Ms. Rachel (2025) Review: Speech Practice, Not Spectacle

Is Ms. Rachel worth watching?

It depends on who is watching. For babies, toddlers and their parents, Ms. Rachel is one of the gentlest and most useful screen-time choices available; judged as television for anyone else, it is deliberately plain and repetitive. The show’s strength is its method: slow speech, warm repetition and real pauses for a child to answer. Its limitation is that it is a repackaging of a YouTube format, with little on Netflix that families who already know the channel have not seen.

What is Ms. Rachel about?

Ms. Rachel is a preschool series built around Rachel Accurso, a former music teacher who became one of the most recognisable faces in early-childhood media through her YouTube videos. Episodes mix nursery songs, simple phonics play, counting, sign language, and social and emotional lessons such as naming feelings or taking turns. Accurso speaks directly to the camera, slowly and clearly, and leaves space for the child at home to respond.

Ms. Rachel is an American series in English, created by and starring Accurso, with her husband Aron Accurso and Keisha Gilles among the regular cast. Its move from YouTube to Netflix in 2025 brought curated episodes of her material to a wider audience. This review covers the first two seasons on the service; the show is ongoing, and new batches continue to arrive.

A format built around the child at home

What distinguishes Ms. Rachel from most preschool programming is its pace. Where many children’s shows chase attention with fast cuts, bright animation and constant noise, this one slows down. Accurso exaggerates mouth shapes, repeats words several times, and waits. The pauses are the point: the show is designed to prompt a toddler to babble, point or sing back, not just to watch.

Accurso has said the approach grew out of her own son’s speech delay, and the series is shaped by that practical goal. Songs reinforce vocabulary, gestures pair with words, and the lessons stay concrete. Parents looking for something that encourages talking rather than passive staring will see why the format caught on so quickly.

Warmth that carries a simple production

The production is modest by television standards, with simple sets, puppets, costumes and a handful of regular performers. Accurso’s on-camera warmth does the heavy lifting. She is patient, expressive and never condescending, and her affection for her young audience reads as genuine rather than performed.

The supporting players add variety to the songs and sketches, and Aron Accurso’s musical background shows in the catchy, uncomplicated tunes. None of it is sophisticated, but it does not need to be. The show knows exactly who it is for.

The limits of a toddler show on a streaming service

That narrow focus is also why this review lands at a middle rating. Adults will find the episodes almost unwatchable in long stretches, with the same songs and routines recurring often. Children past the preschool years will outgrow it quickly. And no educational television replaces time with a caregiver; Ms. Rachel works best as an occasional, interactive tool rather than background noise.

There is also the question of value. Much of this material has long been available free on YouTube, so the Netflix version mostly offers convenience, an ad-free setting and a curated order. For some families that is worth a lot; for others it changes little.

Who should watch Ms. Rachel?

Parents and carers of children from roughly infancy to preschool age will get the most from it, especially families working on early speech and language. It is rated for all ages, with no content concerns of any kind, and its short segments make it easy to dip into. Sitting alongside a child and joining in brings out the best of it.

There is no close match on our shelves for toddlers, but for the grown-ups after bedtime:

• Reply 1988, a warm, slow family drama about parents, children and neighbours.
• Gogglebox, for easy-going family viewing that asks nothing of a tired audience.

The verdict

Ms. Rachel is less a television series than a well-designed tool for early learning, and on those terms it succeeds. Its slow, repetitive method is exactly right for toddlers and exactly wrong for everyone else, which is why the answer to whether it is worth watching depends entirely on the age of the person in front of the screen.

Rating: 3/5