Netflix can be an unpredictable place. The streaming service produces so much content that it can be hard to narrow things down and actually find something to watch. And if you find a new favorite show, there’s always a chance Netflix could cancel it, as they have a reputation for doing.
That’s why limited series are a safe bet. These series have a set beginning, middle, and end. There’s no danger of them being canceled because they’re finished, and many of them are just as satisfying to watch now as the day they were released.
Alias Grace
Margaret Atwood’s other hit series
Alias Grace is based on the book of the same name by Margaret Atwood, whose profile was raised when Hulu adapted her book The Handmaid’s Tale for TV. Alias Grace is about Grace Marks, an Irish immigrant and domestic servant who was convicted of the murders of her employer and his housekeeper in 1843. The show picks up a few years into her prison sentence, as she looks back on her life.
The trick is that Grace is an unreliable narrator, and it’s hard to be sure if what she says is entirely true. But the show ends up being more fascinating for its ambiguities, ably guided by American Psycho director Mary Harron. We may not get definitive answers to all of our questions, but we learn a lot about Canadian class relations in the 1800s, and Sarah Gadon is never less than compelling as Grace.
- Release Date
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2017 – 2017-00-00
- Network
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CBC Television
- Directors
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Mary Harron
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Sarah Gadon
Reverend Verrenger
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Edward Holcroft
Mrs. Quenell
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Rebecca Liddiard
Ship’s Doctor
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Maid
Down and out in the United States of America
And now for a completely different story about maids: Maid stars Margaret Qualley as Alex, a young mother who leaves her alcoholic, abusive boyfriend along with her toddler daughter. She takes a job cleaning houses while navigating homelessness, a broken welfare system, and custody battles.
Maid doesn’t have any gimmicks about it. It’s simply a well-told, down-to-earth story about a hard-working woman trying to do right by her family, and that ends up being more than enough. It was one of the most-watched shows on Netflix in 2021, and it’s still a great, cathartic watch today.
- Release Date
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2021 – 2021-00-00
- Network
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Netflix
The Haunting of Hill House
One-to-two-and-done
From the most grounded story you’ve ever seen to one of the most fantastical, The Haunting of Hill House is a horror story loosely based on the 1959 book of the same name by Shirley Jackson. Five siblings reunite in their adulthoods, all of them haunted by their experience growing up in the mysterious Hill House. We cut back and forth between the modern timeline and the past, and it becomes very clear that something is very wrong with this place.
The Haunting of Hill House turned creator Mike Flanagan into a household name, and he’s since gone on to create other creepy projects like Midnight Mass, The Fall of the House of Usher, and the upcoming Clayface movie. The Haunting of Hill House remains one of his best works, a consistently chilling mystery series with a grim atmosphere and twists and surprises around every corner. Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor is something of an unofficial sequel, but the original is better.
- Release Date
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2018 – 2018
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Mike Flanagan
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Michiel Huisman
Steven Crain
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Elizabeth Reaser
Shirley Crain
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Kate Siegel
Theodora Crain
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Oliver Jackson-Cohen
Luke Crain
Black Rabbit
Jude Law, Jason Bateman, and crime, together at last
In Black Rabbit, Jude Law plays Jake Friedken, a successful New York City restaurateur who allows his chaotic brother Vince (Jason Bateman) back into his life. That ends up being a mistake, since Vince’s growing debts and unsavory connections lead the two brothers down a criminal spiral.
Black Rabbit is eight episodes long and uses every minute well. The tension mounts higher and higher as Jake and Vince make bad decision after bad decision, until it can’t be contained any longer. Along the way, Law and Bateman keep us glued to the screen with their combustible chemistry.
- Release Date
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2025 – 2025
- Network
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Netflix
- Directors
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Benjamin Semanoff, Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Justin Kurzel
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Jason Bateman
Vince Friedken
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-
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Baby Reindeer
Has to be seen to be believed
Baby Reindeer is an intimate, deeply weird show that unexpectedly became one of the biggest Netflix hits of 2024. It’s about a bartender named Donny (Richard Gadd) who gives a free cup of tea to a crying woman, Martha (Jessica Gunning). She becomes obsessed with him, stalking him online and showing up at his home and his comedy gigs.
There’s a version of this show that rests on mocking Martha for her strange behavior, and Baby Reindeer is funny. But as it goes on, it becomes something much deeper and more complex as Donny’s own neurosis and hang-ups are laid by. It’s a comedy, it’s a drama, it’s a character study…it’s a hard show to categorize, but it’s thrilling to watch.
- Release Date
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2024 – 2024-00-00
- Directors
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Weronika Tofilska, Josephine Bornebusch
- Writers
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Richard Gadd
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Jessica Gunning
Martha Scott
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Transatlantic
World War II dramas are a dime a dozen, on Netflix and elsewhere. But people keep watching them, especially when they find a way to approach the story a little differently. Transatlantic does a great job of this.
Set in the early 1940s, the show is about the real-life Emergency Rescue Committee, which helped artists and intellectuals flee Nazi-occupied France. You might assume that a World War II-era drama would be deadly serious, and Transatlantic can be very grim, but there are also lots of lighter moments, screwball comedy, and romance. It’s a different kind of tone for this sort of story, but it works. Also, the cinematography is lush and beautiful to look at.
- Release Date
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2023 – 2023-00-00
- Showrunner
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Anna Winger, Daniel Hendler
- Directors
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Stéphanie Chuat, Véronique Reymond, Mia Maariel Meyer
- Writers
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Anna Winger, Daniel Hendler, Julie Orringer
Monster
Three limited series for the price of one
Monster technically is an ongoing show, but each season tells a different true crime story with no crossover between them, so even if the show gets canceled, each season stands alone.
Fans pretty much universally agree that the first season, about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, is the best. Evan Peters is chilling as Dahmer, and the show explores some of the systemic failings that allowed his cannibalistic killing spree to go on for as long as it did.
That said, creator Ryan Murphy has a reputation for sleaze, and there’s definitely something distasteful about the way he glorifies these famous murderers, especially in the second two seasons. Still, these are slick, stylish watches that may sate your appetite for true crime content.
And that’s just to start
Obviously there are more limited series to seek out and enjoy on Netflix. The Queen’s Gambit is widely celebrated as an excellent period drama. Adolescence may be the most memorable four-hour binge on the service, or anywhere else.
And there are always more on the way. Keep a lookout on what crosses your feed, because it could become your new TV obsession.
- Release Date
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2022 – 2022
- Network
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Netflix
- Showrunner
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Ian Brennan, Ryan Murphy
- Directors
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Jennifer Lynch, Clement Virgo, Paris Barclay, Carl Franklin
- Writers
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Ryan Murphy, Ian Brennan
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Evan Peters
Jeffrey Dahmer
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Richard Jenkins
Lionel Dahmer
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Molly Ringwald
Shari Dahmer
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Michael Learned
Catherine Dahmer
