The five best series to watch on Netflix this weekend
With Netflix sprinting in full swing this March, the weekend watchlist awaiting you is glowing like never before. So, if you were worried about your weekly offs going to waste, throw those concerns under the bus.
Although March brought its fair share of goodbyes, the spring lineup has the Internet completely buzzing and for right reasons. Netflix has already outdone itself in the first week of the month with a house-full arrival arc spanning multiple genres.
From highly anticipated adaptations to gripping docu-series, the streaming library this week has been an intense page-turner.
While its original slate has not exactly been short of fascinating new originals this time, to bring you the best of the best, here are the top five series to watch on Netflix this weekend. Expect a mix of all things, including old and new.
The five best series to stream on Netflix this weekend
Vladimir (Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, 2026)
To begin with the weekend marathon, it’s always best suited to start with what’s new on Netflix. So, this week’s starting point is the long-awaited eight-episode adaptation of Julia May Jones’s best-selling novel, Vladimir, starring Rachel Weisz, John Slattery, and Leo Woodall. The limited series follows a middle-aged woman with no name who is a writer, professor, wife, and mother. Sounds like a perfect all-rounder, right?
But just when her seemingly idyllic life begins to crumble down, she grows fascinated with her new colleague, the eponymous Vladimir, at her small liberal arts college. While Vladimir is packed with steamy secrets, dark humour, and characters more layered than your winter OOTDs, in essence, it is also about what happens when a woman becomes desperately determined to turn her fantasies into reality.
A Friend, a Murderer (Christian Dyekjær, 2026)
Conceived as both a documentary and a limited series, A Friend, a Murderer is yet another recently released Netflix docu-series currently sparking discussions online. The three-part series features three friends, Amanda, Nichlas, and Kiri, revisiting their memories of a trail of crimes that not only altered their lives, but sent a rural community in Denmark on alert, transforming the place into one scarred by fear, suspicion, betrayal, and heartbreak.
A Friend, a Murderer recounts how for years people lived fearing that the culprit was still out on the loose until he was finally put behind bars eight years later. While the arrest put most of the townspeople relief, for the trio, the revelation was terrifying that the then-unmasked perpetrator they had been fearing all along was someone close to them; someone who identified as their friend back then.
Boyfriend on Demand (Kim Jung-sik, 2026)
For the rom-com lovers out there, don’t be upset because February is over; smile because March just dropped a new K-drama, Boyfriend on Demand. The romantic comedy series on Netflix follows worn-out webtoon producer Seo Mi-rae, who resorts to a subscription to date customisable partners, hoping it would bring the spark that’s been lacking in her stressful daily life. Although she only has room in her busy life for digital romance, what she doesn’t realise are the shortcomings of being unable to differentiate between simulated romance and real-life connections.
Boyfriend on Demand captures the repercussions of entwining technology and romance via the complex relationship Mi-rae develops with a mysterious man online. While she initially turns to the app to escape her mundane life, the more she invests in the virtual world, the more she’s forced to confront her actual emotions alongside the limitations of romance when it thrives on digital.
Midnight at the Pera Palace (Emre Sahin and Nisa Dağ, 2022-Present)
Inspired by Charles King’s book, Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul, Midnight at the Pera Palace follows an orphaned journalist in modern-day Istanbul, Esra, who’s tasked to write an article on Pera Palace Hotel’s 130th anniversary. During her visit, she crosses paths with the hotel’s manager, Ahmet, who gives her a tour of Pera Palace while narrating its history, recounting the famous celebrities it hosted.
For some reason, Esra takes particular interest in the story of Peride, a young woman who is said to have saved Mustafa Kemal from an assassination conspiracy in 1919, during the conquest of Istanbul. What Ahmet doesn’t tell her although is that with a combination of a mysterious key, one of Pera Palace’s hotel room transforms into a time-travelling portal. Midnight at the Pera Palace follows Esra when she accidentally finds herself in 1919, where she’s soon mistaken for Peride.
The Spy (Gideon Raff, 2019)
Although not really a recent release, The Spy is one of the best shows on Netflix of all time, if you didn’t already know. Based on Israel’s top Mossad spy Eli Cohen, the French English-language espionage series, set in the 1960s ahead of the 1967 Six-Day War between Israel and Syria, follows Egyptian-born Jew, Cohen, who is recruited by Mossad to infiltrate the elite society of Syria posing as Kamel Amin Thaabet, a rich, patriotic Syrian expat.
To gather intelligence crucial for Israel’s victory, Cohen befriends high-ranking Syrian politicians and military people, eventually establishing himself as a close confidante to future president Amin al-Hafiz. The Spy, inspired by true events, chronicles his importance, achievements, role in the war, and the toll of double life as a spy, before his execution in 1965.