Binge-Worthy Shows for Winter
It’s 2020 (update: this list is great if you’ve got no idea what to watch during quarentine, also check out these other articles for quarantine suggestions, guides, and information), and binge-watching television is at its peak (as far as we know). With so many top-notch networks creating content, it’s often overwhelming to keep up with what to watch. In fact, it’s hard to remember a time when we didn’t have all of the content we could possibly want at our fingertips, even though it wasn’t that long ago. This streaming business really began in 2007, when Netflix dropped the first season of House of Cards. The following year, Hulu began their streaming service, and in 2011, via Roku, Amazon launched theirs. With Disney+ launching last year, we’ve got a whole new catalogue of shows just waiting to be binged. How will anyone ever leave the house? Well, in winter, who wants to? The fact is, our content has not only quadrupled in the last decade, it’s also become better. Whether it’s high-drama or comedy, documentary or a bake-off, the quality of our binge worthy content is so good, we can’t get enough.
Speaking of enough, that’s enough history already. Let’s just get to our top picks. It’s winter, and it’s getting colder, and that means we’re even more guilt-free when we watch our favorite shows for five hours straight. We’ve compiled a list of the most binge-worthy shows for your wintery days, and broken it down to genre, and where to find each show.
Comedy
Fleabag – Watch on Amazon Prime
This British comedy-drama was created by the now multi-award winning Phoebe Waller-Bridge, who stars in the show. It began as a one-woman show, and since evolved into the two-season series, about a sex-addicted woman living in London. It’s brilliant, theatrical, messy, and should have many more seasons.
Schitt’s Creek – Watch on Netflix
Created by father and son team, Eugene and Dan Levy, this Canadian comedy series (now in its sixth season) that has won numerous awards, and warmed the hearts of many. Quick plot synopsis: a wealthy family loses its fortune and is forced to rebuild their lives.
Marvelous Mrs. Maisel – Watch on Amazon Prime
This period comedy-drama just won best ensemble at the SAG awards (and many more awards previous). Now in its third season, it focuses on a 1950’s housewife who, while going through a divorce from her husband, discovers she’s very good at stand-up comedy, and pursues a career in it. It’s political, dramatic at times, and the hour-long episodes fly by.
High Maintenance – Watch on Vimeo and HBO
This show is a gem. It started off as a web series, and eventually got bought by HBO. It follows a nameless weed delivery guy as he enters the apartments and homes of New Yorkers and walks into any given situation. There are six seasons on Vimeo, and Four on HBO. Walk don’t run, it’s binge-a-licious.
Grace and Frankie – Watch on Netflix
This comedy starring the perfectly paired duo, Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, follows the journey of two women who are later in their lives when their husbands leave them, for each other. It’s a comedy, drama, heartbreak, and healing, and season six was just released.
Party Down – Watch on Hulu
This half hour comedy was cut short with only two seasons, but don’t let that fool you. The show follows a group of caterers, hoping to make it big in Hollywood. It’s absurd, quick, and full of colorful characters that are worth the binge.
Red Oaks – Watch on Amazon Prime
This coming-of-age series is a great throwback show. Set in the mid-80’s at a NJ country club, the cast of characters is hard not to love almost immediately. There were three seasons of this comedy-drama, but at the end we wanted more.
Catastrophe – Watch on Amazon Prime
This British comedy focuses on a couple that has a great one-night-stand fling, resulting in a pregnancy. It’s quick, laugh-out-loud funny, and very relatable. Four seasons of this brilliant show were not enough.
Crashing (British) – Watch on Netflix
Another hilarious comedy from the brain of Phoebe Waller-Bridge. It focuses on six twenty-somethings who live as guardians in a hospital in exchange for cheap rent. This show had only one season with six episodes, making it very bingeable.
Crashing (American) – Watch on HBO
This comedy is about a stand-up comedian in New York City, trying to make his way after becoming newly divorced. It’s heart-warming and hilarious, and felt like it could have lived beyond its three seasons.
Russian Doll – Watch on Netflix
Putting this at the bottom of comedies here because it definitely borders on drama. It was nominated for an Outstanding Comedy Emmy, so, it’s a comedy. A game developer keeps dying and reliving the same night (her 36th birthday) in a loop. She’s trying to figure out what’s going on, and you will be too when you watch this.
One season is out, and it’s renewed for a second.
Drama
The Witcher – Watch on Netflix
This fantasy drama, set in a medieval fictional world, and based on a book series by the same name just dropped its first season in December. Is it the replacement for your GOT addiction? There are seven books left to cover, so only time will tell.
You – Watch on Netflix
The second season of this super creepy drama dropped just before Christmas. It’s about obsessive love and serial killing, and you won’t want to date for a while, but everyone can’t stop watching, and it’s been renewed for a third season to be released in 2021.
Unbelievable – Watch on Netflix
This drama miniseries is based on a 2015 article, and deals with some heavy themes of sexual assault. It’s one season of eight intense and emotional episodes with superb heart-wrenching performances.
Succession – Watch on HBO
This satirical family drama has received critical acclaim since it first aired in 2018. Four siblings navigate how to take hold of their father’s wealth as his health begins to decline. It’s dysfunctional, and addictive, and has been renewed for a third season.
Euphoria – Watch on HBO
This teen drama was loosely based on an Israeli miniseries of the same name. It follows the teens as they experience addiction, sex, love, depression, and a lot more, and was renewed for a second season immediately after season one dropped.
The Leftovers – Watch on HBO
A few years old, but one of the most solid binges out there. This show is part mystery, part supernatural, and season one is based on a novel of the same name. One day, 2% of the world’s population disappears, and that happens in about the first 30 seconds of the show. Seasons two and three are wild rides, and the world has gone mad.
Stranger Things – Watch on Netflix
You know it, you love it, but just in case you haven’t watched Netflix for the last couple of years, we’re putting it here. This science fiction, horror show has an incredible ensemble and that super solid throwback 80’s feel. There are three seasons, and they saved the best for last here.
The Affair – Watch on Showtime
This show ended in November, and ran for five seasons. It deals with the effects and emotional life of, you guessed it, affairs. They tell the story in a very cool way, often splitting episodes in half and showing the point-of-view of each character.
Reality Shows
The Circle – Watch on Netflix
This social media inspired game has been compared to Black Mirror, Big Brother, and Catfish. Contestants are isolated in their own apartments, only able to communicate via a computer program called “The Circle.” There are influencers in the circle who can block people, eliminating them from the game. In the end, one winner gets $100,000. The first season aired this January with 12 episodes.
Queer Eye – Watch on Netflix
Our favorite feel-good show that you probably already know about. The original Queer Eye(for the Straight Guy) aired on Bravo in 2003. This version made a comeback with a new Fab Five in 2018 and literally melted everyone’s hearts. There are four seasons, a fifth is on the way, and there were a few episodes released around the holidays that we can call season 4.5, which took place in Japan. Grab your tissues and hit the couch. You won’t be able to stop.
Love Island – Watch on Hulu
If you haven’t caught this UK reality show, you’re going to be thrilled at having read this. If you’ve seen it, you know the utter joy it can bring. It has six seasons, and the drama is perfect to keep you warm and toasty in these winter months.
Documentaries and Docuseries
Cheer – Watch on Netflix
This docuseries follows a cheer squad on the fight to win a national title. It just dropped on Netflix, and there are six episodes. People are calling it the real life Bring It On, with all of the ups and downs of the physically rigorous sport, drama included.
Wild Wild Country – Watch on Netflix
This truly wild docuseries focuses on Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his followers, located in Wasco County, Oregon. Releases in 2018, there are six episodes to this series that take you down a road of part-cult, part-spiritual journey, part-you have to see it to understand it kind of bingeing.
Three Identical Strangers – Watch on Amazon Prime
This documentary was released in 2018, focusing on three identical triplets born in 1961. Each of the brothers were adopted at six months old, and all by different families, having no knowledge of their siblings. The key is, the separations were done on purpose as part of a “nature vs. nurture” experiment to see how the identical boys would turn out with different upbringings.
Cooking Shows
Salt Fat Acid Heat – Watch on Netflix
This cooking docuseries starring Samin Nosrat is based on her book by the same name. It’s a four part series, which proposes that the four elements of successful cooking are salt, fat, acid, and heat. Nosrat travels to Italy, Japan, Mexico, and California to explore each of the elements in the kitchen, and the series was received with rave reviews.
The Great British Bake Off aka The Great British Baking Show – Watch on Netflix
This British baking competition features amateur bakers competing against each other in a series of elimination rounds, until one of them is chosen as the winner by a panel of judges. There are 10 seasons of this delicious show, and it was reported to spike sales of baking ingredients and accessories in and around the UK. It doesn’t get more adorable than that.
Ugly Delicious – Watch on Netflix
Who doesn’t love a little David Chang in their life? This show first aired in 2018, explores the history of one specific dish. It involves travel, cooking, and some awesome conversations around how we perceive food. Lucky for us, season two is out and we’re ready for it. So, binge away!
Street Food – Watch on Netflix
This show aired last year, and it is totally binge-able. In fact, this is a show to watch while you’re cooking. Over nine episodes, the hosts travel the world to show us the best street food there is out there, and how the food ties into the country’s cultural identity, as a staple.
Must-Watch Binges for 2020
The Outsider – Watch on HBO
This drama just came out last week on HBO and is already getting rave reviews. Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. Three episodes of this crime and horror drama have been released, but there are seven more to go. Get to watching.
Mythic Quest: Raven’s Blanket – Watch on Apple+, Feb 7
A new comedy series premiering in February, starring Rob McElhenney (star and creator of It’s Always Sunny). It’s a workplace comedy about the world of game development, and we can’t wait.
Locke and Key – Watch on Netflix, Feb 7
This fantasy show has been long-awaited by comic book lovers everywhere. It was a pilot that wasn’t picked up, and almost made film, and now has finally found its way to being produced as a series. It’s a coming-of-age story about family bonds, infused with magic and mystery.
High Fidelity – Watch on Hulu, Feb 14
Yes, that one. The same one, but this time it’s a TV series, and Zoe Kravitz plays the title character. She’s a record store owner in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, and she’s revisiting failed relationships through music and pop culture, just as John Cusack did, and we’re totally here to see her do it.
Hunters – Watch on Amazon, Feb 21
This drama series starring Al Pacino is a stylized show about Nazi-hunters. Set in the late 1970’s New York with a star-studded cast, and produced by Jordan Peele. We’re waiting for this one.
Amazing Stories – Watch on Apple+, March 6
This is an anthology series, based on the 1985 series of the same name by Steven Spielberg. It’s a reboot, really, as it uses the original Amazing Stories material, but reimagines the storytelling through today’s most talented and innovative directors.