It’s been said that people come into our lives for a reason. The best of friends help us learn and grow, providing challenges and new perspectives. Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) and Glinda (Ariana Grande), the stars of Wicked: For Good, know a thing or two about that, as do the pals in these series on Netflix. So, “like a comet pulled from orbit” or “a stream that meets a boulder,” follow these friends as they help each other change for the better. Or, at the very least, change for good.

Grace and Frankie

Multihyphenates Jane Fonda (Barbarella) and Lily Tomlin (Nashville) lead this comedy series about unlikely friends Grace (Fonda) and Frankie (Tomlin), whose husbands of 40 years leave them for each other. While they couldn’t be more different — Grace is a prickly former cosmetics mogul and Frankie is a quirky, spiritual artist — they strike up a tentative friendship built on mutual loneliness. However, their Odd Couple dynamic soon becomes the most significant, defining relationship of their lives. Sam Waterston (Law & Order), Martin Sheen (The West Wing), Brooklyn Decker (Just Go With It), Ethan Embry (Empire Records), June Diane Raphael (Weapons), and Baron Vaughn (Mystery Science Theater 3000) also co-star.

Grace and Frankie

7 Seasons   TV-MA   2015

My List

Watch

Friends from College

Keegan-Michael Key (Key & Peele), Cobie Smulders (How I Met Your Mother), Annie Parisse (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days), Nat Faxon (The Way Way Back), Fred Savage (The Wonder Years), and Jae Suh Park (A Great Divide) star in Friends From College, a comedy about a group of, yes, friends from college who are still struggling to navigate their lives and relationships in their 40s despite having attended a prestigious university: Harvard. Francesca Delbanco (Platonic) and Nicholas Stoller (Neighbors) co-created this series that ran for two seasons and also includes Billy Eichner (Bros), Ike Barinholtz (The Studio), Kate McKinnon (Saturday Night Live), and Seth Rogen (Knocked Up).

Friends from College

2 Seasons   TV-MA   2017

My List

Watch

Good Girls

When three suburban moms, Beth (Christina Hendricks), Ruby (Retta), and Annie (Mae Whitman), fall on hard times, they rob a local grocery store — and succeed. The problem? The store was serving as a money laundering front for a local gang. The group’s leader, Rio (Manny Montana), drafts them into his criminal empire to repay the debt, and the trio are caught up in a web of secrets and lies that could impact them and their families forever. Reno Wilson (The Cosby Show) and Matthew Lillard (Scream) co-star.

Good Girls

4 Seasons   TV-MA   2018

My List

Watch

Girlfriends

This Los Angeles–based ensemble sitcom from creator Mara Brock Akil (Forever) brings together a group of women from different walks of life who face every new challenge together, no matter what’s thrown their way. Joan Clayton (Tracee Ellis Ross), Maya Wilkes (Golden Brooks), Lynn Searcy (Persia White), and Toni Childs-Garrett (Jill Marie Jones) support each other through professional hurdles, scandal, and divorce, learning about true friendship over the course of this eight-season series that also stars Jenifer Lewis (Sister Act), Reggie Hayes (Carter High), Khalil Kain (Juice), and more.

Girlfriends

8 Seasons   TV-14   2000

My List

Watch

Dead to Me

This black comedy stars Christina Applegate (Jesse) and Linda Cardellini (Freaks and Geeks) as a pair of friends bonded by tragedy with a twist. Jen (Applegate) recently lost her husband in a car accident and is in a dark place when she meets Judy (Cardellini) in a grief support group. The strangely upbeat Judy claims to be grieving her fiancé, who she says died of a heart attack. Little does Jen know that Judy’s fiancé is alive and well — and that Judy was involved in the crash that killed her husband. James Marsden (27 Dresses), Max Jenkins (The Mysteries of Laura), and Sam McCarthy (All These Small Moments) co-star.

Dead to Me

3 Seasons   TV-MA   2019

My List

Watch

Explore

Tuca & Bertie

Created by Lisa Hanawalt (BoJack Horseman), Tuca & Bertie is a 10-episode animated comedy starring Tiffany Haddish (Girls Trip) and Ali Wong (Beef) as the eponymous, anthropomorphic birds. Tuca Toucan (Haddish) is impulsive and dramatic while her bestie Bertie Songthrush (Wong) veers more shy and anxious. Despite their polar opposite personalities, they’re bonded by their love for each other as they stumble into avian adulthood side by side. Steven Yeun (The Walking Dead), Nicole Byer (Nailed It!), Richard E. Grant (Saltburn), Reggie Watts (Creative Control), and more provide additional voices.

Tuca & Bertie

10 Episodes   TV-MA   2019

My List

Watch

Sex and the City

Four friends take on New York City starting in the late ’90s, facing career challenges and dating woes in this six-season series based on writer Candace Bushnell’s column for The New York Observer. Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), Charlotte York (Kristin Davis), and Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) each have their own take on the world and the men in their lives but find common ground in their long-lasting friendships — and over a stiff cocktail or two. Chris Noth (Law & Order), David Eigenberg (Chicago Fire), Willie Garson (White Collar), Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks), John Corbett (My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Evan Handler (Californication), and more co-star.

Sex and the City

6 Seasons   TV-MA   1998

My List

Watch

Minx

Ophelia Lovibond (Here) and Jake Johnson (New Girl) lead this ’70s–based comedy about an adult entertainment publisher, Doug Renetti (Johnson), who collaborates with a feminist writer, Joyce Prigger (Lovibond), to create the first erotic magazine for women: Minx. Despite opposing worldviews, funding snafus, and creative differences, they forge ahead and bring their vibrant colleagues and loved ones along for the ride. Michael Angarano (Sky High), Jessica Lowe (Blended), Oscar Montoya (Bless the Harts), Lennon Parhham (Playing House), Idara Victor (Rizzoli & Isles), and Taylor Zakhar Perez (Red, White & Royal Blue) also star.

Minx

2 Seasons   TV-MA   2022

My List

Watch