If you’ve noticed a distinct lack of new romance shows on Netflix in 2024, then you’re not imagining things. Thanks to the six-month production lull caused by the two Hollywood strikes of 2023, Netflix’s new batch of romantic television series this year is lackluster at best.
The good news is that Netflix hasn’t abandoned the genre. Bridgerton just completed its third season last month, and Grey’s Anatomy season 20 recently premiered on Netflix as well. Additionally, the second season of Eva Lasting will arrive on July 10. Between those two series, romance fans should hopefully have enough to binge until some fresh TV offerings arrive later this summer. In the meantime, these are the best romance shows on Netflix right now.
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Grey's Anatomy2005 -
Eva Lasting2023
Grey's Anatomy (2005)
64%
7.5/10Grey’s Anatomy had a short 10-episode 20th season in early 2024, and series star Ellen Pompeo only appeared in half of the season. With Pompeo’s Dr. Meredith Grey largely in the background, veteran characters Dr. Teddy Altman (Kim Raver), Dr. Owen Hunt (Kevin McKidd), and Dr. Amelia Shepherd (Caterina Scorsone) had more time in the spotlight. The show also continued to spread its focus to include newer characters like Dr. Simone Griffith (Alexis Floyd), Dr. Benson “Blue” Kwan (Harry Shum Jr.), Dr. Jules Millin (Adelaide Kane), and Dr. Lucas Adams (Niko Terho).
Meredith may be in the background, but her conflict with Dr. Catherine Fox (Debbie Allen) over her experimental Alzheimer’s research looms large over the season. Catherine is looking to halt their progress, and the other doctors at Seattle Grace get caught up in the battle of wills between Fox and Meredith.
Eva Lasting (2023)
8.0/10The second season for Eva Lasting begins with some good news for Camilo (Emmanuel Restrepo). The show picks up in 1976, shortly after the first season finale when Camilo’s girlfriend, Eva Samper (Francisca Estévez), was forced to leave Columbia and live with her aunt in the United States. But somehow, Eva was able to return, and she wants to pick up where she left off with Camilo.
That may be tricky since Camilo’s fling, Luisa Salcedo (Sara Pinzón), is pregnant with his child, and he’s feeling intense pressure to marry her. The situation is keeping Eva at bay from Camilo, and even his parents, José (Santiago Alarcón) and Ana de Granado (Verónica Orozco), are on the verge of splitting up over the stress about their son’s future.
Bridgerton (2020)
75%
7.3/10After a long two-year hiatus, Bridgerton season 3 has finally arrived. This year’s storyline centers on Penelope Featherington, the incorrigible gossip who is secretly Lady Whistledown, the woman who knows all of the scandals and delights in releasing them. At the old age of 28 years, it doesn’t look like Penelope is going to get married, especially since she’s pretty angry at the man she loved, Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton).
Colin thoughtlessly insulted Penelope last season, and now he wants to make amends and save their friendship. But even if season 3 allows Penelope to find love with Colin, there are others who still want to expose the identity of Lady Whistledown. And that’s something that could scandalize Penelope — or worse.
Outlander (2014)
76%
8.4/10The Starz original series Outlander has added its sixth season to Netflix, which now brings it within a single season of the show’s first run on cable. Since Claire is from the future, Claire (Caitriona Balfe) and Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) know that the Revolutionary War is coming. But knowing the future and navigating it are two different things, especially since Jamie swore an oath to the British Crown … and he’s expected to keep it by taking up arms against the growing rebellion.
If that wasn’t enough drama, the Christie family reenters the lives of Claire and Jamie at a very inopportune time to drive a wedge between them. All of these factors combined are making Fraser’s Ridge into a powder keg that’s about to explode.
One Day (2024)
76%
8.2/10It’s a rare thing to get a second chance at love with the same person. In One Day, college graduates Emma Morley (Ambika Mod) and Dexter Mayhew (The White Lotus star Leo Woodall) seemingly missed their moment together despite forming a deep connection. And yet Emma and Dexter remain in each other’s orbit, which means that the hope of romance isn’t completely gone yet.
Over the course of 14 episodes, Dexter and Emma’s lives intersect even when they’re dating other people. But it’s up to these lovebirds to write their own ending. Nobody else is going to do it for them.
Young Royals (2021)
8.3/10Without Netflix, shows like Young Royals would not have found an international audience. This Swedish teen romance follows Prince Wilhelm (Edvin Ryding), a member of Sweden’s royal family who is sent to an elite boarding school after some very public fights at his previous school. Wilhelm soon meets and falls for Simon Eriksson (Omar Rudberg), which leads to a scandal for the royal family when a video of the two is leaked online.
The third and final season of Young Royals finds Wilhelm finally admitting publicly that it was him in the video. Wilhelm and Simon have also reconciled after a period of estrangement, but can they make their love last? Or will Wilhelm’s royal responsibilities keep them apart?
Wanderlust (2018)
Toni Collette stars in Wanderlust as Joy Richards, a relationship therapist whose own marriage to Alan Richards (Steven Mackintosh) is on the rocks. And both Joy and Alan seem to be incapable of being faithful to each other.
After Joy is injured in a car accident, she takes the opportunity to reassess what she wants in life. Rather than ending her union with Alan, she suggests that they try having an open marriage and begin dating other people. Although Alan and Joy mutually agreed to that, they aren’t fully prepared for the way it will place an even greater strain on their relationship.
My Life with the Walter Boys (2023)
50%
7.1/10Before Jackie Howard (Nikki Rodriguez) can find love, she has to experience a heartbreaking tragedy in My Life with the Walter Boys. Following the death of her family in a car accident, Jackie is moved cross-country by her guardians, George (Marc Blucas) and Katherine Walter (Sarah Rafferty).
As Jackie struggles with the culture shock of moving from the big city to the country, she also feels strong (and potentially romantic) connections to three of the Walter family’s sons: Cole (Noah LaLonde), Alex (Ashby Gentry), and Danny Walter (Connor Stanhope). But can even the Walter brothers fill the hole in Jackie’s heart?
Zero Chill (2021)
5.8/10We already have the term bromance, but what’s an easy way to describe a growing bond between two young women? Zero Chill features Grace Beedie as Kayla MacBentley, a figure skater whose life and ambitions have taken a back seat to those of her brother, “Mac” MacBentley (Dakota Benjamin Taylor), after he gets an opportunity to play hockey in England.
With her whole life uprooted in the move from Canada, Kayla can’t even maintain her connection with her skating partner. Kayla does find a kindred spirit in Sky Tyler (Jade Ma), an ice skater who was forced to give up skating while battling leukemia. Sky and Kayla turn out to be a good pair on the ice. But Sky is also romantically interested in Mac, which could torpedo her new friendship with Kayla.
Tooth Pari: When Love Bites (2023)
6.9/10Although it arrived on Netflix earlier this year, Tooth Pari: When Love Bites is very appropriate for Halloween. This Indian love story follows Dr. Bikram Roy (Shantanu Maheshwari), a dentist who treats Rumi (Tanya Maniktala) after she breaks a tooth. Romantic sparks fly between them — even though Rumi is a vampire.
Rumi’s kind are kept hidden by their ally, Adi Deb (Adil Hussain), to protect them from their enemies, who are led by Luna Lika (Revathi). But having made a connection with Birkram, Rumi risks everything to pursue a romance — even though she can’t tell him who or what she really is.
Surviving Summer (2022)
6.6/10You may get Fresh Prince of Bel-Air flashbacks from the way that Summer Torres (Sky Katz) is shipped off to Australia in the teen romance series Surviving Summer. Summer gets in a lot of trouble in the U.S., so her mother, Margot (Kate Beahan), needs someone to look after her while she’s on an international assignment. Margot turns to her friend, Abbie (Adrienne Pickering), whom she hasn’t seen since Abbie moved to Australia 10 years earlier.
Although Summer wants to ditch Australia right away, she makes an instant connection with Margot’s son, Ari Gibson (Kai Lewins), and his circle of friends starts to become hers as well. This trip was only supposed to be for the summer, but Summer may have found where she belongs.
Glamorous (2023)
54%
6.0/10Wondering what Kim Cattrall is up to when she isn’t making 30-second cameos on And Just Like That? Cattrall has her own Netflix comedy series, Glamorous, in which she plays an aging fashion mogul, Madolyn Addison, who still rules the industry with her company, Glamorous.
Cattrall may get top billing, but the focus of the show is more on her new assistant, Marco Mejia (Miss Benny), a makeup enthusiast who is deeply fascinated by the world of fashion. Marco is also experiencing some questions of sexual identity, which are only magnified in this new environment.
A Perfect Story (2023)
A Perfect Story is a Spanish romance series that follows an heiress, Margot (Anna Castillo), and a working-class guy, David (Álvaro Mel). Margot’s hard work isn’t taken seriously by her family and she feels trapped by her engagement to Filippo (Mario Ermito). As for David, he’s got three jobs just to make his ends meet.
When Margot flees her own wedding, she ends up in a bar where David is working as a bartender. From there, a friendship begins to bloom, but can they find love and move on together?
Heartstopper (2022)
100%
8.6/10Heartstopper season 1 was a slow-burn romance between gay teenager Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) and his best friend in school, Nick Nelson (Kit Connor). In season 2, Charlie and Nick are in a real romantic relationship, but Nick is having some real trouble finding a way to come out to his friends and teammates on the rugby team.
While Charlie and Nick are on solid ground with each other, there are still obstacles ahead that are getting in the way of their happiness, especially Charlie’s ex-boyfriend, Ben Hope (Sebastian Croft).
If Only (2022)
6.2/10Time-travel stories are often built around regret and an attempt to change something that went wrong. In If Only, everything went wrong for Emma (Megan Montaner), and it’s not just one thing she would change. It’s everything, but especially her failing marriage with Nando (Miquel Fernández).
Inexplicably, Emma finds herself reliving the past decade of her life. And this time she doesn’t have to commit to a dead-end relationship with Nando. She can find someone new to love. But just because Emma has lived through her life one time doesn’t mean that she’ll get everything right the second time.
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (2023)
76%
7.3/10On Bridgerton, Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel) is so self-assured and in control that it’s a little disconcerting to see the young Queen Charlotte (India Amarteifio) decades earlier in the prequel series, Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. Early in this show, young Charlotte becomes the queen when she marries King George III (Corey Mylchreest).
Unfortunately for Charlotte, love and marriage isn’t as easy as marrying into the royal family. George’s penchant for secrecy and his growing mental illness threaten his reign even as he and Charlotte struggle to make their marriage into a true union.
XO, Kitty (2023)
67%
6.6/10Spinoffs are always tricky because it’s hard to make a supporting character into a lead. XO, Kitty largely avoids that problem by taking Anna Cathcart’s Kitty Song Covey out of the familiar confines of the To All the Boys trilogy. Kitty thinks she knows everything she needs to know about love, but she’s in for a rude awakening.
Much to the surprise of Kitty’s long-distance boyfriend, Dae (Choi Min-young), Kitty uproots her life and moves to South Korea just in the hope of finally finding the true love that has eluded her. Kitty has a lot to learn, and she might get her heart broken along the way.
Valeria (2020)
6.6/10Do you think that Sex and the City is racy? Then you haven’t seen Valeria, the Spanish romantic comedy/drama series that is ending its three-season run on Netflix. Much like HBO’s iconic series, Valeria follows four female friends, Valeria (Diana Gómez), Carmen (Paula Malia), Lola (Silma López), and Nerea (Teresa Riott). Together, they navigate their late ‘20s as they search for love and fulfillment in their lives.
Season 3 picks up with Carmen heading to the altar while Valeria’s romance with Victor (Maxi Iglesias) hits the skids. Fortunately, it’s not long before Valeria sparks a new love connection with Bruno (Federico Aguado), a writer who shares many of her passions. But Valeria and her friends will have to face some serious questions before they can find the happiness they are looking for.
Sex/Life (2021)
Sometimes, romance means intense passion, and that’s just what Billie (Sarah Shahi) realizes she was missing in Sex/Life. While suffering a midlife crisis, the former psychology Ph.D. candidate, mother, and housewife can’t seem to stop thinking about her ex-boyfriend Brad (Adam Demos).
He lives a fast-paced, exciting life that’s very different from Billie’s life with her strait-laced investment banker husband. While her husband Cooper (Mike Vogel) tries to make her feel as sexually satisfied as she once did with Brad, their twisted, emotional states create a messy situation. Sex/Life isn’t your traditional romance, but it’s provocative, steamy, and erotic.
Love Is Blind (2020)
It’s difficult to believe that Netflix’s cheesy, weird, trashy social experiment is already on its fourth season. Thirty singles from a different state in America join each season to “meet” other singles, talking to them from separate enclosed pods without ever seeing one another. After courting multiple people, they decide who they made connections with and talk more.
If they ultimately decide this person is “the one” and want to propose marriage (and it’s accepted), the two finally get to meet in person. From there, they go on vacation together, live together, meet one another’s families, and discover if it is truly meant to be, all while planning their weddings. The concept is completely backward, but there are enough raw, romantic moments intertwined with the juicy drama to keep you hooked the entire way through.
Little Things (2016)
Emily in Paris (2020)
58%
7.0/10The Empress (2022)
7.9/10Jane the Virgin (2014)
81%
7.9/10Love (2016)
73%
7.7/10Grace and Frankie (2015)
58%
8.2/10Gilmore Girls (2000)
78%
8.3/10Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015)
80%
7.8/10Lucifer (2016)
49%
8.1/10Sex Education (2019)
81%
8.3/10Virgin River (2019)
7.4/10Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life (2016)
7.6/10Easy (2016)
Love Alarm (2019)
7.0/10
