The Americans is excellent, but often very violent and offputting. You are constantly aware that if Keri Russell’s character weren’t so beautiful, you (and everyone else) would really despise her.
I wouldn’t watch “This Is Us” unless I had exhausted Friday Night Lights and Parenthood. TIU is much less consistently good than they are, and mines a lot of the same veins.
Stranger Things could be a fun choice. It’s more than a little comic-booky, but very engaging, and if anything does a better job of capturing an 80s vibe than The Americans or This Is Us. (80s period feel is key to all of them.) I also really liked Sense8, which is full of hocum (and occasional violence), but is always intensely beautiful and often very moving. And it won’t go on forever! The whole series will be about 21 hours.
If you want to abandon the supernatural altogether, and you like your family drama light and funny, but you still want yet another take on 80s nostalgia, I enjoyed Red Oaks. on Amazon. Well-executed cliches about coming of age involving the Boy, his Nerdy Accountant Dad and Emerging Lesbian-Feminist Consciousness Mom, the Poor Little Rich (& Sexy) Girl, and her Mephistophelean Master of the Universe Father. Plus a bunch of engaging secondary characters. At a country club in New Jersey where it’s always either the beginning or the end of summer.
For a fun, feel good show, watch Parks and Rec. We had seen a random episode years ago and didn’t think much of it in that context, but when we started from the beginning and watched it straight through we absolutely loved it.
@smdur1970 you know, by the time the show had dragged on that long, I no longer cared. I just felt like I was being played. I sort of intended to watch the last season, but in the end, I didn’t even bother to do that.
H and I have begun watching The Goldbergs and Speechless, both of which are funny and poignant at once. They really say alot about families and sibling relationships in a humorous but thought provoking way.
Someone mentioned midsomer murders…all those on the same channel, Grantchester, Father Brown, The Australian Doctor, Dr. Blake Mysteries, and my favorite Death in Paradise. (are all great).
If you want a moldy oldy that is cozy, try the old “All Creatures Great and Small” episodes, especially the first 3 seasons. They for whatever reasons are on you tube, so they are easy to watch, and they are very comforting (least to us), great actors all around and just a lot of fun.
I 2nd Grace and Frankie, it’s lighthearted fun and I love how Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda play off each other. Big fan of both Parenthood and FNL. D and I put off watching the final 5 episodes of FNL for close to a year, because we wanted to watch them together and we did NOT want it to end! This summer D has binged on the entire Parks and Rec series and loved it. H and I have enjoyed Mozart in the Jungle.
A few years ago we loved BBC’s Lark Rise to Candleford. Very, very cozy, and sometimes funny.
The new Poldark is addicting and better than the old IMO. Also, I read that the author of the novel (Winston Graham) hated the first series because of the way it characterized Poldark’s wife as promiscuous…not the way she is depicted in the current one (though I haven’t seen the current season yet.)