BEST OF BINGES
Extra daylight hours are overrated. Who wants to sweat on an overcrowded patio or suffocate in the heat of a neighbourhood stroll when you can burrow deep into your couch – lights dimmed low, wine in hand, AC blasting – and binge your way through the very best that Peak TV has to offer? Forget the usual suspects – Mad Men, Lost, Breaking Bad, The Wire. If you have any selfrespect, you’ve seen these already. This is not the summer you sit through the adventures of the smoke monster or discover that the concept of love was created by an alcoholic ad man. This is the season you accept Netflix asking you if you’re still watching as a point of pride, while your chants turn from, “Next! Episode!” to “One! More! Season!”
These are the 10 most binge-worthy shows with which to while away your summer months:
10. CARNIVALE
There is nothing HBO does better than camp, and True Blood can certainly thank the seemingly drug-induced Carnivale before it for that. Set in the Dust Bowl, Carnivale follows Ben Hawkins when he runs away to join a mysterious circus after his mother’s death. There’s magic, sex, religion, mythology and monsters – what more do you need?
9. LES REVENANTS
Les Revenants follows what happens after a swarm of the recently deceased suddenly return from the dead with nary a scratch on them – except that they have no idea they’re sorta, kinda zombies and are shocked to learn their families have moved on without them. Recently adapted for American television (and quickly cancelled), be sure to catch the French original for a more nuanced story (and far superior casting); subtitles won’t kill you.
8. CASUAL
It’s hard to believe Michaela Watkins has never had a show of her own – until now. But Jason Reitman’s Hulu series allows her to channel all of her endearing neuroses into this dramedy about a woman living with her brother and daughter, all dysfunctional and desperately looking to make a connection in the world outside their own protective little oyster. It’s achingly familiar and will make you want to get drunk with your siblings and discuss all the ways your parents ruined your lives.
7. JUSTIFIED
If Timothy Olyphant isn’t already an actor you think about on the daily, I recommend a heavy dose of Justified. The series follows his suave detective Raylan Givens as he roughly romances and solves crime through his southern hometown. Less of a procedural and ever so slightly a throwback, it’s something considerably different. Based on the Elmore Leonard novels, you’ll get six seasons of delicious guest stars and, oh yeah, Timothy Olyphant.
6. THE KILLING
Mireille Enos is someone you should know. As one of those rare television
treasures who is served so well by the material she brings to the screen, it’s hard to imagine she’ll ever have a better role than this. Playing a detective obsessed with solving the case of a missing child, she is as ravaged and dreary as the Seattle town she scavenges with her almost-as-miserable partner. With four seasons, it gets better as it goes.
5. RECTIFY
Often blasted for having a slow-asmolasses pace, Rectify is a sweepingly beautiful gem simply for taking its time to tell the story of a man who has served 18 years in prison for a brutal crime he may or may not have committed. Returning to his family and small town, everything feels different. Rectify makes for a gentle, careful portrait of what it means to return to a life you lost and now barely recognize.
4. INSECURE
With only one season behind it and its second set to premiere in July, Insecure is the breath of fresh air you wanna take in right now. Created by, starring and adapted from Issa Rae’s The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl web series, Insecure has had one of the most electric television debuts in recent years. With an incomparable soundtrack and visual aesthetic, it offers an authentic and hilarious read on love and female friendship, and better yet: things don’t always turn out in favour of our complicated heroine.
3. BROADCHURCH
On television and this list alone, you will find countless series dedicated to finding missing and/or murdered children. It’s kinda the new cool thing on TV. But in Broadchurch, it’s accomplished from the perspective of not only two troubled detectives but the family that is tearing apart amidst their search. Excruciatingly emotional, Broadchurch will ensure you never let your child out of your sight again (well, not for too long).
2. CATASTROPHE
The freshest sitcom currently on the air, this BBC series is created by and stars the hilarious Sharon Horgan and Rob Delaney as a pair who end up with child after a one night stand and decide to stick together and see what happens. Including one of Carrie Fisher’s last appearances (as Delaney’s mother), the cast is off the beaten path and still manages to feel acutely raw and real.
1. THE LEFTOVERS
Created by Lost co-writer Damon Lindelof and based on the novel by Tom Perrotta, you can scratch your existential itch and desperate urge to solve the puzzle of humanity with The Leftovers, having recently wrapped its too short three-season run on HBO. Following a family ravaged by guilt and grief after two per cent of the world’s population mysteriously vanishes from the earth, this is a show that will have you not only questioning life and love, but realizing it feels damn good to cry sometimes.