These 15-minute Netflix shows are perfect for killing time while charging your EV

Published Oct 18, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT Tyler is an journalist and content contributor at How-To Geek with over three years of experience covering the automotive and tech industries. His work focuses on delivering clear, well-researched, and engaging content that helps readers better understand the vehicles they drive and the technology that they use everyday. Before entering automotive media, he spent five years as an academic editor, developing a strong foundation in research methodology, factual accuracy, and structured analysis. This background informs his journalistic approach today, ensuring that every article balances technical insight with accessibility for a broad audience. There is no denying that we're heading towards a future ruled by electric vehicles. Their dominance in the market might have waned in the last year, but the growth is still undeniably there. One of the biggest downsides to climbing on the EV bandwagon, though, is the idea of sitting and waiting for your car to charge back up again, especially when you're in the middle of a long road trip. The good news is that EV charging is getting quicker and quicker by the day. A lot of modern electric cars will be ready to get going again after fewer than 20 minutes hooked up to a DC fast charger. While I wait to charge by EV, my favorite way to kill time is to watch a quick episode of a show on Netflix. There are a couple of gems around 15 minutes an episode, and some modern EVs, like those from Tesla or Hyundai, will even let you watch your episode on the infotainment system while you wait. I Think You Should Leave An absurd sketch comedy series A lot of us know Tim Robinson from his hilarious sketches on Instagram. His absurd brand of comedy made him famous online incredibly quickly. Fans of Saturday Night Live will also know that he was a steady performer on the late-night show for a good couple of years, becoming one of a very small group of people on SNL to go from performer to staff writer. It all culminated in Robinson creating, writing, and starring in his own show, I Think You Should Leave. This is a perfect show to pop on while you wait for your battery to charge up. There is no overarching storyline, with each episode containing a couple of self-contained skits. This means that you can pretty easily throw on an episode, even if you haven't watched the show in a while. Most episodes are just over 15 minutes long. Young Sheldon A spin-off that actually works I might catch some flak for this, but I was one of the few people that didn't enjoy The Big Bang Theory. It wasn't that I thought it was bad; it just didn't quite catch my interest like some other shows in the 2000s. Thus, it took me a lot of time to actually give Young Sheldon a chance. It dives into the early days of Sheldon Cooper's (Jim Parsons) life and how his genius and unique personality made growing up in Texas hard. When I did eventually give it a go, I actually found it more entertaining than The Big Bang Theory. Young Sheldon is a classic sitcom, making it a pretty easy show to follow. Episodes are a little longer, with most sitting closer to 20 minutes than 15, but I find it's a show I can seamlessly jump in and out of. Love, Death & Robots A fantastic collection of animated shorts This is one of my favorite shows to go back to when I only have a couple of minutes. It is an anthology of adult animation shorts produced for Netflix and created by Tim Miller. It is a genius concept, with each episode highlighting a short from different animation houses, showcasing a variety of stories across numerous different genres like science fiction and horror. Each episode is connected to one or more of the titular concepts. There are currently four seasons, labeled as volumes, available on Netflix. As each episode exists independently, it is a great choice if you're looking for a self-contained 15-minute story. The length of each episode varies quite a lot, but none of them are long. The shortest episodes are around six minutes long, and the longest episode hits 22 minutes, though most episodes hover just above the 10-minute mark. Alley Cats A brilliant animated comedy that will make you laugh and cry There are few people that are able to strike a balance between comedy and existentialism quite like Ricky Gervais. He understands how to create shows that will make you keel over with laughter one minute and then have you question your entire existence the next minute. Alley Cats is the British comic's latest show, and I think he achieves his usual goal quite well. The show is exactly what it says on the box. Alley Cats follows a gang of feral British cats from different walks of life and their shared desire for family and companionship. Yes, it gets a little silly at times, and it occasionally feels like a soapbox for Gervais to voice his personal ideas and philosophies, but it perfectly captures the essence of a group of friends sitting on a couch, shooting the breeze, and talking nonsense. Being quite new, there is only one season on Netflix. Episodes run just longer than 15 minutes on average, giving you a reasonable amount of time to put some meaningful range on your EV. Alley Cats Release Date August 7, 2026 You don't have to kill all that much time while charging your EV anymore The charging infrastructure for EVs has become incredibly widespread and impressively advanced in the last couple of years. Jumping on a public charger mid-road trip means that you only have to sit around for 20 minutes at most before you're ready to tackle the rest of your journey. A nice short show allows you to kick your feet up, watch a single episode, and then hit the road.