Sometimes the best shows on any streamer aren’t the ones you’ve heard a lot about – and that goes double if the shows were made in another country. That’s a shame, because Netflix makes, invests in and buys really great shows from all over the world – as this selection from Korea, the UK, Denmark, Canada and Tasmania demonstrate.
These are five very different shows – some are based on fact, most are fiction; some will warm your heart and some will chill your bones – but they all have one thing in common: at the time of writing each one has a well-deserved 100% rating from the critics on Rotten Tomatoes, making them part of the best Netflix shows you can stream. That makes each one a worthy addition to your watchlist.
When Life Gives You Tangerines
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Netflix’s investment in Korean cinema and TV continues to pay off with this highly successful romantic drama about “a spirited girl and a steadfast boy” whose story unfolds over a lifetime in this big-budget K-drama with a stellar cast.
As Ebert.com says: “Thirty-four million one hundred eighty-six thousand six hundred ninety-eight minutes is another way of saying 65 years. Over that time span, Ae-sun and Gwan-sik find more than a million ways to express their adoration, but they rarely say the words. Instead, little by little, with acts of care, loyalty, and fierce protection, they weather all four seasons of their lives. Together.”
The Survivors
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Not to be confused with Survivor, The Survivors is based on the best-selling novel by Jane Harper. It’s set in Evelyn Bay in Tasmania and focuses on a harrowing event: the body of a young woman from out of town washes up on the beach, sparking an increasingly complex and dark drama about grief, guilt and resentment.
It’s “a polished and potent murder mystery,” says The New York Times, “a tasty, polished instantiation of the form.” And The Globe and Mail has a recommendation: “For those still itching for more Mare of Easttown, try this twist-filled Australian miniseries – which scratches the right spot, or the general vicinity anyway.”
North of North
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North of North is a warm-hearted comedy drama set in the very, very cold Ice Cove, Nunavut, deep inside Canada’s Arctic region. The show centers on Siaja, a civil servant that The Hollywood Reporter describes as “in the mold of Parks and Recreation’s Leslie Knope or Rutherford Falls’ Reagan Wells. Or, at least, that’s what she aspires to be.” Deeply unsatisfied with her life, Siaja starts to make big changes.
Lambe is “thoroughly winning” as a woman who “can’t seem to stop herself from wearing her heart on her sleeve” and whose mom is “her opposite, sarcastic and prickly and more likely to set a guy’s car on fire than to talk through her feelings about him.” The chemistry between the two actors crackles, and a talented ensemble cast completes the picture.
It’s not groundbreaking in terms of plot, but the uncommon setting makes North of North feel as fresh as a blast of icy air – and to the best of my knowledge it’s the only show that regularly features the phrase “walrus dick baseball”. Which, it turns out, is actually a thing.
Toxic Town
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Jodie Whittaker is perhaps best known for playing the 13th Doctor Who, but in the UK she was already a household name for her brilliant performances in all kinds of drama. In Toxic Town, The Guardian says, she and co-star Aimee Lou Wood deserve awards for their portrayal of two women whose town becomes coated in toxic crimson dust that seems to be connected with children being born with disabilities.
It’s a true story, and a horrifying one: the women’s campaign for safety and later, for justice, saw them facing up to thugs and bullies who were willing to take extreme measures to ensure that justice wouldn’t be done. But despite the serious danger in places, the show is ultimately “a bittersweet feel good piece, more along the lines of Britflicks such as Pride, Brassed Off and The Full Monty, where ordinary people suffer in de-industrialized towns that have intractable problems, but score a win by supporting each other.”
Once you’ve finished streaming Toxic Town, why not try one of these three similarly powerful dramas on Netflix?
Families Like Ours
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Families Like Ours is new to Netflix this month, although it aired in Europe last year to widespread acclaim. The Denmark-set drama tracks a group of characters forced to leave their homes when rising sea levels force the entire country to evacuate, and it’s often a hard watch with its depiction of the struggles people endure when forced to abandon their relatively comfortable lives for a very uncertain future.
Not everyone loved it – The Guardian called it “dull” – but The New York Times was one of many publications that found it compelling: “the evidence of danger is mostly offscreen; the crisis is suggested through newscasts and ominous puddles. [Director Thomas] Vinterberg imagines that the climate crisis will arrive not in floods and heat but in bureaucracy and confusion – endless lines, indecipherable rules, arduous journeys, a constant assault on hope. His vision may not be easily dramatic, but it is convincing… by the last episodes the physical and psychological travails of the fleeing Danes have real force.”
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