7 Netflix Shows to Help You Recover From a Midterm Disaster

Because everyone has at least one midterm that completely exhausted them, Netflix and chill (like, actually chill) is in order. Your brain is fried from all the hard work you’ve been doing since January, so it’s important to take some much-needed R&R. And by R&R, I mean sweatpants + couch + cuddle partner + instant streaming. Ergo, here are 7 must-see shows on Netflix for every craving!

Fuller House

When this show first got announced, everyone lost their minds. Fuller House, a Netflix original, is a great ode to the original show and, shockingly, John Stamos has actually gotten hotter?? It shouldn’t be possible, but it totally is. Fuller House is a wonderful show to wind down with after a long day, and there is a large chance you will cry during the first episode if you’re a long-time fan like me.

X-Files

Mulder. Scully. Aliens. Puns. Slime. What more is there to life, honestly? Now that the dynamic supernatural duo are back on the screen with new episodes, if you haven’t been a fan before, now is precisely the time! There’s an overarching alien-filled storyline, but there’s also “monster of the week” one-shot cases for Mulder and Scully that manage to majorly creep you out in a 40 minute episode. Watching the X-Files is as comforting as it is spooky, so I suggest watching it with a snuggly stuffed animal and the lights off.

Sense8

If you like sci-fi, forbidden romance, and an amazing range of representation, then this is perfect for you. There are elements of telepathy and an action-filled conspiracy as eight people from different parts of the world become linked and connected to one another. Beyond the amazing plot, the diversity in this show is a breath of fresh air! A cast full of white, straight, cisgender people? No one has time for that.

Ally McBeal

This is a new edition to Netflix, and we couldn’t be happier to see it after it stopped airing in 2003. Ally McBeal is a girl’s best friend when she’s unsure about her future and needs encouragement from one of the most courageous girls on the legal field. In case you’ve never seen it, it’s about a young lawyer working at a Boston law firm and her escapades. It’s basically HTGAWM’s older, happier sister. Get on it!

The Killing

While we wait for Twin Peaks to revive a la X-Files, The Killing hits the spot. It follows the story of two troubled detectives as they try to solve the murder of a young woman in Seattle. Though it sounds very similar to Twin Peaks at the surface, it is much darker, and so leans less towards the quirky mystery of the town of Twin Peaks and more towards the somber intensity of True Detectives. It’s really quite gritty, so be warned. That being said, it’s an amazing story and all the characters are very real and very flawed. I love a good crime drama, and this is one of the best, and vastly underrated.

Grace & Frankie

If you thought you would never be able to identify with two older women going through divorces with their gay husbands, you thought wrong. Grace and Frankie are married to two law partners who, over the course of their partnership, fell in love with each other. Where does that leave their wives? Really, really, really angry. Grace is an upper-crust polished ice queen, and Frankie is a free-spirited peyote enthusiast; throughout their husbands’ partnership, they hated each other. However, desperate times call for desperate friendships. The show follows their exploration into this new territory with each other as company. It’s hilarious, it’s heartwarming, it’s fiery, and there’s a lot of wine involved. Future wine moms, this is the show for you.

Jessica Jones

Forget the Avengers; Jessica Jones is a hero at their finest. This show is Marvel meets Gotham, essentially, and it does it amazingly. Set in Hell’s Kitchen, the part of Manhattan where Daredevil also lives, Jessica is a dry and sarcastic private investigator with a dark past who solves mysteries, and possesses a unique set of ‘skills’ that are explained as the series goes on. Krysten Ritter portrays Jessica like she was made for it, and there is the pleasant bonus of a lot of sex scenes in this series (if only the Avengers was the same way). The show has a neo-noir aesthetic and is quite dark for Marvel, but it’s just what you need to get your blood pumping and liven you up after that 20 page midterm monstrosity.

Hopefully, out of this list, you’ve found a show to jump into! Netflix is a rabbit hole of endless shows to binge on, but let this list be one of many to help you navigate! By the time you return to school, may you be well-rested, bright-eyed, and with a couple of shows under your belt.