5 Netflix miniseries perfect for binging after a bad day at work

Just got home and can’t stop replaying that one crappy email or Slack you got and how it managed to ruin a nine-hour workday? It happens. All you want to do is sink into the couch and leave the day behind, but the last thing you need is six seasons of something that needs a wiki to get through. Calm blue ocean, calm blue ocean

What might help, however, is a mini or limited series that you can start and finish in one go—non-committal, escapist TV. And whether your idea of that is laughter, a world of comfort food, mind-bending sci-fi, having the daylights scared out of you, or pure fantasy, these five Netflix miniseries streaming in the U.S. are sure to help you forget about whatshisname’s email.

Cunk on Earth

The dumbest smart history lesson on television

You may have seen much of British comedian Diane Morgan’s clueless character Philomena Cunk making the rounds in clips on social media, but there’s no substitute for the full episodes of her brilliantly idiotic history satire series, Cunk on Earth. Across five half-hour episodes, Cunk deadpans her way around the world and through human history, meeting with real academics and asking awkward questions about things like the Egyptian pyramids (“Why are pyramids that shape—is it to stop homeless people sleeping on them?”), the Renaissance (“Was Galileo’s full name actually Galileo Figaro Magnifico, wasn’t it? … That’s what is says in Dominican Rhapsody”), and many, many more head-shakers.

Morgan is absolutely genius as Cunk, and you can’t imagine how she’s keeping it together. It’s no wonder the series has a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, as is 2025’s feature-length follow-up film, Cunk on Life,which is worth a watch, too.

Salt Fat Acid Heat

Food and travel as a four-episode holiday

Celebrity chef and food writer Samin Nosrat wrote her James Beard-winning cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking around the four main things that she says make food taste delicious. For her four-episode 2018 Netflix limited series, she then gave each element an episode and a plane ticket.

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Salt Fat Acid Heat will not only make you hungry and give you serious wanderlust, but Nosrat’s joyous approach to food, understanding it, and appreciating where it comes from, will, like it did me, make you want to head to the kitchen and dust off the cookware. Another Rotten Tomatoes 100%-rated series, the show follows Nosrat to Italy, Japan, the Yucatan, and then back to her home in Berkeley. If you like food shows, you’ll love this.

Bodies

A time-hopping, sci-fi puzzle to take you away form reality

If you love a good puzzle mystery to get your mind out of your own body for a minute, this eight-episode, 81%-fresh British sci-fi limited series is about to deliver several hours of escapism. The one-hour episodes of Bodies might not make for a single-night binge (unless you’ve had a really bad day), but they will entice you to keep clicking “next episode.”

When the same dead man turns up on the same street in 1890, 1941, 2023, and 2053, four detectives in four timelines start unraveling the same ball of twine that leads to an egotistical mastermind who uses time travel to manipulate the future and create a cult of worshippers. Based on Si Spencer’s graphic novel Vertigo, it’s chock full of twists, turns, period set pieces, and a talented supporting cast.

Bodies

Release Date

2023 – 2023-00-00

Showrunner

Paul Tomalin

Directors

Marco Kreuzpainter, Haolu Wang

The Haunting of Hill House

Scare that bad day out of your system

As a horror and thriller fan, I don’t scare easily, but The Haunting of Hill House is different. The hit 10-episode horror series has several things going for it that get me every time—creepy kids, sinister, gravity-defying figures lurking around in the background, and the pièce de résistance, Carla Gugino, who knows how to horror.

The series follows the five Crain siblings and cuts between their past and present, growing up in an evil house that torments them into their adult lives, some into madness, addiction, and death. Gugino and Henry Thomas star as the long-suffering Crain parents, who are just as twisted up in the house’s evil manipulation. Hill House, which has a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, is truly chilling and has one of the craziest twists in horror history. Scare your work week away.

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance

Pure fantasy escape, built by The Jim Henson Company

Whenever I have a tough day, I always reach for the wildest realms and most fantastical characters and stories to take me as far away from reality as possible, even if it’s just for a few hours. And nothing will deliver you further from your desk than Thra, in this sequel to the iconic 1982 film. The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance was built almost entirely using actual puppetry with CGI blended seamlessly, and the creatures and the way they moves and speak are breathtaking.

The story follows three young Gelfling—voiced by Taron Egerton, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nathalie Emmanuel—from different clans, who unite to stop the cruel overlords, the Skeksis, who are draining Gelfling of their essence to live longer. The 89% fresh series has 10 episodes and also features the voices of Mark Hamill, Helena Bonham Carter, Simon Pegg and Lena Headey.

Say “so long” to your bad day

Whether the cure for your rough day is an idiot explaining the pyramids to a pyramid expert or a Jim Henson puppet uprising, each of these miniseries wraps up in one or two sittings of pure escapist bliss. Keep an eye on How-To Geek’s streaming section for more, or try getting familiar with Netflix’s search codes for drill-down searching.

Subscription with ads

Yes, $8/month

Simultaneous streams

Two or four

Live TV

No

Price

Starting at $8/month

Stream licensed and original programming with a monthly Netflix subscription.