You can’t watch everything. With a finite amount of hours in the day and with annoying things like family and work just getting in the way, there will be shows that simply pass you by and disappear into the ether.
But wait… this isn’t the 80s. TV listings have no power over you anymore and streaming services allow you to discover those forgotten masterpieces you might have missed first time around. And at your own leisure, too.
So let us be your guide to some amazing Netflix shows that have slipped into the dark. Illuminate them once more and reclaim your television.
Bodies
Fancy some dystopian sci-fi thrown in with modern police procedural TV? And how about a Victorian era penny dreadful style murder mystery thrown in for good measure?
If so, Netflix has you covered.
Bodies is a murder mystery spanning 150 years, with four detectives trying to solve the same crime in 1890, 1941, 2023 and 2053, with an all-star cast and great production values. First released last year, this limited series picked up some high praise and fan feedback on its release, but now seems to have joined the ranks of the forgotten.
It has all the tropes you need from shows of its kind – great central performances, an intriguing plot and some decent writing. The mixing of times and staging is a nice touch, adding to the mystery and allows for some decent character development.
With only eight episodes and no plans for a second season, this makes for a good all-day binge if you fancy something a bit cerebral. It’s also a lot of fun watching Stephen Graham fully ham it up in his scenes.
Happy
Christopher Meloni is a very serious man. After watching him for what seems like 20,000 years in Law And Order: Special Victims Unit, it is fair to say that the words “wacky” and “comedic” are probably not banded around him that often. He seems a very serious man who takes his performance with very little brevity.
So watching him in Happy is unsettling to say the least.
Meloni plays a degenerate, drunken ex-cop turned hitman who, after being injured, begins seeing his kidnapped daughter’s imaginary friend – a perky, animated, flying blue unicorn called Happy. Things get even stranger from then on.
Based on a superb comic book series by Grant Morrison and Darick Robertson, Happy is a very interesting show. It’s unique. never takes itself seriously, is comfortable being as adult as can be and, much like the books, seems to delight in pushing the boundaries of what it can get away with. Characters are hyper-realised, genre tropes are embraced fully and the show is absolutely tied together by a fantastic central performance.
With two seasons now available, the show absolutely deserves a watch if not just to see Meloni do something other than be angry and moody for once.
Daybreak
As of 2024 there are approximately 25 million TV shows available on streaming that cover the apocalypse (that’s our estimate, anyway). Weather-induced disasters, zombies, alien invasion and even plain old nuclear devastation are all covered off many times over, but occasionally one really stands out.
Daybreak was a very small, very limited release from 2019 that, due to its nature and similarities to others of its type, made absolutely zero impact upon its release and was pretty much forgotten about soon after.
It follows teen protagonist “Josh” (Colin Ford) as he attempts to survive day to day against a horde of mutated zombies, gangs of roving high school kids and adults who seem more dangerous than everything else combined. Where it differs from most though is that the apocalypse is largely used as a metaphor for our high school years and pulls it off very well. It’s adult, gory, offensive and in the end, fun.
It’s not perfect but its quirks are part of its charm. The series is a refreshing take on TV and movie tropes, and pokes fun at them with a respectful wit.
Cancelled soon after its release and with seemingly no chance of a second series, it makes for a perfect one day binge. There are so many options in this genre but honestly, you could do a lot worse than Daybreak, at least it treats the subject matter with a degree of humour… something we could all do with these days.
