Netflix is this generation’s obsession. It’s the popular way to binge-watch, obsess over, and watch your favorite shows on repeat. The streaming service is quickly gaining more and more subscribers; it already has 43 million users in the U.S. out of the worldwide 69.17 million. Netflix has a section for recommended shows as well as Trending Now or Popular on Netflix; these are some of the most popular shows and movies currently.
1. Orange is the New Black (2013-present)
Orange is the New Black is one of Netflix’s most popular shows, and is about Piper Chapman, who is imprisoned for 15 months in Litchfield Penitentiary, a women’s federal prison. She was sentenced for bringing drug money to her girlfriend, Alex Vause. The show centers around the prisonmates and their backstories as well as Piper’s encounters with them, and her journey of rebuilding her relationship with her girlfriend while both are in prison. Despite its humor, this show also has a deeper message about the faults in America’s prison system and the mistreatment of women.
2. Pretty Little Liars (2010-present)

This teen drama has all watchers dying to know what happens in the final season. Loosely based off the book series, this show is about four girls, Spencer, Aria, Hanna, and Emily, in the small town of Rosewood. Soon after, the friends are shocked when their “group leader,” Alison, goes missing. They start receiving disturbing and threatening messages from a mysterious person named “A” who is trying to expose all their secrets– secrets that they thought only their friend Alison knew.
3. Gossip Girl (2007-2012)
This scandalous and dramatic show centers around “Manhattan’s elite” and their busy, secretive lives. The main characters are wealthy sons and daughters who attend Constance Billard School, a prestigious private school in the heart of New York City. Although their lives seem blissfully perfect and happy, they experience quite turbulent and scandalous lives. All their secrets and lives are exposed by Gossip Girl on her blog, who is a mysterious character throughout the whole show. Throughout the show you see relationships forming and breaking, secrets exposed, and trust broken many times. This must-watch show will hook you in from the pilot as you experience the power struggles between the two “it” girls, Serena and Blair.
4. Breaking Bad (2008-2013)
Breaking Bad is a sad, thrilling story about an underpaid chemistry teacher (and genius), Walter White, who receives life-changing news that he has Stage III lung cancer and only has a couple of months to live. He is subsequently faced with the difficult task of trying to create a financially stable life for his wife and handicapped son before he dies. To do this, the chemical genius creates a new pure kind of crystal methamphetamine and sells it with one of his former students, Jesse Pinkman. This business branch starts to get huge and brings in a fortune for both partners, but there is a price to pay with fortune: Walter’s brother-in-law, who works for the DEA, is on the hunt for the masterminds behind this new drug. The show is centered around the dangerous and eventful lives of criminal drug dealers and how far a father will go to provide for his family.
5. Criminal Minds (2005-present)
This show, set in Quantico, Virginia, centers around the BAU (Behavioral Analysis Unit) of the FBI, which assists in solving murder and serial crimes at local police offices. The BAU uses profiling to better understand the “unsub” (the unknown criminal). The show is more focused on the background of the criminal rather than the crime that they have committed. There is a main cast of actors, but each episode features new characters. Each season has a plot arc throughout, but, overall, you do not have to watch the episodes in order. The show accentuates the hard and tiring lives of the loyal profilers as they often have to sacrifice a stable family life for the job that they love.
6. Forrest Gump (1994)
This emotionally moving story follows Forrest Gump, played by Tom Hanks, as he experiences a flashback when seeing a feather fall from the sky. He engages in a conversation with the the strangers waiting at the bus stop about his personal life story, which is about a mentally disabled boy who accomplishes far more than anyone other than his mother expected of him. Left in poverty after his father leaves, Forrest lives with his mother, who is a constant rock throughout his whole life. Throughout his life, Forrest achieves many “impossible” feats with his kind heart and genuine personality. This bittersweet story will leave you wondering what the purpose of life is.

7. The Butler (2013)
This is the story of an African American butler, Cecil Gaines, who has worked for the American presidents since 1957. Gaines lived on a plantation with his sharecropping parents, but his mother is raped by the farm owner and his father gets killed for confronting the owner. The grandmother of the farm owner takes him in as a servant for their family. When he is 18, Cecil leaves the plantation to find a job elsewhere. He unexpectedly gets a job at a hotel bakery and learns skills under the hotel master servant, and then starts working at a hotel in D.C. until he is hired as a butler for the White House during Eisenhower’s presidency. You follow Cecil’s story as he witnesses major American events through the lens of a servant at the White House, and you see events happening in his family that tie in with major American history occurrences. Watch this movie for a history lesson intertwined with a moving story.