At the end of the decade, Netflix is an undeniable powerhouse in television series production. The streaming giant that changed the entire distribution model of the entertainment landscape also helped usher in the so-called new Golden Age of TV by giving a new platform to some of the biggest and most inventive creative talents in the industry, taking away the rules and restrictions, and throwing their inexplicably vast arsenal of money at them.
And in 2019, Netflix had one of their biggest years yet on the TV side. going toe-to-toe with HBO at the Emmys in wins and nominations (though HBO ultimately won both this year), and dominating the Golden Globe nominations in both TV and film -- the first year Netflix outpaced the studios at the starry awards show, a sign that the streamer's ever-growing film presence is finally catching up with its prestige TV.
And what a lineup they had in 2019. The best series of the year ranged from returning awards favorites like GLOW, The Crown, and Stranger Things; a second season of David Fincher's serial killer drama Mindhunter, which somehow managed to be more Fincher-esque than ever; a feat of technical wizardry with the puppetry epic The Dark Crystal: Rise of the Resistance; inventive new genre-hybrid half-hour comedies like Russian Doll and Living with Yourself; the sketch comedy glory of I Think You Should Leave; and gone-too-soon oddballs like Santa Clarita Diet and Brit Marling's baffling but soulful The OA.
With that in mind, we polled the Collider.com staff for the 15 best Netflix series of the year, submitted our votes, and here's what came back. (Editor's Note: Unfortunately the article was written before the mad delights of The Witcher were launched.)
15. The Crown
It feels like The Crown completely came into its own with the arrival of Season 3 in November. Featuring a new cast of characters led by recent Oscar-winner Olivia Colman, Helena Bonham Carter, Tobias Menzies, and Ben Daniels, The Crown Season 3 took us from the 1960s to the late '70s as the role between the British monarchy and its subjects rapidly evolved. Even though an older, wiser Queen Elizabeth II (Colman) was seemingly more settled in her role as the calm, cool, collected symbolic head of state, there was no shortage of familial strife or drama. As Elizabeth's eldest, Prince Charles (Josh O'Connor), found his footing as a royal figure while learning how to deal with the responsibilities of the crown, it was Princess Margaret (Bonham Carter) who remained a magnet for romantic drama as her marriage to Lord Snowdon (Daniels) fell apart.
The sumptuousness of The Crown remained firmly intact, with all 10 episodes of the season allowing for some much-needed escapism as the year wound down. Every single one of the new cast members — but especially Colman and O'Connor — came to play this season and turned in riveting performances as fictionalized versions of the royal family. It was also a devilish delight to see events from more recent history play out onscreen, as Charles' early romance with Camilla Shand (later Parker-Bowles) unfurled across the screen while Elizabeth II enjoyed her settled, somewhat easier alliance with Prince Phillip (Menzies) — somehow 50% more crotchety and yet still a boss?! — and Margaret explored a new romance as she drifted from Snowdon. All of it was damn good fun and sets up what will no doubt be an exciting Season 4. -- Allie Gemmill
14. The Umbrella Academy
Based on the popular and award-winning Dark Horse Comics graphic novels created and written by Gerard Way (the frontman of the band My Chemical Romance) and illustrated by Gabriel Bá, the Netflix series The Umbrella Academy follows the “children” of Sir Reginald Hargreeves (Colm Feore), a billionaire industrialist who adopts seven of the 43 infants inexplicably born on the same day in 1989 to random women who showed no signs of pregnancy the day before. While they’ve been prepared to save the world, things are never that easy, and now that the impending apocalypse is very real, Luther (Tom Hopper), Diego (David Castañeda), Allison (Emmy Raver-Lampman), Klaus (Robert Sheehan), Vanya (Ellen Page) and Number Five (Aidan Gallagher) must get over their own family drama, if they have any chance of stopping global destruction.
And overcoming family drama is easier said than done. At times wacky and wild, twisted and gruesome, funny and romantic, and always unpredictable, the series has some excellent dance numbers, a chimpanzee butler with a British accent named Pogo, an adoptive robot mother, a fascinating pair of assassins, and plenty of time travel. It also has a huge cliffhanger ending that will make any viewer grateful that a second season is coming, and will be released in 2020. – Christina Radish
13. Unbelievable
Netflix original series Unbelievable is, well, nothing short of incredible. There is a damn good reason series leads Toni Collette, Merritt Wever, and Kaitlyn Dever were nominated for Emmys for their work on this heartbreaking, timely, incisive, and horrifying series from showrunners Susannah Grant, Michael Chabon, and Ayelet Waldman. Based on an actual case, Unbelievable begins with the rape of Marie Adler (Dever), a young adult on her own for the first time. In an unnerving rendering on the legal system's approach to cases of sexual assault and rape, Marie is mistreated, doubted, and bullied at every turn by the investigators handling her case and her lawyer, who would rather get Marie to recant her testimony the minute her story seems shaky rather than believe her. Eventually, Marie's case is picked up by kick-ass detectives Grace Rasmussen (Collette) and Karen Duvall (Wever), who team up across county lines to find a serial rapist who is seemingly uncatchable.
Unbelievable is not only a deeply affecting drama but it is sharply written, wonderfully acted, and is one of the best explorations, for worse and sometimes better, of a very real experience many women face to this day. There is empathy at the right time for those characters in need of it and zero punches are pulled when holding another character's feet to the fire or when the series seeks out answers to the tough questions. Unbelievable will make you think, make you cry, and stay with you long after the credits have rolled but trust me, it's worth the watch. -- Allie Gammill
12. The OA
RIP Brit Marling and Zal Batmanglij's far-too-short-lived fantasy series, which combined baffling batshit fantasy with honest-to-god spiritually moving existential ideas in one of the most bizarre creative power moves in TV history. May The OA ever rest in peace. Because I sure as hell will not. Netflix canceled this emotionally gonzo masterpiece after two seasons, and if Season 1 was compulsive if occasionally infuriating viewing, Season 2 was an immensely satisfying hard turn into fantasy and innovation that never once played it safe. The OA Season 2 was going to end up on my best-of-the-year lists the moment it trotted out a shockingly horny telepathic octopus, but its constant determination to combine grace with freak-flag-flying insanity made me fall face-plant, head-over-heels in love. -- Haleigh Foutch
11. Santa Clarita Diet
I'm still miffed as heck we won't be getting another season of Santa Clarita Diet (why, Netflix?!) but I'm happy I got to enjoy one final ride with Season 3. Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant were, without a doubt, the MVPs of the show as married high school sweethearts Sheila and Joel Hammond. By the time we got to Season 3 this year, we'd seen Sheila be turned into a zombie after eating mutated shellfish and Joel happily (almost too happily, TBH) go along for the ride as he helped her retain some of her humanity while helping her find some satisfactory (read: human) food. These actors have Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn-levels of onscreen chemistry, so watching them bounce off one another and banter while working with a seriously smart script and some clever twists on the zombie genre made Santa Clarita Diet feel so fresh and fun. Sheila may be a member of the undead but this show, which was canceled well before it needed to be, was very much alive. -- Allie Gemmill
10. Black Mirror
The fifth season of the dark sci-fi series, Black Mirror, will not likely be remembered as favorably as seasons past. Only three episodes, Charlie Booker told tales of virtual reality’s threat to real human experience, extreme guilt, and the tremendous burden of fame. The standouts this year were Andrew Scott’s manic and unstable performance as a driver for a fictitious ride-sharing app, and the wild Miley Cyrus episode. The former features Scott’s character wrestling with what he’s done, who he blames, and how he attempts to right that wrong. The former features Scott’s character wrestling with what he’s done, who he blames, and how he attempts to right that wrong. It’s been a big year for the Irish actor, who wowed as the lead in A Dark Place and then earned a Golden Globe nod for his “Hot Priest” role in Fleabag. He’s in top form here—his performance as emotionally affecting as we’ve seen in the show. Cyrus’ episode, called “Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too,” was the most buzzed-about. Not only does it tap into the idolatry of celebrity in Western culture, but it exposes the sometimes hellish reality of pop stardom—that utter blackness simmering behind the veil of an ostensibly impeccable life. And yet, this one provides one of the series’ more hopeful resolutions. -- Brendan Michael
9. Living with Yourself
It may seem like lighter fare, but this new dramedy series starring Paul Rudd and Paul Rudd has more depth than meets the eye. With brief episodes running under thirty minutes, Living with Yourself tells the tale of Miles, a man stuck in a rut trying to better himself. So he does what any clear-headed 40-something guy does: he pays $50,000 to a massage parlor in the hopes of lifting his spirits… because a guy he works with did it, and it helped him. Unfortunately, the result is a bit more complicated when Miles is cloned and now has to, as the title suggests, live with himself when the clone version has nowhere else to go. And this clone version is better than Miles in every way. Funny and darker than you’d expect, this is one that will suck you in and tempt you to finish in one weekend (it’s only eight episodes). It’s also got something to say about marriage and what makes us who we are, easily making it one of Netflix’s most binge-worthy new series of 2019. -- Brendan Michael
8. The Dark Crystal
Hup! First thing's first, I would positively die for Hup, the stalwart podling who was last-minute usurped by Baby Yoda as the year's cutest puppet. But more importantly, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is a knockout one-of-a-kind series that features some of the most impressive, staggering technical accomplishments of the year with this in-camera puppet epic, built on resplendent, detailed sets, with a goldmine of creature creations. But it is also truly a high fantasy epic filled with rich mythology that ambitiously grows from the already compelling world-building in Jim Henson and Frank Oz's beloved 1982 film, with some of the best court politicking, betrayal and redemptive arcs this side of Game of Thrones. It also features an absolutely bananas voice cast including Jason Isaacs, Mark Hamill, Anya Taylor Joy, Taron Egerton, Keegan Michael Key, Simon Pegg and Nathalie Emmanuel, just to name a few, not to mention the artful physical work of their puppeteer counterparts-- Haleigh Foutch
7. Big Mouth
Big Mouth continues to be the greatest show on Netflix about horny, confused children. The third season of the animated comedy from creators Nick Kroll,Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett continues to tackle the most awkward period in everyone’s lives with a mix of sincerity and absurdity. Which is appropriate, because “sincerely absurd” is kind of what it feels like to go through puberty. Kroll and the rest of the main cast - John Mulaney, Jessi Klein, Jenny Slate, and Jason Mantzoukis - handle the volatile emotions of pre-teens admirably. And the show offers up a brand new set of musical numbers, including a truly hilarious song about Florida that is one of my favorite moments of the entire season. Netflix recently greenlit Big Mouth for three more seasons, which is honestly the best news I’ve heard in the past six months. The only negative thing I can say about the show is that I wish it had existed back when I was in middle school. -- Tom Reimann
6. GLOW
GLOW is one of the best and most consistently entertaining shows on television, and I’ll be sad when its fourth and final season brings the series to a close. Especially since Season 3 proves this show is still going strong. This third batch of episodes moved the action to Las Vegas, and the act of forcing the characters to all live with one another ratcheted up the drama and comedy equally. At heart, this series is really an exploration of what it means to be a woman, especially living in a predominantly male world, and I’m consistently enthralled by the myriad of avenues of femininity that this show explores. But on top of all that it’s just supremely entertaining, anchored by two of the best performances on all of TV courtesy of Betty Gilpin and Alison Brie. -- Adam Chitwood
5. When They See Us
From creator/co-writer/director Ava DuVernay, the four-part Netflix limited series When They See Us chronicles the notorious case of the five teenagers of color from Harlem – Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise – who became labeled the Central Park Five, after being accused of a violent rape in New York in the spring of 1989. After being questioned as teenagers and pressured to confess, they were convicted and sentenced and served between 6 and 13 years in prison before their exoneration in 2002.
Watching their journey feels like a punch to the gut, and your heart will break while you’re a sobbing mess who’s angry at the injustice of it all, but you’ll still manage to come out the other side, inspired and with a sense of hope. What these men went through when they were still just boys is unconscionable, and the fact that they are a beacon of light today, now known as The Exonerated 5, is truly a miracle, but they went through it and even though it is, at times, painful to watch, it’s also important to witness and understand. They are not the first, last or only individuals wrongly accused and convicted, and their story is still so relevant today.
While all of the performances are excellent, the work that Jharrel Jerome did to embody Korey Wise over a 12-year span of time and carrying an entire episode on his own is truly remarkable. It’s a haunting performance that is painful to watch, especially as you think about what it must have been like for Wise to endure in real life, which is what makes it necessary viewing. What DuVernay did with When They See Us was put together a beautiful piece that does the men and their story justice. – Christina Radish
4. Stranger Things
The third season of Stranger Things was the show’s best yet. After a somewhat mixed Season 2, this year it felt like the show really dug into the interior lives of the characters, and the addition of the mall as a central location was a stroke of genius. But even just the construction of the season really paid off in a big way. It kept building and building, getting better and better as it approached the grand, epic finale that benefitted from an “upstairs/downstairs” storyline that had two major pieces of action happening simultaneously, putting our characters in grave danger. It also just looked super cool. – Adam Chitwood
3. Russian Doll
Netflix's Russian Doll quenched our thirst early in the year for a great show that not only entertained but gave us something to chew on. With my husky-voiced femme of choice Natasha Lyonne leading the way, Russian Doll quickly revealed it wasn't interested in playing by the rules of the "day-on-repeat" trope popularized in Groundhog Day. Over the course of eight episodes, we watch Nadia (Lyonne) grapple with being stuck inside of the same night and following morning. It's unclear how Nadia gets stuck in the loop at first and we quickly learn through a serious of genius, madcap montages that Nadia gets to remain in a loop for as long as possible provided she doesn't die. Now, the universe doesn't let her slide so easily and the montages quickly reveal Nadia is accident-prone like nobody's business.
Quickly, the show reveals its hands with the arrival of Alan (Charlie Barnett). Through Alan and Nadia, who seem to be the only two people stuck in this looped hellscape, Russian Doll becomes an exploration of the psychological imprints left by our traumas and how we are shaped by small moments we don't realize are, at the time, actually quite life-changing. Lyonne and Barnett's performances are simply electrifying, with the former bringing a vividly manic energy to the screen and the latter bringing a sensitive shyness, which together melded perfectly into one wonderful relationship. Watching Russian Doll moves through the tonal highs and lows of its story felt like such a treat and it's enigmatic, deeply symbolic ending leaves the story is a very interesting place for its forthcoming Season 2. -- Allie Gemmill
2. I Think You Should Leave
There is perhaps no 2019 television show whose language has permeated our cultural lexicon more than Tim Robinson’s sketch fever dream I Think You Should Leave. To enter this specific world, disseminated smartly in bite-sized less-than-20-minute episodes, is to give yourself over wholly to the screaming, indignant, scrambled, and fundamentally pathetic humans generating the wild premises of the show. While Robinson was able to sneak in some of his voice as a cast member and writer on Saturday Night Live, and showed us a purer version on Comedy Central’s perfect Detroiters (with co-star Sam Richardson, who returns here in several key roles, including the funniest A Christmas Carol parody I’ve ever seen), I Think You Should Leave feels like Robinson off the leash, and I never want him to put one on again.
And even though Robinson’s characters luxuriate in their own buffoonish screaming, the season’s three MVPs feature generous gifts to other performers. One: Vanessa Bayer in the brilliant Instagram/brunch culture-skewering sketch (Robinson ain’t even in it!). Two: Will Forte in the unreal revenge-gone-wrong airplane sketch. And three, of course: “You have no good car ideas,” with our single greatest comedy performance of 2019 courtesy of Ruben Rabasa. All of these sketches and more feature such peculiar turns of phrases and points of view, and all have been absorbed by those who inhaled the series -- the sign of a great comedy made for the masses without sanitizing its specificities. -- Gregory Lawrence
1. Mindhunter
In season 2 of Mindhunter, the screws were tightened, the procedures and protocols were bent to their near-breaking point, and constants we thought we knew about the characters were flummoxed -- all amidst the real-life tragedy of the Atlanta Child Murders, a case that shoved Mindhunter’s usually subtle didacticism screaming necessarily into the forefront. The show’s more surface-level pleasures continued and evolved from season 1. It continued to be one of the most handsomely shot and constructed shows on TV, continued to ratchet up nearly unbearable levels of suspense and tension with nothing but dialogue, and had sterling performances from its locked-the-hell-in ensemble. But I’ll remember Mindhunter’s second season primarily as a “walls caving in” season, collapsing the central beliefs and tropes of its characters to incisive, enthralling results.
The season criticizes each core member directly: Holden’s (Jonathan Groff) “smug jerk who gets results” schtick, a TV detective trope we’ve seen a ton before, reaches the breaking point of acceptability for many of his colleagues. Tench’s (Holt McCallany) “separating work from home” philosophies are no longer sustainable when his son is involved in something truly horrific. And Wendy’s (Anna Torv) “theoretical brilliance” seems to suffer when thrown into anything resembling the real world. Can we please have season 3 already? -- Gregory Lawrence
