With little else to do at home in the evenings, binge-watching a series in one go seems necessary. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, waiting a full week for the next episode to air seems bizarre and archaic. If you are in lockdown away from home, plead with parents, aunts or grandparents for spare logins for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sky Go and Disney+ to access a myriad of binging pleasure.
Here’s my top 5 programmes to get through lockdown.
Hunters on Amazon Prime
David Weil, a young up-and-coming writer, producer and actor has created a gritty, gripping and almost too-tense-to-enjoy series. Set in New York in the seventies, the thriller explores high-profile German Nazi’s relocating and reinventing themselves post World War II, ultimately attempting to set up the Fourth Reich. The programme parallels this story with the lives of an underground Jewish gang with stacks of money, MI5 level intelligence and entire rooms dedicated to weapons. Operating from secret rooms in Meyer Offerman’s mansion, the hunters often find themselves the hunted. If this isn’t enough of a taster to press play, Meyer is played by none other than legend Al Pacino. Swapping crisp Italian suits for his character’s more ill-fitting American versions, he regularly has rolled up sleeves showing Meyer’s tattoo from Auschwitz.
Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness on Netflix
Unless you’ve had a social media break, you will not have escaped the thousands of memes and gifs dedicated to the main characters of Tiger King, Joe Exotic and Carol Baskin. The Netflix true-crime documentary is about exotic zoo owners in America, their temptuous relationships with each other and their character flaws. The main character Joe Exotic is currently serving time in prison for reasons that become clear towards the end of the series.
Recess on Disney +
Writing duo Paul Germain and Joe Ansolabehere, most known for Rugrats, created this after-school staple cartoon for nineties children. There is something wholesome about returning to this retro classic with simplistic drawings. The programme follows playtime fun at an American school via an unlikely group of friends who protect children from bullies. The characters are charming as they innocently fumble through the complexities of friendships and right and wrong. This feel-good cartoon is just the tonic the world needs right now.
Friday Night Dinner on All 4
With series six of the hilarious British sitcom currently airing on Channel 4 on Fridays at 10pm, now is the perfect time to catch up on the five previous seasons. Written by Robert Popper, a script editor from The Peep Show, the all-star cast includes acting giants Tamsin Greig (Green Wing) and Paul Ritter (Chernobyl) as the parents of two grown-up boys. The show follows the antics of the family at their weekly dinner in which something always goes wrong in an obvious, ridiculous way. Situational comedy at its best, it has an Inbetweeners meets Outnumbered feel to it.
The O.C. on Amazon Prime
Created by Josh Schwartz (Gossip Girl), the American teen drama revolves around the lives of a group of privileged high school students in Orange County, California. Life is turned upside down when Ryan Atwood (Ben McKenzie) comes to live with Seth Cohen (Adam Brody) and his family. Ryan is a trouble-maker who makes them all question their values and priorities in life. Some of the fashions are bang on trend again being set in the early noughties, others are shockingly horrific.
What have you been binge-watching during lockdown? Comment below to share your own top 5 with LSJ News to relieve our boredom.