Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To GeekThere’s a lot happening on Netflix for U.S. subscribers right now, with new shows and movies still being added as we head into the final stretch of June. And while you may have already hit paydirt with The Four Seasons or you’re waiting to see what the critics say about Harlan Coben’s I Will Find You that premiered yesterday (it looks awesome), sometimes you just want a sure thing—a show that’s dazzled critics with a perfect Rotten Tomatoes score.
These three managed it. There’s a genre-bending animated epic based on an acclaimed video game, a brutal samurai showdown, and a French horror series added for chills. Let’s do this.
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Arcane
A video game turned Emmy-winning prestige TV
Arcane is my go-to suggestion I give to anyone who asks me what my ride-or-die, never-fail Netflix series is that they should watch. Simply stunning, can’t-look-away-TV, Arcane is set in the dystopian world of League of Legends, but you don’t need to know anything about the video game to enjoy a second of it. It’s the intense, emotional story of two orphaned sisters who have been torn apart by the devastating conflict between Piltover, the shiny, golden city of privilege and power above, and Zaun, the oppressed subcity below where they live.
As the gap between the two worlds widens, powerful brawler Vi (expertly voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) and the tortured and industrious Jinx (also beautifully performed by a pre-Fallout Ella Purnell) find themselves on opposite sides of the war as a strange and powerful new technology threatens to destroy everything.
Arcane grips pretty much everyone who sees it, including the Television Academy, who handed eight Emmys to the production, including Outstanding Animated Program for both of its two seasons. Speaking of both seasons, they each also hold a perfect 100% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Network
Netflix
Cast
Hailee Steinfeld, Ella Purnell, Kevin Alejandro, Jason Spisak, Toks Olagundoye, Harry Lloyd, Katie Leung, JB Blanc, Shelby Young, Reed Shannon, Amirah Vann, Mia Sinclair Jenness, Yuri Lowenthal, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Roger Craig Smith, Miles Brown, MIYAVI, Fred Tatasciore, Erica Lindbeck, Krizia Bajos, Bill Lobley, Brett Tucker, Kimberly Brooks, Faustino Duran
Showrunner
Christian Linke
Directors
Barth Maunoury, Marietta Ren, Christelle Abgrall
Writers
Amanda Overton, Nick Luddington, Mollie Bickley St. John, Ben St. John, Giovanna Sarquis, Henry G.M. Jones
Franchise(s)
League of Legends
Main Genre
Animation
Seasons
2
Streaming Service(s)
Executive Producer(s)
Christian Linke, Brandon Beck, Thomas Vu, Marc Merrill, Jane Chung, Brian Wright, Melinda Wunsch Dilger, Arnaud Delord, Alex Yee, Pascal Charrue
2
Last Samurai Standing
A brutal battle royale during the fall of the samurai
If you liked Hulu’s devastatingly good action-drama Shogun, then you’ll love this six-episode Netflix action series that’s a full-throttle slashing, kicking, martial arts ride from start to finish. In Last Samurai Standing, it’s 1878, and Japan’s samurai are becoming obsolete after the war—they’ve been stripped of their status, their swords, and their place in the modernizing world, with many of them falling on hard times.
Desperate, hundreds of them are drawn to Kyoto for a deadly contest that dangles a life-altering prize in front of them: a ¥100,000 prize for the warrior who outlasts everyone else and reaches Tokyo alive. The series’ protagonist, Shujiro Saga (Junichi Okada), a haunted former samurai desperate to save his cholera-stricken family, reluctantly throws himself into the bloody fray. But his samurai honor compels him to join up with a small group to get to the bottom of the dodgy competition.
The 100%-rated series was widely described as a mix between Squid Game and the aforementioned Shogun, and that’s not a bad thing. The period detail is astounding and the battle sequences and swordplay are sprawling and incredibly choreographed. Season one is easy to binge in one sitting, and it culminates into a nailbiting cliffhanger. Good thing a second season is in the works.
Network
Netflix
Cast
Junichi Okada, Yumia Fujisaki, Kaya Kiyohara, Masahiro Higashide, Shota Sometani, Taichi Saotome, Yuya Endo, Yasushi Fuchikami, Jyo Kairi, Takayuki Yamada, Wataru Ichinose, Riho Yoshioka, Kazunari Ninomiya, Hiroshi Tamaki, Hideaki Ito
Directors
Michihito Fujii
Writers
Shogo Imamura
Main Genre
Adventure
Producers
Junichi Okada, Kôsuke Oshida
Seasons
1
Executive Producer(s)
Shinichi Takahashi
1
Marianne
Beautifully bingable frights from France
Why not throw in a fun, frightening horror series for something a little different this weekend? The French series Marianne flew under the radar when it arrived on Netflix in 2019, but horror fans whose algorithms have surfaced it have ranked it among the best TV horrors on the service. Stephen King has sung its praises, which is no surprise as it’s also been compared to his masterpiece, Misery.
Emma Larsimon (Victoire Du Bois) is a bestselling horror novelist who has just killed off Marianne, the terrifying witch at the center of her wildly popular books. Soon after, a childhood friend turns up with some unbelievable news—Marianne is real, she’s been tormenting Emma’s hometown, and she is not happy the books have stopped.
Emma finds herself back home, where she must confront the nightmare she thought she invented, which has taken the form of a possessed old woman, Madame Daugeron (Mireille Herbstmeyer), whose creepy grin is the stuff of actual nightmares. Marianne is smartly written, genuinely frightening, and only eight episodes long. Netflix canceled it after one season, but that lone run still holds a perfect 100%.
Network
Netflix
Cast
Victoire du Bois, Lucie Boujenah, Tiphaine Daviot, Ralph Amoussou, Corinne Valancogne, Mehdi Meskar, Bellamine Abdelmalek, Alban Lenoir, Luna Lou, Anna Lemarchand
Directors
Samuel Bodin
Writers
Quoc Dang Tran
Main Genre
Horror
Seasons
1
There’s nothing like a sure thing
A perfect critics score is no promise you’ll like something, but the Tomatometer is often a great indicator of a hit or a miss—and all of the suggestions above are highly bingable. If you’re looking for more great ideas for what to stream, How-To Geek has you covered.
Subscription with ads
Yes, $8/month
Simultaneous streams
Two or four
Live TV
No
Price
Starting at $8/month
