You’ve seen Stranger Things on Netflix, right? Riiiiiiight?
Are you familiar with the Vampire Diaries spinoff, The Originals? (that’s the Season 1 cast)
I’m gonna suggest something that’s definitely dumb, but hear me out.
If you have Netflix, check out the first few seasons of Lucha Underground.
I know, I know…it’s wrestling. But it’s presented as a TV show, so it has plotlines and characters and taped segments. There are even supernatural aspects of it (one of the characters is a living dragon). And, as wrestling goes, it’s lucha so there are tons of flips and cartwheels and athletic moves to make your jaw drop.
And since it’s wrestling it has plenty of smoking hot men. I am a straight male, and can safely say these dudes are hot as hell (Johnny Mundo, Prince Puma…hello boys).
And, lastly, because it’s wrestling, it’s pure, unadulterated escapism.
Feel free to laugh at the suggestion…but I’m just sayin…
But of course. What sort of geek do you take me for?
Also, how are you? I haven’t heard from you in yonks.
How about a couple of (non-romance) book series? The Detective Agent Chen series by Liz Walker and the Marla Mason series by Tim Pratt?
Muffy Birnbaum- Barbarian Swordsperson. Total fun.
Ariel by Stephen R Boyett. One of my favourite books of all time.
The Sherlock Holmes Complete Collection is a fun read. Its mostly short stories so it doesn’t require a big time commitment. Its also fun to see how our language has evolved. Its a free download at The Play Store.
I think Lucifer, which is available on Hulu, fulfills all your criteria.
Another thing I downloaded eons ago and never read.
I’m starting with gaming, actually. Steam is having a summer sale. I’m thinking Samorostor Botanicula. Both right up my bizarre-creature-nature-loving alley.
That does look terribly fun.
Ignore the novels and read the ss’s. They are quick fun smart reads. Hope you have a fun summer. 
Check out The Hike by Drew Magary. Available in print, Kindle, or audiobook. Absurd but engaging adventure of an everyman who takes a short hike and finds himself in a bizarre world filled with strange, dangerous creatures, makes friends with a foul-mouthed talking crab, and has a crazy time following a path that he’s told will take him home. Frequently goes off the rails, but that’s a good thing. Shouldn’t really work but it does. Very entertaining.
The last time someone needed some escapism, I pulled out the wonderful The Emperor’s Edge, by Lindsay Buroker. That went over well, so I’ll bring it out again. SO MUCH FUN, a kickass female lead, and a smoking hot guy! And it’s the first in a series, which means more is available where that came from!
Less cheerful (the main character at the very beginning is suffering extreme depression), but really good and one of the best female leads in a really outstanding sf book: Martha Wells’s The Fall of Ile-Rien series, starting with The Wizard Hunters.
For romance, I like Courtney Milan. If you like historical romance, her Brothers Sinister series is really good, especially the fourth one. (She has a modern series which I don’t like nearly as well, but one of the titles stars a transwoman, which was nice to see.)
Recently, my escapism has been in reading cozy mysteries. I can’t really recommend you do that. 
Have you ever read anything by Mercedes Lackey? I adore her Valdemar series, (although there ARE instances of rape and sexual assault in some of them)
Oh my lawdy yes. Fans self. Possibly also Netflix and Amazon as well. Fun cop show (:rolleyes: aren’t they all cop shows these days) loosely based on the comic book. Fun and well equipped with smoking hot men.
The Peter Grant / Rivers of London books. CSI / Sherlock Holmes meets Harry Potter.
googles
Oh, my.
I told Sr. Weasel that Hulu would be worth it. It only took six years to talk him into it, stubborn bastard… Looks like he was just trying to snuff out the competition. 
[QUOTE=jsgoddess]
The last time someone needed some escapism, I pulled out the wonderful The Emperor’s Edge, by Lindsay Buroker.
[/QUOTE]
Aaand another book I own but haven’t read yet. Recommended to me by a friend.
You were the one who mentioned it in the “Rec a book with good female characters” thread, right? I stayed up to God-knows-what-hour last night reading it, and finished it this morning. I can’t wait to read book 2.
Anyway, some fun ones no one seems to have mentioned yet:
Duelist Trilogy, Julia Knight: swashbuckling + steampunk + wizards, kinda
The Greatcoat series, Sebastien De Castell: basically the Three Musketeers in fantasyland
WebMage series, Kelly McCullough: [del]Greeks and geeks[/del] mythology goes digital
Nth-ing The Magicians. I loved both the TV series and the books. But the books are kinda depressing (although still amazing), so for now I would stick to the TV series.
The **Elemental Masters **series by Mercedes Lackey is enjoyable and light, and are fairly stand-alone (each is based on a different fairy tale).
If you like 80s nostalgia, Ready Player One is fun.
I have not played it yet, but my brother and I are big Myst fans, and he just finished playing Cyan’s new game Obduction. He says it is the best game they have ever done, which coming from him is saying a lot. It is also on sale at Steam! I bought it, unfortunately my computer died about a week ago so I have to fix it before I can play.
*Shadowhunters *on Freeform network (formerly ABC Family) sounds right up your alley. It is about hybrid human/angels fighting werewolves and vampires and others - all of which are smoking hot men and women with very little “monster” makeup. My GF loves it, I presume for the smoking hot dudes.