2025 has been a banner year for Netflix, with a wave of new original series and returning favorites that show just how bold streaming TV can get. From tense dramas to sci‑fi horror, from heartfelt dramas to animated spectacles, Netflix’s 2025 lineup has offered something for every mood. These series have resonated with viewers and critics alike. This year, Netflix has proven that it continues to focus on quality and variety.

In 2025, Netflix introduced new series that took viewers by storm. The streaming service also brought back well-loved shows, and continued the stories of characters that are beloved by fans around the world. As viewers reflect on what made 2025 special, it’s clear that, throughout the year, Netflix has managed to balance blockbuster spectacle with intimate, emotionally weighty storytelling. This year’s lineup offered something for nearly every taste.

10‘Bon Appétit, Your Majesty’ (2025)

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Bon Appétit, Your Majesty is a South Korean fantasy‑romance series that mixes time‑travel, food, and palace intrigue. The story centers on Yeon Ji‑yeong (Im Yoon-ah), a talented modern‑day French cuisine chef who, just after winning a top cooking competition, accidentally time travels to the royal court of the Joseon dynasty. There she meets the dangerously refined Yi Heon (Lee Chae-min), a king famed both for his gourmet palate and his ruthless tyranny.

Bon Appétit, Your Majesty stands out as one of Netflix’s best series of the year since it effectively combines fantasy, historical palace intrigue, cooking, and romance. This is a bold mash‑up that feels fresh and unpredictable. The leads deliver performances that balance charm, tension, vulnerability, and transformation. The result is an emotionally engaging and entertaining series whose unique flavors, both literal and metaphorical, leave a strong impression.

9‘Nobody Wants This’ Season 2 (2024–)

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Season 2 of Nobody Wants This picks up where the unlikely romance between agnostic podcast-host Joanne (Kristen Bell) and unconventional Rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) left off, shifting from the honeymoon phase to the messy, real-life challenges of living in an interfaith relationship. The most recent season of Nobody Wants This continues Joanne and Noah’s story while also delving deeper into the lives of their friends and families.

Season 2 of Nobody Wants This retains the series’ signature mix of witty banter and honest relationship angst. One strength of this season that immediately stands out and makes the show one of Netflix’s best shows of the year is the fact that it leans more into supporting characters than the first season did, giving more emotional weight to side stories and friendships. This season of Nobody Wants This manages to further Joanne and Noah’s story while setting them up for an interesting future.

8‘Boots’ (2025)

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Boots is a comedy-drama that introduces Cameron Cope (Miles Heizer), a closeted, bullied teen from Louisiana, who impulsively enlists in the U.S. Marine Corps alongside his best friend Ray McAffey (Liam Oh). The series follows Cameron and his fellow recruits into the brutal, demanding world of boot camp, where harsh discipline, physical tests, and institutional rules collide with their personal identities and hidden struggles.

Boots could have so easily let these characters be stereotypes. Instead, the series presents a diverse group of recruits, each with vulnerabilities, fears, and hopes, making the drama and relationships within the group feel genuine and relatable. The show doesn’t shy away from exploring the realities of being queer in a hypermasculine, strictly disciplined institution like the US Marine Corps. Boots is ultimately one of Netflix’s standout series of the year because it’s such a unique military story.

7‘The Diplomat’ Season 3 (2023–)

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Season 3 of The Diplomat begins with the death of the U.S. president, thrusting Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) into the White House. Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) remains at her post overseas as the American Ambassador to the UK, while her husband, Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell), is named Vice President, leaving their marriage strained. Diplomacy is put to the test when intelligence emerges about a disabled Russian submarine lurking near the U.K. coast, allegedly carrying a catastrophic nuclear warhead.

The Diplomat succeeds in upping the ante for these characters and putting everyone at a crossroads. In a world saturated with news about global politics, the most recent chapter of this series offers a dramatized yet emotionally and morally complex view of diplomacy and power. The Diplomat‘s third season stands out as one of Netflix’s best projects of the year because it’s clear that these characters are still deeply compelling and have fascinating futures ahead of them.

6‘Dept. Q’ (2025–)

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Dept. Q is a British crime thriller based on Jussi Adler-Olsen‘s bestselling novels. It follows DCI Carl Morck (Matthew Goode), a brooding and socially isolated investigator, who is assigned to the cold cases unit, Department Q, in Scotland. Alongside members of his team, he reopens unsolved crimes, often uncovering dark secrets, corruption, and shocking violence hidden beneath the surface of seemingly ordinary lives.

Dept. Q stands out as one of Netflix’s best projects of the year because the moody, cold‑case investigations take place in a dreary, atmospheric Edinburgh, which is a replacement for a snowy setting. The Scottish bleakness works surprisingly well. The series manages to blend a bleak, gothic‑tinged visual style with psychological and emotional depth. In a year when streaming platforms have been flooded with crime dramas, Dept. Q‘s polish and distinctive tone help the series rise above the crowd.

5‘The Hunting Wives’ (2025–)

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The Hunting Wives introduces Sophie O’Neil (Brittany Snow), a woman who moves with her husband from Massachusetts to a small East Texas town. She meets Margo Banks (Malin Akerman), a glamorous, charismatic socialite and the leader of a clique of wealthy, gun‑loving women who call themselves “The Hunting Wives.” Their whirlwind friendship becomes increasingly chaotic and explodes when a teenage girl is found dead in the woods near where the women hunt and party.

The Hunting Wives is one of Netflix’s best series of the year because it presents unapologetically flawed, morally messy characters who are easy to invest in. The show sets its story in a wealthy, conservative community with wealthy socialites, guns, parties, and betrayals, which gives it an edge that makes it stand out. The Hunting Wives doesn’t shy away from explicit content. There’s plenty of sex, risky behavior and morally questionable decisions. That polarizing edge is what draws many viewers and makes it impossible to ignore.

4‘Wednesday’ Season 2 (2022–)

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In Wednesday Season 2, our gothic heroine Wednesday Addams (Jenna Ortega), returns to the eerie halls of Nevermore Academy as a reluctant celebrity after her heroic deeds in the first season. The second season sees Wednesday face fresh supernatural mysteries, darker threats, and haunting visions. After seeing a horrifying vision of the death of her friend Enid Sinclair (Emma Myers), Wednesday is forced to confront secrets tied to her family’s past.

Wednesday Season 2 expands the world of Nevermore Academy, gives her growing psychic powers more weight, and plunges Wednesday into a deeper, creepier investigation. In 2025, the series has evolved from a charming teen mystery to a full‑on supernatural thriller. Ortega’s performance as this beloved character continues to anchor the show, and also continues to make this one of Netflix’s best series of the year.

3‘House of Guinness’ (2025)

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House of Guinness begins when the brewery magnate Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness dies, leaving behind a powerful empire and four adult children. The series follows Arthur Guinness (Anthony Boyle), Edward Guinness (Louis Partridge), Anne Guinness (Emily Fairn) and Benjamin Guinness (Fionn O’Shea) as they struggle over control of the brewery and try to consolidate power for themselves. House of Guinness is a family drama and a commentary on the turmoil of 19th-century Ireland.

Dramas centered around the often wild challenges rich families face are often compelling, and The House of Guinness is no exception. The show doesn’t just rest on its historical setting. Instead, it also uses lavish sets and a bold soundtrack that includes modern Irish bands, to build a world that’s both gritty and vivid. The House of Guinness is one of Netflix’s best series of the year because it balances being a prestige drama with being incredibly bingeable.

2‘Stranger Things’ Season 5 (2016–2025)

Season 5 of Stranger Things picks up in the fall of 1987, roughly 18 months after the events of Season 4. The town of Hawkins, Indiana is still reeling from the aftermath of the “rifts”, which are the portals between the normal world and the Upside Down. As threats from the Upside Down, including creatures like the return of the monstrous Demogorgons, resurface, the group is getting ready to band together for one final fight to save themselves and the world.

Stranger Things is one of the most notable series from Netflix this year simply because the end of this story has been such a long time coming. The sheer scale of this series makes it stand out, regardless of how well it’s been received by viewers and critics. The stakes have never been higher for these characters, and it’s impossible not to cheer for their success. The series retains the core mix of horror, adventure, humor and ’80s-inspired vibes that have made it beloved for years.

1‘Adolescence’ (2025)

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Adolescence is a British miniseries that centers on 13-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), who is arrested for the murder of a classmate. This shocking event sets off a chain reaction within his family and in his larger community. The four-part miniseries follows the investigation as it unfolds and asks viewers to consider difficult questions, including who is responsible when young boys commit such horrifying and shocking acts of violence.

Adolescence is an uncomfortable watch, but a necessary one. The performances are devastating and authentic, and they all capture the fear, guilt, denial, grief and moral ambivalence of our modern world in a way that’s not soon forgotten. This is one of Netflix’s most morally complex series ever, and its best show of the year because it never provides viewers with easy answers. Instead, it explores the intersection of mental health, masculinity, social media, and parenting in a way that’s unsettling yet relatable.