Below are our most recommended TV shows for Netflix Australia. Highly-rated by viewers, critics, and handpicked by our staff, just like every recommendation on agoodmovietowatch.com.
20 Best TV Shows on Netflix Australia
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20.
Rita
You might not have heard of it, but this show was huge in Denmark. I mean, one million people watching in a 5-million-people country huge. Far from being the tasteful Nordic Noir international audiences are used to, Rita revolves around a mid-40s, single mum of three older kids, leather jacket-clad private high school teacher with a big mouth and a heart to go with it. Mille Dinesen plays the titular female lead, who smokes in the school bathrooms and, well, bangs the school principal. But in addition to the rule-bending rebel facing off overprotective parents, know-it-all students, and her growing kids, Rita also deals with serious topics like balancing work and family, being a role model, and abortion, albeit in a hilarious and, well, delightfully Danish way.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Actor: Alexandre Willaume, Carsten Bjørnlund, Carsten Bjornlund, Carsten Norgaard, Charlotte Munck, Elena Arndt-Jensen, Ellen Hillingsø, Ellen Hillingso, Ferdinand Glad Bach, Lise Baastrup, Lotte Andersen, Lykke Sand Michelsen, Mille Dinesen, Morten Vang Simonsen, Nikolaj Groth, Sara Hjort Ditlevsen, Sofie Juul Nielsen, Tessa Hoder, Tommy Kenter
Go to Netflix Australia
19.
The Staircase
The latest addition to the murder mini-series genre is the incredible thriller “The Staircase.” It originally aired in 2004, but the producers took the same director and allowed him to add new episodes in 2018 to complete the story.
The plot: A famous American novelist’s wife is found dead, and he is accused of killing her. His life comes under scrutiny as everyone asks whether she died in an accident or was murdered. If you liked their other hit, “Making a Murderer,” you will love this. You should also definitely check out “The Keepers” or Netflix’s binge-worthy crime documentary, “Evil Genius.”
Genre: Mystery
Actor: Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
Director: Jean-Xavier de Lestrade
18.
Rilakkuma and Kaoru
Meet Rilakkuma, a relaxed teddy bear (which is indeed what his name translates to in Japanese), and Kaoru, a Japanese office worker in her mid-thirties, who lives with said bear as well as a smaller white bear named Korilakkuma and a yellow chick by the name of Kiiroitori. As whimsical as all this may sound, the show offers up endearing and humane life lessons to go with all the heart-warming cuteness as Kaoru navigates being single, her apartment building being demolished, and her job stressing her out. It combines charming stop-motion characters with great writing, adorable animation, and a beautifully quiet tone. You might be surprised at the profundity of a show that, at the surface, is about a Japanese girl with cuddly toy roommates. It's hard to compare it to anything else!
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Drama, Kids
Actor: Abby Trott, Ayano Kinashi, Barbara Goodson, Hitoshi Honma, Issei Takubo, Kana Odaira, Kanako Nishiyama, Mai Kanazawa, Masako Matsuno, Mikako Tabe, Shigeru Sugimoto, Soki Matsumoto, Takayuki Yamada, Veronica Taylor, Yuzuha Kobayashi
Director: Masahito Kobayashi
Go to Netflix Australia
17.
Man Like Mobeen
At first glance, those who enjoyed Hulu's Ramy might be tempted to view this as the UK version of it. However, Man like Mobeen is a bit more street than Ramy and a lot more British. It's also not so much about being a good Muslim. Mobeen (Guz Khan), Eight (Tez Ilyas), and Nate (Tolu Ogunmefun) are three mates from Birmingham. Two of them happen to be Muslim but it's not a big deal. Except it is because of the way Western society sees them. Mobeen, the head of the group, takes care of his sister, Aks (Dúaa Karim), in the absence of his parents, trying to be a good guy, while also trying to escape his past as a drug dealer. In the first episode, a transaction to buy a laptop results in three SWAT teams closing in on them for no reason. (When Nate runs off, the police officer asks the others why he ran, and Mobeen says: “If I had to guess, I'd say it's because he's black.”) Much of Man like Mobeen is laugh-out-loud comedy, but there's a healthy dose of wokeness to be found here, too. Teenage knife crime (in the second season), the rise of right-wing sentiment, and the police's history of violence towards immigrants are effortlessly woven into gags. Very funny!
Genre: Comedy
Actor: Dúaa Karim, Guz Khan, Tez Ilyas, Tolu Ogunmefun
Go to Netflix Australia
16.
The End of the F***ing World
An amazing binge-worthy show that is a mix between a coming-of-age story, a romance, and a crime thriller. It tells the story of James, a 17-year-old who believes he is a psychopath (for some very convincing reasons). James decides he wants the victim of his first murder to be a new schoolmate, Alyssa. He befriends her and keeps waiting for the perfect moment to kill Alyssa until he finds himself on a journey with her to escape her home. Somewhere near the middle of the show, and without you fully realizing it, it transforms from an original coming-of-age story or odd-boy-meets-odd-girl story to an intriguing view on adolescent insecurities and the role of parents into shaping them. It transforms from a mysterious, almost charming story to an interesting character study. This is when the show will blow your mind. It's a fresh, smart, funny yet disturbing emotional thrill ride.
Genre: Mystery, Romance
Actor: Alex Lawther, Christine Bottomley, Eileen Davies, Gemma Whelan, Jayda Mitchell, Jessica Barden, Jonathan Aris, Navin Chowdhry, Steve Oram, Wunmi Mosaku
Go to Netflix Australia
15.
Flowers
It starts off with a man failing at hanging himself from a fruit tree in a bleak-looking garden. Something this grotesque isn't usually the stuff of sitcoms. This is unsurprising because Will Sharpe's Flowers, produced for the British Channel 4, is not your usual sitcom. With a unique visual style, an extraordinary cast, and a dark, satirical script, it carves out a genre of its own. The always amazing Olivia Colman plays Deborah Flowers, the eccentric family's matriarch, and a music teacher. The man trying to hang himself is her depressed and unfaithful husband Maurice (Julian Barratt), who is a children's book author. They live in a ramshackle house with a Japanese butler, who barely speaks English, and their dysfunctional adult twins. Amidst all this glorious mess, Flowers is ultimately about mental illness and depression and is apt in pairing this disturbing reality with hilarity. Obviously, it is very dark. A bit too dark for comedy, and too mad for drama: truly original stuff.
Genre: Comedy
Actor: Adam Hedditch, Anna Chancellor, Caroline McQuade, Daniel Rigby, Harriet Walter, Julian Barratt, Leila Hoffman, Natalie Rose, Olivia Colman, Sassy Soupidis, Sophia Di Martino, Will Sharpe
Director: Mina Maniska
Go to Netflix Australia
14.
Sisters
This is the type of show where you will laugh your ass off in one scene, and then find yourself moved to tears in the next. It’s so heartfelt, so smart, and so, so well-written. The premise of the show is the revelation of a Nobel laureate that he used his own semen in his trailblazing research on fertilization. This prompts his daughter to search for her unknown siblings. She is stuck with two particularly interesting sisters, one of whom is a lawyer who tries to sue their father. One additional plus for me personally is the Australian accent. I love it in a comedy/drama, ever since I watched The Let Down on Netflix.
Genre: Comedy
Actor: Adam Byard, Antonia Prebble, Catherine McClements, Charlie Garber, Craig Barlow, Dan Spielman, Elin Hayes, Lindsay Farris, Lucy Durack, Magda Szubanski, Maria Angelico, Roy Billing, Sean Carlsen, Zindzi Okenyo
Director: Antony Smith, Emmet Cummins
Go to Netflix Australia
13.
Unorthodox
This excellent new miniseries is a drama that takes place in an ultra-Orthodox Jewish family. Esty, a nineteen-year-old girl who is unhappy in her arranged marriage, escapes this community and travels from New York to Berlin in hopes of starting a new life.
Like all good realistic dramas, there are no truly bad people in Unorthodox. Everyone is trying to do what they think is right, which still makes for very complicated situations. Esty is played by Israeli actor Shira Haas and I know this word is overused but she really is a revelation.
Genre: Drama
Actor: Aaron Altaras, Alex Reid, Amit Rahav, Aziz Dyab, David Mandelbaum, Delia Mayer, Dennenesch Zoude, Dina Doronne, Isabel Schosnig, Jeff Wilbusch, Langston Uibel, Ronit Asheri, Safinaz Sattar, Shira Haas, Tamar Amit-Joseph, Yousef Sweid
Go to Netflix Australia
12.
Snabba Cash
Leya is a businesswoman and single mother in her 20s who is trying to get her struggling startup off the ground while working at a restaurant.
When she finds an investor who’s willing to help her realize her dreams, he requests that she first pays off her outstanding debts to her previous investors. For this, she borrows from her brother-in-law who is in a violent drug gang.
It’s such a stylish and fast-paced thriller, based on Jens Lapidus’s famous Stockholm Noir Trilogy, except the gender of the lead role is reversed.
Genre: Crime, Drama
Actor: Evin Ahmad, Olle Sarri
Go to Netflix Australia
11.
The Last Kingdom
This historical fantasy show is based on the best-selling novel The Saxon Stories, a story set during the Viking / Dane invasion of Britain.
Uhtred was a small boy when he was kidnapped and then raised by the Danes. When he unexpectedly gets caught up in the conflict, his half-Saxon half-Dane mix makes at the same time valuable and untrustworthy for both sides.
There has never been a better alternative to Game of Thrones. The great writing and great performances from a cast of newcomers inevitably induce the same sense of addiction.
Genre: Action, History
Actor: Adrian Bower, Adrian Schiller, Alexander Dreymon, Alexandre Willaume, Amy Wren, Arnas Fedaravicius, Brian Vernel, David Dawson, David Schofield, Eliza Butterworth, Emily Cox, Eva Birthistle, Ewan Mitchell, Gerard Kearns, Harry McEntire, Henning Valin Jakobsen, Ian Hart, James Northcote, Jamie Blackley, Joseph Millson, Julia Bache-Wiig, Mark Rowley, Matthew Macfadyen, Millie Brady, Ola Rapace, Peri Baumeister, Peter Gantzler, Rune Temte, Rutger Hauer, Simon Kunz, Stefanie Martini, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Thea Sofie Loch Næss, Thomas Gabrielsson, Thomas W. Gabrielsson, Thure Lindhardt, Timothy Innes, Tobias Santelmann, Toby Regbo
Go to Netflix Australia
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