Since Netflix began its streaming service, it has become a staple of everyday American life. Phrases like "Binge-watching" and "Netflix and Chill" have become so ingrained in the American lexicon that their original meaning has been changed.

What has become a major draw of Netflix is their original content. The streaming service has produced some of the finest television shows we have ever seen. And both the frustrating but remarkable thing about it is that an entire season of a great show can fall into our hands. We binge watch the entire season in a few days but have to wait about a whole year for the next batch.

In the meantime, we aimlessly search for a new show to immerse ourselves into. In celebrating of its impact on everyday American life, and the return of one of it's biggest hits this October, I have made a list of what I think are the ten best original shows Netflix has ever produced. I thought about making one that is purely my favorites but the list would look a little different, so in making what I think are the best shows the universal appeal of this top 10 list. The further down the list, the better the show.

The criteria for this list will be the following:

Netflix Original Shows With Multiple Episodes Documentary Series don’t count. (Though I do highly recommend watching Making A Murderer). Movies, biopics or stand-up specials won't be included but could be featured in a future episode (and I highly recommend watching Patton Oswalt's specials) If you have a Netflix account you've probably seen most of these shows, but for the ones that haven't this should be an indicator that you should watch it.

1. Marvel’s Defenders Universe

Daredevil paying homage to the movie Oldboy

It's sort of cheating but since they're all tightly connected I've decided for number 10 lump together all four individual Marvel series and the ensemble series titled The Defenders.

The four individual series, of course, is for the following Marvel heroes in:

Daredevil

Jessica Jones

Luke Cage

Iron Fist

While they do take place in the same universe as The Avengers movie series, the Defender's series explores a dark and gritty part of the Disney owned Marvel Cinematic Universe. But the grittiness in these shows isn't tacted on like Batman V Superman, each show has a titular character that has struggled through life, some even take on social issues.

Jessica Jones is probably my favorite of the shows because it's not just a superhero show but modern noir story in disguise. The show's main villain Kilgrave is a metaphor for rape culture as he controls and victimizes women thanks to his superpower for making people do whatever he tells them to.

Luke Cage's story might not have the spectacle and stakes of saving the world, but it's just as engaging as those as he fights to save the projects in New York City. Both a fugitive from the law and a physically unstoppable force, Cage becomes a symbol against a racially bias society and criminal justice system.

Daredevil is the most fun and action-packed by the Defenders shows and is the only one with more than one season. His lore from the comic books has more characters and storylines. And in season 2 is the introduction of The Punisher, a character the movies failed to get right three times (also once with Daredevil) but Jon Bernthal's performance finally brought a legitimate live-action Punisher.

And there is the Iron Fist show which is by-far the weakest of the series but still watchable at least.

And that's pretty much it with Iron Fist.

2. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

What we all thought we'd be doing as adults

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is a tragic and torrid tale about a young naive girl who loses 15 years of her life to a manipulative cult leader called The Reverend.

Her and fellow cult followers hide in an underground bunker that whole time convinced that they were living through the apocalypse.

When law enforcement finally found the bunker and set the girls free, the titular character begins a new life in the Big Apple to gain the adult maturity she never got.

And yet even as dark as that premise sound, this show is one of the most colorful, funniest and innocent shows I have ever seen.

The Office's Ellie Kemper plays Kimmy Schmidt in the role of her career who throughout the show is full of naive innocence while whimsically gaining adult wisdom in oddball situations.

It's an absolute joy and easily digestible despite its crazy situations, there is simply nothing quite like it.

3. Ozark

"That is 100% my business."

While it’s not Breaking Bad, Ozark comes close to its story:

A smart family man who doesn't quite have the social skills to connect with normal people but is smart enough to create a system which can provide for his family but ties himself to ruthless crime gangs.

Jason Bateman, both the star and the director of four episodes, steps out of his typical "smart-straight man in a comedy" that made his career into a cold and cunning money launderer. He's a financial adviser forced to drag his family into the Ozarks for money laundering when his ties to a Mexican drug cartel comes back to haunt him. His strained relationship with his wife, (Laura Linney) daughter and son take further twists and turns throughout the series along with getting involved with the Ozark locals. Often intense with beautifully shot scenery, Ozark is going to be that kind of Netflix show everyone will talk about at the water cooler.

4. The Crown

She is still wearing that crown to this day.

This series premiered a week after the 2016 election, and for me personally, I became engrossed in this show because I got to escape into a time where being a good leader meant something. Not only was this about the young Queen Elizabeth taking a crown which started a reign that continues to this day, but also shows the last years of the great Winston Churchill’s run as Prime Minister before stepping down at the age of 80(!)

The story itself about Elizabeth's first years as The Queen doesn't seem as compelling as it looks on paper. After all, the most controversial thing The Queen did in over fifty years on the throne was waiting too long to openly mourn the loss of Princess Diana. But this show is so intriguing because of its gorgeous cinematography, lavish sets, and costumes, and great performances from the likes of Claire Foy, Matt Smith, and John Lithgow. The family drama and political issues of the show seem trivial by today's standards, but in the 1950s it meant a lot more.

Even if the family drama was exaggerated, the tension of The Crown shows that the seemingly stale British monarchy is more fragile than one would think.

5. Narcos

Pablo Escobar's infamous ultimatum

While liberties have been taken in dramatizing the story, Narcos takes the story of Pablo Escobar (in the first two seasons at least) and has created some remarkable historical fiction. And although the show weirdly wants us to sympathize at times with one of the evilest people in the past 30 years, Escobar and his complex rise-and-fall is a rich and compelling story.

The nasty and intriguing details of the DEA's decades-long pursuit of a kingpin who went from a simple drug lord, who gave tons of money to charity, into Columbia's biggest terrorist. It also ties in with the effects Escobar's empire has on America, which will be explored further in this new season.

6. House of Cards

"The evil that men do lives long after them, the good is oft interred with their bones." - Shakespeare

While our real White House has surpassed this fictional one in shock and horror, House of Cards was Netflix’s first major original series. A remake of a classic BBC mini-series, House of Cards plays out like a modern Shakespeare tale of Greed and Betrayal. With its protagonist Frank Underwood being as cold and ambitious as Macbeth, Richard III, and Julius Caesar.

From episode one, it's clear that Frank Underwood (and his wife Claire to a certain degree) is in pursuit of ultimate power proceeding beyond Democracy. From House Majority Whip to Vice President to President, he is ruthless in deciding who is an ally and who is a liability. And if you become too much of a burden to him he'll kill you.

Literally kill you.

By his own hands.

Say what you will about him, at least Trump didn't kill people...

that we know of.

Unfortunately, the show's production of the 6th and final season has halted amid multiple allegations of sexual abuse at the hands of the show's star, Kevin Spacey. This scandal of victims coming out now is a result of the mass exposure to sexual abuse occurring in show business for decades. With these disturbing and detailed allegations exposed it is hard to watch the show the same way again knowing the things that Spacey had gotten away with for years.

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7. Master of None

Ladies and gentlemen, a sample of Master of None.

Before this show, Aziz Ansari was known as the goofy Tom Haverford on Parks and Recreation, but with his show Master of None shows a nuanced side to the comedian. Aziz Ansari is pretty much playing himself, but situations and relationships he has with characters can be both funny and deeply relatable.

The first episode of Season 2 plays out like a short film and shot in black-and-white on the beautiful streets of Italy. A homage to classic foreign films like The Bicycle Theif. What's also remarkable about the series is that it gives a perspective from minority groups that don't get their story told that often:

What is it like to be an Indian in 21st Century America with offensive Indian portrayals in pop culture as recent as ten years ago?

What was it like to be an Indian immigrant in the 80s and 90s?

What was it like to be black and a lesbian in the 90s and reveal it to you're hardworking single mother years later?

Heck, this show even has a segment to show the life of a deaf couple, which led to the funniest moment of the whole series!

Even if you can't relate to those situations there is the universal issue we millennials face today and that is the struggle of figuring out what we want:

We have so much time ahead of us and yet not enough time to do everything we want.

Should I travel to Europe and learn how to make pasta?

Should I settle down with my girlfriend and stick to the same routine for the rest of my life?

Should I respect my family's religion and culture even if I don't agree with their rules and free to make my own choices?

Should I take that job to host a show about cupcakes?

For what looks like a little show about that funny guy from Parks and Recreation, is a funny yet touching reflection on American millennial life.

8. Orange Is The New Black

THE ANIMALS! THE ANIMALS!

If the Ancient Greek tragedy Trojan Women has an updated version, it's Orange is the New Black. From a light comedy/drama about life in a women’s prison that has elevated into a platform for women’s and social issues. The seemingly innocent Piper is being sent to jail for a crime committed during her rebellious past and is now thrust into an assortment of women criminals. Only as we learn throughout five seasons of the show is that these women are not just criminals, but flawed human beings with a troubled past and difficult life.

These women represent the consequences of not having a privileged life, and of making human errors that landed them into the punishment gulag known as Litchfield. They also have to face a prison system just as flawed as them with guards, a warden, and corporations who throughout the series, start looking like they are the ones that should be jailed for falling short of the moral side of society.

The show has become an allegory for uncomfortable American truths: to be a woman, minority, or in poverty, is to be a prisoner to The Man.

9. BoJack Horseman

I think he was going to say "Me drink."

If I was making a list of my favorite Netflix shows, this would take the cake and run with it. BoJack Horseman is not just my favorite animated show. BoJack Horseman is not just my favorite Netflix show. It is my favorite show period.

There is so much more to this show than the initial "Adult Cartoon about talking animals." Oh no my friend, this show transcend from the typical Family Guy fart joke adult cartoon into a show that is both absurdly hilarious to stunningly deep. It confronts issues that the society and ourselves might not want to turn towards because the reality of it is so painful, we look away. But BoJack Horseman doesn't flinch, through all of the laughing, you can see a mesmerizing character between this group of main characters. All of whom have great yet flawed personalities.

It's not Ibsen, but it's pretty damn close.

10. Stranger Things

If only we saw E.T. steal Reeses Pieces like this

What I believe to be the best show Netflix has ever brought to us is what began as a homage to 80s sci-fi that has transcended into a pop cultural phenomenon. Stranger Things has managed to make a show about kids and teenagers and none of them are annoying stereotypes!

The chemistry between the main kid actors have is remarkably genuine and their character development shows a great balance of innocence, fear, and curiosity at the overwhelming situation they face. The character of Eleven has become television's most iconic in this century, being both terrifyingly intimidating with her supernatural powers and heartbreakingly innocent in being forced to go through traumatic ordeals as a child.

The imagery and plot that develops in the first season are so minimal yet memorable. We hardly ever see any supernatural events or creatures until the final episode and yet they are so vividly ingrained in our brains it felt like it was apart of the show the whole time. And yet after all that, they're just a small group of kids trying to be kids in this highly crazy situation.

Also, Stranger Things gave me the power to obnoxiously mouth beat the show's theme song every time I hear someone talk about it.