The Best TV Shows to Binge and Where to Watch Them – August 2018
As summer is winding down, the heat doesn’t seem to be. And after you’ve partaken of the air-conditioned offerings in theaters, sometimes you just want to be in the comfort of your own home to unwind. It’s far less of a production: There’s no driving, you can eat what you want, and you don’t even have to wear shoes. This is sounding more appealing by the minute.
Cue the binge. Watching single episodes of television still has its place, but there’s a beauty to the narrative arc that one gets from binges. Like those paper towel rolls peppered with perforation, with binges you can choose what size you want. They can be done in easy chunks of a few episodes or full-day affairs that power you through days or weekends.
It’s also the perfect time to get in some last-minute binges before the traditional fall TV season fires up. With upwards of 500-plus scripted series, there’s bound to be something you haven’t seen.
What makes for a good binge? IndieWire has created a rough guide for easily digestible binges that can be accomplished during a weekend or over the course of a few weeks.
Some criteria for IndieWire’s curated list of the best TV shows to binge:
- Commitment: Fewer seasons and an easy entry point. First or second seasons are great for this. Comedies with shorter runtimes also work, but if a whole series has just finished, that might be a good time to start also.
- Tone: Lightweight often works best – we’ve binged “Black Mirror,” and our state of mind afterward was not pretty – but sometimes brisk, engrossing storytelling can offset heavier material.
- Availability: It needs to be readily watchable somewhere.
With all this in mind, IndieWire has compiled the list, which can be accessed in the gallery above or simply click here.
