5 TV Show Binge Recommendations

I’m one of the few people who doesn’t subscribe to a streaming service or premium cable channel.  Instead, I resort to DVD’s to binge watch and catch up on popular shows. Since everyone is watching something different these days, it can be hard to find fellow fans to talk about these shows. So, here five of the TV shows that I recommend for your next binge. Note: This post contains affiliate links, and I will earn a commission on any sales.

The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu)

What it’s about.

In a dystopian reality, infertility becomes a global crisis due to widespread pollution. As a result, the U.S. government is overtaken by a strict religious group that enslaves fertile women and forces them to bear the children of military commanders by performing monthly, ceremonial rape.

These women are called handmaids, each renamed after the commander that she serves. One handmaid, Offred, shares her story and the nightmare of an existence that she endures in the country now known as Gilead.

Why you should watch.

This is a show that I eagerly recommend to women but am hesitant to mention to men. Realistic portrayals of violence against women can be hard for men to sit through. Of course, I’m generalizing here. But the appeal of this show is not in its violence or cynicism. Instead, it’s found in its characters’ resilience and their complex relationships.

Despite its bleak premise, there is hopefulness to this show as small victories are won in between major brutality and grief. Offred, whose real name is June, is a modern woman who has been outwardly enslaved into submission. But she finds herself internally, and later externally, fighting against that submission.

She discovers that she is not alone in her quest to endure and, eventually, escape. We are constantly reminded that she and the rest of the characters come from our world and that this nightmare of an existence is a hauntingly plausible one.

But June is not a true hero. She makes bad decisions and sometimes even villainous ones. Likewise, some of the most villainous characters on the show have their moments of heroism. You never know who you will be rooting for from scene to scene.

The cinematography is stellar as well. This world is stripped down of technology, words (women are forbidden to read, among other things), and, essentially, freedom across the board. Every social class wears a different color dress or uniform, creating beautiful pops of these colors that stand out in the bland, sterile settings, whether it’s a bright white hospital room, dim and dusty mansion, or the natural lighting of the woods.

Mr. Robot (USA)

What it’s about.

In an eerily familiar yet alternate version of 2015, Elliot Alderson is a mentally ill computer expert who works for a company called Allsafe that provides internet security for large companies. After acquiring their largest client, the corrupt company giant E Corp, Elliot is called in to fix a major security breech that threatens E Corp’s servers.

There, he discovers that a secret society is attempting to take down E Corp. Ecorp happens to be same company responsible for a power plant leak that killed his dad, and the mother of his best friend and co-worker, Angela. This group of vigilante hackers recruit Elliot to join him, leading him on a year-long mission where he takes down multiple cyber villains and powerful organizations before they can take him out.

Why you should watch.

I had heard good things about this show, but it always seemed so tech-focused that it intimidated me. Then, I saw Bohemian Rhapsody. After listening to Rami Malek plug the show in his interviews on the talk show circuit, I decided to give it a chance. The entire four season series plays like one giant movie, following one main plot line and dumping unreliable narrators, prescient real world events, and a slew of human baggage into the mix.

Going in blind, it can be difficult to keep up at first. Not being especially tech or business savvy, I often became bogged down in the thick of the plot. Then, I watched a video essay about the show titled, The Plot Doesn’t Matter: Why You Should Watch Mr. Robot.

From then on, I focused on just getting the gist of each episode and immersing myself in the character development. And with repeated viewings, the details become clearer.

Malek’s Elliot is a mess of a human being who essentially just wants to save the world. He speaks directly to us, the audience,  an invisible character in the show. That’s what keeps you invested while new characters, conflicts, and information is piled onto the story.

The tone is typically dark and brooding. However, there are also special themed episodes (ex. a 90’s sitcom episode, a Back to the Future II-inspired episode, and a nearly silent episode).

For me, things really kicked off in season 3 where the plot becomes more straightforward and questions start to get answered. This culminates into a nearly perfect send off in season 4 in which the audience finally understands what they have been watching this whole time without any cheap tricks or twists.

Big Little Lies (HBO)

What it’s about.

A parent in the upper class town of Montery has died in a fall at a school fundraising event. So, local detectives are sent to investigate whether the victim fell or were pushed.

In between interviews with the townspeople, the show flashes back to the first day of first grade and the five mothers who end up at the forefront of the investigation. While they befriend and bicker with each other, the details of their perfect family lives are pulled back to expose the imperfections, and in some cases nightmarish scenarios that play out behind closed doors.

The identity of the dead parent is not revealed until the very end of season 1. But the outcome is not what you’d expect.

Why you should watch.

It’s a mystery that doesn’t focus on solving the mystery because only the audience is in the dark about what happened. Told as one giant flashback, the story slowly unfolds as the “what” is slowly explained and “who” ended up dead. But by the end, the audience is not only aware of what happened to who, but they are the most aware of “how” it happened.

Always going in with expectations, I imagined this story to be about rich women who backstab each other until it leads to murder. But it’s much more complex than that. Their problems are large, valid, and universal set against a backdrop of perfection. That perfection is so coveted that it defines their life choices.

The three leads: Madeline (Reese Witherspoon), Celeste (Nicole Kidman), and Jane (Shailene Woodley) are actually really close, and that closeness doesn’t falter. It’s what they don’t tell each other which leads to the deadly conclusion.

This show subverts audience expectations about female character stereotypes. It puts a new spin on the classic whodunit. And it doesn’t forget to add humor, intensity, and some really meaty dialogue to keep things interesting.

Season 2 wanes a bit from its concrete storytelling and strong characterization, but it’s still a decent follow up to satisfy the need to know what happened to these characters after the credits roll at the end of season 1. And despite the dark themes and events running beneath it, the blue-toned, relaxed atmosphere of the town and its pristine beaches covers this tense story in a calming blanket.

Both seasons have aired on HBO. There is talk of a third season, but show runners have urged fans not to get their hopes up. You can read my full review of season 2 of Big Little Lies here.

Sharp Objects (HBO)

What it’s about.

Journalist Camille (Amy Adams) returns to her hometown to cover the disappearances of two young girls in her first assignment back after a stay in a psychiatric ward for self-mutilation. There, she reconnects with her mother, stepfather, and much younger sister. However, she is reluctant to stay in their brooding plantation home with its haunting past.

As the investigation unfolds, so does her history with the town. This history causes her to scratch words into her skin and drink until she blacks out. Camille then realizes that these disappearances are hitting much closer to home than she realized.

Why you should watch.

Without giving anything away, I will tell you that the entire show is a lead up to the final shocking 30 seconds of the story which tells you everything you need to know about what you have just seen. How it pulls it off is still the real mystery. But those 30 seconds alone are what you’re going to be thinking about long after it has ended.

In the meantime, you will get lost in the eerie, candlelit hallways of the giant plantation house. You’ll hold your breath as Camille rides around town nursing a water bottle full of vodka. And you’ll turn away when she begins to dig fresh wounds into her skin to deal with the pain of both past and present.

The praise that Adams received for her portrayal of Camille is well-deserved. She carries this show in a drunken daze while Patricia Clarkson and Eliza Scanlen showcase their more colorful roles. They present us with a trio of damaged women who do their best to remain normal when they can barely function.

This show deals with multiple, thought-provoking themes. These themes present some interesting questions about the most sinister forms of mental illness and the trail of victims that they leave in their path when their psychosis goes untreated for too long.

The entire series has aired on HBO with no definitive plans for a second season.

Castle Rock (Hulu)

What it’s about.

In an eerie New England town with a sinister history, the warden of Shawshank prison commits suicide. This prompts an investigation which leads to the discovery of a mysterious man locked in a cage in the prison’s basement. Former local Henry Deaver is called in to represent this man. There, he deals with his aging mother, the strange girl who lived across the street all grown up, and the rumors that Henry killed his father when he was just a boy.

In season 2, a nurse named Annie Wilkes arrives in Castle Rock with her daughter and gets caught up in a mysterious cult.

Why you should watch.

I signed up for this show for the Stephen King Easter eggs, and I got them. However, the plot doesn’t rely on them to carry their story. Instead, they wind through a twisty, brooding story that utilizes elements of the Stephen King universe rather than relies on it.

The plot of season 1 unravels slowly with a constant hum of suspense and just enough jump scares to keep you on your toes. But it’s not a straight up horror tale.  It’s mainly a family drama that incorporates fantasy and horror. Castle Rock definitely has a history but one that doesn’t affect the entire town, just its chosen victims.

Fans of season one will vouch for the season 1 episode, The Queen, where King alum Sissy Spacek steals the show with her character’s big moment in the story. A personal favorite of mine is a side plot involving a married couple who has just moved to town and encounter an evil force in the house they are staying in. The tables are turned when a character named Jackie Torrance comes to the rescue, wielding an ax in the style of her infamous uncle.

Season 2 of Castle Rock was much more compelling in my opinion. It creates its own storyline which hardly references the previous season. Lizzy Caplan nails it as a young Annie who isn’t quite the seasoned psycho from Misery but who sounds just like Kathy Bates and makes you want to pat her on the shoulder one minute and strangle her the next.

What TV shows do you recommend to others to binge in 2020? Leave your answers in the comments below!

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