Ah, the classic high school show. With characters and storylines that attempt to relate to the average teenage experience, high school shows make an effort to connect with their audience. From the 90s cheese of Beverly Hills, 90210, and Dawson’s Creek to the more broody The O.C. in the early 2000s, teen shows have dominated the airwaves for decades.
The rise of streaming hasn’t derailed this trend, and Netflix appears keen to capitalize on this market. Offering more unique takes on the genre, going beyond teen issues to horror and science-fiction elements, Netflix is the home of high school-based shows. Here are the best ones available on the streaming service.
Updated on March 19, 2023, by David Caballero:
Despite its increasingly dubious reputation, Riverdale made it to season 7. Alas, it will be the show’s last, finalizing the hectic, eclectic, and outright bonkers journey that has been the show. Netflix will air season 7 eventually, once it finishes its run on The CW. Meanwhile, fans can enjoy several other teen shows on the streamer; indeed, Netflix’s teen library is quite complete, including comedy, drama, mystery, and even fantasy.
12 ‘Élite’ (2018 – )
The Spanish mystery drama Élite is among Netflix’s best guilty pleasures. Set at a prestigious Spanish private high school, the show follows a different mystery each season, with the students of Las Encinas Academy becoming reluctant participants in crimes that go from kidnapping to murder.
Overblown, melodramatic, and highly addictive, Élite is a provocative and underrated high school series on Netflix that deliberately challenges the teen genre’s established rules. Criticism about its highly-sexualized plots is rampant, but the show remains a guilty pleasure for its loyal audience. Most original cast members are gone, but somehow Élite keeps reinventing itself, and its loyal audience couldn’t be more thankful.
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11 ‘Outer Banks’ (2020 – )
Blending action and adventure with classic teen tropes, Outer Banks is a unique entry into a well-known genre. The show stars Madelyn Cline and Chase Stokes and centers on a group of teenagers searching for their leader’s missing father and stumbling to a legendary treasure along the way.
Outer Banks uses its setting to explore issues of class struggle and social divide. Although the dramatic antics often get the best of it, the show remains an occasionally insightful and exciting teen effort, mostly thanks to its talented cast and stellar action/adventure storylines. Outer Banks will return for a fourth season, proving how strong and crucial the show is for Netflix’s teen library.
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10 ‘Heartstopper’ (2022 – )
Netflix’s latest hit, Heartstopper follows the friendship of two high school boys who discover that their feelings for each other may run deeper than just being friends. The series focuses on the changing dynamics of the boy’s relationship while also dealing with their close friends’ lives.
Heartstopper has been met with universal acclaim (it currently sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes), with particular praise for its genuine representation of LGBTQ+ themes. Heartstopper is a feel-good series about young love compared to other high school shows that revel in their gritty and confronting storylines.
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9 ‘Friday Night Lights’ (2006 – 2011)
A teen drama that revolves around the sacred art of American football, Friday Night Lights has more to offer than just its on-field drama. Using a small town’s high school football team as a basis, the series focuses on the daily life of its coach and players as they navigate growing up.
The series was beloved by critics throughout its five-season run and was praised for handling important social issues such as racism and teenage drug use. The cast was also applauded, and the show launched the careers of Kyle Chandler, Connie Britton, and Jesse Plemons.
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8 ‘Sex Education’ (2019 – )
Another hit for Netflix from the UK, Sex Education follows shy teenager Otis played by Asa Butterfield, who follows in the footsteps of his sex therapist mother – Scully herself, Gillian Anderson – by opening his own sex therapy clinic for his classmates.
What began as an attempt to get popular escalates into something more as he develops feelings for his business partner and friend Maeve, series breakthrough Emma Mackie. Despite its content, Sex Education is a high school Netflix series that does a great job of balancing sex jokes with mature storytelling, as the show focuses on its teenage protagonists discovering their sexual identities.
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7 ‘Never Have I Ever’ (2020 – )
After finding herself on the outer at high school, Indian-American teenager Devi is determined to improve her social status. Navigating friendships, first loves, a strained relationship with her mother, and the tragic passing of her father, Devi discovers that growing up is hard to do.
Created by Mindy Kaling, Never Have I Ever is based on her teenage experiences, with Devi representing her. This focus on reality lends the series an air of authenticity, as the storylines focus on real-life issues most teenagers face. The diverse coming-of-age series has also been praised for its accurate and uncompromising representation of the South Asian community.
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6 ‘I Am Not Okay with This’ (2020)
Being a teenager is tough, but it’s even harder when you discover you possess superpowers. This is the reality faced by 17-year-old Sydney Novak, who has enough on her plate without her developing talent for telekinesis. Aided by her friend Stan, Sydney attempts to control her powers while navigating high school.
The series is grounded by the great performances of its two leads, Sophia Lillis and Wyatt Oleff, who also starred in the recent IT films. Despite positive reviews, Netflix canceled I Am Not Okay with This after one season, making it another one to add to the pile of shows that died far too young.
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5 ‘Riverdale’ (2017 – )
A throwback to the schlocky teen shows of the 1990s, Riverdale is a teen show that’s nothing like high school, as it finds its cast dealing with regular teenage issues such as solving a murder. Based on the famous Archie comics, Riverdale has become a phenomenon since its release in 2017, with each new season regularly rating among the most watched on Netflix.
Despite how campy the show has been across its six seasons, sometimes veering into melodrama, it has remained self-aware, acknowledging that it knows just how ridiculous it can be. The show’s success has led to spin-offs, including Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and Katy Keene.
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4 ‘All of Us Are Dead’ (2022 – )
Navigating all the social norms of high school is hard enough, but it’s even harder when the halls are filled with bloodthirsty zombies. A recent release from South Korea, All of Us Are Dead follows a group of teenage survivors trapped within their high school during a zombie outbreak.
Melding horror with teenage drama, the series takes the time to develop its characters, revealing their backstories and dreams for the future. It makes the show compulsive viewing and causes each death to hit harder in the feels across its twelve episodes.
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3 ‘Atypical’ (2017 – 2021)
Atypical focuses on 18-year-old Sam (Keir Gilchrist), a high schooler on the autism spectrum. Resolving to find a girlfriend, Sam grapples with becoming more independent as he begins his search for love. This change in Sam also affects his family, particularly his overprotective mother, Elsa (Jennifer Jason Leigh).
While the neurodivergent-focused show was criticized early on for not hiring any autistic actors or crew members, this was addressed after the first season. This positive change lends later seasons an air of authenticity as the show focuses on the changing dynamics of Sam and his family in realistic ways.
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2 ‘Derry Girls’ (2018 – 2022)
Set in Ireland during the political crisis of the 1990s, Derry Girls follows the lives of a group of teenagers attending a girls-only Catholic school. The series follows the standard fare of high school shows, from being forced to grow up to discovering one’s sexuality, but does so with a helping of dark humor and Irish charm.
The show has been praised for offering a realistic portrayal of teenage life during this turbulent time in Ireland, as the storylines are based on creator Lisa McGee‘s own life experiences. Derry Girls is as relatable as it is hilarious, reaching its inevitable yet satisfactory conclusion last year and going out on a high note.
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1 ‘Stranger Things’ (2016 – )
The jewel in Netflix’s crown, Stranger Things is the streamer’s hottest property. Set in the 1980s, the series follows a group of kids, their teenage siblings, and their parents as they are pulled into a mystery involving a strange new girl with powers and a portal to a terrifying alternate dimension.
Strangers Things came out of nowhere to become a smash hit and launched the careers of its young cast. While the series focuses on supernatural monsters, it also focuses on the equally terrifying challenge of growing up and combines both aspects to create one of the best shows currently airing.
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