The 10 best limited series to finish within a weekend
Innovation is always a double-edged sword in showbiz. They could either make or break momentum. But short-format releases like the limited series catalogue have been a clear hit on Netflix, and it’s not without reason.
Once upon a streaming era, worldbuilding through months and years was the norm. However, creators, as well as the streaming services, have stepped up to cater to an audience always on the move and running out of time.
In the fast-forward world of today, lamentation and complaints have no place because if you don’t keep up with the new normal, it’s your loss. And Netflix has understood it all too well, flooding its library with a slate of limited series that doesn’t ask for more than a weekend’s commitment.
Especially, now that Halloween is over and the work schedule is twice as busy, the yearnings for power-packed short-format releases have grown twofold. Hence, to help you get just what you want, we bring you the ten best limited series on Netflix right now that are easily doable within a weekend. Make your pick and keep the worries out of sight, and in case there’s more time, return for another equally gripping round.
The 10 best limited series to finish within a weekend
Dear Child (Isabel Kleefeld and Julian Pörksen, 2023)
Dear Child is a hard-hitting, Emmy-winning German thriller, based on Romy Hausmann’s bestselling novel. The riveting six-episode series opens in the present day, when Jasmin Grass is abducted in a parking garage and locked inside an apartment with no windows, located somewhere in between a northern German forest. Unlike thrillers that reveal the perpetrator through littered clues, this Netflix limited series hides the face of the kidnapper.
In a twisted turn, soon after the kidnapping, the abductor starts calling her “Lena,” dying her brunette hair blonde as well. From then on, she’s forced to take care of “their” children, Jonathan, and Hannah. Although she manages to escape the traumatising captivity five months later, she eventually realises that running can only get her so far, as her kidnapping case is not a contemporary terror, but a psychological conspiracy rooted over a decade before.
Red Rose (Henry Blake, Lisa Siwe, and Ramón Salazar, 2022)
The horrors of digital existence are one too many. In fact, a slew of Netflix projects, shows, movies, and documentaries issue routine warnings. But in case you need another reminder, tune into the Clarkson twins’ 2022 horror drama, Red Rose, which is bound to leave you on the edge of your seats. Originally broadcast on BBC Three, the British miniseries landed on Netflix in February 2023.
Red Rose takes place in Boston and tells the story of a group of teenagers who intend to spend one last adventurous summer before they each make way to their respective universities. But their plans get shaken up as they unknowingly invite a creeping threat when they download an app called “Red Rose,” slowly sending them spiralling down a sinister path.
A Nearly Normal Family (Per Hanefjord, 2023)
If Netflix’s family dramas have taught us anything, it’s that they can go to great lengths to protect each other. Sometimes, they might even hang on the cliff of moral decay, but the concept of shielding one another at any cost remains intact. A Nearly Normal Family on Netflix is a Swedish thriller that follows the Sandell family, who seemingly live an idyllic suburban life.
But the peace doesn’t last long when their daughter, Stella, ends up as the prime suspect in the mysterious murder of her boyfriend, wrapping the family in unforeseen legal troubles. While the onset of catastrophe may begin with the death of Christoffer, the family begins to unravel, especially when Stella’s past comes to haunt her present state of crisis, leaving her mother and father to put their guards up to save her, no matter what it takes.
The Glass Dome (Lisa Farzaneh and Henrik Björn, 2025)
If A Nearly Normal Family leaves you craving for more, continue the thrills with another Swedish limited series, The Glass Dome. Set in a small fictional Swedish community, Granås, the place the series protagonist, Leijla, a behavioural scientist and criminologist by profession, calls home, the addictive crime drama opens when she returns home from the US.
Leijla had been working in the States and residing there as well. But her comeback to her hometown is rooted in a news rather tragic, when her retired police officer father informs her about his wife’s sudden death. While the return is in part traumatising due to the devastating news she receives, soon after her arrival, she finds herself deep into an investigation of a missing girl, triggering her own childhood traumas, which she thought she had long buried.
The Last Night at Tremore Beach (Oriol Paulo, 2024)
Everyone loves a gripping psychological thriller, but after Netflix dropped some back-to-back chart-topping titles from the genre, the yearnings have eclipsed all the more. To fulfil those cravings, watch The Last Night at Tremore Beach on the platform, which made waves with rave reviews last year. On the heels of a life-changing accident after being struck by a thunderstrike, Alex, a composer, pianist and the series protagonist, relocates to a secluded seaside location to seek solace.
Since the accident, he had been experiencing eerie hallucinations, slowly crumbling his ability to distinguish between reality and visions. But the delirium gets extremely intense, pulling him into a complicated situation when the visions begin to concern his neighbours, leaving him in a state of daze unlike anything else.
Sleeping Dog (Netflix Original Production, 2023)
Sleeping Dog focuses on an ex-cop, Mike Atlas, living a life of estrangement from his family after surviving a close call during a terrorist bombing. But the horrors don’t really end as the trailer in which he lives is set ablaze by Abou Basher, who blames Mike for the conviction of Mussa, his brother, who took his own life while in prison.
Already grappling with loss of memory, Mike has to now live on the streets, and the alone time practically becomes a nightmare as he tries day and night to piece together the memories. However, the mental triggers soon lead him back to the police department, where a young prosecutor is investigating Mussa’s death alongside a closed case.
Anthracite (Julius Berg, 2024)
Loosely based on the secret society of the Order of the Solar Temple, Anthracite is a six-episode limited series from Netflix’s French slate of production. The group was reportedly linked with a slew of mass suicides. The events are grounded in fiction and pick up pace following the disappearance of journalist Solal Heilman in a fictional tiny town in the French Alps.
When his daughter Ida heads out to track Solal down, leading her to the same town he vanished from. While there, she stumbles into ex-convict Jaro, with whom she gets far into an investigation, linking them towards a cult that was active within the region three decades earlier.
The Åre Murders (Joakim Eliasson and Alain Darborg, 2025)
Netflix’s missing cases are on a level of their own. Likewise, The Åre Murders is no exception. The Netflix miniseries revolves around a Stockholm police officer who takes a break by visiting her sister’s place in a Swedish ski resort following a heartbreak. But while there, she’s drawn into a case of a young woman’s disappearance.
Since the local law enforcement is understaffed, she now has to partner with a local officer, who unwillingly accepts her. However, just as the investigation spirals into a cobweb of deeper and darker secrets, tensions begin to unravel between the two detectives, making them highly sceptical about one another.
Collateral (SJ Clarkson, 2018)
Collateral is a four-part British crime drama that can easily fit into your weekend schedule. The Netflix limited series begins with the murder of a pizza delivery agent, leaving a London detective to probe into the case. While initially the incident feels rather random, the more she digs deeper into the investigation, the more she’s left shocked by the revelation.
As the detective expands her search, she’s caught off guard by a series of seemingly interconnected mysteries. But underneath them all is a political conspiracy brewing surrounding immigration and a few key figures.
The Breakthrough (Lisa Siwe, 2025)
To end the miniseries marathon on Netflix, we have yet another Swedish crime drama, The Breakthrough. The series takes place in 2004 when an eight-year-old boy and a 56-year-old woman are murdered in broad daylight in a Swedish City. The investigators herald it as one of the largest criminal investigations in the nation’s history. But despite over 15 years of extensive investigation, the cops haven’t been able to track down the culprit.
As a result, the investigator is tasked with shutting down the case until he reads something about a 40-year-old murder investigation, giving him a last shot at solving the case once and for all.