It's hard to deny the allure of binge watching during the fall, especially when it's rainy and cold and generally awful outside. It's my favorite season and with Halloween on the horizon, definitely the time to curl up on the couch beneath several blankets, wasting my life away with television.
1. The X-Files (9 seasons, 2 films); streaming on Netflix & Amazon Prime.
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I can imagine everyone reading this on the other side of the Internet rolling their eyes and ready to scroll down to read the rest of this mediocre list but DON'T STOP and LISTEN to me. It seems like a lot and it is a lot, but I watched the entirety of this series in two weeks and I still managed to be a (more or less) successful individual. The X-Files is just good. It's got aliens, it's got conspiracy, it's got werewolves and monsters of the human and non-human kind. And, it's so 90's it's incredible. PLUS, this January it's making its return to Fox for a six-episode 10th season. Don't you want to participate in that cultural phenomenon? You'll love the tone of the series, the dark humor, Dana Scully. Trust me (but really trust no one).
2. Gilmore Girls (7 seasons); streaming on Netflix.
Guys in the audience, keep on reading: Gilmore Girls, like feminism, is for everyone! Don't believe me? Ask Kevin & Demi from Gilmore Guys, a podcast going through every single episode of Gilmore Girls and gabbin' about it. Gilmore Girls has snappy dialogue, billions of pop culture references, hilarious small-town antics, and one of the most touching, real relationships between a mother and daughter on television.
3. 30 Rock (7 seasons); streaming on Netflix.
Do you love Tina Fey? Do you love situational, work-place, outlandish comedy? Then 30 Rock is for you, my friends. A fictionalized version of Fey's time on Saturday Night Live, 30 Rock gives us one of the most amazing female comedy characters ever, in Liz Lemon. If you're like me, you'll relate to her more than you care to admit.
4. The Hour (2 seasons); streaming on Amazon Prime.
If you are an Anglophile, interested in news production, or just love Ben Whishaw, then you'll probably love The Hour. It's a period drama, first of all, and twelve episodes total (although warning: it ends on a pretty horrifying cliffhanger and then was cancelled in 2013), so it's a much quicker watch than the rest of this list so far. The Hour is amazing television about television. It's like Aaron Sorkin's The Newsroom, but better. Also, it won an Emmy.
5. Veronica Mars (3 seasons, 1 film); streaming on Amazon Prime.
This show is clever and has one of the most fantastic female characters in the world. A lot of murky stuff goes on in Neptune, California, and a lot of shady characters that the titular character, Veronica, is suspicious of, and rightfully so. She's only in high school but works with/for her dad, a private investigator, all the while searching for the person who killed her best friend.
6. Twin Peaks (2 seasons, 1 film); streaming on Netflix & Amazon Prime.
Another murder mystery. Laura Palmer is found dead one morning in the logging town of Twin Peaks. David Lynch takes you down one of the most winding, confusing, and mind-altering narratives I've ever experienced on television. Y'all, I get scared easily, but this show really scared me. From its quirky characters, its fitting use of music, eerie setting and winding narrative, you'll really be ready for Halloween by the time you finish this one. Also, if you haven't heard, Twin Peaks will be revived in 2016, so you won't have to wait too long to get more of this vibe.
7. Parenthood (6 seasons); streaming on Netflix & Amazon Prime.
I don't know about you, but I love stories about dysfunctional-but-loving families, and Parenthood's Bravermans really exemplify that narrative. Plus, it's got Lauren Graham, in a very similar and also wildly different role than as Lorelai in Gilmore Girls, and it's her character that brings the show together. She's returning home, moving in with her parents, and bringing along her two teenaged children. Each family has their own issues that expand as the story goes on. Really, the show examines what it means to be family, and how those familial relationships function at times of extreme tragedy and extreme joy. I cried, like, every episode.
8. Friday Night Lights (5 seasons); streaming on Netflix.
Friday Night Lights is tonally similar to Parenthood, and one of my favorite shows of all time. Set in Dillon Texas and centering on the Dillon Panthers football team, Friday Night Lights really shows the beauty of the ordinary. There are no monsters, here, no murder mysteries told, but there are small-town antics and football and some of the most touching relationships ever on television, really, from romantic to platonic to familial. It'll show you what it means to be a person, a child, an adult; it shows that people are fallible, they make mistakes. It has one of the best TV pilots of all-time. And above all: clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose.
9. Fringe (5 seasons); streaming on Netflix & Amazon Prime.
Heavily inspired by The X-Files (in its first season especially), Fringe is a science fiction show that many people slept on. If you liked Lost, you'll probably like Fringe, because J.J. Abrams created/produced both. Fringe discovers a new area of science - fringe science - and all the ramifications of getting mixed up in it, as discovered by Olivia Dunham, an agent who begins to work in the Fringe Division of the FBI. You'll be thrown for curveballs as the story progresses and will most definitely be crying by the end of it. Okay, maybe not crying, but it'll touch you emotionally because it's really got some incredible characters.
10. Parks and Recreation (7 seasons); 6/7 streaming on Netflix.
If you haven't watched Parks and Rec, then you need to close this article right now and open Netflix in a new tab. I know, I know, the first two seasons are a little rough. Just wait. It only gets better. Much like The Office, Parks is a mockumentary-style workplace comedy. It's about politics, though, and the goings-on in local politics, particularly in the parks and recreation department. Amy Poehler is stunning and hilarious as Leslie Knope, a bureaucrat who genuinely cares about her local government. Perhaps what's so amazing about Parks is that it's sincere. It's comedy doesn't mock any of the characters in a cruel way, it's about a woman who un-ironically loves her job. It's freedom from irony is perhaps what makes it so incredible and if you haven't watched it, you really, really need to.
