Ryan Murphy has billed “American Horror Story” Season 13 as a “greatest hits” chapter, with returning stars set to reprise multiple characters from across the anthology’s history.

The reveal comes after Ariana Grande exited the season due to a scheduling conflict with her ongoing “Eternal Sunshine Tour.”

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Ryan Murphy is turning “American Horror Story” Season 13 into a full-blown reunion, with several franchise favorites returning in multiple iconic roles.

Jessica Lange is back as a season regular more than a decade after stepping away from the anthology, reprising all four of her former characters, including Constance Langdon and Fiona Goode. Evan Peters will take on five past roles, while Sarah Paulson is set to revisit six.

Angela Bassett returns as Marie Laveau, Emma Roberts as Madison Montgomery, Jamie Brewer as Adelaide “Addie” Langdon, Mena Suvari as the Black Dahlia, and John Carroll Lynch as Twisty the Clown.

Season 13 Also Makes Room For New Faces

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The season will not rely entirely on familiar faces, however. Paul Anthony Kelly joins in a mysterious new role that Murphy called the “linchpin” of the story. Joey Pollari also plays a key new character named Ben.

John Waters, Alex Consani and Avantika Vandanapu are among the other additions. “AHS: 13” premieres September 24 on FX and Hulu.

Ryan Murphy Wanted An ‘AHS’ Greatest Hits Season

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Murphy says the number 13 pushed him toward something bigger than a standard new chapter of “American Horror Story.”

Speaking to Vogue, the producer said he wanted the season to feel like a “greatest hits” edition, with the franchise’s strongest villains and classic characters colliding inside a fresh story.

Murphy said he even studied fan polls and made his own list of the show’s top 10 characters, admitting, “I’m always lurking online.”

But he stressed that the new season is not simply a Coven revival. Instead, he and Brad Falchuk built a 13-episode story designed to bring some of the anthology’s “baddies” together for a larger threat.

Murphy has compared the concept to the “Avengers” of “American Horror Story,” with familiar characters joining forces against what he called an “ultimate evil.”

He would not reveal exactly what they are facing, though he offered one ominous clue. After noting that the franchise has already tackled the Antichrist, Murphy teased: “Let’s go above his pay grade for this.”

Tour Clash Knocks Ariana Grande Out Of ‘AHS’

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One big name will be missing when “American Horror Story” returns. As reported previously by The Blast, Ariana Grande has dropped out of Season 13 after production changes created a clash with her ongoing “Eternal Sunshine Tour.” She had been announced for the cast last October but reportedly exited before filming any scenes.

The appearance would have reunited Grande with Murphy more than a decade after she played Chanel #2 on his Fox horror-comedy “Scream Queens.”

Details surrounding her planned character were never revealed. Grande had previously suggested the part would be small, saying that she expected to have a “very tiny thing” to do. “I’ll be grateful to be a part of it because I love everyone involved,” she said at the time.

Grande’s touring schedule has already undergone several adjustments. Shows in New York and Boston were moved earlier this summer after she cited production issues and said safety was the priority. For now, her return to Murphy’s horror universe will have to wait.

Ryan Murphy Clears The Air On Ariana Grande’s ‘AHS’ Exit

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According to Murphy, Grande’s “American Horror Story” departure was far less dramatic behind the scenes than it may have looked from the outside.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the producer said Grande had expressed doubts from the beginning because she expected to tour. When the time came to shoot her episode, he called her, and she admitted she did not know how she could make both commitments work.

Murphy said he simply offered to move the idea to another season. “I said, ‘OK, if you can’t, we can push to another season.’ She said, ‘Great,’” he recalled. He also pushed back on any suggestion of friction, calling the exit “really, truly a scheduling conflict.”

Murphy said he remains eager to work with Grande again and described the abandoned role as “a very big swing” that could still resurface depending on her availability. “I love her, and I support her,” he added.

Rock and roll peaked in the 1990s. Dropped in the middle of the boring hairbands of the 1980s and the slow death caused by the internet in the 2000s, the subgenre continued to dominate during the days of Bill Clinton and Michael Jordan. At the end of the 20th century, rock music was filled with raw energy, the bland commercialization of it stripped away. The decade began with years of the grunge takeover reigning the scene, before Brit rock and bands forged in tragedy carried the torch. From ballads to high energy chaos and everything in between, these 10 songs represent the 1990s better than any other.

“Man in the Box” by Alice in Chains (1990)

A year before everyone and their mother knew what grunge was, there stood Alice in Chains, who hit it big with their debut album, Facelift. The second single, “Man in the Box,” was the album’s best song, and three decades plus later, remains the greatest song of the band’s career. It kicks you in the teeth from the very first second, as Layne Staley‘s unmistakable voice croons over Jerry Cantrell‘s guitar riff. Although the lyrics are meant to be about censorship, there is a sad double meaning lurking under the surface. The band’s initial run would be cut short due to Staley’s battle with drug addiction. To listen to “Man in the Box” now is to hear a plea from a man begging to be saved.

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana (1991)

1991 was one of rock’s best years ever. In the same 12-month span, classic albums were released by the likes of Metallica, Soundgarden, Guns N’ Roses, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. However, none of them could match what the then little known Nirvana accomplished with their second album, Nevermind. The first single changed the course of music. “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was an anthem for Generation X, waking them up from the boredom playing on the radio. Although Kurt Cobain‘s lyrics were not always easy to understand, the message was clear: a new type of music was here, and its energy wouldn’t be denied. With a mixture of punk and pop, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” started a revolution.

“Creep” by Radiohead (1992)

In a few short years, Radiohead would evolve from traditional rock music to an experimental sound that seemed to come from the unknown future. They started off, however, with a song which continues to define them as their biggest hit with the masses, whether they like it or not. In September 1992, months ahead of the 1993 release of their debut album, Pablo Honey, the world was introduced to Radiohead with “Creep.” It’s a song that sneaks up on you, with a soft singing Thom Yorke tapping into romantic hopelessness before Jonny Greenwood‘s guitar kicks in and flips the switch in the chorus. The sad lyrics, which we’ve all felt at some point, reach out and beg you to sing along.

“Heart Shaped Box” by Nirvana (1993)

How do you top one of the most successful albums of all time? That’s the question Nirvana had to answer in 1993, with their follow-up to Nevermind, In Utero. The answer is that they couldn’t, so the band went back to the basics on album number three and removed the post-production gloss. The first single, “Heart Shaped Box,” showed that Kurt Cobain and company were more than a one-year wonder. The versus-chorus-verse approach they’d perfected continued here, as nonsensical lyrics about cancer and orchids give way to Cobain’s screams about a new complaint. It’s off-kilter, uncomfortable genius from a voice which would be forever silenced just months later.

“Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden (1994)

In 1994, after the death of Kurt Cobain, the grunge fad quickly went with it. The style refused to go quietly though, hanging on with Soundgarden‘s most commercial album, Superunknown. With it came their most iconic song, the third single, “Black Hole Sun.” The chart-topper blended the lines between hard rock, grunge, and pop acceptance without going soft. The entire band flows together seamlessly, but like always, it’s Chris Cornell‘s voice that pulls the listener into a hypnotic trance. His lyrics and their meanings are ambiguous. How Cornell could twist his vocal cords, singing like an angel one minute and screaming from the depths near the end, is still jaw-dropping to hear all these years later.

“Wonderwall” by Oasis (1995)

After the death of grunge, rock and roll went retro with a new Brit rock invasion, led by Oasis. In 1995, brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher took over radio airwaves with “Wonderwall,” the fourth single on their second album, (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? The siblings have later said they hated the song. Everyone else didn’t. It’s pure Beatles pop rock catchiness, with the edge of a guitar and the sadness of a cello meeting Liam’s emotionally exposed lyrics. It’s the song that saved rock for a time and had everyone singing along, even if we had no idea what’s a wonderwall anyway.

“1979” by The Smashing Pumpkins (1996)

The Smashing Pumpkins were there for the grunge invasion, yet survived by finding a way to escape the restraints of such a label. The Chicago band’s third album, the double-sided Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, is their magnum opus. With one big hit after another, the best is the second single, “1979,” released in January 1996. The song captures the melancholy of the album title, giving up the hard rock sound for something more dream-like as Billy Corgan reminisces about a time gone by from his youth. He can’t get this time back, but the listener can. Thirty years later, the song is our version of what Corgan dreamed of.

“Everlong” by Foo Fighters (1997)

Foo Fighters were born out of immense tragedy. After Kurt Cobain’s death in April 1994, it was an uncertain time for Nirvana’s drummer, Dave Grohl. He turned to music, forming his own band, Foo Fighters. After a successful self-titled debut, where Grohl played all the instruments himself, Foo Fighters became a full-fledged group. However, with drummer William Goldsmith leaving, Grohl returned to the drums on album number two, The Colour and the Shape. The best song, “Everlong,” is one about falling in love. With lyrics about the harmony of a relationship and Grohl’s pop punk flavor, it’s no wonder this is David Letterman‘s all-time favorite song and the one he requested the band to play multiple times on his show.

“Fly Away” by Lenny Kravitz (1998)

Lenny Kravitz had already been around for a decade in 1998, but this was the year he reached his peak of popularity with his fifth album, 5. Its fourth single, “Fly Away,” became a staple of Top 40 radio and MTV. A year later, the song won the Grammy for Best Male Rock Performance. It was a deserved honor for a tune that made the most out of funk rock basics, creating an earworm everyone was humming along to. Kravitz’s grungy guitar riffs and his lyrics about breaking flee and flying away from everything holding him back combined to create an all-timer. Who would want to get away from this one?

“Scar Tissue” by Red Hot Chili Peppers (1999)

In the early 1990s, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were one of the biggest rock bands out there, propelled to the top with 1991’s Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The mid-90s were rough, with changes that included guitarist John Frusciante leaving. In 1999, they made their huge comeback with the best album of their career, Californication. It’s rock and roll perfection, led by the first single, “Scar Tissue.” The song gets away from the high energy funk of the past, instead slowing it down with a mellow three-and-a-half minutes of bliss. Frusciante’s beautiful guitar leads the way into Anthony Kiedis’ melodic lyrics about the loneliness of healing and the scar tissue left behind.

The estate battle following Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s death is taking another turn, with his mother, Pamela Warner, pushing back against claims that she tried to keep her granddaughter from receiving financial support. 

In a new statement, Pamela says the late actor made deliberate provisions for his loved ones and that a settlement has now been reached with his daughter’s representatives. 

The agreement, however, still requires court approval, keeping the family’s legal dispute under scrutiny.

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Pamela, who was Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s lifelong business manager, is now addressing allegations surrounding the handling of his estate. 

The dispute has involved Pamela and Malcolm’s widow, Tenisha Warner, since the actor’s death, with legal proceedings taking place in Georgia and California.

A statement obtained by PEOPLE revealed that Pamela remained focused on her son’s legacy and the welfare of his daughter while grieving his sudden death. Recall that Malcolm died at 54 in an accidental drowning during a family vacation in Costa Rica on July 20, 2025.

The statement directly rejected the suggestion that Pamela attempted to deprive her granddaughter of financial support. 

“Recent claims that Pamela sought to prevent her granddaughter from receiving financial support are untrue,” it said. According to Pamela’s representatives, Malcolm’s estate planning specifically accounted for the people closest to him. 

“Malcolm was thoughtful and deliberate in his estate planning to include all his loved ones,” the statement revealed. 

It added that although the trust at issue benefited Pamela, Malcolm’s father and his sister, the actor separately provided for his wife and daughter “to the tune of millions of dollars.”

Malcolm’s Estate Dispute Moves Toward A Settlement

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Pamela’s account also offered a different picture of how the estate dispute developed. Rather than immediately taking the disagreement into court, she said she initially attempted to resolve the issues privately following Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s death.

“Following Malcolm’s passing, Pamela attempted to resolve these matters privately,” the statement noted. “When litigation was initiated, courts in Georgia and California appointed guardians ad litem to represent Malcolm’s daughter.”

That legal involvement has now reportedly led to an agreement between Pamela and representatives for her granddaughter. 

The settlement has not yet received court approval, meaning the arrangement is not necessarily the final step in the estate proceedings.

Still, Pamela’s representatives said the agreement would give Malcolm’s daughter a substantial interest in the remaining trust and estate. 

“The agreement provides for Malcolm’s daughter to receive the majority remainder of the Trust and Estate,” the statement said.

Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Legacy Remains At The Center Of Family Tensions

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Pamela’s statement ultimately framed the settlement as a way for Malcolm’s daughter to receive the benefit of what her father left behind without further delay. 

“The Settlement also memorializes that it is in the best interest of Malcolm’s daughter to have a relationship with her grandmother, Pamela,” the statement said.

Pamela’s representatives added that she remained hopeful the family could move forward with the agreement. 

According to them, “Pamela remains hopeful that all parties will support the resolution and that her granddaughter will receive the full benefit of Malcolm’s legacy without further delay.”

Malcolm’s Widow Gets New Support Amid Estate Fight

The latest developments in Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s estate dispute brought another kind of response, this time from someone who has stood beside his widow for nearly two decades. 

As The Blast reported, a close friend of Tenisha Warner launched a GoFundMe to help her and the couple’s nine-year-old daughter navigate the financial strain that followed his death. 

On August 11, Destiny Rael, who described herself as Tenisha’s closest friend of 19 years, said the fundraiser was created because the family needed practical support while dealing with grief, legal expenses and damage to their home from unexpected flooding. 

The campaign set a $150,000 goal and was intended to support Tenisha as she raises their daughter and rebuilds their lives. 

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Rael stressed that the fundraiser was not about taking sides in the dispute with Pamela, but about supporting a grieving mother and child. 

She also said Malcolm had intended to update his estate plan to provide for his wife and daughter but died before completing those changes. 

Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s Widow Opens Up About Life After His Death

“It’s been the biggest loss for all of us”: Tenisha Warner sat down exclusively with @gayleking ahead of the first anniversary of her husband Malcolm-Jamal Warner’s death from accidental drowning in Costa Rica. Their full interview airs tomorrow.

On Monday, Warner filed a… pic.twitter.com/kqtXEF1yIZ

— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) July 22, 2026

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While the estate dispute has focused attention on what Malcolm-Jamal Warner left behind, his widow, Tenisha, has not been silent about what his death left her to handle every day. 

In a July interview with Gayle King on “CBS Mornings,” Tenisha opened up about becoming a single mother after Malcolm’s demise and the difficulty of carrying on while raising their daughter. 

She described herself and the child as a “unit,” emphasizing the close bond they had relied on since losing him. 

Tenisha also spoke about the emotional weight of preserving her late husband’s memory for their daughter while navigating life without the man who had shared their family with her. 

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Tenisha also revealed that Malcolm had changed his mind about having children after previously believing fatherhood was not for him, making their daughter’s place in his life particularly meaningful.

Don’t say goodbye to your whites yet! We still have six more weeks of summer, and according to Jennifer Aniston, this dreamy white dress style is still totally ‘in.’ We found Aniston’s flowy look for only $40, and we’re keeping it in rotation until the weather turns.

While on vacation, Aniston posed with Amy Schumer and other friends in front of a stunning natural backdrop. Her five-person crew all wore breezy white outfits, so clearly it’s a movement, not just a one-off moment. This billowy dress nails the trend, and like Aniston’s, it’ll carry you through late-summer gatherings and winter vacations alike.

Get the Benfoly White Maxi Dress for $40 (was $45) at Amazon! Please note, prices are accurate at the date of publication but are subject to change.

This Benfoly Maxi Dress appears so similar to Aniston’s that we can’t tell the difference. It features the same spaghetti straps, fitted bodice and flowy skirt, plus a similar seam detail that makes it appear expensive. Chic and timeless, you’ll never tire of the style.

Better yet, this white dress has a flattering A-line silhouette that shapes up top without squeezing below. The smocked back is also appreciated, providing the perfect balance of structure and drape. Whether you’re brunching with the girls, attending an August birthday party or visiting the Arc de Triomphe, you’ll look and feel your best.

This dress couldn’t be easier to style, either. Wear it with flats this summer, then add a jean jacket and sneakers when it gets chilly. And when spring break comes around, you’ll be glad to have this vacation-ready piece in your repertoire.

Aniston’s sundress style comes in 20 colors and prints, so if you’re like Us, you’re grabbing at least two!

Get the Benfoly White Maxi Dress for $40 (was $45) at Amazon! Please note, prices are accurate at the date of publication but are subject to change.

Looking for something else? Explore more chic dresses, and don’t forget to check out all of Amazon’s Daily Deals for more great finds!

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You can’t avoid spoilers here, just as a heads-up, because if you’re talking about the saddest movie endings of all time, it’s kind of necessary to actually dig into the endings, you know? Most of these are classics, and then a few are at least several years old, so there won’t be anything too recent that’s spoiled. Also, many will be expected picks that have famously moving final scenes.

“Saddest” can be a little different from “heaviest” or “bleakest.” The films here run the gamut from being bittersweet to just bitter, but if you’re looking for purely outright depressing and heavy-going endings, they might not be found here as much. Also, there’ll be a general avoidance of historical movies here, because it can feel a little strange to compare real-life tragic events to tragic events from fiction (Titanic will be the one exception, but that’s because a large part of that story is fictional, albeit set against the backdrop of an admittedly real-life tragedy).

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‘Ikiru’ (1952)

Image via Toho

Ranking up there among the best Japanese movies of all time, Ikiru is also the greatest Akira Kurosawa film that lacks anything by way of samurai or crime/thriller elements. And even if you want to stack it against the movies of his that do have those things, Ikiru doesn’t rank all that far behind other all-time masterpieces like Seven Samurai, Ran, and High and Low.

The premise here might well sound too simple, at least on paper, because Ikiru is about a man learning he’s going to die soon, and then he sets out to battle bureaucracy in an attempt to make some kind of positive and meaningful change in the world before he dies. He does, though still dies, and then things get a bit sadder when the movie reckons with the idea of how worth it the endeavor was, and whether it’ll actually be able to inspire change in others… but all that’s not really up to Kanji Watanabe. He did what he wanted to, and hopefully, that’s the main thing.

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‘Call Me by Your Name’ (2017)

Image via Sony Pictures Classics

Of the actors who’ve both blown up fairly recently and are reliably good at breaking your heart, Timothée Chalamet is rivaled perhaps only by Paul Mescal (and one of his movies is going to show up later, don’t worry). Chalamet’s dramatic chops were proven particularly well in Call Me by Your Name, where he plays a 17-year-old who, during one summer, discovers things about himself and eventually experiences heartbreak for the first time.

There was a good bit of sadness before the ending, but then you get to the actual ending, and it’s Chalamet’s character staring into a fire and crying, held on his face for a long time while the credits roll. It is straightforward, and perhaps not all that surprising that the film chooses to end in this way, given the slightly melancholic tone it has throughout, but it still proves effectively tearjerking because of the shot itself, Chalamet’s acting, and the Sufjan Stevens music used.

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‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me’ (1992)

Image via New Line Cinema

It’s best to watch Twin Peaks before watching Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, even if most of the latter takes place before the former chronologically. It’s largely a prequel, but since it’s David Lynch doing a prequel, it’s fair to say that it’s a bit more complicated than a pure prequel… maybe it’s fair to say that narratively, it takes place earlier, but thematically, it builds upon what was already there (and felt) in the TV series.

It’s a film that inspires a tremendous amount of dread, because it’s largely about the final few days of Laura Palmer’s life, who’s found dead at the very start of Twin Peaks, though she does haunt that show and make appearances of sorts in it. You know what’s coming, and you also know who kills her, but seeing it actually happen nonetheless proves to be so mortifying and haunting. It’s all in the execution, and Lynch really, really knew what he was doing here (and viewers/reviewers have caught up to it, and found what it was going for, in the years/decades since its release).

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‘La La Land’ (2016)

Image via Lionsgate

Compared to most of the movies here, La La Land is actually fairly fun and breezy, at least for a good chunk of its runtime. It’s a throwback to old-school Hollywood musicals, but very much set in the 2010s (it’ll be a good time capsule of sorts for that decade, one day), and involves two people meeting and slowly falling in love, all the while continuing to follow their passions in a professional sense.

One wants to act, and the other wants to become an established musician, and things do eventually get a bit more serious, with the relationship ending because both want to follow their other dreams more. At the end of La La Land, they do see each other again, very briefly, and then there’s a purely fantastical sequence about them reuniting and everything being perfect, only for reality to be snapped back to, and the pair to more realistically (and wordlessly) acknowledge that the past is the past, and the future’s anything else, just not anything else involving the two together. It really is surprisingly moving, coming at the end of what’s been, up until that point, a fairly straightforward movie.

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‘Mysterious Skin’ (2004)

Image via TLA Releasing

Unlike what you get with the comedic and romantic La La Land, there’s nothing but emotional devastation throughout most of Mysterious Skin, and then it’s only the ending where you might, if feeling optimistic, read a tiny bit of hope into the whole situation. Two troubled teenagers spend much of the movie dealing with hardships, and then they meet, before realizing the past that they share, and the devastation of what happened to them.

Again, if optimistic, the idea that the truth’s been revealed and the notion that they now have each other might be worth something, but you’ve still got the horror of the truth coming out and being revealed, which serves to make an already heavy and eerie movie feel all the more overwhelming. That’s all that should be said. The ending’s not going to be spelled out here, mainly because it’s very confronting, but also because it makes a much bigger impact if you don’t know all the details ahead of the ending in question actually hitting.

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‘Aftersun’ (2022)

Image via A24

There is a sense of “Where might this be going?” throughout a good chunk of Aftersun, which is about a young woman looking back on a vacation she took with her father, back when she was a child. It’s made progressively clearer that her father is not in a good place emotionally, to put it mildly, and seems to be grappling with the notion that their vacation will be the last one they have together.

The ending of Aftersun doesn’t spell out the father’s fate 100%, but it feels likely that he took his life after the vacation ended, and so that whole block of time contained the daughter’s final memories of her father. It’s unpacked and explored (more than implied, even if, again, the death is not confirmed) in a way that does hit very hard emotionally, in the moment, being the kind of thing that’s hard to put into words. You’re better off just experiencing Aftersun (and possibly having your day ruined by it) for yourself.

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‘City Lights’ (1931)

Image via United Artists

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Charlie Chaplin seemed particularly good at crafting endings to his movies, because the likes of Modern Times and The Great Dictator have final scenes that are almost as good as the one found in City Lights. But still, the ending to City Lights is the ending to City Lights, and it’s boring to say that it has one of the strongest final moments in cinema history, yet it really does.

The whole movie’s about The Tramp falling in love with a blind flower girl, and going on a series of misadventures in the quest to raise money for her so that she can have her eyesight restored. He sacrifices a lot, is imprisoned, and then reconnects with the flower girl some time later, with her eyesight restored. It’s bittersweet… sweet in the sense that things worked, and that there was a reconnection, but bitter because it’s uncertain whether there can be any genuine romantic relationship between them, since The Tramp is very unlikely to look how the flower girl pictured him. That uncertainty is made very emotional, largely thanks to Chaplin’s facial expression in that final shot, which looks so happy/hopeful and emotionally crushed at the same time.

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‘Titanic’ (1997)

One of the quintessential tearjerkers of all time, and one that’s definitely not afraid to be broadly (and maybe even obviously) sad, Titanic is grim in the ways you’d expect, because there’s only one way the story at hand can go. It finds sadness in the reality of the situation, and the sinking itself, but further twists the knife because of the fictional love story at the heart (in more ways than one) of the film.

Rose survives the events of the film, and the bulk of the film’s made up of her recollections of the night in 1912, some 80+ years later. The ending does have her making a decision that makes emotional sense, albeit not financial sense, yet the idea that she’s still held onto the memory of this soulmate of hers for so long is moving, and made especially so when she (likely) dies of old age at the film’s end, at peace, and reconnects with him in what seems to be the afterlife.

2

‘The Mist’ (2007)

Image via Dimension Films

The novella The Mist was based on was written by Stephen King, and the premise is the same on both page and screen. People in and around a small town have their lives upturned when a strange mist rolls in, bringing with it all sorts of horrifying monsters, and the main characters end up in a supermarket, locked down in an attempt to survive. Then, when in the supermarket, more conflicts arise because of all the different people and their varying beliefs.

Where the novella and movie differ is in how they end, because the source material has a more ambiguous ending that’s a little hopeful yet still a little eerie, while the movie’s ending becomes a full-on tragedy. It features the protagonist making a devastating choice just moments before realizing that had he not made that choice, he and some fellow survivors (including his son) would’ve been rescued. Describing it that way might make it sound over-the-top and almost comical, but the execution of the ending here, in this adaptation of The Mist, really does make it all work.

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‘Dancer in the Dark’ (2000)

Image via Fine Line Features

Dancer in the Dark is perhaps the easiest movie to put here, just because the devastation is so intense and in-your-face, and what you get with that ending is built toward very gradually over a fairly long runtime. The film’s about a woman who’s struggling financially, trying to raise a son on her own, and dealing with some kind of medical condition that’s causing her to go blind.

There’s an operation that can stop her son from going blind, which she tries to raise the money for no matter what, and an eventual dispute around the money (to simplify things) leads to her killing a man. She doesn’t spend money on the trial, keeping it for her son, and so she’s sentenced to death, even with there being ways to defend the crime she committed. The only silver lining is she learns her son’s going to get the operation right before she’s hanged, and then she’s hanged. Also, it’s a musical, and a far more hard-hitting one than the more bittersweet La La Land.

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Dancer in the Dark

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Release Date

October 6, 2000

Runtime

140 Minutes

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Director

Lars von Trier

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Writers

Lars von Trier, Sjon

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Back in the early 2010s, the idea of Netflix producing its own television shows sounded like a risky experiment. However, the platform completely changed the game with House of Cards in 2013 and proved that a streaming platform could produce prestige television just like any other traditional network. That’s when Netflix actively began reshaping the TV industry thanks to the advent of binge-watching.

However, a huge part of that transformation also came from the streamer consistently delivering some of the best shows of the modern era. Netflix gave creators the freedom to experiment with format, genre, language, and storytelling on a scale that traditional television could just never do. Of course, the streamer has its fair share of hits and misses, but these are the Netflix shows that quietly became modern classics thanks to their timeless storytelling.

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‘Love, Death & Robots’ (2019–Present)

Image via Netflix

Love, Death & Robots has no fixed cast, central storyline, or even consistent animation style, and that’s what makes it so compelling. The adult anthology series hands each episode to a different creative team and allows them to tell a complete science-fiction, fantasy, horror, or comedy story. This means that one episode could use colorful 2D animation, while the next uses a photorealistic visual style. Across four volumes, that unpredictability has become the entire appeal of the series. The stories themselves vary wildly in their settings and ideas. They might not be explicitly connected, but many of them explore similar questions about technology, violence, identity, and whether humanity is intelligent enough to survive its own inventions.

Love, Death & Robots definitely has its weaker entries, as does any anthology. However, that doesn’t take away from the show’s brilliant experimental approach. The series continues to find new ways to stretch its own format. Every episode introduces a world, explores memorable ideas, and leaves before the narrative loses its impact. Some stories in the show could easily turn into entire movies, but their self-containment is what makes them hit so hard. Viewers are left to imagine everything that existed before, and after the small piece of the world they were shown. Love, Death & Robots stands as a boundless creative playground for storytellers, a feat that not many shows can boast of.

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‘The Queen’s Gambit’ (2020)

Image via Netflix

The Queen’s Gambit was a massive hit when it premiered, but it has only become more impressive with time. The seven-episode limited series follows Beth Harmon (Anya Taylor-Joy), an orphan who discovers an extraordinary talent for chess while growing up in Kentucky during the 1950s. She first learns the game from the orphanage cleaner, Mr. Shaibel (Bill Camp), who reluctantly allows her to join him in the basement before realizing that she can already think several moves ahead of players with decades more experience. At the same time, the orphanage gives its children tranquilizers, which causes Beth to develop an addiction that becomes increasingly difficult to separate from her talent. The show follows Beth as she becomes famous, wealthy, and a legend in the world of chess.

However, every high in her career is accompanied by constant personal lows. That is what makes The Queen’s Gambit so much more than a straightforward drama. The show never shies away from portraying Beth as a nuanced individual who is just as self-destructive as she is talented. Not to mention how confidently the show visually captures the complexity of chess. The audience doesn’t need to understand the game to know what the stakes are for Beth. The cinematography, editing, music, costumes, and production design all come together to deliver one of the most thrilling yet personal stories Netflix has ever told.

8

‘American Vandal’ (2017–2018)

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In the wrong hands, American Vandal would probably not have worked after the first few episodes. However, Tony Yacenda and Dan Perrault really ran with the mockumentary format. The Netflix series follows high-school filmmakers Peter Maldonado (Tyler Alvarez) and Sam Ecklund (Griffin Gluck) as they investigate immature crimes with the seriousness of a prestige true-crime documentary. The show carefully copies the dramatic interviews, forensic reconstructions, suspicious editing, and cliffhangers popularized by series including Making a Murderer. However, the point here isn’t to simply mock the genre.

American Vandal Season 1 opens with 27 faculty cars at Hanover High School being spray-painted with obscene images. The obvious suspect is class clown Dylan Maxwell (Jimmy Tatro), who insists that he is innocent. The evidence is completely ridiculous, but the show treats Peter and Sam’s bogus investigation with such commitment that the question of who committed the vandalism becomes genuinely difficult to stop thinking about. American Vandal lasted only two seasons, but maybe that limited run made it all the more special.

7

‘Blue Eye Samurai’ (2023–Present)

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Blue Eye Samurai is a revenge story set in 17th-century Japan. The story follows Mizu (Maya Erskine), a mixed-race swordmaster born during a period when the country’s borders were largely closed to outsiders. Her blue eyes make her an outcast, so she disguises herself as a man and begins hunting the four white men, one of whom is her father. However, Mizu plans to kill all four rather than waste time discovering which one it is. The action in the series is obviously a major attraction, but the violence never overshadows the story.

Mizu is a deeply complex character whose emotional journey centers on all the sword fights and dramatic revelations. The animation in Blue Eye Samurai is just as great as the storytelling. The visually stunning TV series combines three-dimensional character models with painterly backgrounds, detailed lighting, and action influenced by live-action choreography. Every fight has weight and rhythm, while the more emotional scenes have a cinematic quality to them. Even with Mizu’s journey still unfinished, Blue Eye Samurai already feels more confident and complete than many shows manage across several years.

6

‘Baby Reindeer’ (2024)

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Baby Reindeer is a downright haunting experience. The thriller miniseries follows struggling comedian and pub worker Donny Dunn (Richard Gadd), who offers Martha (Jessica Gunning) a free cup of tea when he sees her distressed and sitting alone. However, that simple act of kindness leads to an increasingly disturbing obsession as Martha begins stalking Donny and trying to insert herself into every part of his life. What makes all of this hit even harder is the fact that the story is inspired by Gadd’s own experiences.

Baby Reindeer begins as a dark comedy, but the show quickly takes a much more uncomfortable turn. Donny knows that Martha’s behaviour is dangerous, yet he repeatedly delays reporting her and occasionally allows her back into his life. The series never presents this as logical or healthy, but it gradually helps the audience understand why Donny behaves this way. Martha is never presented as a one-dimensional villain either. The series barely offers any easy answers because it aims to show how clueless the characters feel themselves. This blatant honesty makes Baby Reindeer unlike anything else on TV.

5

‘The Sandman’ (2022–2025)

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The Sandman begins when Morpheus, also known as Dream (Tom Sturridge), one of the most powerful beings in existence, is pulled from his kingdom during a failed occult ritual and imprisoned inside a glass cage for more than a century. During this time, his kingdom, the Dreaming, slowly falls apart. When he finally escapes, Dream must recover his stolen tools and restore his realm. This brings the protagonist into direct conflict with Lucifer Morningstar (Gwendoline Christie), the dangerously unstable John Dee (David Thewlis), and the Corinthian (Boyd Holbrook), a nightmare who has spent Dream’s imprisonment becoming a serial killer in the waking world.

This narrative is pretty intriguing as it is, but the show adds another layer of excitement to the mix by giving Dream the ability to disappear into the background while an episode follows an ordinary person whose life briefly crosses his path. That freedom produces some of the show’s best stories that make this enormous fantasy world feel a lot more personal. Visually, The Sandman moves from gothic horror and historical fantasy to mythology and quiet human drama without feeling restricted to one genre. There’s no denying that the series does get buried under its mythology time and again, but the fantasy show’s unpredictable structure is exactly what keeps the audience hooked till the very end.

4

‘Midnight Mass’ (2021)

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Midnight Mass is a signature Mike Flanagan horror that openly talks about how dangerous religion can become when faith is replaced by blind certainty. Just like the showrunner’s other masterpieces, this one also uses horror as a doorway into something far more sinister. The story takes place on Crockett Island, an isolated fishing community whose population is slowly declining. The narrative picks up when Riley Flynn (Zach Gilford) returns home after serving time in prison for causing a fatal drunk-driving accident. He has lost his faith and has no idea what to do with the rest of his life, but his return coincides with the arrival of Father Paul (Hamish Linklater), a charismatic new priest.

Soon, seemingly impossible miracles begin occurring, church attendance rises, and the residents become convinced that Crockett Island has been chosen for something extraordinary. Now, Flanagan does not present faith itself as the villain. Crockett Island is just a place full of people who desperately need something to hold on to. The show spends a lot of time with its characters and keeps building a constant sense of dread before finally dropping the ball and letting the audience in on what is actually happening. Midnight Mass is not the fastest-paced show, but its patience and restrained approach to horror separates it from predictable supernatural stories.

3

‘Ozark’ (2017–2022)

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Ozark is a thriller series that deserves way more appreciation than it gets. The story follows financial adviser Marty Byrde (Jason Bateman) relocating to the Missouri Ozarks with his wife, Wendy (Laura Linney), and their children to escape from a Mexican drug cartel that is after him. However, his solution only pulls the family further into the criminal world. Soon enough, Marty comes into conflict with local criminals, the FBI, the Kansas City mob, and the ruthless Snell family. He also meets Ruth Langmore, who soon becomes his most valuable employee. Ruth quickly becomes the emotional center of the show, but the story actually takes a turn when Wendy goes from Marty’s reluctant accomplice to the actual mastermind behind it all.

The couple’s complicated marriage drives the narrative as they lie to each other, undermine each other’s plans, but still keep coming back together because they are the only ones who truly understand each other. By the final season, Wendy’s willingness to take risks is so extreme that even Marty struggles to control her, and that descent is fascinating to witness. One wouldn’t imagine everyday business dealings, and the unglamorous process of money laundering would feel so thrilling, but Ozark makes it work. The show is often compared to Breaking Bad because of their similar themes, but over Ozark‘s four seasons, the Netflix series definitely established an identity of its own.

2

‘The Crown’ (2016–2023)

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The Crown looks like a grand historical drama about the British monarchy, but it’s surprising how intimate the show actually is. The series begins with a young Elizabeth (Claire Foy) enjoying a relatively private life with Prince Philip (Matt Smith), only for the death of her father, King George VI (Jared Harris), to place her on the throne at 25. From that moment onward, every decision she makes as a wife, sister, mother, or daughter has to be in sync with what the monarchy requires of her. The Crown’s boldest decision was replacing its main cast every two seasons as the story moved through more than fifty years of Elizabeth’s reign. Olivia Colman and Tobias Menzies take over as the middle-aged Elizabeth and Philip, before Imelda Staunton and Jonathan Pryce play them in the final era.

Instead of weakening the audience’s investments in the characters, the recasting perfectly captures the evolution of political crises, changing governments, public tragedies, and the monarchy’s struggle to remain relevant. Eventually, the series also includes Diana Spencer (Emma Corrin), whose marriage to Prince Charles (Josh O’Connor) becomes one of its most compelling storylines. There’s no denying that The Crown takes historical liberties and openly presents itself as a fictional dramatization inspired by real events. However, the show stands as an undisputed modern classic because of how patiently it examines the people trapped behind one of the most important institutions of the world.

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1

‘Dark’ (2017–2020)

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Dark will easily go down in history as one of the most ambitious shows ever made. The mystery thriller is Netflix’s first original German-language series that is set in the gloomy town of Winden that’s practically defined by a nuclear power plant and a network of caves hidden in the surrounding forest. The story begins shortly after teenager Jonas Kahnwald (Louis Hofmann) loses his father and returns home following psychiatric treatment. When young Mikkel Nielsen (Daan Lennard Liebrenz) suddenly disappears, Jonas joins Mikkel’s siblings, Martha (Lisa Vicari) and Magnus Nielsen (Moritz Jahn), in searching for him.

The investigation quickly reveals that Mikkel’s disappearance is connected to another child who vanished exactly 33 years earlier. Now, what’s interesting is that a passage beneath the caves links different periods in Winden’s history, which allows characters to move between generations and discover how the town’s families have been connected for far longer than they realize. All of this sounds extremely complicated, but Dark never treats time travel as a gimmick. The audience feels genuinely invested in all these characters. Every revelation contributes to the overarching tragedy that the narrative is built around, and the sci-fi elements only add more weight to it. All of that, combined with the fact that Dark delivered one of the most memorable and fitting finales in recent television history, makes it a strong contender on this list.

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Dark

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Release Date

2017 – 2020-00-00

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Network

Netflix

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Showrunner

Jantje Friese

Directors

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Baran bo Odar

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  Louis Hofmann

  Jonas Kahnwald

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  Lisa Vicari

  Martha Nielsen

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