The most slow-burn shows on Netflix UK
Some shows take their time. We ranked the well-rated, layered, serious dramas on Netflix UK by pace, slowest first, and checked how many slow burns each UK service carries.
Updated
What we found
- 36 of the 173 scored shows on Netflix UK (21%) are slow burns: a pace score below 2.5, with intricacy and weightiness both above 3, out of 5.
- NOW has the highest share of the UK services we checked, at 27% of 79 shows.
- The slowest drama on the list is When They See Us, with a pace score of 1.5.
Slowest-paced dramas on Netflix UK
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Share of slow-burn shows by UK service
Share of each service's scored shows with a pace score below 2.5 and intricacy and weightiness above 3.
- NOW27% · 21 of 79
- Netflix21% · 36 of 173
- Prime Video13% · 7 of 55
- Disney+6% · 5 of 79
How we worked this out
Pace is one of our ten attributes, scored 0 to 5 from each title's genres, keywords and story tags (lower is slower). We call a show a slow burn when its pace is below 2.5 and both its intricacy (how layered the plotting is) and weightiness (how heavy the themes are) are above 3. Ranked dramas have a TMDB rating of at least 7 from 150 or more votes. Our pool is the best-known, best-rated films and shows in the Boxlist catalogue (at least 500 TMDB votes for a film, 150 for a show), so the figures describe that slice of each service, not its whole library. Availability counts subscription streaming only, not rental or purchase.
Scores and catalogue data as of 8 November 2026; streaming availability checked on 8 November 2026. Line-ups change, so check a title's page for where it streams today. How we score films and shows