The year is half over, but there’s already enough great content out there to justify a “best of” list.
That’s especially true for Netflix, which continues its reign as the most popular streaming service in the world thanks to past hits like Stranger Things and Squid Game, as well as current successful series like Outer Banks and The Gentlemen.
Watch With Us looks back at the last seven months and ranks the 5 best Netflix shows of 2026 so far.
From a thriller about a religious cult to a dramatization of a terrorist attack, these shows stood out from the pack and represent the best Netflix has to offer.
5. ‘Unchosen’
Nothing’s perfect in the “Fellowship of the Divine,” a cult-like religious sect at the heart of the series Unchosen, but it’s better than the “unchosen” modern world all of their members shun. That’s what Rosie tells herself, even as she endures an abusive marriage to Adam (Asa Butterfield). But when handsome stranger Sam (Fra Free) seeks refuge in their community, Rosie’s life takes a turn for the better — at least for a little while. But Sam’s true nature begins to emerge, and it could break the Fellowship apart for good.
Unchosen is a terrific thriller that’s rooted in fact. There really are religious communities like the Fellowship in England, and they’re almost as strict and intimidating. The key to Unfollow’s success is that most of its characters aren’t completely good or bad — they all exist in moral shades of grey, which makes it complicated to really root for or dislike any of them.
4. ‘The Bombing of Pan Am 103’
On December 21, 1988, the unthinkable happened — a Pan Am 103 commercial jet exploded over the small town of Lockerbie, Scotland. 207 lives were lost, and the chaos and confusion afterward sparked an investigation that’s still talked about today.
What makes The Bombing of Pan Am 103 such a compelling TV show is how undramatic it is. Whereas most shows would dial up the melodrama, this series simply presents the events as they happened – and the painstaking investigation that was launched to determine the cause of the explosion and who, if anyone, was responsible. Sex Education’s Connor Swindells and Suits’ Patrick J. Adams lead a stellar international cast, but this is the kind of show where the actors fade into the background. The story is the star, and it’s what makes The Bombing of Pan Am 103 one of the best Netflix shows of 2026.
3. ‘The Boroughs’
Sam (Alfred Molina) doesn’t want to live in the Boroughs, an exclusive retirement community in New Mexico, but he doesn’t really have a choice. Recently widowed, he has nowhere else to go; besides, the down payment is non-refundable. While he befriends his neighbors like the bohemian Renee (Geena Davis) and the hippie Judy (Alfre Woodard), he still feels a little out of place — and kinda creeped out. There’s a good reason why Sam is unsettled — strange creatures are stalking the neighborhood, and some neighbors are leaving in coffins. Can Sam get to the bottom of the mystery before he becomes the next victim?
Despite The Boroughs debuting to good critical reviews and relatively strong ratings, Netflix canceled the series before it had a chance to really catch on with the public. That’s a shame, as the show, which was executive-produced by the Duffer Brothers, is a reminder of what made Stranger Things such a pop culture phenomenon in the first place. It blends the paranormal with ordinary tales of older people getting on in life, with a fantastic cast of vets that includes Bill Pullman, Denis O’Hare, Mary McDonnell and Jane Kaczmarek. The Boroughs also weaves an intriguing sci-fi mystery that is truly binge-worthy — it’s hard to stop watching and makes you wish there’s more of it to consume.
2. ‘Little House on the Prairie’
Some shows should never be remade, and there are others that can’t be redone for a modern audience. Then there’s Little House on the Prairie, which falls into both categories. Or at least so I thought until I streamed Netflix’s surprisingly lively and topical reimagining, which somehow preserves the innocence of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s original 1930s novels while adding a modern touch to a very American story.
Part sweet family drama, part sweeping origin story of the American heartland, Little House chronicles the Ingalls family — sisters Laura (Alice Halsey) and Mary (Skywalker Hughes), mother Caroline (Crosby Fitzgerald) and beloved patriarch Pa (Luke Bracey) — as they try to make a new home in Kansas in 19th-century America. Facing harsh weather conditions and an Osage community that doesn’t like people stealing their land, the Ingalls family’s prairie life is far from ideal, but what makes it all worth it is the loving bond they all share. The series does a good job of reimagining what American frontier life must have looked and felt like, while also telling simple yet absorbing stories of survival and overcoming impossible odds.
1. ‘My Brilliant Career’
Netflix’s best show of 2026 so far is a radical reimagining of a novel a lot of other people don’t know exists. Published in 1901, My Brilliant Career was written by an Australian teenager who wanted to show her feminist ideas way before that term was even widely known. That youthful energy and chafing against a rigid society take center stage in the Netflix adaptation, which is faithful to the novel’s time period but also manages to feel vital and current.
Sybylla (Philippa Northeast) is young enough to still dream about the life she wants to lead — as a free-thinking writer — but old enough for her family to begin pressuring her to marry the right fellow before it’s too late. That’s partly why she’s sent to her rich grandmother’s estate, where she’s taught to be the right kind of lady to appeal to an upper-class suitor. Sybylla wants to focus on her writing, but she can’t help but notice the swoon-worthy Harry Beecham (Christopher Chung) and the brooding Englishman Frank Hawden (Jake Dunn). In a time when electricity and indoor plumbing are radical new inventions, can the forward-thinking Sybylla break conventions and have it all?
Like Sofia Coppola’s idiosyncratic 2006 film Marie Antoinette, My Brilliant Career is a period drama punctuated with anachronistic flourishes, like cover versions of pop hits “Atomic,” “Horses” and “Scarborough Fair.” That gives it an edge most nearly 20th-century-set shows lack, while also explicitly connecting it to the present day. More importantly, the show displays some impressive production design (you really believe it’s set in turn-of-the-century Australia) and a stellar lead performance by Northeast, who makes Sybylla a complex heroine who thinks she has it all figured out but finds out she still has a lot to learn. This is a fun, thought-provoking show, and it shows Netflix is capable of more than just releasing another season of Virgin River.
