By Parisa Akbarpour, Web Officer
According to the Motion Picture Association, in 2020, streaming services saw a growth of over 26%, reaching over one billion subscriptions. It’s no surprise that while the country was cooped up in quarantine, services like Netflix, Hulu and HBO Max were leaned on heavily for entertainment. New releases have even been made available on streaming services before or at the same time as a theatrical release, showing how big of an audience these sites have accumulated throughout the pandemic.
Now, we’ve spent a lot of time in quarantine, and that translates to a lot of time spent watching TV shows. Finishing a show means having to find a new one to fill that void, and when it feels like you’ve seen all the notable shows out right now, it can be tough to find a new show that sucks you in.
Awards ceremonies like the Golden Globes can provide a starting point, but I’m here to give you some more options. From true crime to reality TV, I’ve curated a list of captivating shows across all genres.
Drama – Succession (HBO Max)
Source: MetroUK
Succession recently ended its third season and snagged three awards at the Golden Globes: Best Drama Series, Best Actor in a Drama Series and Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series.
I was hesitant to start watching Succession because at face-value, the show can come off as boring. There wasn’t anything that stood out to me about a family-owned media conglomerate dealing with business issues. I figured it would probably be confusing and I wouldn’t be able to retain an attention span for it, but alas, I was wrong.
What makes Succession special isn’t the concept. The writing is clever and funny, the acting is so real it’s hard to separate the actors from their characters, and the drama is backstabbing. There’s just something about monopolistic corruption paired with the drama of a billionaire family that gets me going.
If you’ve seen Succession, you might also like Veep (HBO Max) or Ozark (Netflix). Veep follows Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the Vice President of the United States and her staff in a comic portrayal of American politics. Ozark follows Jason Bateman in his adventures (or misadventures) as a money launderer for one of the largest drug cartels in the world.
True Crime – Mare of Easttown (HBO Max)
Source: FilmBook
After a girl is murdered in small-town Pennsylvania, a local detective played by Kate Winslet investigates the crime. The community’s secrets begin to unravel as she digs deeper with her partner, played by American Horror Story veteran Evan Peters. Mare’s personal relationships come into question as people she has known her whole life begin to fall under suspicion.
Mare of Easttown is different from a lot of the small-town murder tropes I’ve seen in TV shows. In Mare, you’re following the case as well as Mare’s dynamic with the people in her town, and you watch as the two overlap. It’s one of those shows that always ends on a cliffhanger, leaving you thinking one thing just to reveal something totally different. There is one scene in particular where my jaw dropped and I didn’t pick it up until the episode ended (if you know, you know).
If you’ve seen Mare of Easttown, you would probably like The Sinner (Netflix) or Sharp Objects (HBO Max). The Sinner is an anthology series produced by Jessica Biel, which follows Detective Harry Ambrose as he takes on a different case each season. The Sinner is one of my favorite true crime series ever, and each season presents a new case with disturbing details that keep you pressing “Next episode.”
Sharp Objects stars Amy Adams as a reporter from St. Louis returningto her small hometown to cover the murders and disappearances of young girls in the area. As she follows the case, she confronts unresolved childhood trauma, and each episode gives small clues that lead to shocking revelations as the season progresses. The biggest twist comes in the final seconds of the finale.
Culty Docuseries – The Way Down (HBO Max)
Source: TV Insider
Finding a good documentary about cults takes a surprising amount of trial and error, and The Way Down was one of those gems I stumbled upon when I couldn’t find anything else to watch. This three-part docuseries investigates the controversial Remnant Fellowship, a Christian church founded by Gwen Shamblin. Shamblin started her career with a weight loss program she created, The Weigh Down, which used the bible and religion to make the argument that to be overweight is to dishonor God.
Shamblin took advantage of people who wanted to lose weight and used religion for psychological manipulation and emotional abuse. The investigation is ongoing as the series ends on “To be continued…” and leaves several questions as to how Remnant Fellowship is still operating today.
If you’ve seen The Way Down, you might also like The Vow (HBO Max) and Wild Wild Country (Netflix). The Vow is one of the most memorable, albeit disturbing, documentary series I’ve ever seen. It’s about NXIVM, an organization which marketed itself as a self-help based program, but was eventually taken down through the criminal prosecution of the group’s leader, Keith Raniere. Beneath the self-help appearance, Raniere ran a pyramid scheme that recruited women into sex trafficking and forced labor, even requiring these woman brand themselves with his initials.
Wild Wild Country, which was parodied in two episodes of Documentary Now, tells the story of an Indian guru and his associate, who built a utopian city in the middle of a desert in Oregon, causing conflict with the local agricultural workers. I won’t spoil anything too crazy, but the cult carried out the first confirmed bioterror attack in the U.S. and was the subject of one of the largest wiretapping operations in the country’s history.
Comedy – Arrested Development (Netflix)
Source: E News Online
Jason Bateman’s most iconic role, and rightfully so, is Michael Bluth from Arrested Development. The classic series has an all-star cast, including Will Arnett, Portia de Rossi, Michael Cera, David Cross, Tony Hale and Jessica Walter, who recently passed away in March of 2021. Walter plays the matriarch of a dysfunctional family who are left to run their real estate business after their father is incarcerated for a white-collar crime. It’s honestly just a really good sitcom that doesn’t feel corny or cringey. If you like shows like Parks and Recreation, The Office or It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Arrested Development is for you.
If you’ve seen all those shows, you might like Bojack Horseman (Netflix) or Nathan For You (Hulu). Bojack Horseman is an adult cartoon with a darker sense of humor about the life of a humanoid horse, voiced by Will Arnett, who used to be a star actor in a 90s sitcom, only to lose himself in self-loathing and alcohol years later but attempts to make a comeback to celebrity status. I’m not the type of person to binge-watch an adult animated series like South Park or Family Guy, but Bojack Horseman has a storyline that kept me invested. As a bonus, it’s always fun to see who voices the special characters that come and go. Nathan For You is a sketch comedy show hosted by Nathan Fielder. Fielder attempts to save failing businesses by rebranding them to catch the attention of new consumers. Any attempt to describe how funny this show is wouldn’t do it justice, so I’ll just say: watch it!
All of these shows are my highest recommendations, but here are some honorable mentions:
Pose (Netflix) is a drama series following the lives of black and brown queer people in New York at the height of the ballroom scene in the late 80s and 90s. M.J. Rodriguez, who plays the protagonist Blanca, recently made history as the first transgender woman to win a Golden Globe, snagging the highest achievement for Best Actress in a Drama Series.
Season three of You (Netflix), specifically, has such funny writing I almost put it in the comedy section. If you’re going to write a show about a married couple who kills anyone that inconveniences them, moving to a California town filled with high-maintenance millennials, you have to have a sense of humor about it.
Vanderpump Rules (Hulu), one of the great gems of reality television, observes the lives of the employees at SUR Restaurant in Los Angeles. It’s basically a bunch of attractive people who love to party, having to work alongside the people they party with. In other words, pretty much Jersey Shore but in L.A. and they work under Lisa Vanderpump. The cast remains mostly the same throughout the almost 10 seasons, so you really get in the inner workings of their lives. I could go on and on about this show and I have a lot of opinions.
I hope I’ve been able to provide at least one or two new suggestions to those who feel like they’ve seen all the good shows there are to watch! If none of these shows are new to you, then oh do we have so much to talk about.
