10 Netflix Kids Shows Parents Can Love Too

Kids love summer because they are out of school and have infinitely more free time. However, parents often dread it for a simple reason: they have to keep kids entertained, often for long stretches of time. That means watching kids’ shows together, many of which can be mind-numbingly awful.

Fortunately, Netflix has a selection of TV shows made for kids that parents will secretly love. Mom, Dad, keep reading to discover the best kid-friendly shows on this streamer that won’t drive you crazy!

10

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Avatar: The Last Airbender is a modern fantasy epic housed within a truly unforgettable cartoon. The show is set in a world where “benders” have the special power to control different elements. The Avatar is someone who can bend all four elements, but to reach his full potential, he and his allies need to stay one step ahead of the fearsome Fire Nation.

The anime-inspired animation is slick, and the world-building is pitch-perfect in this iconic show. The real strength of Avatar, though, is its characters, each of whom feels at once completely archetypal and completely unique. Throw in some seriously clever writing and you have an unforgettable show that (fair warning, here) you may end up quoting for the rest of your life.

9

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power is a modern-day adaptation of the original She-Ra series. While I’m a huge fan of that earlier show (just ask the classic She-Ra figure on my desk), this Netflix original is the superior show. That’s because it fleshes all the one-dimensional characters and plot beats from the ‘80s show out, giving us heroes that are more relatable and villains like Hordak that are much scarier.

While Hordak is the Big Bad, the show wisely focuses on the relationship between Adora (She-Ra’s civilian alter ego) and Catra, a frenemy working for the Horde. These two have a real “will they or won’t they” chemistry, one which brings genuinely weighty pathos. And after watching each plot, you’ll be left with the desire to binge the series again and maybe (just maybe) secure your own invitation to the Princess Prom.

8

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

The original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers has plenty for kids to love, including heroes in colorful costumes and giant robot vsersus monster battles. For parents of a certain age, it also has an undeniably nostalgic appeal. As an elder millennial (boy, do I hate that term!), I have fond memories of this original show, even though I had no real enthusiasm of the later spinoffs. And it certainly entertained my kiddo when he was old enough to hear his dad joking about the Voltron rip-off battles.

If nothing else, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is a fun “East-meets-West” cultural artifact of post-Reagan America. You get fight footage taken from the original Japanese show combined with American footage featuring the worst excesses of ‘90s fashion and slang. Killer kaiju fighting rad robots? It’s morphin’ time!

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7

Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events

It’s not hard to see why kids love Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. Colorful characters like Count Olaf (played to perfection by Neil Patrick Harris) add both charm and menace to a kid-centric tale about his efforts to swindle three orphaned children out of their family fortune. It sounds bleak, but trust me: there are plenty of laughs in this adaptation of the beloved children’s book series.

Speaking of which, this Netflix series serves as a much better adaptation of those books (many of whose original readers are now parents themselves) than the 2004 movie starring Jim Carrey. The show gives these topsy-turvy plots time to breathe and gain momentum instead of rushing toward the credits. And that, fortunately, means more time for parents and children alike to enjoy these unfortunate events.

6

iCarly

The premise of iCarly is simple enough: the titular character and two of her best buds develop an online show that turns into a hit. Almost overnight, they have to deal with the potential and the pratfalls of being internet celebrities, all while navigating the comedy and the drama inherent in everyday teenage life. The result is a cozy show made long before terms like “influencer” were part of our daily vocabulary.

That’s part of the charm, of course: debuting only two years after the advent of YouTube, iCarly is like digital catnip to parents who miss the early days of the streaming entertainment model. At the same time, its basic premise still appeals to children, many of whom dream of someday having their own famous YouTube show. We can only hope they have a recording setup as sweet as Carly’s apartment loft!

5

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

As someone old enough to have played with the original TMNT figures, I was very skeptical of the CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show. I thought it would be a cheap cash grab, but I was pleasantly surprised that it served as a passionate love letter to the fandom as a whole. Sure, it has plenty of kid-friendly humor, but it also adapts some of the darker moments from the Mirage comics in delightfully unexpected ways.

This adds up to a show that kids can enjoy at face value: one where colorful mutants crack jokes, scarf pizza, and fight a nasty new menace each week. Adult fans of the franchise, however, can sit back and enjoy the best Turtles cartoon since the 1987 cartoon classic. Plus, this show kickstarted the modern popularity of TMNT, and that’s definitely worth raising a slice to.

4

Shaun the Sheep: Adventures From Mossy Bottom

One of the great privileges of parenting is introducing your children to the cool stuff you grew up with. For example, I was a big fan of Wallace and Gromit, quirky claymation characters introduced in the late ‘80s. It now has multiple spinoffs, including the Netflix show Shaun the Sheep: Adventures From Mossy Bottom. Like the earlier shorts, this show combines cute character design and charismatic claymation to deliver something that feels truly unique.

If you’ve never watched anything from the franchise, you should know that its real strength is its very dry British humor. That’s not to everyone’s taste, but trust me when I say that the “less is more” approach to humor works well when it comes to family movie night. That’s especially true if your own kid has been forcing you to watch show after show of gross-out, slapstick slop!

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3

Carmen Sandiego

The word “edutainment” often makes me edgy because such shows are usually neither entertaining nor educational. One powerful exception is the Carmen Sandiego show on Netflix, which is the fourth adaptation of the seminal 1985 computer game Where In the World Is Carmen Sandiego? Parents my age likely have fond memories of either playing the games or watching the earlier shows, all of which taught kids about geography and other topics as they hunted down the titular character, a world-renowned thief.

The Netflix show is a kind of origin story for Carmen Sandiego. This, along with cameos from familiar franchise characters, is guaranteed to entertain longtime franchise fans. As for kids, they are sure to dig the plot and charming lead character, who has been reimagined as a kind of Robin Hood figure who steals from the same supervillains who trained her. Parents or children, who doesn’t love a thief with a heart of gold?

2

The Magic School Bus

Many of us learned to hate the school bus from a young age. However, The Magic School Bus reimagines the dreaded school vehicle as something, well, magical! It’s driven by Ms. Frizzle, an unconventional teacher voiced by Lily Tomlin. A bit like the TARDIS, the bus is capable of transporting characters through space and time, and Ms. Frizzle uses it to take her students on the craziest field trips in the universe.

While The Magic School Bus later got a sequel series, I’m happy to report that parents and kids alike are still quite taken by the original show. Children see this as the ultimate fantasy show in which the coolest teacher in the world actually makes learning fun. As for parents, they mostly enjoy the nostalgic vibe of a time when they only had to live life one day at a time.

1

Danger Mouse: Classic Collection

Last British cartoon, I promise! Fortunately, you don’t have to be a hardcore Anglophile to enjoy Danger Mouse: Classic Collection, a cartoon parody that lampoons James Bond and other cinematic spies. Here, the secret agent is a mouse with an eyepatch. Despite his lack of depth perception, this animated agent only has eyes (well, one of them) on defeating Baron Silas Greenback, his wheezing archnemesis.

Parents are likely to enjoy the show’s many Bond gags (for example, Danger Mouse works for “Colonel K” whereas 007 worked for M). Children, meanwhile, generally dig the show at face value. Who doesn’t love to see a mouse turned secret agent save the world alongside a plucky sidekick? Plus, as with Shaun the Sheep, the English humor is dry enough and off-kilter enough to pleasantly stand out amid a sea of shopworn gags found in most American animation.

Summer break may fill you with dread because you worry you’ll be stuck watching nothing but dreck like Peppa Pig (you started singing the song in your head just now, didn’t you?) Don’t turn the TV off yet, though. You now have a handy list of Netflix shows you’ll love as much as your kiddo. Time to bond, one episode at a time!