Barbie: Life In The Dreamhouse Is The Binge-Worthy Netflix Show You've Been Missing

There are few things better than finding a show that your kids love — that doesn’t make you want to run screaming from the room. For the longest time with my three girls, that show was Sesame Street (there is a very specific Ricky Gervais scene that my family and I can quote verbatim). My kids loved it, it wasn’t “bad” for them to watch, and it had some laugh-out-loud moments for me.

Now, with my oldest 11, that show is Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse. And I promise, if you aren’t watching it with your own kids, it’s time to add it to the queue.

I know, I know. It sounds silly. My oldest discovered it during a slumber party with all of her friends (all ages 11 and 12), and she could not wait to show it to me when she got home. I fully expected it to be a bright, chaotic, sparkly-pink preschool show with lots of basic storylines and canned jokes.

But when I tell you that Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse makes me laugh out loud more than some network sitcoms? I truly mean it.

Maybe it’s because the show was originally just a bunch of YouTube shorts from Mattel, but Barbie: Life in the Dreamhouse is punchy, smart, and extremely meta in its jokes. Throwaway lines like “How old is Barbie anyway?” and scenes where Barbie’s car dies, so Ken has to replace the big C battery in the front — as if it’s a real toy — are written for those of us (the adults) who get it.

In one episode, Barbie is so excited about getting her driver’s license. As she squeals, one of her friends says, “Weren’t you a race car driver?” as a nod to Barbie’s numerous careers through her history. Barbie does a look to camera, and I can’t explain how dry and funny it is. In another, her friends run to her and ask, “Barbie! Did you cut your hair? ...you know it doesn’t grow back, right?”

Some of the jokes my kids get and are written specifically for them, like a cupcake-making machine that goes haywire and fills the Dreamhouse with desserts. Some are written for both of us, like Barbie’s new car arriving in a box like an actual Barbie car would be found on a Target shelf. It’s a show that doesn’t pretend to be some big “real” show with Barbie and her little sisters and friends as characters. It pokes fun at Barbie’s origin story, it promotes friendship and sisterhood, and it makes Ken out to be a big goofy golden retriever-type that does whatever Barbie says.

There are even little “confession-style” videos where the characters explain what’s happening directly to camera like a reality show. It’s one of the best bits in the whole series.

And do I even have to explain the iconic behavior of frenemies Raquel and Ryan?

Because it was once a collection of YouTube shorts, the little episodes are quick, and they don’t really follow a larger storyline — so you can watch a couple from the beginning or 20 randomly in the middle and you’ll always be satisfied.

I promise, I was like you, too. My kid came home from a slumber party and told me they watched Barbie. I assumed she meant the 2023 movie, but when she pulled this show up on Netflix, I groaned. I just knew it was going to be terrible, one of those toddler shows you put on only because you need to get dinner done and not for any other reason.

But I changed my mind, and you will, too. And you’ll find yourself like me, sitting on the couch in the morning with a cup of coffee, laughing out loud at the deadpan humor in the eyes of CGI-animated Barbies trying to throw a party.