As perhaps many of us do, I have this week off and Im frittering away my days cooking, playing dota, and falling asleep in front of the TV during the day. The only TV that I really watch are Game of Thrones, Walking Dead, and and a few others when they pique my interest. Most recently I binge-watched Mr Robot, which I absolutely loved and it might be my new favorite show aside from Thrones. One show that was recommended to me that I thought was good, but was not amazing was the Wire. (I know, I know. Sacrilege!) Focus: What shows are worth the binge-watching experience? Why? Alt Focus: What shows were recommended or critically acclaimed that you just couldnt get into?
Bingeworthy: Game of Thrones, Mr Robot, Deadwood, Sons of Anarchy, The Shield, Rescue Me, The Knick, The Americans, Better Call Saul, Breaking Bad. I agree that The Wire is a good but not great show, a few of those seasons just sucked. Same with Oz, I just couldn't get into it. People raved about Lost but I didn't get the love, smoke monsters and polar bears? The fuck?
Firefly. Excellent for the binge, because in addition to what made it a good show - great cast, sharp writing, visually interesting - each episode's story stands on its own, but the full narrative works as a really long movie. Since the show ended up as only one season, you don't get burned out AND you can immediately watch the movie Serenity at the end of the binge, to wrap it all up in a bow. The downside, of course, is that you will curse Fox and all those involved in pulling the plug after one season.
Hannibal. First show in a while that really grabbed me. There are only 39-ish episodes in 3 seasons, so it is possible to get through them all in a week. Between the acting, sets, cinematography, and the overall painstaking detail put into the story telling it was an absolute delight for a show. Each episode was a mini-movie. Wasted by NBC. How it even made it onto NBC was remarkable. It is unnerving at times, to put it lightly. Mads Mikkelson might have made a better Hannibal than Anthony Hopkins. (Is this even on Netflix? Anywhere?)
I'll second Firefly, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul. I'll add House of Cards, Orange is the new Black, Battlestar Galactica, Band of Brothers, Longmire, and Banshee. For boring days when you just want to fade in and out on the couch or fall asleep without worrying about missing any of the storylines, I'll do Better Off Ted, Eureka, Stargate Atlantis, and King of the Hill.
People went nuts for Lost because it was an early entry of the current age of television. It was captivating, had well-developed characters, almost every episode had a cliff hanger, and no one really knew where it was going to go. If it was released today I dont think it would be as popular in a sea of excellent TV.
Oh, I'll add Life, because that is also only 2+ seasons, on Netflix instant, and easy to burn through. Damian Lewis, Sarah Shahi, Donal Logue, Adam Arkin - what's not to love? I would add Terriers, too, since it's one season and on Netflix instant, but then it would sound like I have a man crush on Donal Logue.
Friday Night Lights is easily one of my favorite shows, ever. The series (all 76 episodes) is on Netflix, and easy to quickly get lost in. There is a segment during Season 2 that drags a bit, but other than that, it's a great show that everyone who has a soul will love. Cannot recommend enough.
Peaky Blinders, Bojack Horseman, and Justified have not been mentioned yet, and all are very good. Also, Archer if you haven't seen it yet.
When it comes to TV I almost always go for purely entertaining over thought provoking, so naturally I have to recommend 24. Start with the beginning of the first season and stop with the fourth episode of season 6. That's where it jumped the shark. You can also never go wrong with seasons 3-8 of The Simpsons.
I'd like to chuck in my 5 cents, as I watch a considerable amount of TV. There are a few good modern/current shows worth a binge, including Murder In The First for the more serious (great casting in season 1 in particular) and Elementary. The U.K. version of Sherlock is good for an afternoon, as is Luther - being British shows, the series' are small in number. Another one that was a shorter season is Bosch, staring Titus Welliver, although it is a bit of a slow-burner. I have spoken before of my enjoyment of The Wire (I know other people mentioned it first but it deserves repeating) - it is easily one of the best TV series ever made, in any genre. For more of a mindless but humorous watch, Castle is great, mostly because Nathan Fillion is damn funny, as is the rest of the cast in places.
All my friends seem to be binge watching Making a Murderer and it is ALMOST enough to make me want to break down and get Netflix.
I second this. Sterling Archer reminds me of myself in so many ways that it's almost uncanny. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is great because after I watch it, I feel a lot better about myself. I can think of a lot of cancelled comedy shows that were killed before their time: TV Funhouse, Wonder Showzen, and The Upright Citizen's Brigade come to mind. I understand why they were cancelled (you have to have a really weird/twisted sense of humor to get them), but that doesn't mean I have to like it. British Top Gear never fails to disappoint (although we'll have to see how it does with new hosts...). If I had been born in England in the early '60s, I would be just like Jeremy Clarkson (not physically, though). Alt Focus: What shows were recommended or critically acclaimed that you just couldn't get into? How about just about everything on TV? Everybody Loves Raymond? Grey's Anatomy? Who the fuck watches that crap? (I realize that those shows are cancelled, but they ran for a looong time, so somebody must have been watching.)
Focus: The Fall. SERIOUSLY. Quite possibly one of the finest thriller/dramas I've ever seen, and the acting is out of this world. If you can believe it, Jamie Dornan's in a class with Matthew McConnaughey in True Detective with this performance. It's not a whodunit - you know from the first shot of Dornan that he's the killer - it's a cat and mouse with him and Gillian Anderson, who looks unreal for 50. The backstory which has nothing to do with the show, but does discuss 50 Shades of Grey: Spoiler Back when 50SoG was in theatres, a good friend thought she might be filing for divorce. She'd gone so far as to have him move out and change the locks. She was super stressed and upset, so I told her, "We're going out on Friday for drinks and a movie. Tell [Husband] he's babysitting and you need a day off." She did, and when I told her to pick the movie she naturally wanted to see 50SoG. Ugh. I'd read enough snippets of the book online to know that it was a terrible book, and to say I was unenthusiastic about the movie would be an understatement. But, I sucked it up and took one for the team. Turns out having absolutely abysmal, rock-bottom expectations of a thing can be beneficial. I didn't mind the movie; it was neither shocking nor erotic, but it had funny moments and Dakota Johnston did well. In my opinion, though, Dornan was horrendously mis-cast. He gave a wooden, uncharismatic performance and I figured they'd just bought the cheapest actor they could find. On a whim last month I watched The Fall, and was so astounded by his performance I was actually confused. His characters in both projects are essentially the same guy - men with broken childhoods in foster care who went on to be successful, yet have stalker tendencies and odd sexual proclivities. How could one actor give such a nuanced, find performance in one show and drop the ball in another? The dissonance was so great that I finally read 50SoG, and then I understood. The book was as badly written as you could ask for, and WTF was Dornan supposed to do with that kind of dialogue. Given the material he didn't do too badly, actually.
You know it only costs like $8 per month, right? And you get a month free. My wife and I are 3.5 episodes into Making a Murderer. It is basically like an episode of dateline, without the editing or a narrator. Instead of Chris Hansen telling you what happened they present to you all of the evidence and a shit ton of interviews. then you get to narrate it yourself! It is a fairly enraging story. Stuff not mentioned yet- The increasingly poor decisions of Todd Margaret- This is an out there British Comedy staring David Cross and Will Arnett. It is very raunchy and often times stupid. I still laughed a lot. Friends- My wife is watching this because she missed it the first time around. It holds up fairly well, and the early seasons are still kind of funny. Arrested Development- I watch seasons 1-3 at least once a year if not more. Season 4 was kind of blah. I still look forward to season 5. Seinfeld is on Hulu now.
Spoiler I'm four episodes in and I want to kill that Brendan kid. How fucking stupid can one human being be?
Both of these are related to Making a Murderer, but neither are really massive spoilers. Read at your own will. Spoiler My wife used to be a special ed teacher for kids in the same IQ range. She informed me that it is very easy to get a retard to say whatever you want. You should be more angry with the investigators, and the judge who if he watched the same video I did, should be ashamed for not throwing it out.
Oh I am, they fucking railroaded him unfairly. Im more frustrated with the situation and that his mother didnt demand that he have his lawyer present at all times.
I enjoy Daredevil and Mind of a Chef, personally. My brother recommended Jessica Jones and The Bletchley Circle, which I've also heard good things about. As an aside, I didn't know what the phrase "Netflix and chill" meant until just recently. I inadvertently said to one of my kid's hot nurses that, if we had known each other outside of the neurology ward, we'd probably be friends and she was the type I'd normally invite over to "watch Netflix and chill". The look she gave me was... interesting. Once she left, my husband made me Google what I'd said. So mortified.