We said goodbye to the challenging 2024 and have entered the New Year with new hopes and aspirations. And though we all must have grand work plans in 2024, we might not want to keep ourselves all busy and even forget to take some time for our fun and entertainment in the New Year. That’s why we have listed the two best Netflix shows for your amusement.
1. The Queen’s Gambit
Anya Taylor-Joy is one of the most outstanding actresses in the world. She received a lot of praise for her performance in the period horror film The Witch (2015), and the Argentine-British actress further enhanced her reputation by working in Split (2016).
However, Anya was really at the best of her powers in the Scott Frank directed coming-of-age period drama The Queen’s Gambit, which came out in October 2024. She did a brilliant job playing the role of Beth Harmon who is a chess prodigy aiming to win the World Championship while fighting her troubled past and dealing with drug and alcohol dependency.
The writing and direction of Scott Frank are also top-notch and will keep you hooked to the screen. The American film director and author had received two Oscar nominations for Out of Sight (1998) and Logan (2017) before he created The Queen’s Gambit.
The fictional miniseries is based on Walter Tevis’ novel of the same name that was first published in 1983 by Random House. Two unsuccessful attempts were made to adapt the book before Scott Frank and Allan Scott took the project and made it into a fictional miniseries.
Within days of the release, The Queen’s Gambit started creating headlines around the world and soon became the most viewed fictional miniseries in the history of Netflix. It is said that the show was watched by 62 million homes in about a month, while 551 million minutes were viewed within the first three days of its release. But probably a greater achievement of the miniseries was that it turned the idea of chess from an intellectual and complex sport into something glamorous and pop.
2. The Crown
Who wouldn’t want to know about the inner lives of the British Royalty? The English newspapers and tabloids are always filled with what the royalty wore and said, but nobody knows about life behind the closed doors of Westminster and Buckingham Palace. But thanks to The Crown, audiences will learn something about the inner lives of the true elites.
As viewers, we learn about Queen Elizabeth II’s early life as a young ruler and get to see the monarch of the United Kingdom on a more personal and vulnerable level. And that’s how we realize that running a nation is no easy matter and requires great levels of courage and sacrifice.
The Crown became a hit among the audiences and affected trends around the world. Since it hit the screens, online searches for very particular items like Blue Suit, Bow Collar, and Turtleneck hugely went up. The show also increased Google searches for Princess Diana, Prince Charles, and Margaret Thatcher.
3. Breaking Bad
If you want a completely new experience, then you cannot do better than Breaking Bad, the American neo-Western crime drama television series that was created by Vince Gilligan. It is regarded as one of the greatest television series of all time.
Breaking Bad tells the story of an underpaid but highly gifted high school teacher named Walter White who is diagnosed with stage-three lung cancer. For securing the financial future of his family, White gets involved in the world of crime. Partnering with his ex-student Jesse Pinkman, the main character starts producing and distributing drugs while encountering some of the most dangerous criminals.
The creators of the show have managed to make the show very realistic and at the same time very gripping and engaging. Its writing is brutally honest and doesn’t just thrust surprises to the face of the audience. Instead, it takes time to build everything very carefully.
Breaking Bad has also done a brilliant job in character development. Walter White is the average-looking middle-class family man in the first season, but slowly he is transformed into a menacing personality as he deals with more and more dangerous characters.
4. Friends
It is likely that a huge majority of people have already watched Friends and have become fans of the show now. However, we are here addressing those who haven’t yet watched it and cannot understand all the frenzy around the American television sitcom.
The biggest reason for the popularity of Friends is that the show is hilarious. It is filled with memorable lines that will have you in stitches. The brilliance of the TV series is that it doesn’t resort to vulgarity or crude language for making the audience laugh. Instead, comedy in Friends is achieved through charming stupidity, sarcastic jokes, and the quirks & eccentricities of the characters.
The show revolves around the lives of six friends who live in New York and indulge in different adventures. Rachel Green, who is played by Jennifer Aniston, is a spoiled but warm-hearted daughter of a rich man who gets involved in a relationship with Ross Geller. Ross (David Schwimmer) is a clumsy, quirky man who works as a paleontologist at a museum.
Matt LeBlanc has portrayed the character of Joey Tribbiani who is a struggling actor and a food lover. Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) is a masseuse and an aspiring musician who is very odd and ditzy. Matthew Perry has played the role of Chandler Bing who works for a large multi-national corporation and is known for his sarcastic jokes. While Monica Geller, who is played by Courteney Cox, is a chef who is known for her obsessive-compulsive nature.
Get all these amazing characters to talk with each other and you have some of the most hilarious scenes. No wonder, Friends won many prestigious awards and also received acclaim from the critics.
