The best Netflix original series of 2018 – The Haunting of Hill House / Image by Netflix
Netflix has been putting out some of the best original series for a while now.
Without being held back by network standards, they are able to stretch the boundaries and release stories that take chances. As a result, these are some of the best shows to both entertain and challenge viewers.
It also helps that Netflix has set up deals all over the world, so fans in the United States can enjoy Netflix original series from Germany, Australia, Spain, France, Brazil, and just about anywhere else that exciting filmmakers are telling their stories.
2018 was no different, as there were dozens and dozens of Netflix original series released throughout the year. With so many to choose, from people might wonder where to start if they are just catching on to the brilliance that is Netflix television.
While this is nowhere near a definitive list, here is a look at 15 of the best Netflix original series of 2018 to help you get started binge watching some of the best stories on television.
15. The Rain
The Rain is a sci-fi post-apocalyptic series from Denmark that premiered on May 30 as a Netflix original series.
The show tells the story of a world ravaged when a virus is carried through rainfall and kills almost everyone in the world. A father takes his two children (Simone and Rasmus) into a bunker for their safety.
When their dad leaves, the siblings leave the bunker after six years to find him and instead find a group of survivors with weapons and a world that has turned upside down.
The kids then have to survive a very harsh world where the surviving humans are almost as deadly as the toxic rains. Going through Sweden and Denmark, the siblings search for their dad, who might have the cure the world is looking for.
Netflix renewed The Rain for a second season.
14. Maniac
Released on Sept. 21, 2018, Maniac is a Netflix original series that offered an extraordinary cast and put them into a bizarre mind-boggling sci-fi series.
Maniac was based on a Norwegian TV series of the same name and was directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, the brilliant director behind the first season of True Detective.
Emma Stone is Annie and Jonah Hill is Owen, two strangers who submit themselves to a pharmaceutical trial and end up on a strange journey where no one — from the characters to the viewers watching on Netflix — has any idea what is real.
There will not be a second season as this Netflix original series was meant to be a standalone story, and it was a huge success.
Stone picked up award nominations at the Satellite Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards while it was also recognized at the Writers Guild of America Awards.
13. Safe
Michael C. Hall is no stranger to groundbreaking television, as he starred in the critically acclaimed Dexter on Showtime.
Hall made his debut on a Netflix original series with the Harlen Coben scripted Safe. The series premiered on May 10, 2018, and had Hall star as a man whose daughter disappeared.
The Netflix original, a British production, showed Hall as a surgeon who lives in a peaceful estate that is supposed to be safe behind a guarded wall but starts to learn that not everything is as it seems after his daughter disappears.
While it takes a bit to get used to Hall’s British accent, the Netflix original series paints an interesting picture of dysfunctional people that almost overshadows the fact that it’s about a missing child.
12. Lost in Space
Netflix rebooted a classic 1965 television series for a new generation with their Netflix original series Lost in Space.
The re-imagining of the sci-fi series made it darker and more sci-fi, whereas the original was pure bubblegum sci-fi entertainment, but it somehow worked.
With a solid cast that included Molly Parker, Toby Stephens and a wonderfully off-kilter Parker Posey, the story of the Robinson family’s journey into space roared back to life.
The series hit Netflix on April 13, 2018, and focused much of the attention on the youngest son Will and the very different Robot that befriends him.
Netflix ordered a second season of Lost in Space that should air sometime in 2019.
11. Ozark, Season 2
After making what seemed like a comfortable home in quirky movie comedies, Jason Bateman redefined what audiences might think of him in the Netflix original crime drama Ozark.
The first season, which aired in 2017, saw Bateman’s Marty as a financial planner who ends up in a scheme to help a Mexican drug cartel launder money.
Soon, he gets in over his head, which drags his wife Wendy (Laura Linney) along with him as they find out that not even the Ozarks are safe.
Season 2 hit on Aug. 31, 2018, and raised the stakes with more murder and mayhem and much darker, dangerous stakes for Marty and Wendy. Fans loved it and critics lauded the strong female characters that populated the series.
It was another successful Netflix original series and a third season was ordered for a 2019 release.
10. American Vandal, Season 2
American Vandal changed things up in season 2 and while some fans of the original series tuned out due to the subject matter, it was just as brilliant as the first season.
The second season debuted on Oct. 26, 2018, and saw the filmmakers leave the safety of their school for a private school that had a student email them for help proving the innocence of one of their friends.
The crime? Someone was pulling pranks that involved poop — from spiking the lemonade in the cafeteria with laxatives to putting cat poop in the confetti gun for a pep rally.
As with the first season, there were twists and turns as the two friends could not agree on who their top suspects should be and the show moved from hilarious circumstance to awkward circumstance fluidly for the entire season.
It wasn’t as great as season 1, but it was better than most TV shows out there today. Sadly, Netflix chose to make season 2 the final one for this Netflix original series.
9. Orange is the New Black, Season 6
Six years seems like a very long time for a Netflix original series to air, but when it comes to one as successful as Orange is the New Black, it makes sense.
Season 7 will finally see the show come to an end, which is good since the star of the show, Taylor Schilling announced she is leaving.
Orange is the New Black season 6 deals with the fallout from the prison riot that took place in season 5. The main story this season is a war between two prison cell blocks due to a rivalry between two sisters.
The sixth season was an improvement over the drop in quality the Netflix original series had experienced and the fact that Piper and Sophia are released, as is Blanca, who is taken into custody by immigration services, means that the final season will be very different.
8. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina
When the word came that a Netflix original series was going to be the reboot of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, many pundits believed it would never work.
However, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina ended up taking a page out of the Riverdale guidebook and it ended up being incredibly fun. It was so well received, that it got a Christmas special and a second season ordered.
There is also a Part 2 of the first season that will hit in April 2019.
What makes this different is that the wholesome purity of the original series was replaced with the dark humor that Riverdale has perfected over on The CW.
Sabrina Spellman has to come to terms with her status as a half-mortal, half-witch, all while keeping her own state of self-worth and individuality.
7. BoJack Horseman, Season 5
BoJack Horseman was a tough sell but ended up as one of the most successful critically acclaimed adult animated series of all-time. This is also one of the first Netflix original series to get picked up to also air on cable, as it also airs in syndication on Comedy Central.
This Netflix original series is about an anthropomorphic horse named BoJack Horseman who used to be a huge sitcom star but is now just trying to get by after his show faded into memory.
The fifth season started out with Bojack starting his own web-series, trying to get his career moving again.
Much like previous seasons, there are a lot of deep issues attaCked here and the best of the season was “Free Churro” which saw Bojack attend his mother’s funeral to deliver the eulogy.
Netflix has renewed BoJack Horseman for a sixth season.
6. The Last Kingdom, Season 3
Based on The Saxon Stories by Bernard Cornwell, The Last Kingdom got its start as a BBC America series in 2015. To receive a second season, Netflix co-produced it with BBC Two in 2017.
By the third season, The Last Kingdom had become an exclusive Netflix original series as they carried the story on.
Taking place in the 9th Century AD, England was divided into seven kingdoms and the Viking Danes attacked and conquered them all one-by-one until only one Kingdom was left — Wessex.
Season 3 was based on the novels The Burning Land and Death of Kings and was released on Nov. 19, 2018.
A fourth season was ordered by Netflix one month later, proving that fans still loved the historical series.
5. Daredevil, Season 3
Marvel and Netflix released some great TV in 2018. jessica Jones season 2 was the first to hit, fans loved it, and it will get a third season.
Iron Fist was a huge improvement over its first season — but Netflix canceled it after that second season ended. Luke Cage also had a great second season — but was also canceled.
Those were casualties to the announcement of Disney+ — which will take Marvel movies away from Netflix later in 2019.
In October, Daredevil season 3 hit and it was the best of all four 2018 releases — bringing in Bullseye, bringing back Kingpin and telling a version of the classic Born Again comic book storyline.
As the best of all Marvel Netflix series, Daredevil season 3 might have been the best of the best. And, Netflix canceled it too.
If you haven’t seen this yet, watch what might be the best Marvel TV series of 2018.
4. Glow, Season 2
The Netflix original series GLOW tells the story of the real-life ’80s women’s professional wrestling TV show that was both goofy and groundbreaking.
The Netflix story adds in some great touches of female empowerment and a story of women who stand together to reach their dreams and achieve their goals.
It is also brutally funny and very deranged every step of the way. While it took a lot of liberties, WWE Hall of Famer Ivory — a woman who got her start in GLOW — said that is a good thing, as it made it much more entertaining to watch.
While the first season was critically acclaimed, the second was even better thanks to the established characters allowing more room for growth and even more humor added to make this one of the funniest shows on Netflix.
Netflix awarded GLOW with a third season renewal.
3. Big Mouth, Season 2
It is almost hard to believe, but Big Mouth might be the best adult animated television series of all-time — surpassing everything that can before.
Created by Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg (with characters named after them), Big Mouth is about two adolescent boys trying to navigate the world of reaching puberty and trying to act normal around girls.
What makes this show so brutally funny is that their hormones are portrayed by monsters that only they can see — monsters who give them the advice to navigate through the world of adolescence.
It doesn’t always work as Andrew, who is from a strict Jewish family, has a Hormone Monster who can’t stop getting him into trouble. Nick’s Hormone Monster is more dysfunctional than the boy he is there to guide. And, Nick’s sister’s monster is teaching her to lie, cheat and steal.
Add in a school teacher who is one step away from a child predator and the ghost of Duke Ellington dishing out some really bad advice, and there is plenty here to keep adult’s begging for more.
More is coming, as Netflix ordered a third season of Big Mouth.
2. The End of the F***ing World
The End of the F***ing World came from out of nowhere and took Netflix by storm.
This British Netflix original series is about a teenager named James who believes he is a psychopath and a girl named Alyssa, who he decides he will murder.
The problem is that she is possibly more deranged than he is. Instead of killing Alyssa, the two set out on a road trip together and James feels something for someone for the first time in his life.
This series was eight episodes and took the two teens set off on a journey across Europe where they discover themselves before they realize that they ended up going too far and can never have what they possibly finally realized they wanted all along.
The series ended with a scene that leaves it up to the viewer to decide what really happened at the end of their trip. A second season was ordered, but honestly, this is a series that might have been better off with just a one-and-done because if they continue their story, it could ruin the ending.
1. The Haunting of Hill House
The best Netflix original series of 2018 was a haunted house story what was so much more than just a story about a haunted house.
The Haunting of Hill House is based on the Shirley Jackson novel that Stephen King once called the scariest haunted house story he ever read.
However, the Netflix original horror series took the idea of a haunted house and just used it as a background to instead tell the story of a family that survived the haunted house but could never let go as they grew into dysfucntional adults.
The cast, from top to bottom, was perfect. The twists when it comes to the ghosts and the mysterious Red Room were masterfully painted. The reveals of the kid’s paths to adulthood were wonderfully told.
The Haunting of Hill House is much more than a horror television series. It is a perfect drama that deserves all the credit and praise that it gets.
It is, without question, the best Netflix original series of 2018.