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The Netflix Top 10 list won’t tell you how many people are watching a show, but it will tell you which shows people are watching the most. The Netflix Top 10 list for Friday, Nov. 6 is still topped by excellent limited series The Queen’s Gambit, but we have a brand new No. 2: a holiday-themed movie with Kat Graham and Alexander Ludwig called Operation Christmas Drop. There are some good titles a little further down the list, too, including the classic sketch comedy show Chappelle’s Show at No. 6 and the 2010 Emma Stone comedy Easy A at No. 7.
But of the Netflix Top 10, which of these shows and movies are actually worth watching? We break down the entire Netflix Top 10 list and guide you through what to binge and what to skip.
The Best TV Shows and Movies on Netflix in November 2020
Based on Netflix’s Top 10 from Friday, Nov. 6
1. The Queen’s Gambit
For fans of: Chess, drugs, and character drama | Is it good?: It’s one of the best shows of the year
Future superstar Anya Taylor-Joy (she’s been cast as young Furiosa in the next Mad Max movie) stars in this literary adaptation as Beth Harmon, a brilliant but troubled chess champion in 1950s Kentucky. She was an orphan who, in her youth, developed an incredible skill for the game but also a debilitating addiction to pills, which quiet her obsessive mind. It’s a detailed character study of brilliance and madness that’s usually reserved for male characters. It comes from one of Netflix’s go-to limited series producers, Godless‘ Scott Frank. (Yesterday’s rank: 1)
2. Operation Christmas Drop
For fans of: Christmas, tropical islands | Is it good?: It’s supposed to be bad!
In this rom-com, a beautiful congressional aide is tasked with shutting down a tradition at a remote military base where pilots, led by a hunky Air Force officer, drop Christmas presents and other necessary supplies to the locals. It’s a real military tradition that no congressperson would ever actually try to stop, but a movie needs a premise. The movie was filmed on location in Guam at an actual functioning Air Force base, so that makes it unique. (Yesterday’s rank: n/a)
3. Mile 22
For fans of: Mark Wahlberg action movies | Is it good?: It’s whatever
Mark Wahlberg loves to make movies with director Peter Berg. This is one of their five collaborations. It’s an action thriller about covert CIA operatives transporting a whistleblower through 22 miles of hostile terrain. It’s kinda confusing and dumb. (Yesterday’s rank: 3)
4. Knock Knock
For fans of: Keanu Reeves, straight-to-video erotic thrillers | Is it good?: Not exactly
This 2015 erotic thriller about a married architect who offers shelter to two young women with ulterior motives jumped high on the list partially because it stars internet hero Keanu Reeves and partially because R-rated erotic thrillers do quite well with people who are alone and bored at home. (Yesterday’s rank: 2)
5. Holidate
For fans of: Crude and formulaic holiday-themed rom-coms | Is it good?: Not even by the standards of the genre
The title makes this seem like a Christmas rom-com, but it’s not. It’s every holiday. Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey play single people who make a deal to be each other’s dates to holiday parties, therefore avoiding awkward conversations about why they’re still single. Guess what happens. It’s a raunchy and retrograde bummer. (Yesterday’s rank: 4)
6. Chappelle’s Show
For fans of: Rick James, Prince | Is it good?: It’s one of the funniest shows of all time
The legendary comedy show is now on Netflix. It’s still screamingly funny after all these years. What’s your favorite Chappelle’s Show quote? Mine is “He’s a habitual line-stepper.” (Yesterday’s rank: 8)
7. Easy A
For fans of: Emma Stone, Clueless | Is it good?: Yeah, it’s pretty good
Like Clueless and 10 Things I Hate About You, this comedy takes a piece of classic literature — in this case The Scarlet Letter — and adapts it for a high school setting. It was Emma Stone’s first starring role, and it helped make her the Oscar-winning star she is today. The movie itself is just OK, but she’s terrific. (Yesterday’s rank: 5)
8. Cocomelon
For fans of: Mashed vegetables, pacifiers | Is it good?: For babies, sure
Colorful objects, preschool songs, and big-headed babies make this catnip for toddlers and younger kids who get screentime. (Yesterday’s rank: 7)
9. Snowden
For fans of: Thrillers based on real life | Is it good?: Watch the Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour instead (it’s on Amazon)
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in Oliver Stone‘s biographical drama about Snowden’s life and his leak of classified information about government surveillance to journalists. It’s not a great movie, and if you’re really interested in learning more about Snowden and the information he liberated, the documentary Citizenfour, footage of which gets incorporated into Snowden, is a better bet. (Yesterday’s rank: 6)
10. The Impossible
For fans of: The resilience of the human spirit in the face of disaster | Is it good?: Yes
Ewan McGregor, Naomi Watts (who was nominated for an Oscar for her performance), and young Tom Holland star as a family who gets separated during the devastating 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and have to struggle to survive and find each other again. It’s a powerful true story. (Yesterday’s rank: n/a)
The Best Netflix Originals of 2020 So Far
Lucifer, The Baby-Sitters Club, Love Is Blind” width=”2070″ height=”1380″ title=”Lucifer, The Baby-Sitters Club, Love Is Blind” data-amp-src=”https://tvguide1.cbsistatic.com/i/r/2020/09/17/505dd032-3cbb-41bc-b9c7-b25aa75a8297/watermark/706d004f9a37fe96bd7085c7f19efb3c/netflix-2020-reg.jpg”>Lucifer, The Baby-Sitters Club, Love Is Blind