2024 will go down as the year Netflix made its huge push into sports. It was the exclusive home for the \u201cdisgusting-but-can\u2019t-look-away\u201d hot dog eating contest<\/a> between Joey Chestnut and his rival, Takeru Kobayashi. The streamer also broadcast the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul boxing match<\/a> that would have been abysmally boring if not for the bloody women\u2019s match right before the main event. Then there are the million-dollar deals Netflix struck with the WWE<\/a> and NFL<\/a> to bring even more live sports to the platform.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Thankfully, Netflix also added a healthy amount of original programming, movies, TV shows, anime, and documentaries that\u2019ll be much easier to watch. So here\u2019s a list of Netflix\u2019s best shows and movies to watch in case you never get past the buffering icon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s hard to recommend anime nowadays, especially to folks looking to get into the genre. A lot of shows have gotten simply too quirky,<\/em> we\u2019ll say, to recommend to the average person. Dan Da Dan<\/em>\u2026 does not fix this problem at all. It blows beyond quirky into weird as hell<\/em> territory, featuring ghosts, magic, alien abductions, and penis abductions, all within the first 25-minute episode \u2014 and it rules. <\/em>Despite Dan Da Dan<\/em> being about the supernatural shenanigans that ensue when a girl (who believes in ghosts but not aliens) befriends a boy (who believes in aliens but not ghosts), it\u2019s actually a true-blue romance anime. It is so much fun<\/em> watching the two main characters deal with their burgeoning affection for each other that you don\u2019t mind (or are, in fact, delighted by) the turbo horny weirdness of literally everything else in the show.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The tagline for Arcane<\/em> season 2<\/a> should be \u201cEverybody is really, really<\/em> bad at this.\u201d Bad at communication, bad at relationships, and definitely bad at staving off a civil war. Season 2 picks up right after the events of the first, in which everyone has to deal with the fallout of Jinx\u2019s attack on Piltover\u2019s council. This season\u2019s events feel very ripped from the headlines, concerning a simmering class war about to boil over and whether such a struggle can be resolved peacefully. Though there were some brilliant emotional moments between Vi and her sister Jinx or Vi and her girlfriend Caitlyn, I didn\u2019t feel much connection to\u00a0most of the main cast. Even still, Netflix and Riot told a really good, complete story in two seasons, filled with superslick fight sequences that more than made up for my antipathy for the cast.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I thought I was going to have to caveat this recommendation by saying \u201cI know this show appears on this list every year.\u201d But I was surprised to find out that The Great British Baking Show<\/em> has never been featured in The Verge<\/em>\u2019s \u201cBest of\u201d lists. And to that, I say\u2026 all of my colleagues are monsters<\/em>. The Great British Baking Show<\/em> is hands-down the best annual competition show since Eurovision. Every year, Britain manages to find 12 of the most wholesome humans to compete in a series of challenges baking delicious-looking foods most Americans have never heard of. After years<\/em> of watching this show, I\u2019m still not clear on what the hell a pudding is, but damned if I\u2019m not gonna cheer these wonderful and talented people on each week.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Yes, technically this show came out in 2022. But Interview<\/em>\u2019s first season debuted on Netflix this year<\/a>, exposing it to a much wider audience. This television adaptation adds some interesting updates and twists to Anne Rice\u2019s 1976 novel. The main character, Louis de Pointe du Lac (Jacob Anderson), is no longer a white slave owner but a Black man hustling his way through 1910s Louisiana. There, he meets the enigmatic Lestat de Lioncourt (Sam Reid), and the two begin a torrid affair exacerbated by the racial tensions of the time and the fact that Lestat is a terribly eccentric and dramatic Frenchman\u2026 who is also a vampire. Interview with the Vampire<\/em> is easily the best drama television show joining rarified air enjoyed by Severance<\/em><\/a> and Succession<\/em><\/a>. It is certainly the best acted<\/em> show on television, with incredibly moving performances from Reid, Anderson, Bailey Bass, Eric Bogosian, and just about everyone else.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This is another \u201ccame out in another year but debuted on Netflix this year<\/a>\u201d recommendation. It\u2019s one of the few Godzilla <\/em>movies guaranteed to make you sob like a baby. If there\u2019s a list of superlatives, this movie\u2019s going on it<\/a>. Minus One<\/em> is a retelling of Godzilla\u2019s first appearance in Japan shortly after the end of World War II. Most of the movie\u2019s runtime barely even features Godzilla but instead focuses on the struggles of his human victims. This choice heightens Godzilla\u2019s impact when he finally shows up. And when he does, it doesn\u2019t matter if you\u2019re watching this with theater-quality sound or just with your TV\u2019s speakers, you\u2019ll feel the needle drop of Akira Ifukube\u2019s iconic theme song<\/a> in your liver. It\u2019s so chilling.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Netflix has been importing a goodly number of shows from Asia, which is great to satisfy my historical drama habit (shout out The Double<\/em> and The<\/em> Princess Weiyoung<\/em>). But I\u2019ve discovered some of the reality shows are also great watches, too, like Physical: 100<\/em> and Culinary Class Wars<\/em>. In Culinary Class Wars,<\/em> a gaggle of up-and-coming chefs (designated as Black Spoons), compete against Korea\u2019s elite culinary masters (White Spoons). The Black Spoons are known only by an alias that describes their skills and achievements and will earn the right to have their real name known (and a big cash prize) if they can triumph over the White Spoons. The Black Spoons are true underdogs going by nicknames like Comic Book Chef, a guy who uses recipes he learned from manga, or Master of School Meals, an older woman who spent decades running school cafeterias. I love it when they overcome the odds to beat the White Spoons.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n After 20 years of World of Warcraft<\/em>, it\u2019s well known how the game has brought people together<\/a> \u2014 but sometimes people underestimate just how much. The Remarkable Life of Ibelin<\/em><\/a> tells the story of Mats Steen<\/a>, a Norwegian man born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Steen\u2019s parents lament that their son was unable to participate in many of the activities of daily life, unaware of the rich life he constructed for himself roleplaying World of Warcraft<\/em>. After Steen\u2019s passing at 25, his parents discover a blog he wrote chronicling his life and are overwhelmed by the messages they receive from his Warcraft<\/em> friends explaining just how much Steen \u2014 known to them as Ibelin \u2014 impacted their lives. With the help of voice actors, animators, Steen\u2019s blog, and the archived chat logs between Ibelin and his online friends, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin <\/em>recreates Ibelin\u2019s many World of Warcraft<\/em> adventures in a way that imparts a true appreciation for just how much gaming can change people\u2019s lives for good.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Guy Ritchie \u2014 director of Lock Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels<\/em> and Snatch<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 makes his Netflix debut with The Gentlemen<\/em>. It chronicles the struggle of the Horniman family, led by Edward \u201cEddie\u201d Horniman (Theo James), who discovers that his father, the 14th Duke of Halstead, has been keeping their land-rich-but-cash-poor family afloat by allowing a marijuana growth and distribution business to operate on their land. The Gentlemen<\/em> isn\u2019t the best gangster television show you can watch on Netflix \u2014 that distinction belongs to Peaky Blinders<\/em> \u2014 but it\u2019s generally fun watching James and his no-account brother (Daniel Ings) come up with clever ways to stay one step ahead of the rival gangsters coming for their share of England\u2019s weed industry.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A late addition to Netflix\u2019s lineup of originally produced movies, and unlike some of its big stinkers this year like Atlas<\/em><\/a> or Rebel Moon \u2013 Part Two: The Scargiver<\/em><\/a>, it\u2019s damn entertaining. Carry-On<\/em> stars Taron Egerton as a shiftless TSA agent trying to show his girlfriend he\u2019s serious about his career after a surprise pregnancy announcement. But he\u2019s forced into a deadly confrontation with a terrorist \u2014 played to chilling effect by Jason Bateman \u2014 who threatens to kill his girlfriend and the thousands of holiday travelers passing through LAX on Christmas Eve if he doesn\u2019t let a bomb suitcase through security. Carry-On<\/em> is very much a \u201cdad\u201d action movie but with much better execution. It\u2019s also very clearly a TSA propaganda movie, designed to remind travelers this holiday season that everybody would get to their destinations with a lot less stress if they remembered that TSA agents aren\u2019t personally out to get them and are just trying to do their jobs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nDan Da Dan<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Arcane<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The Great British Baking Show<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Interview with the Vampire<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Godzilla Minus One<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Culinary Class Wars<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
The Gentlemen<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
Carry-On<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n