You’ve seen our movie list, now here’s our TV list. These are some of the best shows that you may or may not have heard of, all available on Netflix or Amazon Prime. Here are six to start with. We’ll keep updating this list in order to keep you sane in this crazy time.
Iain: Attack on Titan is an insane anime about a world where humanity shelters behind giant walls from huge naked beings (the titular Titans) who EAT nothing but humans. The only defence against these creatures are the walls and the 3D maneuvering gear – pneumatic grappling hooks connected to a soldiers waist – that allow them to zip around the Titans to reach their weak spot at the nape of the neck. Three seasons of the show have been made over 6 years, two of which are on Netflix, and feature an enjoyable exploration of the mystery of where the Titans came from and the background of protagonist Eren Yeager and his friends. The show dishes out more unexpected deaths than The Walking Dead. I’ve only finished Season 1 and am looking forward to using this opportunity to catch up with Season 2!
Bahir: The IT Crowd birthed one of Goggler’s favorite lines: “Have you tried turning it off and on again” is the immediate response to any computer, electrical, household, personal, physical, and mental issue we’ve had. The IT Crowd tells the story of Roy and Moss, two engineers and their “manager”, Jen, that form the IT department at Renham Industry, a corporation that, despite 4 seasons and a movie, we still have no idea what they do. The IT Crowd is a deeply funny look at the general misunderstanding of computing and the disdain for the people that do understand them. A wonderfully hilarious watch and, at 30 minutes an episode, an easy series to consume.
Bahir: A look at our possible future at the tail end of COVID-19, Derry Girls is a story about a gang of girls (and a male cousin who’s English) from Derry, Ireland, as they navigate high school and the tail end of “The Troubles” in the late 90s; aware of it, but not really taking it as seriously as they should, or as others do. Derry Girls is hilarious and insanely well written. The dialogue of the four girls are biting and the insults thrown at James (the male English cousin) is just some of the best around. Make sure to turn on the subtitles as the deep Northern Irish accents can be quite hard to manage. But don’t let that turn you off this great show. If anything, it gives you another way to insult each other and practice your dodgy Northern Irish accents.
Iain: Ok, we know Star Trek is not exactly obscure, but if you are looking to reassert something resembling a routine in your household over this period of “Restricted Movement”, what better way than with episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine at a regular time, every night! Sure the first two seasons of TNG can be a bit ropey, but by the time you’ve reached season five, you’ll appreciate the immense improvement in the show and be ready to jump into Deep Space Nine (and have to deal with all that ropiness again). At this point there are more than enough guides out there on which episodes you can safely miss, but there are far more hits than misses. Make it so!
Iain: Timothy Olyphant’s Raylan Givens may be one of the coolest characters ever to grace TV, matched only by the villainousness of the array of criminals arrayed against him. An ice cold, calm, collected, fast drawing US Marshall who’s not against using his badge and a well placed bullet to take out criminals in Harlan County. He does things HIS WAY, law be damned. This task is complicated somewhat by the fact that he grew up with most of them – since his Dad was heavily involved in crime himself. For six seasons Raylan clashed with the heads of crime families as portrayed by Walton Goggins, Margo Martindale, Neal McDonough, and Michael Rapaport, wise cracking and back talking his way through the series. A modern crime classic.
Bahir: If you haven’t seen Community, you definitely owe it to yourself to take the time and watch it now. Created by Dan Harmon, Community tells the story of a group of disparate individuals, thrown together as students at a community college. It has some of the best satirical comedic writing out there. The show also introduced the public to John Oliver, Ken Jeong, and Donald Glover. The gags are long running, and include great set ups and pay offs that reward binge watching entire seasons. Look out for the big tongue in cheek send up episodes; particularly the paintball episodes, the first of which was directed by Justin Lin of the Fast series fame, with the follow up by a certain Joe Russo. Community will be coming to Netflix on April 1st but is currently available to watch on Amazon Prime.
Iain: Ok hear me out. I know this show’s not great, but its weird mix of sci-fi and western tropes can be at least entertaining if you’ve already watched the only season of Firefly a million times. The show is set in a future Earth messed up by alien terraforming devices that were set off haphazardly after a number of alien races arrived here thinking the planet was uninhabited. There are no long range transport networks or air travel, so each town is a little old western outpost of humans, aliens, criminals, and shopkeepers. Defiance hails from the scrappy underdog era of the Sci-Fi channel and, despite myself, I ended up watching the whole series when it came out. With fun goofy perfomances from genre stalwarts like Julie Benz, Tony Curran, Jaime Murray, and Grant Bowler, it may not be the best sci-fi western out there, but at three seasons it is the MOST sci-fi western out there.
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