Watching whatever is currently on the television can be disjointed. You miss one episode and suddenly Bobby is with Jodi and Grace is actually a cyborg from the future. Sometimes, you just want to sit down and burn your way through the story in one setting. With that in mind, here are eight great series’ for you to binge.
Note: All the times indicated are only rough estimates as you may skip the opening and ending credits as well as certain scenes or episodes. Times will change if new content is added to the line-up.
Community
Duration: 1 Day 17 Hours
Lying to get a job is a bad thing. Getting caught is even worse. After being discovered to not actually have a law degree, Jeff Winger is disbarred and forced to return to college. He becomes attracted to activist classmate Britta Perry, so Jeff decides to begin a study group to spend more time with her. Things quickly go awry as Britta invites a pop culture nerd, a religious single mother, an over-achiever, a former high school football star, and an elderly millionaire to the study group.
Despite getting off to a less-than-stellar start, the show really picks up towards the third season with the second season not doing too bad by itself. If you’ve ever wanted to go back to community college to earn a degree, maybe you should watch this first.
How I Met Your Mother
Everyone wants to find their special someone. But with friends like the womanising Barney Stinson, interfering Lily Aldrin, sweet but naive Marshal Eriksen, and tough as nails Canadian Robin Scherbatsky, there is no telling the trouble that lies ahead. Despite the constant issues that plague him, nothing will stop Ted Mosby from finding ‘The One’. Along the way, he encounters several wrong ones and falls in love more times than is good for him.
Known as a modern equivalent to Friends, How I Met Your Mother had some trouble in season 7 and 8, and the final season relied heavily on fan service to get by. Once you get to the final episode, if you find yourself feeling cheated or disappointed – as many fans at the time of its original airing did – do yourself a favour and check out the leaked alternate ending. It makes far more sense than what they went with.
Futurama
Duration: 2 Days 3 Hours
Every portrayal of the future has been either seriously bleak or near idyllic. Futurama branches out and does something different – normal life. Accidentally frozen for a thousand years, Philip J. Fry awakens hours before the year 3000.
Taking up a job as an intergalactic delivery boy, his best friend is a robot, his boss is his great-great-(with several hundred more)-nephew and his girlfriend is a mutant with one eye. Yes, everything is normal – horrible bosses, ineffective government, appallingly low pay. Fry might take you to the moon and back, but the lines are a nightmare. Although the show had some rough patches along the way, the show is worth marathoning. For completion’s sake, the crew came back for one last hurrah on a season 26 crossover episode of The Simpsons, “Simpsorarma“.
Firefly
Duration: 10 Hours
If you have a rainy Sunday to waste, snuggle down with blankets and a blaster for a day of marathoning the ever epic Firefly. An unusual combination of Western, science fiction, and action, Firefly follows a band of rugged outlaws making their way in a galaxy that isn’t going to make things easy for them.
Between cannibal pirates, mysterious government organisations, and dangerous criminal factions, life isn’t going their way. With a fantastic cast and crew, this is already known as a great one season show. When you find yourself wanting more – and you will find yourself there – set course for Serenity. The film takes place some time after the series and answers some pressing questions as it realigns the galactic balance of power.
Lost
Duration: 3 Days 16 Hours
Possibly the most confusing series ever constructed, Lost is a paradigm of confusion and interlocking hints and plotlines. When their aeroplane crashes onto a mysterious island, the surviving passengers band together to survive. But normality goes out the window the minute they set foot on the ground.
What secrets lurk on the island? How are they connected to the mysterious experiments that happened there years ago? And was the crash even an accident? With twists and turns enough to make a small country into a maze, by the end, this one might leave you with more questions than answers.
Sherlock
Total Runtime: 15 Hours
When criminals commit crimes, the public turns to the police. When the police can’t cope or just can’t crack a case, they turn to a consulting detective. Partnered with former Army medic John Watson, Sherlock Holmes enjoys unravelling the most devious plots the criminal world has to offer.
Able to make connections that most people would miss, little can slow the progress of the good detective. Even with as little as an old phone, the unorthodox detective can uncover your entire life.
Sherlock is currently going through what may be its final season. If you hurry over to Netflix or Amazon, you can get the suspense of waiting for an unsolvable mystery at least once before it ends.
House
Duration: 5 Days 13 Hours
Fans of Sherlock are bound to fall in love with House as well. After a poor diagnosis caused severe damage to his leg, House M.D. dedicated his life to uncovering obscure maladies that affect his patients. With a team of dedicated doctors at his beck and call, House is insufferably arrogant but has the results to back it up.
Amazingly, there is a quite strong case which says House is actually a thin allusion to Sherlock Holmes. While viewers might enjoy keeping eyes and ears open for clues, there are some rough waters. Try to power through Season 5 and pretend Season Eight never happened. And remember: Everybody lies!
The Stargate Anthology
Duration: 10 Days 22 Hours
Star Wars might have the Force, and Star Trek might enjoy the benefits of the United Federation of Planets, but Stargate shows the very real struggle of trying to establish those realities. When humanity uncovers a mythical device that connects to others across the galaxy, they set in motion a series of unstoppable events.
Exploring the galaxy, the team find themselves thrown in the deep end from the first day. With plenty of aliens and technology to match the politics and infighting that defines humanity, this might just be the most realistic sci-fi series yet.
Although the Stargate franchise as a whole is worth watching, less enthusiastic watchers may want to skip the final series, Stargate Universe. Heavy with lore, it fails to reach a satisfying conclusion and has several gaping plot holes that they never explain. The final episode also lacks a concrete ending.
Contents: Stargate (1994), Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, Stargate: The Ark of Truth, Stargate: Continuum, Stargate Universe