Netflix is a wonderful company that provides on demand, streaming shows right to your computer screen (or your TV if you have an HDMI cord or Apple TV), the rise of which has changed the landscape of watching television. Series no longer need to provide cliffhangers to coerce viewers into tuning in week after week.
Instead with Netflix, we can binge watch straight into the next episode. For the very reasonable $8.99 a month, subscribers have lots of fantastic shows and movies right at their fingertips.
For us New Yorkers, Netflix probably means lots of Saturdays, Sundays, and weekday evenings snuggled inside to escape the NYC winter vortex, continuously pressing play on our favorite series.
Looking for the best shows to binge watch on Netflix this winter in NYC? If you haven't seen the following shows, you need to check them out.
1. Friends
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Yes, that's right, Friends is now available on Netflix. Feeling those winter blues? Want to unwind with some laughs and good feelings before bed? You should visit with some of your most loveable, happy characters on the face of the earth.
Why not watch Joey and Chandler chase a chicken around their apartment? Why not watch Monica fret over every piece of dust? The Friends characters want to hang out with you, too. Oh, Janice's laughter is echoing throughout New York City? That's not your problem, it's Chandler's, and watching him deal with it is hella entertaining.
[anad]
2. Mixology
I devoured this show in two days. It's about ten characters who are all at a bar in Manhattan, and trust me, this bar is soooo Manhattan. Everyone's in love, lonely, attractive and completely caught up by the nightlife. There are three guys: Bruce, Tom, and Cal, and they're at the bar because cute, vulnerable Tom just got left by his fiancée. There are other characters too, like other classic tropes you'd find out at any Manhattan bar: Casey, the cute bartender; Maya, bitchy, ruthless, and gorgeous (but secretly sweet); and Jessica, a hot single mom who's here from New Jersey.
The most addicting part of this show is that it takes place throughout the course of a single evening, and I couldn't stop pressing play to find out what who would make out with whom, who'd have their heart broken, who'd go home with their life changed or with everything staying the same. This is the perfect show to binge watch for a weekend in NYC.
3. Louie
Talk about an antidote for the winter blues, seasons 1-3 of Louie are on Netflix, and if you haven't seen them you need to. They're phenomenal. Louie is silly, but smart, affable and loving. He's trying hard to raise his two daughters in NYC while f**king up a lot in ways that are all genuine, endearing, and absurd. They'll all make you laugh out loud. You think your problems are bad? Louie was on the way to a date with a hot, younger girl on the Highline when he sees someone get shoved under a bus, and watches the bus run over the guy's head.
Louie is smart yet a little sad, hilarious yet bursting at the seams with existential undertones that will leave you feeling understood, satisfied, entertained, and in love with Louie (yeah, my sister had a dream about him last night). The best part is you get to laugh, learn, and feel all at once.
4. New Girl
New Girl is a happy, fun show about a group of adult roommates melding into a family. They have a blast doing it and you'll get so pulled in, you won't be able to stop watching. The characters on this show find a way to make everything fun - even a camping trip with no food, even the end of a relationship you thought would last forever.
Nick finds a way to make everything that might be depressing or stressful into a joke that'll have you gasping for air from hilarity. Jess is caring, empathetic and silly, and never takes anything too seriously (except dessert.) Schmidt DEFINITELY does take everything too seriously, but it's an integral aspect of his charm: he does it in a way that's absurdly entertaining. This show is an instant cheerer-upper and a must-see. Talk to you in twelve hours after you watched the whole first season.
5. Grey's Anatomy
Everything I know about the human body, I learned on Grey's Anatomy. Is that a true statement? I'm not sure, but I do know that Shonda Rhimes nailed it on this one - taking the time to come up with genuine, explanatory backstories for each character that are teased out little by little through the seasons, carefully calculated for that eureka moment when you finally realize why a character does something or is a certain way. This show is an interconnected network of doctors who think with their hearts and feel everything fully, and hurl their viewers into the insane life of surgeons.
You'll definitely learn a lot about your own body by watching this show, and also about what goes on behind-the-scenes in operating rooms. The characters all hook up with each other, and care about each other and their patients, and have true and deep friendships that cross every border - including life and death.
This show will certainly get your blood pumping, as the characters you've fallen deeply, insanely in love with will often have to face their own mortality - and you'll often be sobbing, laughing, and overcome with joy while watching on the couch.
6. Law and Order
Wanna get your blood pumping? Is it too cold for you to go outside and experience your own adventure? Then Law and Order, Special Victims Unit is perfect, and the best part is that it takes place right here in NYC.
My sister is obsessed with this show, and so are lots of other people - it garners a sort of cult following that you can be a part of if you start watching this show every day, if you memorize the speech on the show's opening credits, and can recite it while you jump up in down in anticipation for your favorite show.
The most satisfying part is that (realistically or not) they almost always solve every crime, so retribution is plentiful. Even though we miss Detective Stabler terribly, Amaro is not so bad to look at.
,7. Orange is the New Black
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To make matters worse (or ridiculously entertaining, depending whose perspective we're talking about here) Piper's ex girlfriend Alex wound up in the same prison as Piper. Drama!
This show is most fascinating when it shape-shifts from the present tense and hurls us into each incarcerated woman's backstory.
We get to see each woman in her natural environment, preparing to commit the crime we know will land her in prison.
Once you get into this show, seeing each episode will be urgent, so you honestly shouldn't start unless you have at least a day to kill. Are you into lesbian undertones? This show has them, but I promise it also has heterosexual drama.
[anad]
8. The L Word
Do you like breaking rules, or watching shows about women who do? Are you interested in watching a group of women follow their internal justice system over those around them? Have you ever been turned on by lesbian sex? The L Word is a groundbreaking show about smart, savvy, intelligent women who fall in love and live their lives with flair.
If you're gay and sick of watching men and women make out in every show, or you're not gay but still interested in a show with a riveting, socially aware plot, you should check out The L Word. It takes place in LA, not NYC, but it's still so fantastic, breathtaking and brilliant, you'll definitely get addicted. I was honestly relieved once I finished the sixth season, because I could actually start making plans again rather than spending my whole life on the couch crying over The L Word.
9. The Office
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Watch Jim and Pam fall in love, watch Andy Bernard try and take over, watch Dwight come up with his next absurd, yet surprisingly brilliant scheme. This show is a parody of office life and politics, and can be supremely entertaining if you want to see some of the ridiculous things that happen in office life amplified and made hilarious.
If you're looking for a day of laughing so hard you get stomach cramps, The Office is the perfect show to binge watch on a Sunday afternoon.
10. Parenthood
I can never watch an episode of Parenthood without crying, probably because it's full of emotional pathos. Parenthood always manages to warm and stab my heart simultaneously. This show gets to the core of what really matters, in every episode, and that's what makes it so good.
The show's subtext is phenomenal - that every obstacle or mistake can result in a new life lesson, no matter how old you are or what you've already been through. This includes Zeke and Millie, the parents of Adam, Crosby, Sarah, and Julia - who became adults and had their own children. While Adam, Crosby, Sarah and Julia gracefully balance learning their own life lessons while teaching them to their kids, Drew, Sydney, Max, Haddie, Jabbar and Amber (Zeke and Millie's grandchildren) navigate becoming adults, having their hearts broken and finding love. The thing that continually resonates through every interaction is how much love surrounds all these characters, and that no matter how badly they mess up, there will always be family to catch them.
11. Californication
Californication is a show with plentiful nudity, crazy times, and characters who aren't too concerned with consequences. It also has lots and lots of partying. It's similar to Entourage, a show that also features lots of sex, drugs, and relaxed LA stars. The difference is that Californication has pathos: it has intelligence, emotion, and will actually make you feel something amidst ridiculously entertaining debauchery.
It follows the life of successful novelist Hank Moody who's been in love with the same woman, Karen, for twenty years. They have a daughter together named Becca, and Hank loves Becca more than anyone else. The problem is that Hank can never stop sleeping with the parade of women who throw themselves at his feet.
From his stripper student to the sixteen-year-old daughter of Karen's new husband, Hank can't seem to keep it in his pants long enough to convince Karen he's desperately in love with her and always will be, and to provide Becca with the reliable father figure she needs. Hank's agent, Charlie Runkle, has a similar can't-keep-it-in-his-pants problem, like for instance he got fired for masturbating at his desk. Runkle is the main reason Californication remains light even though it often handles dark, heavy content that will definitely have you watching episode after episode.
A weekend that consists solely of watching Californication is definitely a good weekend.
12. Friday Night Lights
Did you like high school? Did you play sports, and for those few years experience the exhilaration of the limelight cast on you? In Friday Night Lights the high school football players bathe in the light of fame only high school athletes know about.
Football matters at Dillon High School. It matters a lot, because everyone in Dillon Texas packs into the bleachers on Friday nights to see the battles between high schools wage. The football games affect the general attitude, mood, and consciousness of the entire town. This show isn't just about football either. It's a pretty gorgeous coming of age tale, which captures a stunning, accurate portrayal of what it's like to grow up in high school.
Friday Night Lights characters do everything from trying to make ends meet, going to their first party, having their first kiss, all the while having an entire town rely on them to score touchdowns. This might be a great show to watch with someone ... perhaps a boyfriend who only likes watching football? That way, you can be riveted by the fascinating, engaging plot while he worries about all the technical aspects of football, which matter very
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