The 10 Best Netflix Shows With Less Than 20 Episodes, Ranked

Image via Netflix Published Nov 1, 2026, 8:02 PM EST Jiminna Shillingford is an avid reader and a passionate storyteller. She is obsessed with all things TV, from anime and romantic fantasy to action-packed series. With that deep affection, Jiminna longs to share her excitement with all her readers through the Collider platform as a TV author. Through her writing she has created stories and blog posts of amazing book recommendations, showcasing her love of writing. Jiminna's goal is to inspire others to discover and embrace their love of stories in all of its forms. Sign in to your Collider account There are quite a few Netflix series that prove the streamer knows what it's doing, as they prove a show does not require dozens of episodes or several seasons to leave a lasting impression. Some of the best series on the streaming service are actually fewer than twenty episodes, quite easy to binge, and carefully crafted from beginning to end. Netflix gems like the impeccable limited series Adolescence, which uses minimal episodes to create a painful and quite tense story about grief, family, and crime, and the exceptional drama The Queen’s Gambit, which turns a compact seven-episode run into a stylish and emotional journey about complicated genius, are just two out of the streaming platform's lineup that uses their shorter length to deliver a worthy story. Compiled on this list are such series: Netflix watches with fewer than twenty episodes that stand as incredibly powerful masterpieces. 10 'First Love' (2022) Image Via Netflix This romantic drama is the perfect Netflix show that proves a series does not need dozens of episodes to leave a meaningful mark. Set in late 1990s Japan, First Love follows teenagers who fall deeply in love and dream of a life full of plans together, only for adulthood, personal tragedies, and unexpected circumstances to tear them apart. With just nine episodes, First Love does what too few romantic series set out to do: make its limited episode count feel truly meaningful. The Netflix international drama series is unabashedly sentimental, with a core strength of sincerity. First Love’s actors' performances are also pretty fantastic, selling the story’s emotional turns, while the music serves as a well-crafted bridge between memory, connecting versions of people separated by decades. The show is a quality art piece that, with a solid balance, makes its nine episodes feel deeply satisfying. 9 'Giri/Haji' (2019) Image via BBC Giri/Haji is a woefully underrated crime drama that stands as one of Netflix’s strongest under-twenty-episode shows. The series centers on a Tokyo detective, Kenzo Mori (Takehiro Hira), who travels to London in search of his presumably dead brother, whose connection to a killing threatens to ignite a yakuza war back in Japan. Giri/Haji may have quite a short run with minimal episodes, but it does leave a rather strong impression. The series uses all eight of its chapters to tell a crime story that genuinely feels emotional, stylish, and unusually layered. Giri/Haji is a pure, underrated gem, one that is truly unique as it assembles an entertaining story that is suspenseful, clever, and unexpectedly funny, making it a perfect fit for this list of Netflix shows with fewer than twenty episodes. 8 'Tear Along the Dotted Line' (2021) Image via Netflix This animated series may be rather short, but it does feel incredibly distinctive and personal. Tear Along the Dotted Line focuses on Zero (Zerocalcare), an Italian cartoonist who narrates his life with the anxious speed of someone who can turn practically any ordinary situation into a philosophical crisis. Tear Along the Dotted Line is the kind of animated series on the Netflix platform that is able to hide in plain sight. It’s a crude work of art that may initially seem like a disposable comedy, but proves itself to be rather clever as it uses its narration, animation, comedy, and self-reflection to turn one person’s scattered thoughts into an intriguing tale. Tear Along the Dotted Line is just six episodes long, but stands as a great choice for those who desire a Netflix series with fewer than twenty episodes. 7 'The Queen's Gambit' (2020) Image via Netflix The Queen’s Gambit is a Netflix limited series that inspired a great passion for chess amongst its viewers. The show follows an orphaned girl, Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy), who discovers, with the help of custodian Mr. Shaibel (Bill Camp), a gift so extraordinary that the game becomes both an obsession and an escape. The Queen’s Gambit wields an excellent ability to make chess fantastically cinematic without pretending the pieces are unimportant. From production design and editing to Anya Taylor-Joy and amazing music, the captivating period drama stands as one of Netflix’s limited series successes of its era. The Queen’s Gambit turns a compact seven-episode run into a full and brilliantly intriguing character journey, which only proves that shorter Netflix series can feel just as grand as any other, much longer drama. 6 'Midnight Mass' (2021) Image via Netflix This Netflix horror is a fantastic short series that expertly uses its limited length to give its story enough room to gradually build dread while still keeping the tragedy tightly focused. Set on the isolated Crockett Island, Midnight Mass centers around the arrival of a mysterious priest, Father Paul Hill (Hamish Linklater), and the strange events that begin to reshape the town’s desperation, fear, and faith. Midnight Mass is quite often lauded for both its atmosphere and performances. The show’s seven episodes are slow-burning, but all without ever feeling wasted. Midnight Mass is not only about supernatural terror, but about guilt, belief, addiction, grief, and the dangerous comfort people find in certainty. The series uses its small episode count quite effectively, delivering a carefully structured story that feels heavy, rich, and emotionally devastating. Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Netflix Character Would Be Your Best Friend? Dustin · Emily · Wednesday · Gi-hun Some friends drag you out of the house. Some sit with you on the worst night of your life. Netflix has written both, plus the one who tells you the truth you have been avoiding all week. Answer eight quick questions about how you actually do friendship, and find out which of them was always going to end up in your corner. 🧢Dustin(Stranger Things) 🗼Emily(Emily in Paris) 🕷️Wednesday(Wednesday) 🟢Gi-hun(Squid Game) FIND YOUR BEST FRIEND → 01 How do you usually end up making a new friend? The origin story says a lot about the friendship that follows it. AWe got loud about the same obsession and never stopped. BThey invited me somewhere before we had properly met. CWe bonded over disliking exactly the same thing. DThey noticed I was struggling and stayed with me. NEXT QUESTION → 02 What is a perfect Saturday with your best friend? Friendship is mostly built out of very ordinary hours. AA ridiculous plan neither of us should attempt. BSomewhere new, photographed heavily, ending very late. CSomewhere quiet, few people, zero small talk. DSomething simple, and a conversation that actually matters. NEXT QUESTION → 03 You call them at two in the morning. What happens? This is the real test of a friendship, and everybody knows it. AThey are already putting their shoes on. BThey answer instantly and turn it into a plan. CThey answer and say something unflattering and true. DThey listen for an hour and never check the time. NEXT QUESTION → 04 What do you want from them when you are clearly wrong? The best friendships are the ones that survive being corrected. ASupport first. We can review the mistake later. BA relentlessly positive reframe of the entire disaster. CThe blunt version. Do not soften it for me. DPatience, and no judgment about how I got here. NEXT QUESTION → 05 What do your friends actually value about you? The friend you attract says something about the friend you are. AI am all in, always, about everything. BI can turn almost any situation into a good time. CI say the thing nobody else in the room will. DI look after whoever is having the worst day. NEXT QUESTION → 06 You have a falling out. How does it go? How a friendship repairs itself matters more than how it breaks. ALoudly, briefly, then back to normal by Tuesday. BThey apologise first, enthusiastically, with a gift. CCold silence, then one dry joke that fixes everything. DWe talk until we both understand what actually happened. NEXT QUESTION → 07 What do you actually need a best friend for? Everybody is missing something. The right friend fills that gap. ATo make my life bigger than it would be alone. BTo push me out of the house and into my own life. CTo catch me when I start lying to myself. DTo be the person who never gave up on me. NEXT QUESTION → 08 Ten years from now, what keeps the two of you close? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides who you get. AWe would still drop everything for each other, instantly. BWe still make plans, and we still actually go. CWe still cut through each other's nonsense in one sentence. DThey stood by me once when it cost them something. REVEAL MY BEST FRIEND → The Group Chat Has Spoken Your Best Friend Is…Four Netflix characters, four completely different ways of showing up for somebody. This is the one who fits how you actually do friendship, and what having them in your life would be like. Dustin HendersonYou do not do friendship at half volume, and neither does he. What you want is somebody who says yes to the plan before you have finished describing the plan. Dustin is the friend the entire show runs on: loyal past the point of sense, enthusiastic about everything, and incapable of leaving anybody behind. You have the same instinct. Your friendships are loud, specific and slightly ridiculous, and they last for decades because of it. He is also the one person who would take your strangest interest completely seriously, which is far rarer than it sounds. You would have a group chat. It would never once be quiet. Emily CooperYou are the friend who makes things happen, and so is she. Together you would be mildly exhausting to everyone around you and completely delighted with yourselves. Emily treats an ordinary Tuesday as something that could be turned into an occasion, which is either the best or the worst quality in a friend depending on your energy levels. You share her refusal to sit still. Neither of you has ever accepted a night in when something was happening somewhere else. She is far more loyal than people give her credit for. She defends her friends loudly, publicly, and occasionally before checking the facts. She would post the photo without asking. You would forgive her, because it is a very good photo. Wednesday AddamsYou have no patience for pleasant lies, and she has no ability to tell them. What looks like coldness from the outside is the most reliable friendship on this list. Wednesday never says a kind thing she does not mean, which makes the rare ones count for an enormous amount. You would rather be told the truth than be made comfortable. She is constitutionally incapable of offering you anything else. Underneath all of it she is ferociously protective. She simply refuses to make a performance out of caring. Do not expect a birthday message. Do expect her to ruin anyone who wrongs you. Seong Gi-hunYou look after whoever is having the worst day. So does he. It is the least strategic way to move through the world and the best possible quality in a friend. Gi-hun is not the strongest player in Squid Game, or the cleverest. He is the one who keeps choosing to protect somebody else, over and over, at genuine cost to himself. You have the same instinct. You notice who is struggling and you stay with them, long after anybody would blame you for leaving. He is a flawed friend, and that is part of why it lands. He lets people down, then comes back and tries again, which is more than most manage. He would give you his last chance and never once mention that he had done it. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 5 'The Eternaut' (2025–Present) Image via Netflix The Eternaut is a brilliantly tense and atmospheric survival story that easily earns its spot on this list because it transforms its compact six-episode season into something that feels urgent from start to finish. The Argentine sci-fi series, set in Buenos Aires, focuses on Juan Salvo (Ricardo Darín), who is spending an ordinary evening with friends when a mysterious snowfall begins killing anyone it touches. The Eternaut delivers almost instant proof that it doesn’t need a long season to create fear; the show doesn’t falter in quickly building a world where survival depends on caution, trust, and understanding a threat no one fully comprehends yet. Every one of its intriguing episodes deepens the mystery while keeping the danger feeling personal. By turning a strange apocalyptic event into a tight survival drama, The Eternaut leaves a lasting mark on Netflix’s sci-fi catalog. 4 'The Haunting of Hill House' (2018) Image via Netflix This well-done horror series stands as one of Netflix’s greatest shows with under twenty episodes. The Haunting of Hill House follows the five Crain siblings who once escaped Hill House as children, but adulthood soon reveals that leaving the building did not mean escaping the trauma that happened there. With just ten episodes, The Haunting of Hill House’s run feels both emotionally complete and horrifically terrifying. It’s a rare horror series where removing every ghost would still leave a powerful family drama—and removing the family drama would actually destroy the horror within the story. The Haunting of Hill House is frequently praised for its acting, dread, production, and direction. The show is definite proof that a shorter run can still be quite memorable, all without overstaying its welcome, making the series the ideal fit for this list of Netflix gems. 3 'Adolescence' (2025) Image via Netflix Adolescence, with only four episodes under its belt, leaves almost no narrative fat: each installment changes the kind of story one may think they’re watching. The British series centers on thirteen-year-old Jamie Miller (Owen Cooper), who is arrested on suspicion of murdering a girl from his school. Adolescence is a fantastic recent limited series that only adds to Netflix’s excellent drama lineup. The miniseries is extraordinary proof that a show with fewer than twenty episodes can still feel enormous in impact. Adolescence uses its compact four-episode structure to explore family, crime, grief, masculinity, and the painful search for answers without stretching the story thin. It’s a truly brilliant series that wields incredible restraint, which gives the series its incredible power. 2 'One Day' (2024) Image via Netflix This extraordinary romance series is an underrated gem that is honestly one of Netflix’s best limited dramas. One Day centers around Dexter Mayhew (Leo Woodall) and Emma Morley (Ambika Mod), who, after meeting during a graduation party and a failed one-night stand, form a complicated friendship that stretches across decades. The series follows the two over the years, revisiting their lives on the same date, July 15, each year. One Day is a truly special series—one that ensures viewers appreciate not only love but also time. It’s a frustrating, heart-wrenching, and incredibly swoon-inducing watch that uses its structure beautifully. Each episode of One Day is so powerful that it feels like another small piece of a much larger emotional timeline. The series balances its fourteen installments exceptionally well, marking it as perfect for anyone looking for a Netflix show that is both short and extremely captivating. 1 'When They See Us' (2019) Image via Netflix When They See Us, even with its incredibly short run, feels extremely necessary because the story is urgent, painful, and impossible to dismiss. The miniseries dramatizes the Central Park Five case following five teenagers wrongfully accused and convicted, focusing on the damage done to their futures, lives, and families. Four episodes are definitely enough for When They See Us, as it leaves a devastating impression on its viewers. Across four installments, the show moves through interrogation, accusation, imprisonment, and aftermath, ensuring its audience never forgets the human cost behind the case. When They See Us is an extremely essential series that thankfully doesn’t use its limited format as a shortcut, instead fully exploring the emotional devastation, heartbreaking consequences of injustice, and lasting trauma, proving that even a series with so few episodes can deliver a masterful story with genuine depth.