Several of my favorite Netflix series from the recent past share something in common. While, plot-wise, these dramas couldn’t be more different — the shows encompass ninjas, spies, dystopian horror, and gangsters — the commonality is that while they’re all critically acclaimed, I nonetheless feel like not enough people know or talk about them. All of them deserve so much more love than they’ve gotten
That might be because these are all international TV shows, and we all know how there’s a contingent of American viewers who, for whatever reason, can’t seem to deal with subtitles. If you can handle that minor inconvenience, though, I can guarantee you won’t be disappointed by any of the streamer’s series below, all of them featuring memorable characters and compelling stories that will keep you addicted from start to finish.
And we’ll start with a slick, stylish espionage drama that’s basically a cross between Killing Eve and The Americans.
Kleo
Spy thrillers come in all sorts of varieties, from romps to comedies, stereotype-laden garbage, titles that lean heavily on action sequences, and stylish gems that don’t take themselves too seriously. Kleo, about a former East German spy on the hunt for a red suitcase stuffed with secret documents, is definitely one of the latter.
The first season of the series, which critics roundly praised, saw East German assassin Kleo Straub released from prison and then begin a hunt as to who betrayed her and caused her to get sent there in the first place. In the second season, both the CIA and KGB are hunting for secret documents, while Kleo is not only about to uncover more information about why she ended up behind bars — but also more details about her own sketchy past.
House of Ninjas
This next Netflix series, meanwhile, is the drama about ninjas that you didn’t realize you needed in your life.
From reluctant warriors to epic ninja battles, as well as a secret conspiracy, Netflix’s House of Ninjas has it all. This story from writer-director Dave Boyle is actually a spy thriller, albeit in a different form — it’s a drama that imagines a modern Japan with ninjas that are mostly retired but who get called back into service to foil the scheme of an evil clan threatening the country.
“Everyone in the Tawara family is a bit… bored,” Netflix’s summary explains. “Haru stocks vending machines and stokes his crush on a woman he doesn’t even know. His mom, Yoko, is bored of domesticity and shoplifts to keep things interesting. His dad, Soichi, is tormented by the loss of Haru’s older brother, Gaku, and bides his time running a sake business. Nagi, Haru’s sister, skips class to go on secret missions she hides from her family. And then there’s the unassuming Riku, Haru’s little brother, and Taki, Haru’s grandmother, who helps around the house.
“Soichi wants Haru to one day take over the family business — sake brewing — but Haru just isn’t interested. When the family lost Gaku, everything changed. Back then, they were all ninjas, working together to serve justice. Now they’ve given it up. That is, until — one by one — the Tawara clan is pulled back in.”
Alice in Borderland
Another Japanese Netflix series that’s very, very good is one that seems to get very little if any press coverage, and I don’t tend to see that many people talking about it online.
In my opinion, Alice in Borderland is perfect for fans of, say, Squid Game. Based on a graphic novel by Haro Aso, the show unfolds kind of like the Square Enix video game The World Ends With You (at least at the beginning). Arisu, a video game-obsessed young man who’s listless and unemployed, suddenly finds himself in an empty and strange version of Tokyo — one where he and his friends have to complete dangerous tasks and games in order to survive.
Arisu meets a young woman named Usagi who’s navigating the games alone, and together they set out to unravel the mystery while risking their lives to discover what it really means to be alive with a purpose.
Snabba Cash
Snabba Cash is the series that gets my vote as the best Netflix crime drama of all time.
Whereas I might have previously given that title to Narcos, the Swedish thriller Snabba Cash (the title of which translates to “fast cash” or “easy money”) gets the edge for its stylish originality. Its version of Sweden is a land where everyone from swaggering business titans to street-level gangsters are always chasing the easy money, the next big score, and doing whatever it takes to win. At the center of the story is Leya, a wannabe entrepreneur who is ostensibly “good” but will cross the line to win if she has to.
In Snabba Cash, wiping out rival drug dealers and taking a company public are more or less part of the same hustle. No matter who you are, all it takes is one big score to win. Overall, a seriously addictive crime saga for fans of shows like Breaking Bad and The Wire.
The Brothers Sun
One good rule of thumb to follow when it comes to essentially any movie or TV show is that if you see Michelle Yeoh’s name attached to it, you’re good — press play on that sucker with confidence.
In The Brothers Sun, she plays the matriarch of a powerful Taiwanese triad family, the eldest son of which heads to Los Angeles to protect his naive younger brother after the head of the family is shot by a mysterious assassin. That younger brother, by the way, has been completely sheltered from the truth about his family until now, but he gets a crash course all at once in the form of a transpacific gang war and hired killers on the rampage.
Yeoh plays the fierce Mama Sun, in her first lead role since her Oscar-winning performance in 2022’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. The series, adds director Kevin Tancharoen, is packed with drama, black humor, and tons of action.
The series explores “what it means to be a son, what it means to be a brother, and also what it means to try and keep a family together,” showrunner Brad Falchuk, who also serves as a writer on the series, said in a Netflix promotional interview. “We do an extreme version of it because they’re a crime family and there are people shooting at them and trying to kill them, but the conflicts they’re having, the problems they’re having internally, the emotional problems are very, very universal.”
