I have heard a lot of commentary over the last year how the value of Netflix Canada is somewhat dubious at best. I agree in some aspects but in many ways I can completely debunk that theory simply by looking at one thing Netflix does offer. Loads and loads of TV shows for a price you can’t beat.
To put it plainly it is a massive piss off that in Canada our Netflix movie selection is at best a bit weak and at worst downright pathetic but the one saving grace is the amount of great television that you can watch.
I am in Canada which is why the focus of my piece is directed at Netflix Canada I will leave it to one of our American writers to do a piece on Netflix USA. That said however I am pretty confident all of these shows and many more are on NetFlix on Demand in the USA.
At one time I used to buy boxsets of my favourite shows but now thanks to Netflix I can watch some of them on demand and when you consider a box set can go for $40 or more Netflix is going to save you a ton of money. If we are generous and say that 14 box sets only cost $20 each then you are going to save over $150 with Netflix while enjoying great tv shows and hopefully discovering a few new ones.
Below is my list of 14 great TV shows that I have watched on Netflix and make Netflix well worth the price.
Community: When his degree is found bogus, cocky lawyer Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) is sent back to the local community college, where he meets befuddled students and instructors whose credentials are as dubious as his own. Winger forms a study group to be near Britta (Gillian Jacobs) but gains a grab bag of other pals, including moist-towelette tycoon Pierce Hawthorne (Chevy Chase) and Abed (Danny Pudi), a film student with Asperger’s.
Arrested Development: This wickedly funny Emmy-winning sitcom follows the tribulations of the Bluths, a wealthy California clan gone to the dogs after paterfamilias and real estate tycoon George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) gets busted for fraud. Now long-suffering son Michael (Jason Bateman) keeps the family business afloat as he spars with his boozy mother (Jessica Walter), vapid siblings (Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett and Tony Hale) and other wildly dysfunctional relatives.
Dead Like Me: Led by abrasive boss and substitute father figure Rube Sofer (Mandy Patinkin), a motley group of undead grim reapers finds themselves tasked with shepherding the recently departed into the afterlife in this snarky Showtime series. Among the team of postmortem soul collectors are an incessantly dour college dropout (Ellen Muth), a steely meter maid (Jasmine Guy) and a charming British bad boy (Callum Blue).
Breaking In: The team at Contra Security sells their services by cracking into companies, thereby proving their vulnerability. Led by the enigmatic Oz, each member of the Contra crew has a nefarious background that makes them perfect for the job.
The IT Crowd: In the age-old clash of IT versus the corporation, basement-dwelling dweebs Roy (Chris O’Dowd) and Moss (Richard Ayoade) face off against cloddish owner-come-lately Douglas (Matt Berry), with tech-illiterate relationship manager Jen (Katherine Parkinson) running interference. The British sitcom finds the expert misfits inventing undergarments when they aren’t mastering football-speak, while serial dater Jen’s prospects never seem to improve.
The Riches: Minnie Driver earned an Emmy nod for her portrayal of Dahlia Malloy, the mother of a tight-knit family of Irish grifters who assume the identities of an affluent Southern clan, in this two-season dramedy series. Eddie Izzard plays dad Wayne, who learns that living the luxe life isn’t necessarily easy — especially when your past keeps returning to haunt you. Noel Fisher, Shannon Woodward and Aidan Mitchell co-star.
WEEDS: Nancy Botwin (Golden Globe winner Mary-Louise Parker) takes a big hit when her husband dies suddenly and she’s left struggling to maintain her comfortable lifestyle — so the suburban soccer mom summons up her inner entrepreneur and starts selling pot brownies to her affluent neighbors. But her baked-goods business turns out to be a gateway to much more serious stuff, and soon she’s dealing with money laundering, mobsters and the DEA.
Roswell: In Roswell, New Mexico, human/alien hybrids Max (Jason Behr), Isabel (Katherine Heigl) and Michael (Brendan Fehr) closely guard their true identities from enemies while forging romances with classmates and gradually discovering their destiny to save their home planet. In this sci-fi series, the alien teenagers form tight bonds with trusted friends Liz (Shiri Appleby), Maria (Majandra Delfino) and Alex (Colin Hanks).
MONK : Hampered by an odd variety of phobias and obsessive-compulsive tendencies that surfaced after his wife’s murder, brilliant San Francisco police detective Adrian Monk (Tony Shalhoub) quits the force and begins working as a consultant on the SFPD’s toughest cases. Monk‘s former superior, Capt. Stottlemeyer (Ted Levine), grudgingly calls on him for help but refuses to let the eccentric ex-cop rejoin the force.
Firefly: Set almost 500 years in the future, this short-lived but much-loved TV series follows the adventures of the ragtag crew (including Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres and Alan Tudyk) of the transport spaceship Serenity, who view no job as too small, too dirty or too close to the line of illegality. When a passenger is wanted by the ruling Alliance regime, the Firefly must hide out in the dangerous fringes of space.
HEROES: Drawing on American comic book tradition, NBC’s groundbreaking sci-fi serial drama intertwines the stories of a disparate group of seemingly ordinary people who suddenly discover they possess superhuman abilities. These so-calledheroes include a Japanese time traveler, a death-defying cheerleader, a nurse with the power of flight and others who align themselves in an epic clash against a megalomaniacal villain bent on harvesting their DNA.
DollHouse: Routinely implanted with the memories, skills and personality traits she needs to carry out her latest mission, programmable doll-for-hire Echo (Eliza Dushku) reliably completes each challenging job and subsequently has her mind erased by her Dollhouse handlers. Created by Joss Whedon, this sci-fi series explores Echo’s attempts to understand old recollections that inexplicably begin creeping into her consciousness.
Mad Men: Set in 1960s New York City, this AMC series takes a peek inside an ad agency during an era when the cutthroat business had a glamorous lure. When the cigarette smoke clears and the martinis are set down, at the center of it all is ad man Don Draper (Jon Hamm). Meanwhile, his marriage suffers as his wife, Betty (January Jones), recoils from his womanizing ways. Garnering numerous awards, the show also stars John Slattery and Elisabeth Moss.
Justified: This cop drama centers on Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), a rookie U.S. Marshal whose penchant for taking the law into his own hands, frontier-style, gets him relegated to a real backwater post — the Appalachian town where he grew up. As Givens squares off against escaped convicts, drug dealers, white supremacists and other hardened crooks, he also works to come to terms with his troubled father, Arlo (Raymond J. Barry).
So there you have it 14 TV Shows that make Netflix a good buy. Not only will you save on buying box sets but in many cases you will save on the cable bill. I saw many of these shows on Netflix and never on TV and moving forward I am cutting back on my Cable. Sure I might have to wait some time to catch them on Netflix but if I can knock my $100 a month cable bill back to $50 a month I win two fold. I win by not buying box sets anymore and I win by not forking out huge money on my cable bill every month just to get one or tow shows. What are your favorite TV show son Netflix? Please share in the comments but also include if you watched it on Netflix Canada or in the USA so that all the readers can be sure its available to them as well.
If your a documentary fan I would encourage you to checkout my early article, 10 Documentaries to watch on Netflix
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