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13 Netflix Shows That Will IMPROVE YOUR LIFE

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Netflix’s back catalog is stacked with shows that do more than kill a Saturday afternoon.

A countdown from TheThings Celebrity, “13 Netflix Shows That Will IMPROVE YOUR LIFE,” rounds up the streamer’s catalog picks that go beyond simple binge fodder — shows built around real emotional stakes, coming-of-age lessons, or just the kind of storytelling that sticks with you after the credits roll. The list mixes decades-old cult favorites with Netflix’s own flagship originals, spanning teen drama, prison dramedy, and Marvel’s grittier corner of the superhero genre.

• The countdown resurrects Paul Feig and Judd Apatow’s 1999–2000 cult series “Freaks and Geeks”, praised for how its high-school social dynamics still land nearly two decades later.
• ABC Family’s “The Secret Life of an American Teenager” gets a nod for Amy Juergens, the teen-pregnancy storyline played by a young Shailene Woodley.
• Netflix originals on the list include “Jessica Jones” with Krysten Ritter, Colleen Ballinger’s “Haters Back Off,” Jenji Kohan’s “Orange Is the New Black,” and the March 2017 breakout “13 Reasons Why,” centered on the aftermath of Hannah Baker’s suicide.

The Throwbacks Still Hit

“Freaks and Geeks” only ran one season on NBC before getting cancelled, but its afterlife on streaming has turned it into one of the most cited teen-show touchstones of the last twenty years. The countdown leans on that staying power, arguing the Lindsay Weir/Sam Weir dynamic and the show’s unglamorous take on high school cliques still describe adolescence about as accurately as anything currently airing.

“The Secret Life of an American Teenager” gets included for the opposite reason — it’s pure ABC Family melodrama, but the countdown frames Amy Juergens’ arc as the kind of messy, relatable crisis that makes for compulsive viewing even when the dialogue is soapy. Shailene Woodley’s performance is singled out as the reason the show holds up better than its network-drama trappings would suggest.

Netflix’s Own Bench

The originals section of the list is where the countdown gets more specific about what “improves your life” actually means. “Jessica Jones,” Marvel’s Krysten Ritter-led detective series, is cited for tackling trauma and control inside a superhero framework most capes-and-tights shows avoid. “Orange Is the New Black,” Jenji Kohan’s Litchfield dramedy, gets credit for humanizing incarcerated women in a way mainstream network TV rarely attempts. Colleen Ballinger’s “Haters Back Off” rounds out the tonal range as the list’s straight comedy entry.

Freaks and Geeks ran for a single season in 1999-2000 — and it’s still the show insiders point to when they want to explain what high school actually felt like.

13 Reasons Why Anchors The List

No title on the countdown was more current in June 2017 than “13 Reasons Why.” Released that March, the series follows the fallout from Hannah Baker’s suicide and the tapes she leaves behind explaining why — a plot that turned it into one of the most talked-about and debated shows of the spring. Its inclusion here isn’t about comfort viewing; the countdown treats it as the list’s hardest, most necessary watch.

The video also name-checks a run of other binge staples worth cueing up in the same sitting — “Pretty Little Liars,” “The Vampire Diaries,” “Stranger Things,” “House of Cards,” and “Gossip Girl” — though it spends its real detail on the thirteen shows above. For readers tracking how streaming’s teen-drama boom keeps feeding into TV Trends coverage, the overlap between decade-old cult shows and Netflix’s current slate is exactly the kind of pattern this list is built to spotlight.

If there’s one takeaway from the countdown, it’s that Netflix’s programming philosophy in 2017 leaned hard into a mix: import a cult classic nobody finished on network TV, pair it with a Marvel deal, and let a freshly released teen drama do the heavy lifting on relevance. “13 Reasons Why” was still less than three months old when this list went up — and it was already the show everyone was arguing about.