The 10 best Netflix original series of 2019

We’re just weeks away from the dawn of a new year of Netflix, but we can’t dive into our January binges without first looking back on everything that streamed in 2019. 

From the triumphant returns of Orange is the New Black, Mindhunter, and GLOW to the debuts of Living with Yourself, Russian Doll, and When They See Us, Netflix gave us a lot to love this year. So, which series rose to the top of our queue? 

Check out the 10 best Netflix TV shows of 2019 below.

Season 3 of Big Mouth was the first to allow its characters to start on a level playing field and the show was so much better for it. While the first two seasons found tension and humor in its characters wondering when and how the title song’s chaaaanges would come for them, Season 3 starts off with everyone’s hormone monsters and monstresses present and accounted for and reveled in the havoc only a fully stocked middle school of growing teens can wreak. 

Season 3 also had more fun with its format, devoting one episode to a delightful flashback narrated by the ghost of Duke Ellington and spending some time with a funny (if entirely corporate) faux-crossover with Netflix’s Queer Eye. -Alexis Nedd, Senior Entertainment Reporter

Orange is the New Black ended its triumphant six-year run this summer, delivering a devastating yet hopeful goodbye to one of Netflix’s most well-known worlds. Although it was clear the ladies of Litchfield would never get a truly “happy ending,” creator Jenji Kohan used the series’ final episodes to do the next best thing — drive home OITNB’s central message of hope and change. Tackling anti-immigrant bias and the #MeToo movement in its final hours, OITNB stayed true to its ever-evolving relevance while bidding adieu to the women who made this show amazing. 

It was a fitting last lap for one of Netflix’s best series ever. -Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporter

The Politician is what happens when Netflix gives Ryan Murphy all the money in the world and tells him to do whatever feels good. That is to say, it’s bonkers good TV. The Politician’s unpredictable, candy-colored world of high ambition, low empathy, and the occasional musical number felt like a sideways glance into another dimension, one where Ben Platt and Gwyneth Paltrow both shine in roles they were born to play. The show’s off-kilter beats and bizarre twists come at a breakneck pace, which makes it both overwhelming and constantly entertaining. 

In a TV climate that’s constantly at risk of becoming stale, The Politician offered something bewildering and new — and that’s always to be applauded. -A.N.

Netflix might be known for popularizing the binge, but one of the streaming service’s best original efforts is parceled out in weekly helpings. Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj is built to get you angry. The good kind of angry. Each episode explores one of the many ills of our ailing society, filling you with information and arming you with the tools to channel your righteous anger in productive directions. It only works because of Minhaj, an electric presence who speaks with authority and peppers in enough humor to keep subjects as dry as public transit woes and student loan anxiety continually interesting. -Adam Rosenberg, Senior Entertainment Reporter

Tuca & Bertie was the spring fling we never deserved. In May, cartoonist Lisa Hanawalt gifted subscribers with the marvelous world of two best bird friends (voiced impeccably by Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong) battling adulthood in the big bird city. With boyfriend Speckle (Steven Yeun) at her side, Bertie faced her anxieties and traumas as Tuca embraced accountability and identity. It was a moving, inclusive, sex-positive delight that championed female narratives and Hanawalt’s unique voice and style. 

Tragically, Tuca & Bertie has since been canceled. It’s a heartbreaking thing to know this amazing show will never see a second season, but we can still honor it with rewatches in the years to come — preferably, with a warm plate of “crunts” at our side. -A.F.

Adapting true crime for TV is slippery business. In Mindhunter Season 2, creator Joe Penhall shows us how it’s done. Weaving the real story of the disturbing Atlanta child murders into the narrative relevance of the FBI Behavioral Sciences Unit, Mindhunter uses the pull of its magnetic cast — including stars Jonathan Groff, Holt McCallany, and Anna Torv — to shed new light on one of the most baffling miscarriages of justice in American history. Appropriately sensitive and gobsmackingly timely, Mindhunter Season 2 examines our modern behaviors through its 1970s setting with remarkable finesse. –A.F.

4. GLOW Season 3

Image: Ali Goldstein/Netflix

They’re the Goooorrrgeous Ladies of Wrestling! GLOW’s dazzling third season delivered a boatload of what we love about this series: whip-smart comedic timing, devastating dramatic turns, ample screen time for stars Betty Gilpin and Alison Brie, rich woman-centric narratives, a whole bunch of glitzy costumes — hell, we even got a wrestling-themed Christmas special and a Geena Davis guest spot! GLOW proved its staying power with each and every minute of its touching third season, and we cannot wait for more. If that doesn’t say good TV, what does? –A.F.

The Paul Rudd vehicle that took Netflix’s fall line-up by storm, Living with Yourself is unlike any sci-fi series you’ve ever seen. Yes, you can compare the cloning plot to Black Mirror or Orphan Black, and creator Timothy Greenberg isn’t breaking new ground on the existentialism front; still, the glittery Rubik’s cube that is this short comedy-drama deserves our praise and attention. 

Addictively disconcerting, the world of Miles Elliot, Miles Elliot, and his (their?) wife Kate (Aisling Bea) is a remarkable one. With more twists and turns than most series see in their entire run, Living with Yourself Season 1 is a promising gem with [fingers crossed] even . –A.F.

It would be easy to tell you that Russian Doll is just “dark Groundhog Day” and leave it at that. But as wild as that pitch might sound, it also undersells the excellence of this Netflix original. This time loop story starring Natasha Lyonne doesn’t compare easily to anything else. The Bill Murray classic is an easy touchstone, but really, each Russian Doll episode’s unbreaking cycle of death and rebirth defies comparison. This is a standout role for Lyonne, whose performance raises the series up from clever idea into can’t-miss TV. -A.R.

Image: Atsushi Nishijima/Netflix

The most culturally significant project Netflix released this year, Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us revisits the case of the Central Park Five in excruciating detail. Examining the wrongful convictions of five black and latino men for the rape of a woman in 1989 — for which they would be exonerated over a decade later — this poignant, true crime miniseries offers a heart-renching look at the flaws in our justice system. Not only spectacular viewing, When They See Us highlights the insidious biases that plague our society and the vulnerable people put at risk. –A.F.