This Collider feature ranks the nine most heartbreaking series available on Netflix, spanning genres from anime and animation to period drama and horror. It highlights shows that leave a lasting emotional impact by exploring themes such as grief, trauma, injustice and love, arguing that Netflix's catalogue contains some of the most devastating television available on any streaming platform.

Featured entries include the animated action series Blue Eye Samurai, about a vengeful swordswoman in 17th-century Japan; the war-torn anime Violet Evergarden, following a former child soldier learning to process grief; the historical drama Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story, which pairs romance with themes of mental illness and duty; and the horror miniseries The Haunting of Hill House, centred on a family confronting childhood trauma. Other titles referenced include the true-crime miniseries When They See Us, underscoring the list's mix of fiction and dramatised real-life injustice.