For the second year, I’m dropping a list of my favorite shows on Netflix, partly in the hopes of converting some of you into fans, and then maybe Netflix won’t cancel them. But it’s also because lists are good way to remember stuff. In fact, there were a couple shows on this year’s list that I really enjoyed, and then forgot I’d even watched them because my brain is turning kinda goopy these days.
Just like last year, these aren’t all the shows I watched, or a definitive list of stuff I liked. Also, I debated adding in Amazon shows I’m watching, but that was just reruns from my PC because we only got subtitles working on the Fire Stick in December, so hubby couldn’t watch shows with me on the TV. Next year there should be a list for their stuff too, but for now, I’ll leave them off.
Oh, also, I’m keeping my anime picks apart for another list, as most of those shows are watched on Crunchyroll, and I feel like it might be better to promote them separately from Netflix.
On a side note, quite a lot of anime on Netflix has the worst translations I’ve ever seen. A character might say their friend’s name, and it gets twisted into something like “But are you sure this plan can work?” Then other times, someone will use a title like ni-san (brother) or ne-chan (little sister) and the translator goes off the rails like “Mr. Ken Harada of 173-5021 Hakodate, in Hokkaido prefecture.” The few times they get a translation right feels like a genuine miracle.
With my rambles and rants out of the way, let’s get into the list, m’kay?
Lidia Poët season 2
This was on my list last year, but the new episodes take everything great about the series and adds a season-spanning conspiracy to solve, a hot new prosecutor who shares Lidia’s passion for seeking justice, and a new career path for her brother Enrico. The only thing I don’t like about this season is that I’ll have to wait for the next one to arrive. But it has already been greenlit, and I can promise you, it’s very likely to be on the top list for 2025 too.
Jentry Chau VS The Underworld
A teenage girl returns to the hometown she almost burned to the ground with her mystic powers discovers that she’s being hunted by a wicked spirit. She also unwittingly opens a portal into the underworld, forcing her to both find a way to close it and defeat the mogui trying to sacrifice her and steal her powers. With a premise like this, it’s already got my attention, but there’s also a great cast, a superb soundtrack, and more action than you can shake a rain stick at. This is another show I am BEGGING Netflix to keep running with for as many seasons as possible.
A Man on the Inside
Ted Danson plays a retired professor whose daughter challenges him to find something new to get him out of the house, so he gets himself hired to be a spy in a nursing home plagued by a few recent thefts. I loved this show, but somewhere after the third episode, it managed to wring just as many tears out of me as it did laughs. The first episodes are funny because Charles is a terrible spy. But as he comes to learn more about the other residents of the retirement home, his connections to them turn sentimental. It’s that reconnection to other people that drives the story, but also what makes them so sad to watch. Still it’s a great show that can make me laugh and cry, even more so when they can make me do both at the same time. There’s hints of a second season for this show too, but even if it doesn’t work out, I’m glad to have seen this.
Ranma 1/2
Oh, hell yeah! I’ve been trying for ages to get the original Ranma 1/2 DVDs, but every copy I dug up was in bad shape, with most being unwatchable without making me queasy. So here’s a new remake that sticks closer to the manga, meaning that while I know a lot of the characters and jokes, the order they come in is fresh and new. Still, there are scenes that remain faithful to the original, and it’s funny how I can remember every line from these moments right before they’re given, and still laugh as if I’m hearing them for the first time.
This is the first time seeing this with my husband, so just as with our viewing of old Star Trek shows and Batman: The Animated Series, it’s fun to share something I’ve loved deeply since my misspent youth and see how much he loves them, too.
Sweet Home seasons 2 and 3
What I really wanted out of the new seasons of Sweet Home was to see the original group find ways to survive in the apocalyptic, monster-filled hellscape they’d just emerged into after escaping their apartment building. What I got was a much larger cast, all of them crammed into an underground shelter while the dwindling military forces continued to search for supplies outside. Even the first season’s villain and hero monsters are pushed to the side for a great deal of time to build up these new characters, and I admit, I wasn’t sure if I liked it or not. But season three put all those concerns to bed, tucked them in gently, and delivered a deeply satisfying good night kiss. If Netflix would have faith to let more shows wander for a season or two like this, I think they’d find more people coming back to check out new stuff instead of just rewatching their favorite old shows.
Fairly Odd Parents: A New Wish
Of course I was on board for a new sequel to one of my favorite Nickelodeon cartoons. I adored Hazel from the first episode, but what I wasn’t expecting was to fall in love with Hazel’s parents, Angela and Marcus. She’s a self-help author, and he’s a professor of para-science studies. This would make them seem distant and detached, far too busy to pay attention to their daughter. Instead, they are constantly joining in on her play times, noticing when things are bothering her, and encouraging her to be her best self possible. It’s just so wholesome and heartwarming.
Then the writers offer a great group of friends and teachers, a strict principal, a rich kid and his Jeff Bezos parody father, a few returning fairies mixed with some new arrivals, and a delicious twist ending that leaves me terrified of another Netflix cancellation. Please, watch this show and help convince them that it’s worth at least a second season to explore the premise laid out in the last minute of the finale. Because damn, I NEED to see that.
A Killer Paradox
A limited series from Korea about a serial killer who can not only sense wicked people, but somehow is gifted in such a way that all evidence linking him to his killing spree just vanishes. You might think this would be incredibly liberating for a guy like Lee Tang, but instead he struggles to process his grief and guilt at the growing number of victims he’s leaving behind, even as his gifted killer instinct drives him to find new targets.
This is a great show with an amazing cast that covers the story both from Lee’s perspective, and also from the detectives who are trying to catch him. Plus it’s got a great ending that I wouldn’t change a single detail of.
The Brothers Sun
Another limited series worth watching for Michelle Yeoh alone, but she’s surrounded by a huge cast of talented actors, and this is a fantastic premise for an action comedy. Bruce Sun is a college student who is supposed to be studying to become a doctor, but all he wants to do is improv comedy. He thinks his mother is just a homely nobody, but she’s an important figure in the Taiwan Triads. Bruce’s father is shot in Taiwan, leading his brother Charles to come to America to protect both his mother and his brother from assassins. By the way, Charles doesn’t want to be a killer; he just wants to be a pastry chef. Both brothers are hoping to aim lower than their parents would approve of.
Once Bruce gets over his initial shock at discovering his family’s criminal roots, he ends up being dragged into the plotting and scheming, all while trying to push for his dreams of just being a funny guy. By doing so, he makes his mother and brother examine their own dreams and goals, and the whole family veers between heartfelt reconnections, wacky hijinks, and intense fight scenes. It’s absolutely brilliant, and even if this was a limited series, I wouldn’t mind if the writers pitched a sequel.
That’s it for this year, and I’m already looking forward to making a list for 2025. Ooh, dare I hope for The Wandering Earth II? We should also be due for a new Stranger Things season, and there’s a lot of shows I hope will get the chance to expand or wrap up their stories instead of being tossed aside like half-filled tissues.
But it has been a pretty good year, with good games and great shows. Here’s hoping that 2025 will offer more, but if you can’t find any new releases to love, maybe give these a shot, m’kay?