The Dandy Dozen: Best Netflix Shows You Missed

Netflix releases so much content that great shows regularly drown in the algorithmic churn. These twelve flew under the radar — no watercooler buzz, no meme cycles — but each one delivers the kind of storytelling that justifies your subscription when you are scrolling aimlessly at 10 PM.

Ripley, the eight-episode black-and-white adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, is the most visually stunning show Netflix has produced. Andrew Scott's performance as Tom Ripley captures the character's predatory charm and existential emptiness with precision. The Italian cinematography by Robert Elswit is reason enough to watch on the biggest screen you own.

Baby Reindeer is the autobiographical limited series by Richard Gadd about stalking, abuse, and the complexity of victimhood. It is uncomfortable, raw, and impossible to look away from. Gadd's performance earned a BAFTA, and the show's unflinching honesty about trauma makes it one of the most important pieces of television in recent years.

Blue Eye Samurai, the animated series set in Edo-period Japan, follows a mixed-race swordsman seeking revenge against the European men who fathered him. The animation quality rivals Studio Ghibli, the fight choreography is brutal and balletic, and the story confronts identity and belonging in feudal society with surprising nuance at https://www.netflix.com.

Nobody Wants This, starring Kristen Bell and Adam Brody, is the rom-com series that Netflix finally got right. Bell plays a sex-positive podcaster who falls for Brody's newly single rabbi, and the chemistry between them elevates what could have been a formulaic premise into genuine warmth. It is the lightest, most rewatchable show on this list.

Eric, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as a puppeteer searching for his missing son in 1980s New York, combines missing-person thriller with a surreal exploration of grief and imagination. The puppet sequences — created by the Jim Henson Company — add an uncanny, dreamlike quality that separates it from every other crime drama on the platform.

Rounding out the dozen: Scoop for behind-the-scenes BBC journalism drama, The Diplomat Season 2 for political thriller fans, Senna for the definitive Formula 1 biography, Kaos for Jeff Goldblum as Zeus in modern-day mythology, 3 Body Problem for hard sci-fi from the Game of Thrones showrunners, and La Palma for Norwegian disaster filmmaking. Queue all twelve — you have more to watch than you think.