<p>I know we’ve all done it…given up a weekend(s) binge-ing on a tv show. Well, my kids are gonna be gone next weekend and I can’t imagine a better way to spend my free (at last!) time. So, let me hear your suggestions (Breaking Bad and Mad Men, I know. But I’ve seen these!). What are some great tv series that will be fun to watch back-to-back-to-back and make the time fly? </p>
<p>North and South
Downton Abbey
Battlestar Galactica</p>
<p>House of Cards (I just watched the first 3 episodes of season 2 tonight). Orange is the New Black.
First season of Veronica Mars, then watch the movie.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer. </p>
<p>Scandal. Friday Night Lights. Weeds. Dexter. Sons of Anarchy. Nip Tuck. Parks and Rec. Skins (original British). United States of Tara. Queer as Folk. Parenthood. Shameless. Jeez, I need to leave the house more. </p>
<p>Firefly. Dr Who.
Doc Martin. Fortysomething.
Sherlock.
BTW.
I haven’t seen or read Game of Thrones.
I’m feeling left out .
Should I start with the books or the tv?</p>
<p>24
The Big Bang Theory
Modern Family
NCIS</p>
<p>Heartily second Orange is the New Black–I binge watched it, and I think at one point I watched 4 hours without budging from my seat. And no one should go through life without having watched Friday Night Lights.</p>
<p>A very quirky British show that my D got me into is called Misfits. Quite entertaining, with some terrific young actors.</p>
<p>@emeraldkity4: Re Game of Thrones, the books are fantastic (and I’m not normally a fan of fantasy), but a huge time commitment (each is immense, and they are dense with descriptive detail and complex plotting, so can’t be rushed through). I’ve enjoyed seeing them come to life on the screen, but you could enjoy the show just fine without reading them.</p>
<p>Another recommendation for ‘Game of Thrones’. If you like it also try ‘Rome’ and ‘The Tudors.’</p>
<p>The Good Wife
Boston Legal
ER</p>
<p>24 is basically designed to be binge-watched, and it excels at that. I watched a season in real time (staying awake for 24 hours straight). I cannot think of a better way to become immersed in a story.</p>
<p>At 14 episodes, Firefly has, by far, the highest quality-to-length ratio of any TV series I have seen. It makes for a quick binge that is worth every second. Side effects include making you nostalgic for the rest of your life and causing you to complain about the great injustice of its [unfortunate</a> fate](<a href=“http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScrewedByTheNetwork]unfortunate”>http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ScrewedByTheNetwork).</p>
<p>Avatar: The Last Airbender is immersive, entertaining fantasy with an intensely focused and emotionally heavy story arc. The structure of the story arc makes it extremely watchable in short bursts, and it keeps you involved until it gets into the character development that makes it the beautiful work of art that it is.</p>
<p>Death Note is the most suspenseful TV series I have ever seen, even more than 24. Do not expect to sleep between watching the first and last episodes of Death Note. Its story arc is focused more intensely than even that of Avatar.</p>
<p>My favorite series are Game of Thrones, The Wire, and Breaking Bad. Game of Thrones and The Wire are difficult to binge on because they have high learning curves and they are so complex that I needed to take long breaks between episodes in order to absorb everything. Typically, the best series for a binge are those that focus on a single, clear story arc that is always building up to a climax, and Game of Thrones and The Wire divide their attention between many different intertwined stories that come and go.</p>
<p>Breaking Bad is perfect for a binge, although the OP already mentioned it.</p>
<p>House of Cards
The Good Wife
Homeland</p>
<p>House of Cards
Sherlock
Homeland </p>
<p>Some old shows I like in case you haven’t seen them already:</p>
<p>The Sopranos
The Shield
The Wire</p>
<p>I’ve watched the Wire although I grew tired of some of the characters before the final season. ( look for Wood Harris in this season of Justified)</p>
<p>Another binge, but need time to process & rewatch series is Deadwood.</p>
<p>How I love Firefly.
I have put off watching Serenity , because I already know the ending. ( another Justified connection).</p>
<p>Thirty something is now available on Netflix streaming. ( 40 something is quite different, it is British & stars Hugh Laurie, Anna Chancelor & Benedict Cumberbatch)</p>
<p>Half hour comedies I like along with 30Rock & Parks & Rec, are New Girl( later seasons are much better than first) & Brooklyn 99, even if you didn’t like Andy Samberg on SNL.</p>
<p>Also watch Scandal, although I long for Ms Washington to have her baby & House of Cards, even though I wish that they made at least one character sympathetic.
Can’t wait for Orange is the new black to start again.</p>
<p>My youngest suggested most of them to me although I began watching Deadwood after reading The Dangerous Animals Club by Stephen Toblowsky.( wonderful character actor, who incidentally is currently making a movie based on the stories in the Toblowsky files podcasts)</p>
<p>Shameless! Favorite show right now.
Chicago Fire (I watched over the summer, guilty pleasure)
The Good Wife
Elementary (binged over Christmas Break)
House of Cards (I need to finish)
Orange is the New Black </p>
<p>Oh dear. Am I too old to be a fan girl?
Jim Beaver, Michael Dorn & Alan! Tudyk! are going to be in town this weekend for the comic con.
But I don’t pay for photos with a celeb unless it is a fundraiser.</p>
<p>I wish we could edit without the red text.</p>
<p>A+ lists everyone. A +1 to House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Dexter, Parks and Rec, Sherlock, Dr. Who, Parenthood (a CC parent favorite probably too),</p>
<p>My Adds: Fringe (sci-fi, X files meets modern + JJ Abrams[the director/writer or Lost, Star Trek, Super 8 and much more]) and Community (about community college, a CC parent may find this interesting)</p>
<p>A crude shows parents may not like, but I think it is a very valuable show, and I will give a link/review for it.</p>
<p>It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia: “If there’s one thing that is undeniably true of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia—other than the fact that it’s the most consistently funny comedy series of the millennium (while inexplicably going entirely unrecognized by Emmy voters)— it’s that it is perhaps the most depraved show on television. Simply put, every single character is devoid of any redeeming qualities. In fact, Mac, Dennis, Charlie, Dee and Frank are individuals so horrible and debauched that they have eluded proper analysis for years. After eight seasons and 93 episodes, it has been well-established that these are, with little question, some of the worst people we have ever seen on a television screen.”</p>
<p><a href=“The 'Always Sunny' Depravity Rankings: “The Gang Broke Sweet Dee” | TIME.com”>http://entertainment.time.com/2013/09/05/the-its-always-sunny-in-philadelphia-depravity-rankings-the-gang-broke-sweet-dee/</a></p>
<p>The show is great commentary on society, is hilarious (filled with irony and hypocrisy), and at the same time addresses some very controversial issues in ways not normally used.</p>
<p>For lurid gratuitous sex & violence, Spartacus: Blood & Sand is entertainment candy.</p>
<p>You can rationalize watching it by telling yourself you are absorbing some educational Roman history.</p>
<p>@Halogen - excellent call on “24.” It’s mesmerizing. OP, you may be hard-pressed to leave the house once you start. Plus, it’s fun to see Zachary Quinto in a small part from early in his career.</p>
<p>I recommend “The Fall,” a 5-part BBC show on Netflix starring Gillian Anderson. It’s an absorbing and intense look at the hunt for a serial killer in Belfast. The characters, including the victims, are very real, so it’s hard to watch but not exploitative. </p>
<p>Black Adder. I also binge on TED talks.</p>
<p>Someone said that Firefly had the best quality to length ratio, and there’s something to that, but two other shows with similar quality to length ratios – which also means they can be watched in their entireties in a weekend, easily, and without staying up for 24 hours – are My So-Called Life (starring the Earth-shattering 15 year-old Claire Danes) and Freaks and Geeks. They are both fairly old, and lots of people have seem them, but if you haven’t you should. </p>
<p>MS-CL was a project from the team that had produced Thirtysomething, spearheaded by staff writer Winnie Holzman (who wrote the book for Wicked). It’s probably one of the most realistic shows about American teenagers ever; the drama comes almost exclusively from their feelings and confusions, not external events. In addition to launching Danes’ career, it also gave us Jared Leto and junior staff writer Jason Katims (Roswell, Nip/Tuck, FNL, Parenthood, About A Boy).</p>
<p>Freaks and Geeks was also a show about teens and pre-teens, funnier (and therefore more contrived) than MS-CL and also a period piece (and therefore more contrived). Practically everyone associated with the show is a household name now – head writer Judd Apatow, male “teen” leads James Franco, Jason Segal, and Seth Rogin (who was actually a teen when the show was filmed, although he looked ten years older than everyone else), featured pre-teen geek Martin Short, and second female lead Busy Phillips. Only series star Linda Cardellini, who was just terrific, has failed to go on to bigger things.</p>
<p>And as long as we’re on the subject of great high school TV shows, in addition to Friday Night Lights, consider Katims’ Roswell, in which some of the teens who feel like aliens in their parents’ world are right (first season only – it jumped the shark after that), Veronica Mars (also the far-superior first season), and of course Buffy The Vampire Slayer.</p>