The Best Shows to Binge-Watch Right Now

If you're lucky enough to be able to work from home right now, you've probably caught yourself thinking about the best shows to binge watch to help separate your working hours from your non-working free time. And while there are plenty of obvious, prestige options out there—HBO is currently streaming hits like Succession and The Sopranos for free—we thought as we enter the second month of this new normal that we'd try to bring you a different guide to the best shows to binge watch. Instead of the ones you've been putting off for years (The Wire can, frankly, wait), it's time to try something new and unexpected. Here's how.

The Bridge

Whenever people say "Gaby, you've watched a demented number of European crime dramas, do you have any recommendations for where to start?" (this has happened maybe twice) I always suggest Bron/Broen or The Bridge, the absolute peak of the form with four full seasons available for your entertainment. A Nordic noir, the first season opens with a murder that takes place on the bridge between Sweden and Denmark (the body is literally found cut in half and placed on both sides of the border). Swedish detective Saga Norén and Danish detective Martin Rohde are put on the case, which gives us a buddy comedy element: she's a young, blunt, highly competent cop who is believed to be on the Asperger's spectrum and exclusively wears leather pants, while he's more old school and plays it fast and loose. Together, they must catch an increasingly inventive serial killer while ostensibly enjoying the benefits of single payer healthcare offscreen.—Gabriella Paiella

Cowboy Bebop

Since we're all picking up new hobbies and interests in self-isolation, why not make anime one of them? (If that makes me sound like a weeb, so be it.) Cowboy Bebop is the perfect gateway show: with its high-speed chases, bar fights, and enough instant ramen to give you panic-buying flashbacks, the episodic adventures of a motley crew of bounty hunters (in space!) make the influential anime always unpredictable and never boring. And at only 26 episodes, it’s not so short that you could finish it in a day, but no so long that it feels like a big commitment—it's in that binge-watch sweet spot.—Iana Murray

The X-Files

There are 11 seasons of The X-Files, which makes it a substantial time investment. Seasons One through Nine (the pre-reboot era) are 20-plus episodes each, meaning lots of your standard, one-off adventures that were the norm for network TV shows before the streaming wars. But I'd argue the vast number of one-offs, which are still wildly entertaining, enhance the viewing experience of the plot-altering episodes that connect the series. That central plot line combines two of life's juiciest questions: whether there's a secret government program covering up extraterrestrial activity, and whether Mulder and Scully are gonna Do It.—Alex Shultz

Friends From College

An ensemble comedy about a dysfunctional group of self-obsessed Harvard grads trying to stretch their glory days way too far into their 40s, Friends From College wisely leans into the chaotic evil nature of post-grad college crews: rambunctious, oblivious, and disgustingly bratty. Netflix axed it after two reportedly unwatched seasons, which means now is Friends from College’s time to shine. Almost all its stars feel plucked out of comedy’s most circulated orbits, forming a sort of mishmash of unsung names churning out laugh-out-loud funny work—a perfectly silly watch for once you’ve burned through Mike Schur’s entire TV universe.—Danielle Cohen

The Venture Bros

The biggest benefit of binging The Venture Bros is that you won’t have to wait as long between seasons as real-time viewers did (the Adult Swim series has released seven over the course of 15 inconsistent years). When you can watch ‘em all, though, you also get to see the gradual, miraculous and totally earned transformation the series makes. The initial premise is a spoof—“What if a Johnny Quest-type character grew up with major emotional baggage and had two dipshit sons?”—but as the seasons go on, all the parodies become fully-realized, three-dimensional characters and the plot gets more complex than Game of Thrones ever was. And yet, Venture Bros never forgets its roots, making for a hilarious, humanizing celebration of pulp, genre, and misfits of all sorts.—James Grebey

Sex Education

It was only last weekend that I fell in love with the brilliant Sex Education on Netflix all over again. As if I were watching it for the very first time (full disclosure, this was my... fifth binge), the British comedy starring Asa Butterfield and Gillian Anderson always manages to genuinely move me. The series doesn't just explore the intricate lives of hip U.K. teens; it also brings unprecedented and much-needed conversations about sexuality, sexual intercourse, and identity to television. Sex Education is guaranteed to not only make you laugh and cry simultaneously, but ridicule and reflect on your own adolescence a little too.—Willa Bennett

Limmy's Show!

There’s something very special about the stylings of late—like, actually late—night comedy. I’m speaking specifically of the 2:00 am and beyond slots, when the only people that are awake are very unlikely to be sober. Limmy’s Show is a Scottish sketch comedy series from the early '10s that’s probably the definitive stoner comedy program to me. Written by comedian Brian Limmond, Limmy's runs the gamut from dark, to surreal, to incredibly goofy fourth wall breaking bits, to weirdly specific Scottish pop culture references that fly miles over my head. The genius is in Limmond’s commitment to every bit, taking each idea and pushing it to its logical conclusion before finally giving it up.—Gabe Conte

Le Revenant

As far as zombie shows go, Les Revenants—French for "the revenants," I'm pretty sure—is far and away the most beautiful. The less you know going in the better, but, premise-wise: In one of those small alpine villages in France where everyone knows each other, the dead suddenly start returning, their memories unblemished by trauma. All kinds of thorny situations arise when the departed attempt to reintegrate into the daily lives of their bamboozled loved ones. There are few clues as to why they've come back, and creator Fabrice Gobert is more than happy to let the story unfold in the tiniest of increments. It's this kind of slow-burning patience that lends the show this gauzy, artsy, almost meditative quality (the opening theme, by Mogwai, just sort of lingers in your brain), and it opens up all sorts of brainy dinner-party questions about death, loss, permanence, the passage of time, etc. Oh, and it's just two short seasons long, done before you know it.—Chris Gayomali

Cribs

Celebrities might be as bored as anyone right now, but if you’ve watched MTV’s long-running house tour series Cribs, you know they probably have no right to be. Jackie Chan has more secret rooms in his house than I have overt ones; there are fish in one of Missy Elliott’s chairs; and there’s a jacuzzi in Lil Wayne and Birdman’s living room. Before we were peeping on celebrities’ interior decor during their quarantine livestreams, they were voluntarily showing us their homes. As a kid, I’d watch Cribs and fantasize about having similarly extravagant digs (though my fridge would be full); now, I’m bingeing the show just to briefly get away from my own.—Max Cea

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Originally Appeared on GQ