Whether you just finished Wild Wild Country or Parks and Rec, we’ve got a recommendation for your next binge watch
If you’re dreading the rainy days of spring, then do we have good news for you: we’ve rounded up some of our favorite TV shows for you to binge while you wait for the May flowers start to bloom. Whether you’re a history buff, a comedy lover or a crime show junkie, we’ve got some TV recommendations tailor-made to follow up whatever show you just finished.
Loved The Queen’s Gambit? Watch The Great (Hulu)
On the surface these two shows might seem completely different, but they share some fundamental core elements — both follow young, brilliant women absolutely dominating in roles that women have historically been shut out of. The Great stars Elle Fanning in an over-the-top, fictionalized and comedic “history” of Catherine the Great as she plans to seize her husband’s throne in 18th-century Russia. The show is beautiful to watch (think colorful costumes and irresistible castle grounds), but it’s also hilarious, sexy — and even a bit wild. You’ll find yourself on the edge of your seat, cheering for Catherine as she outsmarts her barbaric and moronic husband, King Peter III (played by Nicholas Hoult) at every turn.
Loved You? Watch Imposters (Bravo, Netflix)
When You first appeared on Netflix after originally appearing on Lifetime, the response was absolutely explosive. People went nuts for Joe Goldberg (played by Penn Badgley), the handsome, romantic bookstore owner who also happened to be a stalker and murderer. Well, Joe Golberg lovers, meet Maddie. She is the thief and con artist who you can’t help but love in the Bravo series Imposters, now available on Netflix. Imposters follows Maddie as she marries a string of men and then ghosts them, stealing their money and leaving them brokenhearted and vengeful. Like You, Imposters is soapy, dramatic, over the top… the perfect recipe for a weekend binge watch.
Loved Wild Wild Country? Watch Heaven’s Gate: The Cult of Cults (HBO)
As SNL joked the other weekend… there’s nothing wrong with becoming totally intrigued by a show about cults. Wild Wild Country had everything: a charismatic leader with Rolls Royces for days, a hoard of beautiful and devoted followers who wore matching outfits, and a powerfully jealous and possibly murderous second-in-command who gave the world the phrase “tough titties.” While the members of Heaven’s Gate are slightly less charismatic (and dramatic) than those of Wild Wild Country, you’ll still be stunned as you learn about everything that led up to the cult’s final act.
Loved Parks and Recreation? Watch Ted Lasso (Apple TV+)
The characters are among the first reasons fans point to for loving Parks and Recreation. In a TV landscape full of comedies starring cringey, awful characters you can’t help but laugh at, Parks and Rec created a world filled with honest, quirky, salt-of-the earth folks who happened to find themselves in hilarious situations. We thought it was lightning in a bottle, until Schitt’s Creek came along. Then just as the final season of that came to a close, the TV gods gifted us with another hilarious and fundamentally good character to fall in love with: Ted Lasso. The show named for its title character (portrayed by Jason Sudeikis) follows a second-string American football coach who travels to England to coach a professional soccer team, despite knowing nothing about the game. In Ted Lasso, Jason Sudeikis has managed to create one of the most original, adorable and lovable characters in recent TV history. And that is certainly something to cheer for.
Loved True Detective? Watch The Sinner (USA Network, Netflix)
Is there anything worse than falling in love with an anthology series? You spend so much time getting to know the characters and the story, only to have them leave you after just one season. Therein lies the brilliance of True Detective. Even though each season follows a new set of characters and a new crime, the feel of the show is the same (and there’s even a tiny bit of overlap in the seasons, if you know where to look). Except for the fact that Detective Harry Ambrose (played by Bill Pullman) appears throughout the series, each of The Sinner’s three seasons feel like they could be part of the True Detective trilogy. They start with seemingly normal people committing big, crazy crimes that seem totally out of character, and as the season progresses the audience slowly learns the mystery of what drove these people to the brink. Season three, which stars Matt Bomer as a high school teacher with a sketchy past, just recently dropped on Netflix.
Loved Mindhunter? Watch The Investigation (HBO)
Although Mindhunter is fictional, it is based off of the criminal profiling work done by former FBI agent John E. Douglas, and the very real serial killers that he interviewed. Similarly, The Investigation follows a very real and recent high-profile case out of Denmark: the 2017 death of Swedish journalist Kim Wall, who went missing and was later found dismembered after boarding a homemade submarine made by Danish entrepreneur Peter Madsen. The scripted series, which is in Danish with English subtitles, follows the frustrating lengths that the Danish police must go through to find Wall’s body and try to prove Madsden’s guilt in her death.
Written by Emily Pinto.
