Credit: Netflix

Gone are the days when you could trust a character in a Netflix thriller to be good on Netflix because now… Now it’s like the second you start believing someone, along comes a twist that makes you feel like an idiot for ever liking them in the first place.

Take Joe Goldberg from You. The guy spent five seasons stalking women and killing people while he behaved like some decent book lover, and people on screen kept falling for it! Christ, he had more red flags than you could count, but chuck a baseball cap on him, and everyone’s happy to give him another chance.

We are no better, to be fair. It’s all well and good when someone’s being a muppet, but give it a couple of episodes, and you will be defending someone who’s about to turn out to be the worst of the characters. Happens to the best of us.

Anyway, if you want to get stuck into something like this but also finish it within a weekend, what’s better than a Netflix limited series? Here are five of the best you can play right now, and bonus point: they’re all based on books.

Five best limited series to watch on Netflix this weekend

Ripley (2024)

What is it with rich people and trusting the dodgiest blokes they come across? If you’ve ever wondered about that, Ripley is a fine place to start. Here, you’ve got this wealthy American who thinks sending a man he believes knows his son from New York all the way to Italy to fetch him is a brilliant idea. And who does he send? Tom Ripley (Andrew Scott), a conman who has got absolutely nothing to his name. Of course, Tom gets there, sees Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn) living the dream, and, of course, the jealousy takes over.

Based on Patricia Highsmith’s ‘The Talented Mr Ripley’, this black-and-white thriller has Tom worming his way into Dickie’s life while his girlfriend Marge (Dakota Fanning) starts thinking something is a bit off with this guy. And honestly, the way Andrew Scott keeps that innocent face on while Tom’s up to all sorts of dodgy business, you can just see what a wonderful actor he is. Dickie, you really need to open his eyes, buddy.

Lord of the Flies (2026)

Schoolboys can be a massive pain when they’re under supervision, and Netflix plays with that idea in Lord of the Flies when it chucks a whole bunch of them on an island with no adults around. A plane crash leaves a group of British schoolboys stranded on a deserted tropical island without a single adult to tell them what to do, and while Ralph (Winston Sawyers) tries to organise the boys and keep a signal fire burning in the hope of rescue, Jack (Lox Pratt) has got other ideas about who’s fit to lead.

With Piggy (David McKenna) attempting to talk some sense into the lot of them and rumours of a terrifying beast spreading across the island, the boys start turning against one another, and the scenes are spectacular. Based on William Golding’s 1954 novel, this four-part series comes from Adolescence writer Jack Thorne, and you get to watch the whole thing go to hell from different boys’ points of view.

The Final Problem (2026)

Playing Sherlock Holmes on screen is all fun and games until someone expects you to solve an actual murder, and that’s the problem retired actor Benjamin Basil gets himself into in The Final Problem. Set in 1959, this Spanish mystery finds thirteen people stranded at a hotel on a small island near Mallorca after a storm cuts them off from the mainland, and when an English tourist turns up dead in what appears to be a suicide, Basil gets involved in investigating because the evidence suggests someone’s got blood on their hands.

Based on Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s novel, this four-episode whodunnit has Basil working with an aspiring thriller writer (Martiño Rivas), and just know you will have a field day trying to suss out the murderer, because nobody can leave the hotel and everyone’s a suspect. A true holiday from hell!

THE DAYS (2023)

THE DAYS takes you into the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, when a massive earthquake triggered a tsunami that struck Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant and set off a crisis in which three reactors suffered meltdowns. Koji Yakusho plays plant manager Masao Yoshida, who is trying to stop the whole thing from becoming an even bigger catastrophe while officials miles away struggle to understand what’s happening inside the plant.

And the fact that this happened makes this Japanese drama a difficult watch, because it’s based in part on Ryusho Kadota’s nonfiction book ‘On the Brink’, which recounts the experiences of people caught up in the crisis. You’ll be holding your breath watching these workers wrestle with decisions that could cost lives, and there is no Hollywood superhero coming to bail them out, either.

Anatomy of a Scandal (2022)

Westminster’s full of people who believe a posh accent and the right connections can get them out of anything, and Anatomy of a Scandal puts that sense of entitlement under the microscope. James Whitehouse, a powerful British politician, is accused of rape by a woman he had an affair with. His wife, Sophie, doesn’t even get the time to process it before it becomes a national scandal, and watching her struggle to reconcile the man she married with the one being exposed in court is enough to make anyone swear off trusting politicians.

Based on Sarah Vaughan’s bestselling novel, this Netflix thriller has barrister Kate Woodcroft prosecuting the case against James, while his influential friends would rather the whole business disappear. So if you’re looking forward to a crisp courtroom drama for a limited series watch, then this Netflix drama is your answer.