The best period dramas on Netflix to watch now
Need an escape from the craziness of the present day? Tap into the craziness of the past with the best period dramas on Netflix.
Packed with sumptuous settings, gorgeous costumes, plenty of historical drama and usually a hefty budget, period pieces transport viewers from their everyday life to bygone eras, from the corseted Regency age to the Swinging 60s.
Netflix is well-stocked with period dramas (yet another reason why we consider it one the best streaming services on the market), whether you're after a faithful Jane Austin adaptation like Pride & Prejudice, a royals-focused series like The Crown and The Empress, or a guns-blazing gangster drama like Peaky Blinders. These are the period dramas on Netflix worth adding to your watch list.
The best period dramas on Netflix to watch now
Bridgerton
Inspired by Julia Quinn's bestselling novels, the streaming juggernaut — Bridgerton season 2 broke its own record as the most-watched English-language series on Netflix — follows eight close-knit siblings looking for love in the Regency era ton, aka London high society. Equal parts pomp and romp, the series follows one Bridgerton sibling each season: the first, debutante daughter Daphne (Phoebe Dynevor) and her steamy marriage to the Duke of Hastings (Regé-Jean Page); the second, eldest son Anthony (Jonathan Bailey) and his will-they-won't-they connection to Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley); and the upcoming third season, centered on friends-to-lovers Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton) and Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan).
Queen Charlotte
Another entry in the Bridgerton universe, this prequel series chronicles the life of real-deal royal Queen Charlotte (played by India Amarteifio as a teen and Golda Rosheuvel as an adult) between the late 18th century and early 19th century. Along with the towering wigs, extravagant gowns and grand balls (complete with a delightfully anachronistic soundtrack of orchestral pop cover songs) that we've come to expect from a Shonda Rhimes period drama, the six-episode series digs into the young queen's burgeoning relationship with King George (Corey Mylchreest), as well as His Majesty's struggles with mental illness.
The Queen's Gambit
Based on the 1983 novel of the same name by Walter Tevis, this stylish miniseries had seemingly everyone on the planet care about chess (or almost everyone: a record-setting 62 million households streamed The Queen's Gambit in its first 28 days). The coming-of-age drama tracks the rise of Beth Harmon through the 1950s and 60s, from a child chess prodigy to one of the sport's brightest stars. With its lavish production value, the series certainly highlights the high points of the era (the mod fashion, the retro furnishings), while side-stepping the more dour realities of the time (namely, navigating the male-dominated discipline as a young woman).
Outlander
You get two periods for the price of one with this sweeping Starz series, which is based on the Outlander novels by Diana Gabaldon. Heading into part two of Outlander season 7 next year, the historical drama stars Caitríona Balfe as Claire Randall, a Scottish WWII-era nurse who is transported from 1945 to 1743, where she meets and later marries a hunky Highlander, Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan), a member of the Clan Fraser of Lovat. Jumping frequently between centuries, as well as locations like Paris, Boston and even Jamaica, Outlander packs in a lot of action in each episode — of both the historical and romantic sort.
Peaky Blinders
Cillian Murphy stars as Tommy Shelby, the cunning, cutthroat head of a Birmingham street gang known for sewing razor blades into the peak of their flat caps, hence their name and the show's: Peaky Blinders. The six-season drama, which ran on the BBC from 2013 to 2022, garnered a much larger following when it began streaming on Netflix, captivating an audience with the way it wove the classic gangster drama with historical events, stretching from the end of the First World War through the 1930s and encountering the Irish Republican Army, the Communism Party of Great Britain, the New York City mafia and the Nazi Party along the way.
The Empress
Many of the period dramas on Netflix are set in Great Britain, but if you want something a little different, opt for this German historical drama series based on the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (Devrim Lingnau), which was released in September 2022 and was picked up for a second season. We catch up with the royal as a 16-year-old Bavarian duchess in the 1850s as she falls for her sister's betrothed, Emperor Franz Joseph (Philip Froissant). Naturally, drama ensues, as Elisabeth and Franz marry and the newly crowned empress moves to Vienna to contend with her husband's family and the politics of the monarchy.
The Crown
Spanning the life and reign of Queen Elizabeth II from her wedding in 1947 to Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, until the early 21st century, The Crown is full of stories you know and many you don't. With an ever-changing cast of actors playing the famous royals (Claire Foy portrayed Her Majesty in the first two seasons, Olivia Colman in seasons 3 and 4, and finally Imelda Staunton in the final two), the historical drama series offers a deeper, dramatized look at notable events and experiences of Britain's longest-living monarch, from the Suez Crisis in the '50s to her encounters with Margaret Thatcher in the '70s to the world-shaking introduction and tragic loss of Princess Diana in the late 20th century.
Lady Chatterley's Lover
Having previously starred in The Crown and The North Waters, actors Emma Corrin and Jack O'Connell know their way around a period drama, experiences that came in handy for the 2022 Netflix adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover, the scandalous 1928 novel by D. H. Lawrence. Digging into class differences and sexual politics, the story concerns the titular Lady Chatterley (Corrin), the young married wife of an upper-class baronet, Sir Clifford Chatterley, who, after her husband becomes paralyzed in World War I, begins an affair with Oliver Mellors (O'Connell), the hunky gamekeeper of the couple's country estate.
Pride & Prejudice
The most adapted and reimagined of Jane Austen's novels, there are many versions of Pride & Prejudice for movie fans to enjoy, but if it's the swoon-worthy 2005 Joe Wright adaptation you're after, you're in luck — it's streaming on Netflix. Starring Keira Knightley as Austen's famously spirited heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, and Matthew MacFadyen as the snobbish but secretly dreamy Mr. Darcy, the movie is equal parts romance and realism, a sweeping love story wrapped in biting social commentary on late 18th-century rural England.
Anne with an E
A reimagining of Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic 1908 children's book, Anne of Green Gables, this coming-of-age Canadian series stars Amybeth McNulty as Anne Shirley, a preteen orphan who gets adopted by elderly brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert (R. H. Thomson and Geraldine James) and must acclimate to her new life on the outskirts of Prince Edward Island in the 1890s. Running for three seasons from 2017 to 2019, the show tackles social issues of the time, including women's rights and racial issues, as well as universal growing pains, like school-kid bullying and first love.
