5 groundbreaking Netflix Originals people barely talk about today

Credit: Lucas Gouveia/How-To Geek Published Sep 12, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT Derek Malcolm has been covering the worlds of tech and entertainment for more than two decades. Before coming to How-To Geek in 2025, Derek was a contributing editor and writer for the A/V and Home Theater section at Digital Trends, where he wrangled and wrote everything from what to watch on Netflix to reviews, explainers, and guides on the latest Bluetooth speakers, turntables, projectors, and other A/V gear. Based in Toronto, Derek graduated from Humber College's Journalism program in 1999, after which he started covering the worlds of music, movies, TV, and celebrity for publications such as TV Guide, Hello! magazine, and Inside Entertainment. He then got the bug for covering tech and gadgets in 2006, when he served as editor-in-chief of Canadian tech magazine Connected for more than a decade. An avid skier, when all the snow's gone Derek can be found at home spinning vinyl with his daughter or cheering on his favorite F1 team, McLaren. Sign in to your How-To Geek account Netflix is still the undisputed king of the streamers, having been doing it since 2007 and making its own shows since 2012. That means that while it has accumulated a vast number of hits, award winners, and record-breakers, it's also had its fair share of originals that once broke new ground and ruled the conversations, but have long since slipped into obscurity. Some were dogged by scandal, some left us hanging on a cliff with no resolution, and some were just a bit too out there for a return. But just because no one's talking about them, that doesn't mean they aren't still great, groundbreaking shows. Here are five worth sparking a conversation over. House of Cards A political juggernaut stunted by its own star Back when political shows could still be way more shocking and absurd than real life, Netflix outbid HBO and AMC for House of Cards, which would become its first original series to win major awards, including a directing Emmy for a little director named David Fincher (The Social Network). The cleverly written political drama followed Frank Underwood (Kevin Spacey), a House majority whip who gets snubbed for the job of Secretary of State and spends the series stomping and burying people to claw his way to the Oval Office, with his equally savage wife Claire (Robin Wright) by his side. The series ran from 2013 to 2018, but Spacey was fired during the final season amidst misconduct allegations that would essentially ruin his career, forcing a rewrite that centered the show around Claire instead. House of Cards Release Date 2013 - 2018-00-00 Network Netflix Cast Kevin Spacey, Robin Wright, Amy Lynn Stewart, Michael Kelly, Kristen Connolly, Sebastian Arcelus, Nathan Darrow, Kate Mara, Constance Zimmer, Patricia Clarkson, Neve Campbell, Jayne Atkinson, Sakina Jaffrey, Dominique McElligott, Derek Cecil, Sandrine Holt, Boris McGiver, Mozhan Marnò, Corey Stoll, Gerald McRaney, Kim Dickens, Lars Mikkelsen, Damian Young, Mahershala Ali, Joel Kinnaman Showrunner Beau Willimon Directors James Foley, Alik Sakharov, John David Coles, Agnieszka Holland, Carl Franklin, Tucker Gates, Tom Shankland, Allen Coulter, Charles McDougall, Daniel Minahan, David Fincher, Joel Schumacher, John Dahl, Roxann Dawson, Jakob Verbruggen, Michael Morris, Alex Graves, Ami Canaan Mann, Ernest R. Dickerson, Jodie Foster, Kari Skogland, Louise Friedberg, Thomas Schlamme Writers Andrew Davies, John Mankiewicz, Billy Kennedy, Laura Eason, Kenneth Lin, Tian Jun Gu, Jason Horwitch, Kate Barnow, Bill Cain, Gina Gionfriddo, Sam Forman, David Manson Main Genre Drama Creator(s) Beau Willimon Producers Bill Kennedy, Hameed Shaukat, Iain Paterson, Karen Moore, Karyn McCarthy, Keith Huff, Laura Eason, Sarah Treem, Jay Carson, Boris Malden Seasons 6 Story By Beau Willimon Streaming Service(s) Netflix Executive Producer(s) Andrew Davies, Beau Willimon, Dana Brunetti, Daniel Minahan, David Fincher, David Manson, Eric Roth, Frank Pugliese, John David Coles, John Mankiewicz, Joshua Donen, Kevin Spacey, Melissa James Gibson, Michael Dobbs, Robin Wright, John Melfi Orange Is the New Black A stellar ensemble that made prison jumpsuits look good I'm proud to say that I was one of the millions of viewers glued to their screens for every episode of this massively popular prison drama put a brilliant ensemble of women at the center of a major series and saw the first openly transgender performer, Laverne Cox, get an Emmy nod for acting. In 2013's Orange Is the New Black, Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) is a soft Brooklynite who's blindsided by a decade-old drug charge tied to her ex, Alex Vause (That '70s Show's Laura Prepon), and sent to federal prison for 15 months. Piper gets a huge wakeup call as she tries to survive and navigate the often brutal life and hierarchies among the colorful cast of inmates. The series ran for seven seasons through 2019, and may have overstayed its welcome as viewership dropped by finale time. Orange is The New Black Release Date 2013 - 2019-00-00 Cast Taylor Schilling, Dascha Polanco, Natasha Lyonne, Samira Wiley, Kate Mulgrew, Danielle Brooks, Michael Harney, Uzo Aduba, Jason Biggs, Laura Prepon Showrunner Jenji Kohan Writers Jenji Kohan, Piper Kerman Seasons 7 Story By Piper Kerman Streaming Service(s) Netflix Making a Murderer Buried by the true-crime boom it started I remember watching Making a Murderer when it first arrived on Netflix in 2015, before "true-crime" was booming. It was riveting, real documentary TV. There was nothing else like it, and it had enough power that it actually generated petitions to the White House. The two-part, 20-episode series traces the story of Steven Avery, who spent 18 years in prison for sexual assault before being exonerated by DNA evidence in 2003. It gets crazier from there. While Avery is suing the county that convicted him, he's charged with murder, with his intellectually-disabled nephew Brendan Dassey's interrogation and confession becoming a controversial focal point. The two parts landed in 2015 and 2018, but didn't have quite the resolution viewers had hoped for. Making a Murderer Release Date 2015 - 2018-00-00 Network Netflix Cast Steven Avery, Dolores Avery, Brendan Dassey, Ken Kratz Showrunner Laura Ricciardi Directors Laura Ricciardi Writers Laura Ricciardi Seasons 2 Story By Laura Ricciardi Streaming Service(s) Netflix The Irishman Scorsese's gangster epic that no one rewatches Martin Scorsese's 2019 Netflix Original gangster movie, The Irishman, cost the studio a reported $225 million to make. And while its gritty story of a mob hitman's look back at his decades serving a ruthless mob boss and his entanglement with notorious union leader Jimmy Hoffa brings the genre's masters—Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino—together for the first time, I really could have done without all the weird digital de-aging of its stars. Nonetheless, it's a solid Scorsese mob movie that scored a whopping 10 Oscar nominations, but didn't bag a single one. At 209 minutes, though, it's a hefty rewatch, and it just kind of slipped out of the conversation. The Irishman Release Date November 27, 2019 Cast Bobby Cannavale, Jack Huston, Joe Pesci, Jesse Plemons, Sebastian Maniscalco, Al Pacino, Kathrine Narducci, Stephen Graham, Ray Romano, Aleksa Palladino, Anna Paquin, Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, Jake Hoffman Runtime 210 minutes Director Martin Scorsese Writers Steven Zaillian Budget $200 million Studio(s) Netflix Distributor(s) Netflix Altered Carbon A big Cyberpunk swing that split its audience Netflix went hard at sci-fi with Altered Carbon—I still remember its massive publicity stunt at CES 2018 where "protestors" picketed the convention center and they had a booth inside about their technology for living forever. The show was excellent, though, with its steamy, Blade Runner-style and story about a future where a person's consciousness lives on a cortical hard drive called a "stack," that can just be put in another body, called "sleeves," making death a minor inconvenience. It follows rebel soldier Takeshi Kovacs (Joel Kinnaman) who is tasked with solving the murder of a centuries-old tycoon. Season one was solid, but when Kinnaman was swapped for Anthony Mackie in season two, the reception cooled. Two seasons ran from 2018 to 2020, plus an anime film, Altered Carbon: Resleeved, that did modestly well, but the genre that it helped open up ultimately swallowed it. Altered Carbon Release Date 2018 - 2020-00-00 Network Netflix Cast Anthony Mackie, Joel Kinnaman, Simone Missick, Martha Higareda, James Purefoy, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Chris Conner, Dichen Lachman, Kristin Lehman, Trieu Tran, Ato Essandoh, Waleed Zuaiter, Lisa Chandler, Antonio Marziale, Marlene Forte, Fiona Vroom, Adam Busch, Hayley Law, Hiro Kanagawa, Lela Loren, Torben Liebrecht, Dina Shihabi, Will Yun Lee, Olga Fonda, Paul Lazenby Showrunner Anthony Mackie Directors Alex Graves, Ciaran Donnelly, M.J. Bassett, Nick Hurran, Peter Hoar, Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Uta Briesewitz, Jeremy Webb, Andy Goddard, Miguel Sapochnik Writers Brian Nelson, Garrett Lerner, Russel Friend, Steve Blackman, Adam Lash, Laeta Kalogridis, Nevin Densham, Alison Schapker Main Genre Sci-Fi Creator(s) Laeta Kalogridis Producers Johanna Lee, Lori Waters, Nevin Densham Seasons 2 Story By laeta kalogridis Streaming Service(s) Amazon Prime Video, Netflix Executive Producer(s) Alison Schapker, Arnold Messer, Bradley J. Fischer, Dana Goldberg, David Ellison, James Middleton, James Vanderbilt, Laeta Kalogridis, Marcy Ross, Mike Medavoy, Rose Lam, Steve Blackman Five groundbreaking Netflix hits that just faded Every one of these Netflix shows (and one movie) had a lively heyday and broke new ground for the streamer in one way or another. But alas, ye olde algorithm only has eyes for the shiny and new things. Don't be deterred though, they were all everyone talked about at one point for a reason, and are still worthy of your time. 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.