The best 4K Netflix movies and shows

Despite being due to commence its fifth and final season, this visually ambitious comic book adaptation still somehow seems to fly under the mainstream radar. The Umbrella Academy has a unique hyper-stylised look that does wonderful things with light and shade, interspersed with stabs of bold colour. Naturally, it all looks even better in 4K.

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No list of visually lavish movies and TV shows is complete without a good slice of fantasy, where CGI and costume budgets can be let loose. Thankfully, Netflix has one ready to order in The Witcher. Henry Cavill plays the titular monster hunter, who must hack and slash (not to mention grimace) through foul beasts and political intrigue alike.

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This adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s seminal ’80s/’90s fantasy-horror comic was weirdly overlooked during the 2022 awards season. No matter. Stare deep into the inky eyes of the god-like personification of Dream, played by Tom Sturridge and rendered in spectacular 4K, and thank your lucky stars that you upgraded your TV set relatively recently.

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Before he got involved with ill-received - but we think excellent - Star Wars sequels and the breezily brilliant Knives Out films, Rian Johnson made this rip-roaring sci-fi time travel action thriller. You simply haven’t lived until you’ve seen the shine of Bruce Willis’s impeccable bonce rendered in full Ultra High Definition.

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Now that it’s wrapped up its final season, we can reflect upon what made Better Call Saul so good. Besides its impeccable writing, wicked sense of humour, and faultless performances, this Breaking Bad side-story of sorts is notable for its cinematic approach and its ceaseless use of inventive camera angles. It’s a 4K production through and through.

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This German sci-fi mystery series is a real brain-scrambler, as the residents of a sleepy village are forced to contend with missing children, time-travelling killers, and parallel universes. There’s a lot to take in, so it’s a good job you can simply switch off your brain and look at the beautifully stylish cinematography in full 4K.

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In the UK, the BBC’s Planet Earth series was one of the leading champions of 4K TV broadcasting. Our Planet is from the same team, and features a similar mixture of stunning scenery and beautiful wildlife, all captured in microscopic detail by a fleet of top-grade 4K cameras.

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This smart sci-fi movie is as visually arresting as it is mysterious. A biologist is sent to investigate the shimmer, a phenomenon that causes mutations in plant and animal life. And it's expanding. The film was a box office flop, but is well worth a watch if you like your sci-fi to have some thought behind it. Directed by Alex Garland, who made Ex Machina and wrote 28 Days Later.

Sadly abandoned after a single season, this televisual prequel to ’80s cult classic fantasy movie The Dark Crystal wears its extravagant budget and painstaking production techniques on its little puppety sleeves. Needless to say, you owe it to yourself to watch it in full 4K. They quite literally don’t make them like this any more.

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The benefits of 4K aren’t exclusive to live action film and TV. That bump up in resolution also benefits animated content, especially when that content is as packed full of detail and sheer artistry as Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. It might be a spin-off from a popular video game, but Edgerunners earns its place on this list with its strikingly rendered vision of a sci-fi dystopia.

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OK, the original Knives Out is arguably a better film than its follow-up Glass Onion. However, if you also care about a movie that can make the most of a 4K presentation, pick this sequel. Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc is roped in to investigate another mystery. But this time it's set on the luxury private island of a tech billionaire.

This brilliant war film won both a BAFTA and Oscar for its cinematography, and Netflix's 4K feed is the best way to experience it outside of a 4K Blu-ray. It's a harrowing depiction of the First World War, seen through the eyes of an idealistic young German soldier. He joins the war effort in a patriotic fervour, only to be quickly introduced to the real horrors of war.

The Safdie brothers have essentially served up a two-hour heart attack in Uncut Gems, with its relentless pace and insistent Oneohtrix Point Never soundtrack accompanying a brilliantly edgy performance by Adam Sandler. Through all the stress and the kinetic action, however, the film’s kaleidoscopic cinematography really pops on a good 4K TV.

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One of the key drivers of 4K adoption in the early years was sport. Nothing demonstrates the advantages of packing more pixels on display like a fast-moving ball or, in the case of Formula One, car. Drive to Survive tracks the twists and turns across several F1 seasons, with all the on-and-off track drama captured in crisp UHD.

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The Irishman sees one of the finest living film directors making a three-and-a-half hour crime epic exclusively for Netflix. We couldn’t NOT include it in this list. Martin Scorsese’s film is a typically virtuosic wedge of film-making, with strong performances and some uncannily good de-aging effects that really need to be seen in a higher resolution.

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4K is great for rendering fast-paced action and vivid colour, but Roma has neither of those things. This wonderful slice-of-life drama from Alfonso Cuaron is rendered in starkly beautiful black and white, but with none of the usual accompanying grain it somehow takes on a look that’s akin to classic street photography. Beautiful.

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4K isn’t just about making space ships, supernatural beings, and movie stars look good. It has also proved transformational for food shows, as evidenced by Chef’s Table. The term ‘food porn’ is a deeply icky one, but the way this impeccably shot series renders the food made by real life culinary stars certainly verges on the indecent.

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