Netflix Original Shows You Really Shouldn't Miss

Orange is the New Black

Starring: Taylor Schilling, Laura Prepon, Michael Harney, Michelle Hurst, Kate Mulgrew, Jason Biggs, Uzo Aduba, Danielle Brooks, Natasha Lyonne, Taryn Manning and many more.

Orange Is The New Black burst onto screens in July of 2013. It was the third original Netflix series to debut, after House of Cards and Hemlock Grove, and it took the world by storm.

In season five, the humor is amped up quite a bit, but that doesn't mean the series is any less dramatic. There are still plenty of heavy moments that tug at heartstrings. It's emotionally divisive in a way that sometimes feels too real.

All five seasons are streaming right now on Netflix.

Ozark

Starring: Jason Bateman, Laura Linney, Sofia Hublitz, Skylar Gaertner and Julia Garner.

OZARK, which stars Arrested Development's Jason Bateman, was quite possibly the most anticipated new Netflix original for summer 2017 and it did not disappoint.

The series features Marty Byrde, "a man who relocates to hopefully wipe the slate clean from his dealings in the drug world."

However, hiding from their problems doesn't make them go away and so eventually the Byrdes are forced to confront their past and each other.

If you're a fan of Bloodline or Breaking Bad, you'll want to check this one out before its second season airs sometime in 2018.

GLOW

Starring: Alison Brie, Betty Gilpin, Sydelle Noel, Britney Young, and Marc Maron.

GLOW is a series that "revolves around a fictionalization of the characters and gimmicks of the 1980s syndicated women's professional wrestling circuit, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling (or GLOW)."

While the story and specific plot of the series are fictional, the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling was a real organization in the 1980s.

The first season of GLOW debuted on Netflix in June of 2017 to rave reviews from critics and fans alike.

It was quickly renewed for a second season, which will air in 2018.

Friends from College

Starring: Keegan-Michael Key, Cobie Smulders, Annie Parisse, Nat Faxon, Fred Savage, Jae Suh Park, and Billy Eichner.

If you prefer Netflix's comedies, but you want something a little less traditional, then you should definitely check out Friends from College.

The show is described as follows: "After all going to Harvard together, six friends reunite in their mid-forties to try and get over their midlife crisis. It'll explore their friendships which at times are often complicated."

All eight episodes of season one dropped on July 14, 2017 so you can easily burn through this show before the new season launches in 2018.

The Joel McHale Show With Joel McHale

Starring: Joel McHale

The Joel McHale Show With Joel McHale is a talk/variety show that sees the former Community star chatting with special guests, as well as helming sketches and commenting on various topics in pop-culture, sports, news and politics.

It is very similar, if not 90% identical, to what he did for years on The Soup, which aired on the E! network from July 1, 2004 until December 18, 2015.

If you want to binge this one, however, you will have to wait a while as the 13-episode first season dropped on Feb. 18, with new episodes launching each week.

House of Cards

Starring: Robin Wright, Kate Mara, Corey Stoll, Michael Kelly, Mahershala Ali, Neve Campbell, Joel Kinnaman, and Kevin Spacey (Seasons One through Five).

As the first major Netflix original series, House of Cards led the charge in more ways than one. If you need proof of its initial success, in 2017 alone it was nominated for four Emmy awards.

At the end of season four, we saw that Tom Hammerschmidt, the former editor of The Washington Herald, was getting closer and closer to unveiling some of Frank Underwood's past corruptions.

Once the Underwoods found out, they mounted an incredible defense in the form of distracting the American public away from the story by manipulating a domestic terror situation that was already national news.

In 2017, season five debuted and completely changed everything.

Understandably, House of Cards is a top topic series for most as the numerous sexual assault allegations against Kevin Spacey that surfaced in the fall of 2017 have cast a shadow over the series.

In spite of that, Netflix has decided that, with Spacey having been fired and not being a member of the cast in season six, they will air the final season in 2018.

All available seasons of House of Cards are currently streaming on Netflix.

Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later

Starring: Elizabeth Banks, Michael Ian Black, Janeane Garofalo, Joe Lo Truglio, Ken Marino, A. D. Miles, Marguerite Moreau, Zak Orth, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Michael Showalter, Christopher Meloni, Marisa Ryan, Molly Shannon, Chris Pine, Kristen Wiig, Josh Charles, Lake Bell, and many more.

It's been 10 years since the Wet Hot American Summer gang has left Camp Firewood and, living up to a promise from a decade earlier, the friends head back to the campgrounds for a reunion. They've gone in different directions since camp but they come together for a common cause after receiving unsettling news."

If you watched the 2001 cult classic Wet Hot American Summer, and Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, the 2015 prequel series on Netflix, then you absolutely cannot miss Wet Hot American Summer: Ten Years Later.

If you have not watched either of those, then you should so that you can be caught up and check out this laugh-out-loud spoof of American cinema available now.

The Ranch

Starring: Ashton Kutcher, Debra Winger, Sam Elliott, and Danny Masterson (seasons one and two).

The Ranch described as taking place "on the fictional Iron River Ranch, Colorado; detailing the life of the Bennetts, a dysfunctional family consisting of two brothers, their rancher father, and his separated wife and local bar owner."

A very interesting fact about the series is that all the episodes are named after country songs by Kenny Chesney, George Strait and Tim McGraw.

The show has dealt with it's fair-share of controversy, and following the filming of the second season Danny Masterson was written out of the show amid resurfaced sexual assault allegations.

Disjointed

Starring: Kathy Bates, Elizabeth Ho, Tone Bell, Chris Redd, Elizabeth Alderfer, Dougie Baldwin, and Aaron Moten.

If you're a fan of shows like The Big Bang Theory, Two-and-a-Half Men, and Mom, then you'll certainly want to check out Disjointed, as it's from iconic TV creator Chuck Lorre, who was responsible for the other aforementioned shows.

Kathy Bates headlines the workplace sitcom as Ruth Whitefeather Feldman, an owner of a weed dispensary in Los Angeles. Regarded as a longtime champion for the legalization of marijuana, opening her own shop is the cherry on top as the series rounds out with three "budtenders," Ruth's son, and the dispensary's depressed security guard. And of course, they're always high and getting into a plethora of problems.

Marco Polo

Starring: Lorenzo Richelmy, Benedict Wong, Michelle Yeoh, Gabriel Byrne, Joan Chen, and Remy Hii.

This original series from Netflix, much like The Tudors, is based on historical events.

Specifically, "Marco Polo's early years in the court of Kublai Khan, the Khagan of the Mongol Empire and the founder of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)."

If you love the intense drama and constant suspense of Game of Thrones, then you should absolutely check out Marco Polo.