Over the past few years, Netflix has gained much popularity across the world, buying into movie franchises and even coming out with movies and series of themselves. Some of the more popular shows on Netflix are Riverdale, Supernatural, The Office, American Horror Story, and Stranger Things. All of these shows are very well known and catch the viewer’s attention with gripping plots and complex characters, but what about the shows and movies we look past to watch the already established series and movies? There are some TV shows and movies of all genres that are being slept on and deserve more attention and fulfillment.

One TV series in particular only consists of eight episodes, but its originality is undeniable. Atypical is about a teen named Sam with autism. Sam is on the higher end of the autism spectrum, he is very intelligent and holds onto information very well, but lacks social cues and interaction abilities. His therapist explains that as an eighteen year old boy, he should explore the intense world of dating. Sam has a younger sister, a sophomore who is a very popular track star and helps Sam in school socially. Sam is awkward and doesn’t quite understand the social groups assigned to people in high school. Following his therapist’s advice, he takes notes and observes romance in high school. After much consideration, Sam realizes that he might be in love with his therapist. Atypical is a representation of the hardships of a teen with autism and the obstacles of a family struggling to understand the disability, consisting of comedy, drama, and the perspective of Sam and his point of view on his future and his school.

Another amazing series is Girlboss. Girlboss, much like Atypical, is a very short series and only lasts one season. The show is about a girl whose creative imagination leads her to buying old clothes at thrift stores for less than they are worth and reusing and recycling them into a new trend. She later realizes that her business would attract more people on a social media platform, so she names her “company” and makes one of a kind original pieces and sells them to the highest bidder on Ebay. Based on a true story about one girl pushing the boundaries of the fashion and business world, Girlboss is about the struggles of a woman running an independent business and the opportunity costs of trying to be the boss of yourself while trying to maintain a social life.

Aside from TV shows Netflix has to offer, they have some pretty inspiring movies that are heartfelt and comedic. One in particular is To The Bone. To the bone features famous actress Lily Collins, who plays a girl named Ellen, and goes on a journey of self-discovery while struggling to maintain her eating disorder, anorexia nervosa. Ellen is in her twenties and has been going through this disorder since middle school, and has gone through many treatment options, but never responded to any of them. On top of going through self struggle, her family is split apart by her mom finding out that she wants to take another path in life and move to Arizona with someone she loves. Ellen still keeps in touch with her but lives with her stepmother and stepsister. Her stepmom finds an alternative treatment to Ellen’s problem and goes to a treatment house, where everybody is going through some sort of eating disorder. The psychologist is an out-of-the-box man who lets the girls and one boy in the house choose what they want to eat for dinner under a few conditions: your room’s door will be unhinged, all bedrooms and bathrooms in the house will be checked daily, and you cannot leave the house until you show any form of a sign of improvement. Ellen struggles the most in the house and has a nonchalant and careless attitude towards her life, making the outlook and point of view on the disorder very thoughtless. On the expedition of managing an eating disorder and mending the bonds broken by it, To The Bone is a hysterical and emotional journey of one girl’s love for herself and the people around her.

One last and final movie to watch is called The Good Neighbor. Two teens design plans for an experiment on a seemingly grouchy and suspicious man across the street, who keeps to himself. One of the boys has preconceptions of the old man and believes that he beat his wife and is a terrible person. When he was twelve, his father beat his mother, so his mother goes to the neighbors house for refuge. To a twelve year old’s eyes, he saw this man taking his father away from him, even though he was taking the abuse away from the boy’s mother. Since then, the teen held a grudge against the man, hence using him as the test subject. The plan was to set up cameras around all corners of his house and monitor them inside their room. The experiment was to see if under the same conditions and signs of a haunting, the subject will believe that his house is haunted. They wanted to monitor his reactions to what is going on around him. They set up “traps” to control the doors, temperature of the house, and the objects of the house. The conditions were that you cannot make assumptions about the mysterious man that would hinder the data collected from the experiment. As the days go on and the tricks become more intense, the man seems to become more flustered and distressed, and the two teens gather that he is showing no sign of being scared, but signs of depression. Later, one teen realizes that the man’s wife died of cancer, and the man believes that the person in his house is his deceased wife. One boy goes into his basement, which is padlocked and very suspicious looking, and notices a bell. Little did he know that the bell was one that the old man’s wife rang when she needed something while bedridden and on the last few days of her life. The boy hears the man and puts the bell on a table in plain sight and hides underneath the fireplace with a gun his dad had. The man also has a gun, notices the bell, remembers the days of his dying wife, and shoots himself. The two boys try to hide their heinous evidence from their social experiment, but the police barge into the home and they are taken to court for their horrible actions. The verdict is two years of community service because they are minors and did not attempt to kill the man. The boy whose morals were unjust got the five minutes of fame he craved so dearly and the other boy walked away knowing the consequences of his wrongdoings. The Good Neighbor is about old grudges and unjust decisions that lead to the downfall of two boys’ friendships and careers.

Whether you’re looking for an intense drama filled with laughter as well as sadness, or a crime based horror film filled with mystery, Netflix TV and movies have you covered. Remember to branch out with what you watch, because you might be surprised with what you learn and how far you are willing to expand your taste.