2025 has been another year of Netflix greats, as the world’s most-subscribed streaming service continues to build a legacy of prestige television on its platform. Having agreed a deal to buy Warner Bros. earlier in December, in some ways the picture has never been rosier for those at the top of this streaming giant.
But we’re here to talk about top TV shows rather than business dealings, and in this respect Netflix has barnstorming 12 months, too. A lot’s changed in television since this time last year, as is clear from the dramatic differences between this list and the Screen Rant’s best Netflix shows of 2024. Yet, we’ve also had more of the same.
The TV miniseries has had arguably its best year ever, as evidenced by the four very different limited series ranking here. One of Netflix’s biggest shows is wrapping up its final season in spectacular fashion. Police-procedural crime thrillers keep on getting better and better, and Jack Thorne remains as masterful a screenwriter as ever.
Just how strong a year 2025 has been for television is clear from how many of Netflix’s best shows, period, have debuted since January. There are only 10 spots for the best of the best, though, so it’s time to count them down, from the bottom to the very top.
10
Death By Lightning
In Contention To Be Netflix’s Best Historical Drama
It’s not often that slow-burning historical drama about the political machinations around 19th century U.S. presidents become worldwide streaming phenomena. But then, James A. Garfield wasn’t just any 19th century U.S. president, and Death by Lightning isn’t just any Netflix global hit.
It’s an accomplished, beautifully rendered period piece, with exquisite attention to detail and an extraordinary command of its subject matter. More than the formal aspects of the show, however, Death by Lightning is ultimately defined by piercing clarity of its sensitive writing, acting and directing.
9
Stranger Things
Season 5 Is A Worthy Ending
Overall, Stranger Things will go down as one of the best Netflix series of all time, even if the streaming platform continues to dominate television for the next century. Its watertight mystery-box plot, genre-bending approach to the supernatural, innovative retrofuture aesthetic, and crisp production had already secured its place in history before season 5.
Nevertheless, the twist in the tale we’re witnessing in TV’s biggest finish for 2025 still deserves recognition on its own terms. The Stranger Things twist connecting Will to Vecna has already blown millions of minds around the world, and there are no doubt even more dizzying reveals to come from the Upside Down in the series finale.
8
Last Samurai Standing
A Martial Arts Masterpiece
Following the news of Last Samurai Standing’s renewal by Netflix, there’s a serious possibility that this Japanese action thriller is going to become the greatest samurai TV series of all time. Chock full of breathtaking choreography and genuinely suspenseful fight sequences, the show is everything we could wish for from this celebrated subgenre.
Even more impressively, Last Samurai Standing is a gripping story anchored by a relatable central hero, whose journey is fraught with real peril. It’s worth noting, too, that the series carries off its Meiji-era period setting with aplomb. It’s virtually flawless across the board.
7
Toxic Town
Emoting The Pain Of A Horrifying True-Story Tragedy
The first of two Jack Thorne miniseries on this list, Toxic Town tells the true story of the Corby waste case in the English Midlands. Fronted by stunning performances from Jodie Whittaker and Aimee Lou Wood, the show provokes just as much horror and anger as it does tears.
Each of its four episodes deliver gut-punches aplenty to bring home the danger of bureaucratic mismanagement when public interests are doled out to the highest bidder, in the name of private profit. As tragic and harrowing as much of the series is, however, it’s fundamentally a heroic story of ordinary people coming together and fighting to the bitter end.
6
Forever
One Of Netflix’s Great Love Stories
Netflix’s Judy Blume novel adaptation Forever deservedly won critical plaudits this year, but it’s still a hidden gem yet to be discovered by most subscribers to the streaming platform. Blume’s original story was already a profoundly original exploration of teenage romance and sexuality, but this modernization brings fresh relevance to its plot.
Forever is at once forward-thinking and nostalgic, touching and philosophical, deep and accessible. Like Sex Education before it, the show brings the innocence of adolescent first-love fantasies into the age of prestige television. Long may it continue.
5
Dept. Q
The Crime Thriller Of The Year
Image via Netflix
This British crime drama is the best of a terrific bunch of police-procedurals to have been released on the small screen this year, from HBO’s Task to FX’s The Lowdown. It provides action, suspense, and blindsiding plot twists in abundance, standing apart from the crowd by doing the fundamentals of the genre better than anything else.
Dept. Q’s sublime ending to season 1 makes the entirety of the show worthwhile in itself, but there’s so much to enjoy before you get there. Matthew Goode and Jamie Sives are exceptional playing two detective inspectors working on an especially tricky case, which was dreamed up by one of Nordic noir’s finest fiction writers, Jussi Adler-Olsen.
4
Boots
Searingly Original & Thoroughly Deserving Of More From Netflix
The news that Netflix has canceled Boots season 2 unfortunately felt as though it was inevitably going to come, but we can still enjoy the show’s first season while it remains on the streaming platform. It’s a funny, challenging, and immensely rewarding comedy-drama about the true story of queer writer Greg Cope White’s time in the U.S. military.
Although the series seemed to have more left to say, it does manage to say plenty across its eight episodes that’s never even been implied before on American television. What’s equally important is that Boots is a hilarious and moving story we can’t help but engage with, which feels as real and authentic as it is groundbreaking.
3
The Diplomat
Season 3 Has Raised The Bar
One of Netflix’s most watched shows in 2025, The Diplomat has upped its already impressive game for season 3, raising the stakes of political intrigue, geopolitical conflict, and personal crisis all at the same time. Keri Russell is better than ever in her iconic role as Ambassador Kate Wyler, while Aidan Turner is a welcome addition to the cast.
Netflix has been crying out for a political thriller like this one since House of Cards nosedived into acrimony, and Debora Cahn’s magnum opus has now delivered the goods like never before. Meanwhile, The Diplomat season 3’s dramatic ending sets up a fourth season which promises to be even bigger – and, quite possibly, even better – than this year’s release.
2
When Life Gives You Tangerines
A Truly Brilliant K-Drama With A Twist
When Life Gives You Tangerines isn’t just the best K-drama of 2025. It’s right up there in the rarefied air of the decade’s best TV shows. It’s a sumptuous tale of sprawling romance set against the real passage of time in the history of its home country. Few TV shows have ever told life like it is as well as this one.
Although it isn’t the first series from Korea to have had a profound impact on popular consciousness globally, it’s the most heartfelt. Based on a true story which Lim Sang-choon has brought to the screen for our benefit, it’s rich in tiny minutiae that are universally recognizable but almost impossible to pin down. Unless you’re an extraordinary writer, that is.
1
Adolescence
An All-Time Great
The themes explored by Adolescence are crucial aspects of the world we live in today, to the extent that the series has been discussed in parliaments and school classrooms around the world. It’s a credit to Stephen Graham, Jack Thorne, Owen Cooper, Erin Doherty, and others that the show’s also as popular as it has been on Netflix throughout this year.
It’s rare that the best TV show on any network or streaming platform is also among the most watched. But such is the significance of Adolescence’s social and artistic impact that these often opposing elements of a TV audience go hand-in-hand in this case. Whatever Netflix releases in 2026, it will struggle to top this generation-defining series.
- founded
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January 16, 2007
- founders
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Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph
