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Quentin Tarantino Says Only One Netflix Show Is Worth Watching

Quentin Tarantino Says Only One Netflix Show Is Worth Watching
Image credit: Legion-Media

Quentin Tarantino isn't shy about his contempt for streaming—and he's not about to soften up now.

While studios bend over backwards to churn out content for Netflix, Prime Video, and every other algorithm-obsessed platform, Tarantino remains firmly in the "cinema or nothing" camp. He won't make a movie for streaming. He won't watch most of them. And as far as he's concerned, some of Netflix's biggest hits "don't even feel like real movies."

But—shockingly—there's one Netflix series he actually likes.

In an interview, Tarantino named The Haunting of Hill House as his "favourite series, with no competition." That's right. The guy who built his entire career on theatrical purism is apparently a Mike Flanagan fan.

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Flanagan, who's been quietly keeping Netflix's horror division alive with moody, slow-burn hits, was stunned by the praise. His response to hearing Tarantino was a fan? Just: "Well, damn."

To be fair, Hill House is one of the few Netflix originals that wasn't written by an algorithm. It's meticulously crafted, genuinely unsettling, and actually directed like someone cared. So the compliment makes sense. Still, given that Netflix drops hundreds of new shows every year, the fact that Tarantino could only name one he truly liked says more about the rest of the catalog than it does about Hill House.

The only other show that made any impression on him? The Queen's Gambit. So that's two total, in the entire streaming era.

Tarantino's streaming résumé, such as it is, looks like this:

  • He let Netflix split The Hateful Eight into a four-episode miniseries.
  • He took a hefty paycheck for helping out with David Fincher's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood spinoff.
  • He still thinks most Netflix originals—especially the ones with Ryan Reynolds—"don't feel real."
  • He believes watching movies on your phone is one step removed from cultural collapse.

But somehow, Mike Flanagan snuck past the gate.

So if you ever wondered what it would take for Quentin Tarantino to endorse a Netflix original, the answer is: slow-burn horror, zero Ryan Reynolds, and a director who actually knows how to block a scene. Good luck pitching anything else.