These fifteen shows round out the top thirty that I continue to think of fondly like old friends that I love to visit. Many of these shows are located in very specific places that led me to believe I was experiencing a bit more of the world from the comfort of my couch.
Starstruck
Rose Matafeo is a true delight in this winsome romantic comedy about an underemployed New Zealander making her way in London and falling in love with a down-to-earth mega movie star. I loved seeing London and humor through her eyes.
The Big Leap
This one-season wonder was a fictionalized behind-the-scenes look at a reality dance competition show performed by a band of misfits whose backstories are explored over the course of the season. I’ve loved and marveled at So You Think You Can Dance during its earlier years, so this show, which combined dance and plot, landed right in my sweet spot.
Watchmen
Watchmen, the show, came out in 2019 before there was much public mask-wearing and before a lot of the biggest Black Lives Matter protests thrust the threat of police violence into as much of the mainstream. This reboot of the graphic novel and movie is grounded in the Black Wall Street Massacre of 1921 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and imagines an ugly, alternate history where law enforcement officers shield their identity from the public. Watch Regina King and Jean Smart tear the screen up.
Lupin
I can only recommend this show with subtitles. We watched the first episode with the French dubbed into English, and it was unintentionally farcical. Once we fixed our settings and got to enjoy Omar Sy’s own line readings, we were completely sucked in. I loved his looming presence and the “gentleman thief” conceit of the capers.
Love
I dunno how this ode to hipster LA will age, but I loved following this improbable romance between two flawed characters. The series, part of the Judd Apatow oeuvre, has an excellent soundtrack that I still listen to years later, and it was fun to hang out (visually) in its version of LA.
Lovesick
One of the funniest inside jokes of this show is that it was called Scrotal Recall when it first aired on British television. Netflix renamed it when it picked it up for more seasons. The premise is that the central cad visits his former paramours to relay the news of his chlamydia diagnosis. Along the way, you get to know him and his friends better and grow invested in who might make a good love match. It was charming, Anglophilic fare.
Offspring
We fell hard for this Australian dramedy centering around a neurotic, competent obstetrician and her kooky family. Eddie Perfect has a supporting role that features one of the best songs I’ve ever seen performed on TV at the end of season one (no spoilers). The grown siblings in this family depict realistic strain and affection that I found moving.
Nothing Trivial
How great is this? A show from New Zealand about a group of friends who play pub trivia together! Sold! In addition to growing to care for these characters and their intertwined relationships, it deepened my appreciation for the distinction between Australian and Kiwi patterns of speech.
Parenthood
It’s possible that a rewatch of this would reveal the extent to which my sentimentality was manipulated by soft lighting and emotional music. Nevertheless, I suspect there really was some secret sauce in the warmth of these characters and their family drama storylines. This has a lot of the same ingredients as This Is Us, which I also liked but eventually lost interest in.
Friday Night Lights
Not a week goes by that I don’t want to say, “Good talk, Coach” in homage to Kyle Chandler’s character. We watched this long after it aired and gobbled the whole thing up as a most satisfying meal. We have next to nothing in common with the folks in this small town in West Texas, and I couldn’t have cared less about football, but I cared very deeply about the characters in this show and still miss them.
Switched at Birth
This show was leagues better than it needed to be, and for that reason, I’m highlighting it. Set in Kansas City, it featured two families from “across the tracks” who learn their teenage daughters had been switched at birth at the hospital. One grows up deaf, using American Sign Language with her Chicana single mother, and the other grows up very affluent with her family of WASPy Republicans. There are a lot of social and political landmines to explode with this premise, but I generally found the show to treat them with due respect and caring.
Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist
I’m a sucker for singing as a device to advance storytelling. This jukebox musical featured a San Francisco-based software developer’s supernatural ability to hear people’s inner thoughts as choreographed song-and-dance numbers. Mary Steenburgen isn’t going to win any awards for her singing abilities, but it was awfully enjoyable to watch her perform alongside the rest of the cast, which included a completely charming Skylar Astin in the role of the best-friend-you-can’t-wait-to-become-the-love-interest.
The Diplomat
This is the second Keri Russell show that I’ve absolutely loved – the first being The Americans. This show is about a committed civil servant rising through the ranks to become US Ambassador to the UK and then using that position to preserve peace as best she can. It’s a fascinating imagined depiction of how heads of state get their work done. It packed a punch with its illustration of how a deeply held, principled stance might be compromised by even larger geopolitical interests.
Borgen
This is another political drama where the idealistic protagonist has to chip away at some of her deeply held tenets in order to build a political coalition in the Danish government. While I watched it, I had the sense that I was starting to understand parliamentary systems of government alongside simple Danish phrases. Both delusions have slipped away entirely, but I still treasure the time spent watching Birgitte Nyborg serve as Denmark’s first female Statsminister. The slightly less amazing final season came out after several years of hiatus and centered around Greenland, which was fascinating in and of itself.
Somebody Somewhere
Set in Manhattan, Kansas, this is a Bridget Everett vehicle, wherein her character reconnects with her hometown after the death of one of her sisters. In so doing, she rebuilds an identity for herself with a group of new besties that includes more compassion for herself and others. While sometimes slow moving, it delivered some of my favorite belly laughs and cathartic cries.
Tl;dr
Okay, I got these shows out of my system! Apparently, I like character-driven shows that aren’t too dark and include a dash of ethical dilemma, romance, or song. What gems am I overlooking?
After Life on Netflix!
I’d forgotten about some of these - love being reminded!