The best Netflix boxsets to binge watch

The undisputed breakout hit of 2020, The Queen’s Gambit tells the story of Beth Harmon, a young orphan who grows up in the 1950s to become a chess grand master. While its episodes are around an hour long, The Queen’s Gambit is a limited miniseries that essentially plays out like a seven-hour movie. In other words, it’s just begging to be binged in a couple of sittings – especially with such stellar performances from Anya Taylor Joy in the lead role, not to mention Harry Melling and Thomas Brodie-Sangster in memorable supporting roles.

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia has been around for 18 years, passing through the realm of ‘cult classic’ and now negotiating the border crossing into ‘all-time comedy great’ territory. Charlie Day, Kaitlin Olson, Glenn Howerton, and Rob McElhenney play four awful friends running a dive bar in the titular US city. Occasionally, Danny DeVito turns up and steals the show. With 16 seasons down and at least two more to come, it’s a formidable bingeing proposition. But with top consistency and a snappy 22-minute episode runtime, you’ll blow through whole seasons in no time.

Love, Death & Robots brings together multiple directors, writers, and animation styles to create an eclectic selection of gritty sci-fi stories. As an anthology series, you won’t be clicking to find out what happens next in some overarching plot. However, the sheer variety of what’s on offer means you’ll be itching to see what twisted tale is up next. Another binge-friendly element is the fact each episode stretches to just 10 to 15 minutes in length.

Selfish Eleanor Shellstrop finds herself rocking up to the gates of heaven post-death, but soon figures out there’s been an administrative error somewhere along the way. That’s the set-up for one of the most imaginative and ambitious comedy series of recent years, and one that travels to some unexpected places across its four-season run. The twists and turns of that high-concept plot, not to mention the 23-minute-long episodes, make for a genuinely divine binge-watching experience.

The South Korean smash hit seems to have been engineered to be consumed in thick, bloody chunks rather than tiny morsels. It’s all about that deliciously dark, compelling plot, which centres around a deadly life-or-death gameshow held for a cabal of rich and shady power brokers. With a loose ‘game per episode’ structure egging you on to discover what horror is next, more cliffhangers than a climbing convention, and the tantalising whiff of conspiracy and revelation in the air, you’ll find Squid Game tough to turn off.

Archer is an adult animated series that follows the exploits of eight deeply dysfunctional intelligence agents, led by Stirling Archer. He's a James Bond-inspired narcissist and womaniser of the highest order. With its uniquely stylish retro animation style, fizzy dialogue, and decidedly NSFW humour, Archer is the kind of comedy show you’ll want to press play on and leave running. There are 15 seasons to plough through, which sounds like a lot, but with episodes running to just 20 minutes each it won’t take long to binge.

A classic sitcom from just before the pre-Netflix streaming years, Community is perhaps most notable to a younger audience for being the show that launched the career of Donald Glover. The Atlanta star forms part of a stellar ensemble that also includes Joel McHale, Gillian Jacobs, Alison Brie, Ken Jeong, and a certain Chevy Chase. Ostensibly a simple story concerning the attendees of a US community college, its ambitious brand of meta-humour blossoms across six seasons of snappy 20-minute episodes that practically demand to be binged.

Each season of The Umbrella Academy tackles a particular run in a source comic book series written by rockstar Gerard Way, making it uniquely suitable for bingeing. Sure, this is a superhero show, but it’s no flimsy case-of-the-week affair. The unruly pupils in the titular school for the super-powered (think an even more dysfunctional X-Men) must tackle a series of existential threats, as well as their own screwed up inter-personal dynamics, taking in time travel, talking monkeys, and an organisation of suitcase-wielding assassins.

Netflix scored a binge watch bingo with Russian Doll. Not only does its tale of a sassy New Yorker (played by Natasha Lyonne) caught in a Groundhog Day-like time loop have an irresistible central mystery to drive you on to the next episode, each one of those episodes is less than half an hour long. Before you know it, you’re four episodes in and fully invested in the show’s lovable cast of characters. There’s even a Quantum Leap-indebted second series, if you really want to fall down a Russian Doll rabbit hole.

Arrested Development’s cult classic comedy series might technically have preceded the streaming era (Netflix picked it up and commissioned two more series), but the dense plotting of its brief 22-minute episodes really reward the binge-watching treatment. It’s tough to think of a show with so many in-jokes and meta references, with some of its funniest moments taking multiple episodes and even seasons to pay off. Indeed, it could be argued that repeat bingeing is the optimal way to consume Arrested Development.

The Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (GLOW) was an actual thing back in the ’80s, and GLOW sets out to pay tribute with a loose comedic fictionalisation. Supplying a smart, knowing, 21st century spin on the story of a deeply exploitative women’s wrestling organisation, it’s packed full of heart and a surprising amount of drama. While it was never one of Netflix’s biggest hits, a lot of people were sorry not to see a fourth season commissioned – especially given the eminently bingeable nature of GLOW’s 30-minute episodes.

This American sitcom from the minds of Tina Fey and Robert Carlock stars Ellie Kemper as the irrepressible, impossibly naive title character, who escapes from a bunkered down doomsday cult into modern city life. It’s classic fish out of water stuff, but with an added tinge of surreal humour. Memorable turns from Jane Krakowski and Tituss Burgess in support, not to mention a scene-stealing special appearance from John Hamm, keep this zany comedy watchable across its four seasons. Again, the brevity of its 24-minute episodes make it ripe for bingeing.

Who would have thought a show about an alcoholic anthropomorphic horse actor and his motley cast of friends and associates could be so poignant? Across six series, BoJack Horseman takes you on an animated journey that’s about as funny as it is sad, boosted by the voice acting talent of Will Arnett, Amy Sedaris, Alison Brie, and Aaron Paul. Offered up in binge-baiting 26-minute chunks, BoJack Horseman tackles the thorniest of subjects with light-hearted ease.

A too often overlooked one-off miniseries with an absolutely stellar cast, Maniac is the kind of one-and-done show you’ll be happy to perform a deep dive into across a weekend. It helps that its episode runtime averages less than 40 minutes, but really you’ll want to stick around for the stylish cinematography and quirky retro-futuristic world-building on display. Emma Stone and Jonah Hill play a pair of troubled strangers who both sign up for an unusual pharmaceutical trial, and wind up finding more than they bargained for.

Sure, you could watch Tim Robinson’s offbeat sketch show one episode at a time. But at just 15(ish) minutes long, it would be rude not to pop another one on. And maybe another while we’re at it, if your sides can take the punishment. Robinson’s surreal, faintly uncomfortable, but nearly always hilarious style sets him apart from pretty much every other comedian on the circuit. His characters tend to find themselves in (often self-inflicted) awkward situations, and then proceed to double down against all opposition or sense of logic, with riotously funny results.

This British YA novel adaptation comes from the mind of Joe Cornish of Attack the Block fame, though Brits of a certain age will know him as Joe from Adam and Joe. That should tell you a little about the snappy, playful tone of this fantasy series, which concerns a ghost-busting agency staffed by young people. Featuring stellar production design and sparky performances from a talented young cast, not to mention a brief eight-episode run, it’s the perfect series to binge across a lazy day or two.

We know what you’re thinking. An animated show based on an ’80s video game might not sound like the most binge-worthy of propositions, but Castlevania exceeds all expectations. It successfully completed four brilliant seasons (an increasing rarity on Netflix) of dark, decidedly adult fantasy drama. With an average episode runtime of around 25 minutes, each containing ladles of imaginative vampire-slaying action and an overarching epic plot to rival Game of Thrones, you’ll want to suck the marrow right out of this one.

Netflix has developed a knack for turning video games into compelling animated series. In the case of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, it’s a spinoff from a popular sci-fi RPG, here focusing on a gang of artificially enhanced mercenaries operating on the wrong side of the law. Besides its stunning animation and compelling plot, the show’s self-contained nature and snappy 25-minute episodes make it a prime candidate for powering through in a single sitting.

Kaleidoscope has got "binge watch" written into its very DNA. At heart a fair typical – if immensely slick – heist show, it stands out for its core structural gimmick. Each of its eight colour-themed episodes can be watched in any order you wish, each filling in a piece of the intricate puzzle around the raid on a billionaire’s vault. By its very nature, you’ll want to watch multiple episodes in a row to see how the whole audacious plan holds together – both for our light-fingered heroes and for the show itself.

Steven Yeun and Ali Wong star as a pair of warring road ragers in this distinctive dramedy. Each of Beef’s ten episodes comes in at around the 30-minute mark, making it perilously easy to skip those credits and start up another episode. This is a show that specialises in disarming and disorientating you with its unique balance of comic and dramatic elements. You’re never quite sure where it’s going to go next, nor who you should be rooting for, which makes it weirdly moreish.