From apocalyptic comedies to otherworldly space shenanigans to heartfelt and provocative animated adventures, Netflix has plenty of hidden gems that offer more than just visual spectacle. Our favorites skillfully mixes wit, creativity and profound lessons, resulting in a memorable story that has an excellent chance of becoming one of your favorite new comfort shows.
Whether you're seeking existential reflection, unpredictable escapades or whimsical universes, these shows will do more than simply entertain; they will leave you with astoundingly deep insights from characters that feel like close friends.
Carol & the End of the World
A mysterious planet hurtles toward Earth, making each day that passes one day closer to the total annihilation of the human race. A news anchor asks viewers a vital question: “With 7 months and 13 days remaining, what will you be doing?”
This phenomenal, animated-adult apocalyptic comedy miniseries thoroughly explores this quandary while examining what ultimately constitutes a meaningful life.
While some choose to create more chaos amid the impending doom, the vast majority decide to use this catastrophic news as an impetus to finally start completing everything on their bucket lists. Whether it be traveling the world or climbing Mount Everest, most vow to leave their monotonous lives behind in exchange for exciting adventures they never went on—that is, seemingly everyone, except one reserved, awkward, middle-aged woman named Carol Kohl.
Our unlikely protagonist, Carol, has no interest in thrill-seeking like her extroverted sister Elena. Well aware of the current circumstances, but a staunch creature of habit, Carol wishes to carry on with everyday tasks. For instance, she makes routine dental appointments (though no one is present to take patients anymore) and visits a local abandoned Applebee’s where she can daydream about reliving her ordinary days of contentment. But her parents are concerned about her lack of drive: She’s not visiting new places, picking up fun hobbies or meeting new people. Feeling her life is, in fact, inadequate, Carol tells a small lie to reassure her loved ones.
Salvation ends up coming in the most unlikely of places when Carol stumbles upon an office floor labeled “Accounting,” full of employees who carry on with administrative tasks despite being housed in an otherwise dilapidated building. She has found the “Distraction,” a company whose employees work solitarily to fill their day, despite no one really knowing what goal they're working toward. She enthusiastically joins her fellow coworkers, though it isn’t long before this outwardly mild-mannered employee is jeopardizing the company’s objective by making it a point to learn every single person’s name in the office and forging close friendships with colleagues Donna and Luis over homemade banana bread.
Conveying themes of existentialism, the fear of loneliness and mediocrity, the importance of self-acceptance and the power of community by using extremely clever, satirical humor that pokes fun at human behavior along with its endearing, genuine characters makes this story one of my favorite shows of all time and one that I return to when I find myself becoming far too cynical and in need of a gentle reminder of what truly is important in life.
We Lost Our Human
This isn’t your typical show you can find on Netflix; rather, it’s an interactive sci-fi fantasy adventure special where the audience can choose the trajectory of the narrative. The story centers around two pets—a grumpy, anti-social cat named Pud and a hyper, bubbly dog named Ham—who one morning, after an accidental power outage mishap, wake to find that their beloved human is missing. It isn’t long before they realize that not only has their human disappeared, but all humans have vanished!
With the guidance of a helpful holographic assistant known as I.T., they decide to leave the safety of their home in search of their missing family member. The audience must decide whether they want to explore Pud or Ham’s storyline, which unlocks various adventures, wacky interactions and dangerous foes.
From run-ins with a Meat Witch to hilarious hallucinations brought on by consuming an exotic fish (if you so choose, of course), the story takes the audience through absurd, chaotic circumstances as the two rival pet siblings try to figure out how to reunite with their loved one. In the process, they just might find that by working together they can learn to embrace each other as family rather than as adversaries and find their way back through alternate dimensions to where they truly belong: together.
Funny and heartwarming, Pud and Ham’s antics are a worthwhile journey for those looking for some lightheartedness from a sarcastic cat and a naïve dog you won’t be able to keep from loving and rooting for.
The Good Place
The Good Place is a four-season fantasy-comedy show that masterfully balances thought-provoking, meaningful themes that investigate what it means to act ethically and be a good human while including copious amounts of funny, witty dialogue. But don’t let the comical tone fool you; although it can be described as a light-hearted show, it’s also one that has a gift for making viewers chuckle one minute and in the next, moving audiences to tears, oftentimes in a single scene. Many might overlook this story, thinking it’s like any other cheesy sitcom, but The Good Place, unlike others, pulls off a surprisingly simple yet immensely profound conclusion.
The show begins with a woman named Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell), who is notified by Michael (Ted Danson), an “architect” of the afterlife, that she has died, though she doesn’t have any recollection of her death as her memory of the incident has been wiped—typical protocol for particularly embarrassing or traumatic deaths. Though it’s a huge bummer that she’s dead, Michael comforts Eleanor by explaining that she made it into “The Good Place.” It turns out that throughout life the powers that be were watching and every action Eleanor took gave her positive or negative points that would decide whether she would end up in “The Bad Place” or “The Good Place.” Due to her exemplary record as a human, she can now enjoy paradise along with her true soulmate, an ethics and moral philosophy professor named Chidi Anagonye (William Jackson Harper).
Unfortunately, Michael appears to have made a huge mistake—you see, Eleanor wasn’t a death row lawyer, she never went on a human rights mission, nor is she fond of the clown paintings Michael has adorned her new home with, which are supposed to be her favorite type of décor. Eleanor actually hates clowns … and used to pay her bills as a drug sales associate who preyed on the sick and elderly while she was alive. After venting to Chidi, who Eleanor is learning is an intelligent, empathetic but extremely anxious and indecisive soulmate, about her situation, they begin the somewhat insurmountable task of teaching Eleanor to be good. A stunning story of companionship, love, and growth, this show will amaze you with its shocking twists and touching sincerity throughout each of its seasons.
Bee and PuppyCat
The first season of this unique show was initially released on YouTube, but Netflix eventually re-adapted the series in 2022 with three new episodes added alongside the 13 episodes that had already been produced in 2019 as Lazy in Space, during which episodes were set to release but unfortunately ran into complications that prevented the plan from moving forward.
In the fantastic Netflix adaptation, viewers are introduced to a quirky, relatable 20-something woman named Bee who is fired from her job working at a cat café, but while walking home from work that night, she meets PuppyCat, a cat-dog hybrid who falls out of the sky after Bee wishes for a cat to keep her company. The unlikely duo goes on strange, temporary jobs in space after PuppyCat teleports them to Temp Space, an alternate dimension where they are assigned tasks by an intelligent intergalactic computer named TempBot.
This way PuppyCat’s “owner,” Bee, can financially provide for the household, and PuppyCat can take on his role as a pet, which Bee describes as a roommate who can eat, sleep and poop wherever he wants, whenever he wants.
Bee is a kind, loyal and zany protagonist, while PuppyCat is revealed to be a Space Outlaw with a sometimes harsh, serious personality and a perpetual frown on his face who tends to boss others around and become regularly irritable. Yet, oddly, together, they make a formidable team that allows them to successfully complete the weirdest of assignments for countless space beings, including babysitting a giant talking baby head on Daycare Planet or destroying an unsettling flying eyeball who resides in CloudWorld.
Even though the gorgeous, vibrant pastel animation style is reason enough to give this show a watch, PuppyCat’s hilarious one-liners delivered with his bizarre melodic speech gibberish, along with his signature scowl (making him appear even more adorable, much to his vexation), will quickly get you invested in this outlandish show that somehow also manages to pull at your heartstrings as PuppyCat eventually, little-by-little, starts to trust, rely on and care for Bee as she does for him.
