It’s that time of year again. As the month changes from dreary old September to mystical, orange October, and our screensavers drastically turn from unassuming Michael Jackson to thriller-Jackson at the turn of midnight, those of us who love self-imposed social isolation are probably asking ourselves one question: What can I watch? Well, here’s a definitive binge list to keep you busy while your socially well-adjusted roommate … gets busy.
1. Gilmore Girls (Available on Netflix)
Staunchly feminist and socially aware, Gilmore Girls follows Rory through high school, first boyfriends and embarrassing moments while her single mother, Lorelai, seems to stumble through oddly similar emotional situations. It’s a classic for a reason – producer and director Amy Sherman-Palladino wrote Rory and Lorelai with actual mother-daughter relationships in mind.
Bonus: The show is being revived on Friday November 25th. All four 90-minute episodes will be dropped at midnight. Can anyone say binge? Yes please.
2. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (Available on Amazon & YouTube)
This seven-part historical fantasy is like Pride and Prejudice, Game of Thrones and Labyrinth all got blended into the perfect rainy day show. Set in Regency England during the Napoleonic War, in a past not entirely unlike our own, magicians are real and a rather goofy bunch. In order to restore credibility to English magic, Jonathan Strange and Gilbert Norrell are thrown right into the bureaucracy and violence of Gentlemen’s War. Bonus trips to the BBC version of the Upside Down and visits from a Bowie-like fairy and you’ve got the last masterpiece from the studio that brought you Orphan Black and Broadchurch.
Bonus: The television adaptation added pretty valid, pointed female characters to a book with a serious female representation issue.
3. Twin Peaks (Available on Netflix)
It’s a damn fine television show. By luminary director David Lynch (Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet and, to a lesser degree, Dune), Twin Peaks is living, breathing art. It’s been said that the ‘90s are in and, if that is the case, this pulpy, moody television show is a fashion and attitude baseline for anyone prepared to play grunge convincingly. After Prom Queen Laura Palmer is found wrapped in plastic and the recently deceased, eccentric FBI Agent Cooper is brought in to solve a crime so complex that his search for truth spans time and dimension. David Lynch creates a woven tapestry of jarring evidence and twists that span seamlessly from the Emmy-winning pilot to the highly controversial series finale. Join the thousands who have ventured to ask “Who killed Laura Palmer?”
Bonus: There’s a lot of good music inspired by Twin Peaks. David Lynch himself has a band, but Mount Eerie’s “Between Two Mysteries” is an ambient song that’s perfect for a rainy afternoon.
4. The Fall (Available on Netflix)
This British limited series covers the fictionalized pursuit of a strangler and attacker Paul Spector, played by Jamie Dornan (from Fifty Shades and Anthropoid fame). Like most crime dramas, it isn’t the actual murder that fuels the highly binge-worthy action. Instead, it’s the commendable performance by the show’s lead, Gillian Anderson (The X-Files and Hannibal), who plays Stella Gibson, the headstrong, powerful detective who makes it her mission to stop Spector at all costs. Thought provoking and convention challenging, The Fall explores the role of women in the administration of justice in a way that would make Olivia Benson proud.
Bonus: The show is so visually rich that every scene could be paused and would look like a work of art. Helps that the plot is halfway decent too.
5. The Witch (Available on Netflix)
This instant-classic horror flick balances beautiful visuals and a deliciously verbose script that will make you want to shed your skin, write a novel, and simultaneously shower the icky feeling away. The sign of a good movie is its ability to make you feel … yucky. Perfect for Halloween, The Witch tells of a Pilgrim family in freshly settled New England plagued by an unknown source of bad luck. As they turn on one another and their faith fails them, the audience (you) watches as the barest form of humanity is revealed and everything falls apart.
Bonus: This is the breakout role for Anya Taylor-Joy, who is, essentially, lightening in a bottle.
6. The Falling (Available on Netflix)
This perfect autumnal movie (starring Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams) is about fear, sex and growing up. After the death of her best friend, Abbie (played by Williams) begins to have fainting spells that spread through her private, secluded girls’ school. The Falling is a beautiful and complex tribute to a real rash of mass psychogenic illness that occurred at a girls’ school in the ‘60s that keeps you guessing, questioning and playing along.
Bonus: Your parents and your film professor will be impressed that you watched this movie.
7. Poe Party (Available on Youtube)
This YouTube mini-series is a sweet, funny and intellectual take on the age old “dinner with luminaries” writing prompt. The whole series is a closed-room mystery, featuring the likenesses of the unflappable Hemingway, Dostoyevsky and Poe himself. Yet, it’s The Lizzie Bennet Diaries’ Ashley Clements and Mary Kate Wiles’ roles of Charlotte Brontë and Annabel Lee, respectively, that really give Poe Party its comedic edge.
Bonus: Jim O’heir (Jerry from Parks and Recreation) makes an unforgettable appearance.
Happy watching!