FAVOURITE NETFLIX TV SHOWS RANKED AND RATED… Part 1…

I don’t know about you but Netflix has certainly been a salvation for me during the 2020 Quarantine Lockdown due to COVID-19. So, for this blog post I am going to countdown my top 20 show to watch on Netflix. Because there is 20, I have split it into 2 lots of 10. Number 1 being my most favourite and then working down to number 20 being my least favourite. I have then also ranked the show out of a total of 5 stars to show which are the best. Just because a show is near the top of the list doesn’t mean it’s a 5 star show (I know, everyone’s a critique right?) I let you know when the show ran from, how many seasons there were and how many episodes. Then I state an iconic quote from the TV show, give a quick blurb on it’s story and then talk a little about what’s good/bad about it and whether I recommend it. Then, finish with my favourite character and the best season.

So, here we go…

1. TEEN WOLF ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 2011 – 2017. 6 Seasons. 100 episodes. “Be your own anchor”… 

When an animal bite turns high schooler Scott McCall into a werewolf, he and his best friend Stiles soon face a new set of problems in their home town of Beacon Hills as secrets of supernatural nature are revealed…

Teen Wolf is probably one of, if not, my favourite TV show EVER! Whilst dealing with problems of high school, friendships and relationships, it also mixes in elements of mystery and drama with twists and turns that no viewers could have ever foreseen. This was the first ever show I watched through streaming in high school, and watching it for 6 years, growing up with the characters I felt I could relate to the problems they were facing. Minus evil alpha werewolves showing up to kill everyone, of course.

Whilst I would definitely recommend this show to anyone, a few of the later seasons get a bit lost and confusing, therefore, the 4 star rating.

Best Character- Stiles Stilinski.                                          Best Season- Season 3. 

2. THE VAMPIRE DIARIES ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 2009 – 2017. 8 Seasons. 171 episodes. “Hello, Brother”…

When teen girl Elena Gilbert’s parents die in a car accident, her world spins even more out of control when a vampire called Stefan Salvatore shows up in her town of Mystic Falls. Whilst Stefan is seemingly good he holds dark secrets that will soon be revealed when his ‘bad boy’ brother Damon shows up…

Now, I was really late to the party when it comes to Vampire Diaries and only started watching it in 2017 after the finale episode ended. Considering I was such a big TwiHard fan back in 2008, I should have started this show years ago. I knew after the first episode that this show would fill a void that had been missing since Twilight.

I definitely recommend TVD for fans of the supernatural style and I rated it 5 stars as it has deep dynamic characters who really are put through the mill throughout the 8 seasons of the show, whilst keeping story lines interesting. The only thing is that no one ever stays dead in Mystic Falls or at least not for long…

Best Character- Caroline Forbes.                                        Best Season- Season 3. 

3. THE ORIGINALS ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 2013 – 2018. 5 Seasons. 92 episodes. “Always and Forever”… 

Set in New Orleans, Klaus Mikaelson is a 1,000 year old vampire/werewolf hybrid and along with his Mikaelson siblings they make up The Originals, the first ever vampires. But when an unexpected pregnancy is revealed, The Originals are confronted with their enemies, their history and themselves but will do whatever it takes to keep their family safe…

Halfway through Vampire Diaries, they created a spin-off show of The Originals from Klaus being the biggest villain of TVD in season 2 and 3. The story of the Originals was so interesting that they weren’t getting the time and growth in TVD due to already having a lot of main characters, so making a spin off show made sense. And it paid off because the show got 5 seasons. Some fans have even said that The Originals is better than TVD.

The show handles with more grown up themes, due to none of the characters being in high school and it portrays the values of family love, support and trust better than TVD did, but if you are fans of Vampire Diaries, then it is a definite must watch. You also don’t have to have seen Vampire Diaries to understand what’s going on in the show. If you loved both then you should also definitely check out Legacies, a spin off of the spin off.

Best Character- Klaus Mikaelson.                              Best Season- Season 4. 

4. SHADOWHUNTERS ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 2016 – 2019. 3 Seasons. 55 episodes. “All the stories are true”… 

On Clary Fray’s 18th birthday, her world turns upside down when she learns that she is a Shadowhunter; a race of demon hunting warriors who are half human, half angel blooded. Based in New York, Clary learns that the Shadow World has been hidden amongst the human world her whole life, but only now will secrets of her past and who she is, come to light…

Keeping on the vampire and werewolf theme, Shadowhunters is yet another amazing supernatural show with interesting characters and storylines. This may be the only show that I started watching from when the first episode came out and introduced me to one of my favourite ships- Malec. Despite being similar to previous shows of the same nature, Shadowhunters also took on interesting and realistic portrayals of sexuality that gained them many awards.

However, in 2018, the show was announced cancelled due to financial disagreements between Netflix and Freeform and therefore only has 3 seasons and 2 finale episodes. It ended way before it should have done and had so much more to explore based off of Cassandra Clare’s books. Nevertheless, the cast and crew still delivered an excellent finale and despite being shorter than other shows, still completely satisfying.

Best Character- Magnus Bane.                                       Best Season- Season 2. 

5. JANE THE VIRGIN ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 2014 – 2019. 5 Seasons. 100 episodes. “Be Brave”… 

Set in Miami, Florida, Jane’s life falls to pieces when she is accidentally inseminated by Rafael’s sperm and gets pregnant. The only problem? She’s engaged to someone else and she has never had sex…

The show is set up as an Americanised version of a Latin telenovela with twists and turns and so many unexpected events, you will have to keep watching until there is no episodes left to watch. I have binged the whole thing recently from start to end during the Coronavirus Lockdown and I cannot recommend this show highly enough. It deals with so many important issues as well as keeping audiences entertained, informed (can thank the narrator of the show for this), imagining and fantasising. It’s an amazing show that combines different genres of TV together with elements of magical realism, humour and drama and rolls it all into one. 10/10. I don’t know what I would have done during Lockdown without it.

Best Character- Rogelio De La Vega.                              Best Season- Season 1/2. 

6. FRIENDS ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 1994 – 2004. 10 Seasons. 235 episodes. “See? He’s her lobster…” 

Set in New York, Friends is a classic sitcom that follows 6 single friends as they comically deal with jobs, love, relationships and other dilemmas of life…

Moving on to a few of Netflix’s sitcom shows, Friends was added to the streaming platform in 2017. I can honestly say that I had never seen an episode of Friends until it came out on Netflix. My friends had all grew up watching it on TV, but I didn’t want to watch random episodes on TV, I like to watch TV shows from start to end in order, the great thing about streaming platforms. When it was added to Netflix I was able to watch every episode in order. It took me 3 months to finish it, but can honestly say that the first time you watch Friends I found myself laughing my head off with every episode.

However, I couldn’t give Friends 5 stars as it hasn’t exactly aged that well when it comes to some jokes on the show being offensive to certain groups of people especially jokes on gender being sexist and homophobic. Although, the fact that every time I watch Friends I acknowledge that these jokes are inappropriate or cringe in today’s society, I think it’s good to show the social change from when Friends ended 16 years ago.

Best Character- Chandler Bing.                             Best Season- Season 3/4. 

7. BROOKLYN NINE-NINE ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 2013 – … 7 Seasons … 144 episodes. “NINE NINE!”… 

Set in the 99th precinct of the NYPD in Brooklyn, Jake Peralta and his lovable colleague friends are a detective squad solving crimes and having fun doing it…

B99 is the first show on this list that is currently still airing, already renewed for an 8th season. I binged the first 5 seasons pretty quickly 2 years ago and would definitely recommend this show to fans of easy viewing sitcoms. Definitely a 5 star rating as unlike other sitcoms, it’s funny without being mean or offensive through jokes or stereotyping showing that comedy isn’t dead, with 7 seasons and counting.

Best Character- Jake Peralta.                                  Best Season- ANY. 

8. MODERN FAMILY ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 2009 – 2020. 11 Seasons. 250 episodes. “Family is family.”… 

Set up in a ‘documentary’ style in California, Modern Family follows three different families who are all related. They face the trials of life, love and family in uniquely comedic ways with one nuclear family, one step family and a gay couple with an adopted child. The show follows them through 11 years to see how they stay ‘one big happy family’…

Modern Family being added to Netflix is one of the best things that could have happened during Lockdown, along with Outer Banks and Disney plus. I used to watch this show years ago with my own family as it was one of the only things we could agree on to watch. It’s an amazing show, that is set up differently to regular comedy shows such as sitcoms. Through the documentary style you get the characters sitting down facing the camera and explaining what’s going on in each episode. I really do recommend Modern Family as a light hearted, feel-good, family comedy show that has been slightly underrated in the UK, due to only being available on Sky-One and Sky-Atlantic. But with Netflix now taking ownership hopefully it will reach many more audiences and gain more fans. I know its definitely been one of my TV highlights that’s sparked joy during Lockdown.

Best Character- Phil Dunphy.                                      Best Season- ANY. 

9. STRANGER THINGS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 2016 – … 3 Seasons … 33 episodes. “Friends don’t lie”… 

When young Will Byers goes missing, his 3 best friends uncover the mystery of the Upside Down in their small town of Hawkins, Indiana in the 1980’s. Where a secret scientific lab are working to keep hidden, experiments, supernatural monsters, forces and a strange girl that’s broken free…

Maybe one of Netflix’s most famous, popular and iconic shows, Stranger Things has had great success on the platform with 3 seasons so far and a confirmed season 4 in the works. Way back in 2016 I heard a buzz about this new show on Netflix called ‘Stranger Things’ that everyone was raving about. Bare in mind my family had only just recently bought a subscription to Netflix so we weren’t really up to date on the platform and the shows included on it. However, I had a TED day this one day and I was home alone and thought why not try it? So I watched the first episode. And lets just say I barely moved for 8 hours until I had finished season 1. It was the first ever show that I watched the entire first season in one day, although probably possible because there was only 8 episodes, each an hour long. But still, I barely slept that night from having my mind blown and thinking “what the hell did I just watch?”, and “why can’t I stop thinking about it?” and “when is season 2?”. However, it is a hard show to explain so all I will say, is make sure you watch it.

Best Character- Eleven.                                                     Best Season- Season 1. 

10. OUTER BANKS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 2020 – … 1 Seasons … 10 episodes. “Pogues for life”… 

On the island of Outer Banks, life is split into two. The wealthy Kooks live on the north side in Figure Eight and the working Pogues live on the south side in the Cut. During the summer, John B and his friends JJ, Pope and Kiara plan to have a good time, all the time. But that may not be the case when John B discovers clues for a legendary treasure hunt left by his father who disappeared 9 months ago…

Probably the best new show I’ve watched in a long time, especially on Netflix, Outer Banks is a really great summer show that I watched during Lockdown. This show was recommended to me by one of my best friends and I trusted her judgement so I gave it a go and i’m so glad I did. It’s the perfect show to watch during Lockdown as it gave me hope and excitement to finally get back out in the world and have an adventure with my friends. That being said it made me sad that I couldn’t see my friends for a while but the show definitely made me excited to see them again and hopefully go on holiday with them when we next can.

The show itself is filled with adventure, humour, excitement and drama as secrets of the island are revealed. I also liked the subtle hints of other famous popular culture tropes embedded within Outer Banks, such as the dynamics between Sarah Cameron and John B, a wealthy Kook ‘princess’ and a poorer Pogue outsider. This relationship going forward seems to resemble the ‘wealthy girl, poor boy’ trope such as Jack and Rose in ‘Titanic’ and Ally and Noah in ‘The Notebook’. With the show already renewed for a season 2, it will be interesting to see what happens next…

Best Character- JJ.                                                         Best Season- Season 1 (so far…) 

End of Part 1. Come back to see Part 2.

Gem x