Getting through the pandemic would have been a lot harder before the streaming age. At least we had plenty to watch while locked inside our homes. But even with (or because of) the thousands of options available, it can be hard to settle on something to watch. You can spend hours combing through Netflix, Prime & Hulu’s offerings and go to bed frustrated having not found anything that satisfies. I frequently turn to youtubers like Darren Van Dam (Flick Connection) for suggestions, or scroll through lists on websites like AV Club. But most of these lists emphasize new releases and mostly movies. What if you just want a good meaty series to watch that will keep you occupied for a month or two?

There are different degrees of bingeworthy. Some shows you can dive right in and watch every episode. Other shows you might want to skip episodes or whole seasons (like the “gas leak season” of Community). Or you can pick & choose random episodes of a long-running series like Supernatural. 15 seasons is a lot to process. Maybe you just want to watch all the comedy episodes.

You can choose different criteria for your binge. Follow a particular writer across different shows. Ben Edlund wrote fantastic episodes of Supernatural, Angel, and Firefly. Or you could do a theme binge. The “Groundhog Day” episode, for example. Just about every science fiction, fantasy or paranormal show had one. Maybe you want to watch all the Christmas episodes or all the Halloween episodes. Maybe you want to get deep in the weeds and watch every tv episode that had a tulpa in it. I don’t know if there are a lot of examples of that but I can think of one (Supernatural S1:E17 “Hell House”).

Full disclosure: in case you couldn’t tell, my taste runs towards science fiction, fantasy and horror. I don’t tend to watch big weepy dramas like This Is Us and I shun hospital shows like Grey’s Anatomy. I’m not big on soapy melodramas, unless there’s a fantasy element. But I like a good crime show now and then. Breaking Bad is absolutely bingeworthy. So is Justified.

It doesn’t have to be multi-season to be bingeworthy. You can binge limited series or shows that should have lasted but were canceled Year One. I will include any caveats, like shows that were canceled on a cliffhanger. I know how annoying that can be.

That’s all for now. I’ll post later with an actual bingeworthy recommendation.

Thanks to the-biggest-lebowski for the MST3K silhouette.

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