3 underrated Netflix shows you should watch this weekend (May 3-5)

Perhaps the most innovative show to come along in some time, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend combined fantasy and reality by creating a universe where people regularly break out into original songs. The show is a musical comedy about a woman who moves across the country on a whim to chase after an old crush.

It featured two original songs every week, and a shocking number of those songs were excellent. The show was always something of a scrappy underdog, but part of its appeal was the sheer creativity on display and that it had some genuinely interesting things to say about love, mental illness, and what it means to be a good person.

Telling the story of a teenage girl who finds herself impregnated even though she’s never had sex, Jane the Virgin is operating from a pretty whacky premise from its very first moments. The show pulls a lot from the world of telenovelas, and establishes a tone that is all its own.

Thanks to a strong ensemble cast, willingness to make genuinely bold creative decisions, and a love triangle that had plenty of actual meat on the bone, Jane the Virgin became an instant sensation with critics, and has continued to grow its fanbase in the decade since it first aired.

One of the great undersung sci-fi series of the 2010s, The 100 is a post-apocalyptic series that imagines a future in which the majority of humanity has been annihilated by nuclear war. Those who survive decide to send 100 children down the surface of the planet to test its hospitability, and these new inhabitants find themselves fascinated by a homeworld they are totally unfamiliar with.

While not every creative decision on the show was beloved, The 100 has the kind of dense sci-fi storytelling that so many shows lack today, and it has the kind of extended run that few shows are afforded as well.