. As the characters investigate, they discover a time-bending mystery of apocalyptic proportions linked to a strange cave on the outskirts of town. This tightly crafted tale unfolds across three seasons, maintaining its tense and ominous tone from beginning to end.

Keeping in mind that several actors are playing the same characters at different ages, “Dark” is particularly well-cast in bringing its saga to life. The show also tackles the complexities of a story involving time travel perfectly, with clues and allusions early on consistently paying off in rewarding ways as the show continues. These elements provide audiences with a compelling mystery with sinister undertones that keeps viewers at the edge of their seat for the whole ride. One of the finest Netflix originals to come out of Europe, “Dark” is a series that definitely lives up to the hype.

Dead to Me

The final on-screen performance from Christina Applegate before her retirement from acting was in the 2019 dramedy “Dead to Me.” Running for three seasons, Applegate stars as Jen Harding, a woman whose husband was killed by a drunk driver, with the case remaining unsolved. The show opens with Jen befriending Judy Hale (Linda Cardellini) who, unbeknownst to her, is the driver who killed her spouse. The story follows Jen’s life as it unravels while she gets closer to the truth about what actually happened to her husband.

While Applegate’s retirement from the industry due to her multiple sclerosis diagnosis is utterly heartbreaking, she ends with the best performance she has delivered on-screen. Jen’s downward spiral and complicated friendship with Judy keeps audiences just as off-balance as the show’s protagonist. Cardellini is reliably good as Judy, finding nuanced sympathy in her fundamentally flawed character, with those nuances only growing more complex as the show continues. A Netflix original that more people need to talk about, “Dead to Me” is an unforgettable ride.

Squid Game

Yes, we know that “Squid Game” may be a bit of a divisive inclusion on this list, given the entire article’s prompt. When the South Korean series, or K-drama, premiered in 2021, it took the whole world by storm with its stylized thriller spectacle and raw emotional stakes. Millions of viewers worldwide tuned in to witness Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) and his peers endure colorfully lethal games for a chance at a fortune. Season 2 subverted expectations, starting out with the familiar contest, before shifting to an open rebellion and different games for its characters to survive.

The final two seasons of “Squid Game” don’t measure up to the shock and awe of Season 1, but it almost seemed an impossible task to follow that up. Now that the series has concluded and expectations have recalibrated, it’s interesting to see how the story progressed, maintaining enough familiar elements while heightening the intensity. Audiences still turned out for the show in its latter seasons, as well, with over 60 million viewers streaming “Squid Game” Season 3 upon its debut. A series doesn’t maintain that staying power if viewers aren’t still invested in it, with “Squid Game” standing as one of the best K-dramas ever made, even beyond Season 1.