Seven TV Shows You Should Binge-Watch Before The Holidays End

The holiday season is the time of year when it’s okay for you to do your best Jabba the Hutt impression and lie around in a prolonged food coma, the only thought of moving being to find even more food. To keep you committed to this season of sloth, you need the perfect TV show to binge-watch, just like you binged on the cold cuts. While catching up on lauded classics like Breaking Bad are obvious options, here are some other shows that are worth your uninterrupted attention.

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The Inbetweeners

Do you know what a “bus wanker” is and why it’s hilarious? If not, then you need to induct yourself into the cult that is The Inbetweeners. This little-show-that-could chronicles four British teenagers and the sexual misadventures, lame parents, and relentless boredom that forms their perfectly average lives.

While shows like Skins feature beautiful characters with lives reminiscent of a William S. Burroughs novel, The Inbetweeners’ Simon, Jay, Neil and Will are painfully ordinary young men whose good intentions and horny attitudes regularly lead them into crippling humiliation. Yet, the writing always works to humanise the boys as well, ensuring we’re always firmly on their side. Perfect for whiling away long summer afternoons, it’s smart TV that doesn’t force you to think very hard at all, and with news of a second feature-length film to be shot in Australia, this is the perfect time to get acquainted with the gang.

Time investment: 3 seasons, 18 episodes total, 25 minutes each

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Girls

With posters for Season Three boasting that ol’ ‘formal yet dishevelled’ look, anticipation is already high for the show’s upcoming return on January 12. Lena Dunham’s series about four young women in their mid-twenties attempting to get their lives together will have you nodding in agreement one minute and tearing your hear out the next, trying to figure out why a character could do something so stupid.

This is the beauty of Girls, though: the way Dunham has unashamedly embraced the total self-absorption and lack of awareness that’s inherent in most people during their twenties. Lead character Hanna is writing her memoirs despite barely being out of college, for Christ’s sake. Yet Dunham’s knack for writing distinct characters with just the right amount of quirk will keep you watching all day, particularly because watching people who are unable to sort out their own lives will make you feel much better about your own.

Time investment: 2 seasons, 20 episodes total, 30 minutes each

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Friday Night Lights

There has never been a show on television with more heart than Friday Night Lights. It was an under-watched critical darling with a fervent fan base that ensured the show lasted for five seasons. It gave us not only handsome bad boy Tim Riggins (which would have been enough), but also a peek into the small town of Dillon, Texas — where high school football isn’t just religion, it’s God himself — with new head coach Eric Taylor and wife Tami caught right in the middle.

Excepting a few missteps, Friday Nights Lights delivered authentic and meaningful storylines about the teens and adults in Dillon, ranging from subjects like poverty and abortion to racial tension and the dangers of gossip. The characters were also archetypes we have all seen before — the brooding loner, the underdog — yet written and performed with such care that you become utterly immersed in their fates. After just a few episodes, you’ll want to make “Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose” your life mantra.

Time investment: 5 seasons, 76 episodes total, 43 minutes each

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Rookie Blue

Rookie Blue has been described as “Grey’s Anatomy with Cops“, and it’s a fairly spot-on comparison. Though currently filming its fifth season, this Canadian drama following the personal and professional lives of young Toronto cops never really caught on in Australia. Just like in Grey’s Anatomy, everybody is very attractive. And just like in Grey’s Anatomy, the professional work often overlaps with and provides insight into the myriad personal problems of each character. And, of course, Rookie Blue also has its own central, drawn-out love story. But unlike Grey’s Anatomy, the characters aren’t so painfully self-aware that all they do is analyse rather than act. Led by the likeable Missy Peregrym with a solid support cast, the storylines are certainly formulaic and the writing sometimes laboured, but just because a cop show isn’t gritty doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyably addictive.

Time investment: 4 seasons, 52 episodes total, 44 minutes each

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Luther

So you really want gritty and bleak, do you? Well how about Luther, based on the book series by Neil Cross and filmed in the same grainy tradition of the greatest British crime dramas like Cracker and Wire In The Blood. Like those dramas, Luther boasts a powerful lead in Idris Elba, whose physical size and pure charisma elevates every scene he’s a part of. Elba plays John Luther, a deeply troubled detective whose personal moral code is often at odds with the, you know, law. Neatly balancing elements of the police procedural with Luther’s increasingly complex relationships, moments of deep philosophy and lashings of truly terrifying violence, this is compulsive viewing best watched during the day if you’re a scaredy-cat like me.

Time investment: 3 seasons, 14 episodes total, 60 minutes each

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The Games

Over a year since the former government announced new rules regarding how much Australian content free-to-air networks had to show, we can only continue to hope that we’ll eventually see quality Australian comedy like The Games again, amongst the funniest television this country has ever produced.

Before The Office, there was this 1998 mockumentary following the people tasked with organising the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Led by the king of deadpan John Clarke, with outstanding support from Gina Riley and Bryan Dawe, The Games depicted one bureaucratic disaster after another while probing into the shady intersection of business, sport, and politics. With a distinctly Australian flavour, it’s a timeless comedy whose short run makes it ideal for a quick holiday binge.

Time investment: 2 seasons, 26 episodes total, 26 minutes each

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Being Human

Here’s another example of how the Brits can take an old concept and rework it into something entirely new and exciting. On paper, Being Human sounds like a bad joke: a vampire, a ghost, and a werewolf live in a house together. But in reality, this was a top-notch supernatural drama with characters who all crave the boring and fairly moral lives that regular people seem to live. Of course, each finds themselves drawn further into the dark and complex world of the supernatural and often forced into making decisions where there are no winners.

Being Human never busied itself with the mythology surrounding the existence of supernatural creatures; it was always more concerned with the daily struggle of these characters to live decently despite their knowledge of a seedy, dark underworld. With a disturbingly real feel, uniquely likeable characters and moments of immense humour, you’ll fly through this inventive series.

Time investment: 5 seasons, 37 episodes total, 58 minutes each

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Lisa Down is a freelance writer living in Sydney. She is a television addict and also passionate about reading, yoga and good pinot noir.