As a supplement to our weekly TVLine-Up overview and daily, curated What to Watch listings, TVLine presents a dozen series or specials to binge, from one-and-done wonders to tried-and-true comedy. From the highly addicting first season of a guilty pleasure to one truly Great Escape. (With some sure-fire chuckles and less-than-stark reality sprinkled in for good measure.) Review our recos and tell us: What have you been bingeing?
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix NEW COMEDY: Dead to Me
This Netflix gem — which made our list of the best comedies of 2019 — stars Christina Applegate as Jen, a cynical widow who becomes fast friends with Judy (Linda Cardellini), a woman in her grief support group. But Judy and Jen both harbor some big secrets, and the show unspools those plot twists at such an addicting pace that you might just watch the entire first season in one sitting. It’s also wickedly funny in its exploration of grief, and Applegate and Cardellini bring to life one of TV’s most well-rounded female friendships.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of NBC SNARK-TASTIC COMEDY: Scrubs
At its peak, this early-aughts gem managed to be two shows at once: a fantastical comedy, and a grounded medical drama. The pilot, which documents J.D.’s first day as an intern at Sacred Heart, holds up incredibly well after all these years, as do subsequent standout episodes including “My Old Lady” (in which J.D. cares for octogenerian Mrs. Tanner) and the Season 1 finale, “My Last Day” (in which Jordan blows up each and every relationship by revealing secrets among the core group).
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix TURN ON ANY EPISODE AND LAUGH: Big Mouth
The messiness of puberty will always be funny. The animated Big Mouth follows a group of 7th graders as they experience a relentless amount of body changes and embarrassments. The Nick Kroll-created show delivers consistently crude laughs that are equally as empathetic as they are gross. Plus, a gaggle of hormone monsters are on hand to help the kids accept their newfound sexuality. There are 31 episodes streaming on Netflix, but feel free to drop in anywhere for some smart, foul-mouthed fun.
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John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City
Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix STAND-UP SPECIAL: John Mulaney, Kid Gorgeous at Radio City
The former Saturday Night Live writer’s Netflix special won the 2018 Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special, and for good reason: His riffs on aging, his parents and a very memorable visitor to his elementary school are pure gold. But the bit about the horse in the hospital — which kicks in around the 44-minute mark and which manages to eviscerate President Donald Trump without once mentioning him by name — is the stuff of stand-up legend.
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Vatican III
Image Credit: Courtesy of CBS NEW DRAMA: Evil
Now that CBS’ supernatural drama has completed Season 1, what better time to mainline all of the eerie goods? Mike Colter plays a priest-in-training who investigates demonic interference. Katja Herbers is the forensic psychologist he hires to help determine possession from mental illness. If you’re getting an X-Files vibe, you’re not wrong — but the series, from Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King, uses its very strong, 13-episode first season to establish itself as its own intriguing entity… right down to a jaw-dropping finale cliffhanger.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC ADDICTING DRAMA: Revenge
A traumatized girl grows into a woman hell-bent on avenging her family’s downfall, and her systematic approach to ruining the lives of the Hamptons elite is one heck of a ride. The ABC drama was never better than its inaugural season, which followed Emily Van Camp’s Emily as she suavely, savagely set fire to the Hamptons elite — headed up by Madeleine Stowe’s deliciously devious Victoria. You’ll never look at red Sharpies the same way again.
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Film and Television
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX A GREAT ESCAPE: The Shield
…AKA our pick for the prestige drama you have put off for far too long, but now have no excuse not to cue up. Led by Michael Chiklis, Walton Goggins, Kenny Johnson and Davis Rees Snell, this crime drama followed the LAPD’s morally ambiguous Strike Team. With all seven seasons remastered in 4K and streaming on FX on Hulu, series creator Shawn Ryan offers this invite to TVLine readers: “We tried to be entertaining as hell telling a story of power, corruption and betrayal that is, sadly, still relevant today. Enjoy.”
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'Terriers' - Worst TV Show Titles
Image Credit: Courtesy of FX ONE-AND-DONE WONDER: Terriers
One of the poster children for Gone Too Soon TV Shows — and the recipient of more than a few votes in TVLine’s Bring Back One Cancelled Show poll — this FX drama finally streaming again after being offline for more than two years. Donal Logue (Gotham) and Michael Raymond-James (Once Upon a Time) star as Hank Dolworth and Britt Pollack, best friends who partner to launch an unlicensed private investigation business.
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Image Credit: Shubham on 'The Circle' (Courtesy of Netflix) NOT-SO-STARK REALITY: The Circle
Hey, are you stuck inside with zero human contact aside from social media? So are these people! You’ll definitely be able to relate to the cast of Netflix’s addictive reality experiment, which puts strangers in separate rooms and has them interact with and rate one another, based only on the text messages and photos they exchange. They need to be careful, though, because more than one contestant is lying about who they are and “catfishing” the others. It’s fascinating, it’s horrifying, it’s the perfect binge-watch while you’re quarantined. Heart emoji, send message.
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Image Credit: Courtesy of HBO DOCUMENTARY: McMillions
There’s no shortage of true-crime docs out there… but many of them are too bleak and gruesome to binge while you’re stuck at home for days. Enter the six-episode McMillions, which chronicles how an ex-cop rigged the McDonald’s Monopoly game for more than a decade. Though McMillions does take a serious tone at the appropriate times — real people got hurt by this scheme, after all — it’s unexpectedly fun and zippy throughout, leaning into the cheesy reenactments and retro McDonald’s ads that accompany such a strange crime story. Best watched with French fries. (Read our full review.)
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Image Credit: Courtesy of ABC QUICK COMPLETE SERIES BINGE: Better Off Ted
This workplace satire about the sinister Veridian Dynamics corporation proved too good for this world, only lasting two, 13-episode seasons before ABC pulled the plug. S.W.A.T.‘s Jay Harrington portrayed the title character, the beloved head of a research-and-development team, and Arrested Development‘s Portia de Rossi played his cold and calculating supervisor Veronica — a role that proved every bit as good as Lindsay Bluth. Rounding out the cast were Andrea Anders (The Class) as Ted’s love interest, Veronica, and Malcolm Barrett (Timeless) and Jonathan Slavin (Andy Richter Controls the Universe) as inseparable lab rats Lem and Phil. (If you only have time to revisit a couple of episodes, we highly recommend a Season 1 double-header consisting of “Racial Sensitivity” and “Jabberwocky.”)
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Image Credit: Courtesy of Pop TV QUICK CATCH-UP: One Day at a Time
What better time to get acquainted with the Alvarez family than two weeks before it begins its second life on Pop TV (starting Tuesday, March 24? This Latinx reimagining of the Norman Lear classic is equal parts funny and heartfelt, traditional and progressive in its storytelling, and features Emmy-worthy performances by Justina Machado (as single mom Penelope) and the legendary Rita Moreno (as family matriarch Lydia). At 13 half-hour episodes a piece, its first three seasons are easily digestible, and the sort of feel-good TV we could all use right about now.
