Netflix spent somewhere around $13 billion on original content this year. Of course, much of that money went into shows and movies that will materialize at a later date, but 2018 still featured more Originals than Netflix has had in years prior.

This year, Netflix went from releasing one or two quality Originals each week to dropping more than a dozen projects in that timespan. Where I was once able to watch the majority of what Netflix offered, over the course of the year, I had to become more and more selective.

In 2017, I struggled to fill a year-end list with true, bona fide recommendations for Netflix shows . I liked plenty of what Netflix offered, but loved few. I had the opposite problem in 2018. This time around, the hard part was deciding what to leave off to make sure this list didnt become bloated and unreadable. (Though I still couldnt help myself from adding a few Honorable Mentions at the bottom of the list.)

All of this is to stress that I have real love for all the shows featured and recommended below. Im defining best as the shows that most filled my heart. Thats a subjective approach, of course. But I still believe you should watch them all in the hopes you will find the same joy that I did.