I’m sure all of us have already set up countdowns for the last day of finals so we can finally go home and enjoy the comforts of our own beds. A big part of summer vacation (mine at least) includes catching up on all the shows that I didn’t get to watch over the semester!
Here are some of the shows I watch and recommend to you when you throw yourself in bed on a Saturday night, ready to watch 5 consecutive hours of television.
1. Billions
As a Business student, I could not help but become fascinated with the high-stakes feud between U.S. Attorney Chuck Rhoades and Bobby Axelrod, a hedge-fund king, founder, and CEO of AXE Capital. Rhoades is well known for having never lost an insider trading case ( 81 x 0 ) and hopes his next takedown will be Axelrod. Axelrod also happens to employ Rhoades wife, Wendy, as the company’s psychiatrist. In a world of wealth, influence, and corruption the battle over billions is never-ending.
Main actors: Damian Lewis (Bobby Axelrod), Paul Giamatti (Chuck Rhoades), Maggie Siff (Wendy Rhoades)
Seasons: 3 (ongoing → new episode every Monday)
2. Desperate Housewives
Probably my favorite show of all time, a show that revolves around the lives of four women who live in a “postcard perfect” suburbia, but their lives could be anything but perfect. Susan is divorced and the mother of Julie, Lynette is married to Tom and has four insane children, Bree is the Martha Stewart from the neighborhood where her constant need for perfection masks extreme dysfunction, and lastly, Gabrielle, the latin ex-model, is married to Carlos, a successful businessman. The group of four was once five, as Mary Alice, unfortunately, took her own life but somehow winds herself back into the lives of the other four even after death.
Actors: Eva Longoria (Gabrielle Solis), Teri Hatcher (Susan Mayer), Marcia Cross (Bree Van De Kamp), Felicity Huffman (Lynette Scavo), Brenda Strong (Mary Alice Young)
Seasons: 8 (the show has finished → can find all episodes on Netflix)
3. Suits
If you’re interested in the upcoming British Royal Wedding, then I definitely recommend watching this show to see how great Meghan Markle is as Rachel Zane. Anyways, this show is about a hot-shot Manhattan corporate lawyer, Harvey Specter, that ends up hiring Mike Ross, a college dropout who is not actually a lawyer. His firm is known for only hiring Harvard Law graduates and having people find out that Mike Ross is not part of this alumni group would cost both their jobs.
Actors: Meghan Markle (Rachel Zane), Patrick J. Adams (Michael Ross), Gabriel Macht (Harvey Specter), Sarah Rafferty (Donna Paulsen), Gina Torres (Jessica Pearson)
Seasons: 7 (ongoing → new episode every Thursday)
4. Money Heist (La Casa De Papel)
Trust me, this show is a game changer. Even if you don’t speak a word of Spanish, the English subtitles will have you hooked. This is a Spanish drama here a group of eight thieves takes 50+ hostages in the Royal Mint of Spain as they execute a plan to steal billions of euros. They reach this point only because a criminal mastermind, El Professor, has seemingly thought out every detail of the robbery. Will they be successful?
Actors: Ursula Corbero (Tokio), Miguel Herran (Rio), Alba Flores (Nairobi), Alvaro Morte (Professor), Pedro Alonso (Berlin), Jaime Lorente Lopez (Denver), Paco Tous (Moscu), Itziar Ituno (Raquel Murillo)
Seasons: 2 (Season 3 coming out soon → all episodes on Netflix)
5. The Mechanism (O Mecanismo)
Being Brazilian, my country’s politics have a great impact on my daily life. For those who aren’t aware of what is happening in Brazil, there is an ongoing investigation called Operação Lava Jato (Operation Car Wash) that is looking into hundreds of politicians in the country for money laundering. In fact, Brazil’s ex-president Luis Inácio da Silva (known commonly as Lula) has just been incarcerated for that exact reason. This show is a timeline of when the investigations started from the point-of-view of the Federal Police. The show is in Portuguese but they have English voice-overs and I strongly recommend watching it because it is surreal that this actually happened in real life. (Side note: the names of the characters have been changed from the real politicians, however, it is easily googleable).
Actors: Caroline Abras (Verena Cardoni), Enrique Diaz (Roberto Ibrahim), Selton Mello (Marco Ruffo). The director is José Padilha, who has directed Narcos and the famous Elite Squad (Tropa de Elite)
Seasons: 1 (ongoing → all episodes on Netflix)
(this woman is a phenomenal hit in Brazil – her name is Ines Brasil, unfortunately, she is not in the show)
6. How to Get Away With Murder
Back to American tv-shows, this show features a group of six students that are recruited to work personally for the brilliant and charismatic Annalise Keating who teaches a class called How to Get Away With Murder. Along with these six students, she employes Frank Delfino and Bonnie Winterbottom that assist her in tasks ranging from murder to finding evidence to put someone behind bars. Throughout their experiences together, mysteries arise with members of the group and others as well as the revelation of dark secrets may break relationships to the point where they are no longer repairable.
Actors: Viola Davis (Annalise Keating), Jack Falahee (Connor Walsh), Alfred Enoch (Wes Gibbins), Karla Souza (Laurel Castillo), Aja Naomi King (Michaela Pratt), Charlie Weber (Frank Delfino), Matt McGorry (Asher Millstone), Liza Weil (Bonnie Winterbottom)
Seasons: 4 (ongoing → new season coming out soon)
7. Black Mirror
If you really want to be freaked out and contemplate every technological development then you should watch this show. I strongly recommend watching this at night and in the comfort of your bed and probably watch an episode of Friends afterward to not have nightmares. The way the episodes for Black Mirror work is that every episode has no relation to the previous one and each has a message about our world in one way or another. The episodes create a story about the world that we would never want our reality to be. It serves as a wake-up call for all viewers, emphasizing that social media can be toxic, technological advances that have ethical compromises might not be the best way to go, and that virtual reality games can become easily corrupt.
Writers (not actors for this one as each episode has new actors): Charlie Brooker (Creator), Jesse Armstrong, Will Bridges
Seasons: 4 (ongoing → all episodes on Netflix)