Pubity followers were asked to rate their favourite ever Netflix original shows – and which made the top eight might surprise you.
Streaming service Netflix has been a part of our viewing habits for years now, and it has gained a reputation for bringing viewers some of the freshest and most innovative shows available today.
While the service has a huge archive of shows from recent decades from across the globe, it is the new shows it has made itself that often gain the most streams – and interest on social media.
So when Pubity asked its Instagram followers to rate their favourite original Netflix shows in a ‘You Decide’ knockout tournament, the interest was huge. Here are what made the top eight from the 32 shows that started out.
Winner – Stranger Things
The sci-fi drama set in the 80s is set to return later this month for its hugely anticipate fifth and final season. Set in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana, the show focuses on the lives of teenagers in the town whose world is thrown into turmoil when a young girl with psychokinetic abilities opens a portal between this world and another dimension known as the Upside Down. Chaos and horror ensue.
The show has made people like Millie Bobby Brown and Finn Wolfhard starts, and ensured that its creators, the Duffer Brothers, are two of the most in-demand writers in the business.
Runner-up – You
While psychological drama You didn’t start life on Netflix – it was originally on Lifetime – it moved there in time for its second season. You followed the story of bookstore owner Joe Goldberg, who is also a serial killer who tends to develop extreme obsessions with the objects of his affections.
Each season is distinct from the previous as Joe tends to move around to escape his past. You’s fifth and final season ran earlier this year.
Semi-finalists – Squid Game and Lupin
Korean drama Squid Game was a phenomenon when it dropped on Netflix in September 2021. The series revolves around a secret contest where 456 players, all of whom are in deep financial hardship, risk their lives to play a series of children’s games that result in death if eliminated, for the chance to win a huge cash prize.
Two more seasons followed that continued the story of Seong Gi-hun (player 456), where he returns to the Squid Game to try and bring down the shadowy figure behind it.
Meanwhile Lupin, a French mystery thriller series, has only screened 15 episodes since it debuted in 2021 but has clearly made a big impression on viewers.
It follows the story of professional thief Assane Diop and his mission to gain revenge on a wealthy man who framed his father for stealing a necklace – and who later died in prison. Later parts also focus on his attempts to find his kidnapped son, and the theft of priceless jewellery.
A fourth part of Lupin is set to air early next year.
Quarter-finalists: Sex Education, The Night Agent, Wednesday and Money Heist
Sex Education was a teen comedy that ran from 2019-23 over four seasons. It focused on the lives of various teens and adults in the fictional town of Moordale as they contend with various personal dilemmas, often sex related. It starred Gillian Anderson and helped catapult Ncuti Gatwa to stardom.
Action thriller series The Night Agent was an instant hit when the first season dropped in 2023, becoming Netflix’s sixth most watched show within a month of its release. It focuses on FBI agent Peter Sutherland, who investigates a conspiracy about a mole at the highest levels of the US government. To save the nation, he hunts for the traitor.
Wednesday has become one of Netflix’s most watched shows, following the further adventures of the daughter of the Addams family in her teenage years at a new school. As well as navigating that, she tries to solve a murder mystery. Jenna Ortega stars as Wednesday, and it helped catapult Emma Myers, who plays her friend Enid, to stardom.
Money Heist is a Spanish crime thriller, which originally ran on Spanish TV in 2017. It gained a wider audience when Netflix acquired the global streaming rights. Netflix also commissioned a third, fourth and fifth season of the drama – it had originally been planned as a two-part limited series.
