The five best series to watch on Netflix this weekend
The entertainment cravings for the weekend have reached a fever pitch, especially with the impending arrival of Stranger Things season five. But the good news is: there’s nothing in the world a Netflix watchlist cannot fix.
Consider this weekend as the last fence to overcome to witness the final battle in the Upside Down and sit tight with a Netflix series slate that’s a revelation in itself.
Just in case you’ve preplanned a weekend outing, call your friends in instead because this showbiz rollercoaster is not just for one but for all. But if you can’t ditch, you can surely risk being a night owl as the shows are worth passing on a good night’s sleep.
So, start early and pull down your curtains if it isn’t dark enough and give the five best series to watch on Netflix this weekend a chance to leave you on the edge of your seats.
The five best series to stream on Netflix this weekend
Mr Mercedes (David E. Kelly, 2017-2019)
Based on Stephen King’s Detective Bill Hodges trilogy, Mr Mercedes is an intense crime drama that demands a bit of your time. But we promise, the premise is so gripping, the episode count won’t mind the clock. The whodunit follows retired detective Bill Hodges, still preoccupied by the unsolved case of “Mr Mercedes”, who ended the lives of several people after driving a robbed Mercedes, ramming it through a line of job applicants.
As the killer begins to mock Hodges, instead of turning the case over to the police, the detective begins his own investigation, with the help of a tech-savvy neighbour. But the goose chase soon turns more dangerous than he anticipated in the first place.
A Man on the Inside (Mike Schur, 2024-Present)
Netflix has introduced us to several kinds of sleuths – rookie, unlikely, unwilling, disobedient, and sometimes even dead. However, nothing beats the charisma of a detective with grey hair, whose comic punches are twice as hard-hitting as his age. For those still living under a rock, Charles Nieuwendyk is back with a juicy case on Netflix with A Man on the Inside season two.
This time, Charles is taking a break from retirement community retreats to go undercover as an engineering professor at the Wheeler College campus. Sounds like he’s in his element, right? Perhaps. While his mission is to uncover the blackmailer tailing the school’s president, he seemingly finds himself dragged into a romantic entanglement with one of the suspects. The second season of A Man on the Inside has already opened the gates to its campus. But if the workweek isn’t letting you in, save it for the weekend.
The Crystal Cuckoo (Jesús Mesas and Javier Andrés Roig, 2025)
The Crystal Cuckoo is a recently released thriller from the Spanish slate of productions adapted from Javier Castillo’s best-selling novel. The enticing crime drama picks up in 2023 and follows a student doing her residency in Madrid who is saved after a fatal heart attack by lucking out as a recipient of an organ donation. During her recovery, she’s overcome with a desire to know the donor, and the only thing holding her back is the strict rules in Spain about identities being anonymous.
Despite that, Clara ultimately resorts to some online sleuthing, which gives her the answer to her questions. As she comes to learn about the donor with a brittle bone disease who died in a car accident, she contacts the family to offer her condolences. But the communication becomes a wire to a prolonged mystery as she leaves to visit the deceased’s mother over the weekend.
Last Samurai Standing (Michihito Fujii, Kento Yamaguchi, and Toru Yamamoto, 2025)
Netflix hit a home run this November in the cinematic landscape, but if you think the series catalogue is any less, you’re mistaken. Last Samurai Standing, which recently hit Netflix shelves, is right about perfect for your weekend marathon with only six episodes and a story that leaves you seated. The Netflix series takes place in 1878 Japan in the post-Samurai era, where the glory days of the clan are long gone.
Stripped of their privilege, status, and identity, the samurai struggles are one too many, having also been denied permission to carry swords in public. To worsen the situation, a deadly cholera outbreak spreads over, but with it comes a last chance at salvation: an invitation to play a game of survival named Kodoku for a cash prize of 100 billion yen, where the only catch is that just one player lives on.
Stranger Things (The Duffer Brothers, 2016-Present)
If you’re feeling a little unprepared and perhaps a bit rusty memory-wise, this is your final chance to catch up with a recap of Stranger Things before the final ride begins. For those, this is probably the last reminder. But in case you’re someone who needs a preview of where the Upside Down saga begins this time around, well, it starts in the fall of 1987 in Hawkins, Indiana.
The town is still haunted by the opening of the Rifts in the fourth season, and the gang is once again back to achieve their sole mission: find and kill Vecna. The only problem is that Vecna has disappeared without a trace. And to heighten the stakes, there’s a military quarantine all over Hawkins, and the hunt for Eleven is only getting more intense by the minute. While it’s best to save the Stranger Things trivia for November 26th, for now, stream the hit sci-fi series on Netflix.