20 Netflix original TV shows that are better than 'Stranger Things,' according to critics

Critic score: 94%

Audience score: 81%

Netflix description: "After helping thwart a terrorist attack, a war veteran is assigned to protect a politician who was a main proponent of the very conflict he fought in."

What critics said: "Bodyguard remains a gripping and thoroughly entertaining adventure that's emotionally deft, but that clumsy ending dims its overall excellence." — Indiewire

Critic score: 94%

Audience score: 85%

Netflix description: "Rebellious Mickey and good-natured Gus navigate the thrills and agonies of modern relationships in this bold comedy co-created by Judd Apatow."

What critics said: "The most irritating thing about Love might be also what makes it genius. Season 3 continues to make viewers a participant in this relationship, whether they like it or not." — Refinery 29

Critic score: 95%

Audience score: 89%

Netflix description: "A young gay man with cerebral palsy branches out from his insular existence in hopes of finally going after the life he wants."

What critics said: "Feels like a finely-tuned, precision-crafted Web series, with potent little zingers stitched into every exchange — along with the occasional sledgehammer." — Boston Globe

Critic score: 95%

Audience score: 89%

Netflix description: "In 1980s LA, a crew of misfits reinvent themselves as the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling. A comedy by the team behind 'Orange Is the New Black.'"

What critics said: "'GLOW' is that rare series that builds on an impressive debut season to achieve even more." — NPR

Critic score: 96%

Audience score: 83%

Netflix description: "The extraordinary Baudelaire orphans face trials, tribulations and the evil Count Olaf in their fateful quest to unlock long-held family secrets."

What critics said: "A Series of Unfortunate Events delivers its tightest, most exciting season yet in its final run of episodes." — Entertainment Weekly

Critic score: 96%

Audience score: 87%

Netflix description: "Nadia keeps dying and reliving her 36th birthday party. She's trapped in a surreal time loop — and staring down the barrel of her own mortality."

What critics said: "With the same humanity and attention to detail that it vests in all its intricacies, Russian Doll unwinds how the incoherent, shame-laden cultural image of mental illness diverges from — and worsens -- the real thing." — The Atlantic

Critic score: 96%

Audience score: 92%

Netflix description: "Five teens from Harlem become trapped in a nightmare when they're falsely accused of a brutal attack in Central Park."

What critics said: "Taken as a whole, there's a lot to recommend When They See Us. It does as much as it can to recast the gaze on Black and brown people, eliciting empathy and the desire for justice." — RogerEbert.com

Critic score: 97%

Audience score: 78%

Netflix description: "Comedian Maria Bamford stars in a series inspired by her own life. It's the sometimes surreal story of a woman who loses — and then finds — her s**t."

What critics said: "There's a touch of that-which-doesn't-kill-you-will-make-you-funnier. There's also the occasional sense that she's working through something so painful, so intimate, that the only way to avoid the abyss is to confront it head-on." — Newsday

Critic score: 97%

Audience score: 85%

Netflix description: "What's a Midwest girl to do after she's spent the last 15 years trapped underground? Move to New York City, of course."

What critics said: "'Kimmy Schmidt' is itself a kind of anti-fantasy fantasy of New York, celebrating the city's dirt in an era in which even 'Sesame Street' has gotten an expensive face-lift, and Lillian is its indomitable Oscar the Grouch." — New York Times

Critic score: 97%

Audience score: 94%

Netflix description: "In the late 1970s two FBI agents expand criminal science by delving into the psychology of murder and getting uneasily close to all-too-real monsters."

What critics said: "Under the direction of Fincher, there is an unshowy, meticulous cinematic quality that draws you in, irresistibly, to its pale-brown world of desk jobs and smoky cinemas." — Daily Telegraph

Critic score: 97%

Audience score: 96%

Netflix description: "In a rough inner-city Los Angeles neighborhood, four smart, funny and streetwise teens find their lifelong friendship tested as they begin high school."

What critics said: "On My Block is so much fun, and has such an assured momentum, that when a dramatic scene thuds or a joke clangs ... we forgive the show, because we know there are five more things waiting around the corner." — Vulture

Critic score: 98%

Audience score: 89%

Netflix description: "A high school is rocked by an act of vandalism, but the top suspect pleads innocence and finds an ally in a filmmaker. A satirical true crime mystery."

What critics said: "Like season one, American Vandal has crafted a shockingly complex, genuinely intriguing mystery that it unpacks in equally clever ways." — Collider

Critic score: 98%

Audience score: 90%

Netflix description: "A budding teen psychopath and a rebel hungry for adventure embark on a star-crossed road trip in this darkly comic series based on a graphic novel."

What critics said: "It's a show that makes viewers care about its screwed-up, unlikable leads, and it depicts teenage misanthropy and being on the cusp of adulthood in a thought-provoking way." — The Verge

Critic score: 98%

Audience score: 91%

Netflix description: "In a reimagining of the TV classic, a newly single Latina mother raises her teen daughter and tween son with the 'help' of her old-school mom."

What critics said: "The show frequently smuggles some growth into its longer arcs, even when they're built by those familiar resets." — Slate

Critic score: 99%

Audience score: 63%

Netflix description: "Students of color navigate the daily slights and slippery politics of life at an Ivy League college that's not nearly as 'post-racial' as it thinks."

What critics said: "Season 1 saw the characters relating differently to being black, while Season 2 delves further into other parts of who they are — Coco's ambition, Joelle's pride, and for Sam, her whiteness in addition to her blackness." — Mashable

Critic score: 99%

Audience score: 87%

Netflix description: "In 19th-century Canada, a psychiatrist weighs whether a murderess should be pardoned due to insanity. Based on Margaret Atwood's award-winning novel."

What critics said: "Sarah Polley's script makes for a thrilling domestic mystery." — Film School Rejects

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 70%

Netflix description: "Free-spirited toucan Tuca and self-doubting song thrush Bertie are best friends — and birds — who guide each other through life's ups and downs."

What critics said: "Tuca & Bertie is raucous, heartfelt, surreal, and distinctly female." — AV Club

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 73%

Netflix description: "Out to avenge his mother's death, a college student pledges a secret order and lands in a war between werewolves and practitioners of dark magic."

What critics said: "The show has its tongue planted firmly in cheek, and its sense of humor is a frequent source of amusement. Between the laughs is a fun, twisty narrative and a game cast to tie it all together." — The Daily Dot

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 79%

Netflix description: "Teenage friends find their lives upended by the wonders and horrors of puberty in this edgy comedy from real-life pals Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg."

What critics said: "Big Mouth finds moments to be brutally honest and occasionally poignant. Don't watch this with your kids. Or your parents." — TV Guide

Critic score: 100%

Audience score: 90%

Netflix description: "Dating, career, finding a great taco — it's all hard. But becoming a mature adult is a whole other degree of difficulty."

What critics said: "Season two of Master of None is expanding its comprehension of what it can be, the depth of its many side characters and, most importantly, continuing to be unpredictable and true to itself." — Hollywood Reporter