# Help me pick my next Binge Watch **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 19, 2014, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058 "2014-03-19T03:40:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/41 "2014-03-19T20:46:24Z")
> [@Andiethewestie](#): > > May I suggest a little known series **Orphan Black**? It is riveting. There’s only 10 episodes to the first season and the second season starts April 19. I’ll second that, with the caveat that about a half dozen of my friends gave up on it by episode 3, saying that the story dragged and they didn’t care about the characters. Three of us who stuck with it found it got a lot more interesting starting with episode 4. Perhaps not coincidentally, the IMDB says that the first three episodes were scripted by the show’s creator Graeme Manson, and other writers scripted the episodes that followed. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/42 "2014-03-19T21:11:30Z")
Based on early returns, here’s my take-aways. (I’m going to be travelling for work alone all next week, so I’ll probably start Sunday) Next up: _House of Cards_ I’m liking that it’s relatively current and on-going. Feels like a spiritual successor to _The Wire_ season 4/5. Other contenders: _Six Feet Under, Battlestar Galactica_ As mentioned above, I watched and loved: _Mad Men, Breaking Bad, True Detective, The League_ I’ve watched early episodes of these shows, but they didn’t grab me at the time: _Sons of Anarchy, The Shield, Person of Interest, Oz, Walking Dead_. I may go back and give them another try, binge watch style, but new stuff probably gets first preference unless you convince me that I owe it to myself to try again. I probably won’t watch a show that was prematurely canceled, again unless it’s truly must-see. _Firefly_ was totally worth the trip, thus far _Deadwood_ hasn’t earned that perception yet. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/43 "2014-03-19T21:37:29Z")
Saving Grace Flash Forward New Amsterdam Journeyman Buffy the Vampire Slayer (stop after season 3) Dollhouse Prime Suspect Haven’t seen Breaking Bad. Is it any good? ---
**Author:** ![Moonlitherial](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4bbf92/32.png) [@Moonlitherial](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonlitherial)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/44 "2014-03-19T21:42:53Z")
Things to add to your new list: Another vote for - Orange is the new black - first season was very good, second season starting soon. A new one for the list - [Lost Girl](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Girl#Introduction)- Canadian series, 4 seasons have aired, season 5 up this fall. I’ll add a third vote - Life Person of Interest got much better as it progressed. It’s moved from meh to must watch for us. Six Feet Under was also very good and gritty. ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/45 "2014-03-19T21:45:18Z")
I’d recommend _The Shield_, especially since you liked _Breaking Bad_. Very similar arc, though even more intense than BB, IMO. Also second _Orphan Black_ and _Veronica Mars_. And definitely _Deadwood_ (not sure from your OP why you decided to exclude that one). ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/46 "2014-03-19T21:52:45Z")
> [@Aghris](#): > > > [@Skammer](#): > > > > For all- what about _The Good Wife_? It seems to get a lot of buzz. Or is it too soap opera-y? > > I absolutely love _The Good Wife_ and in fact logged in here to suggest it. It is extremely well written, and I think all the court cases are very topical to current events (there are episodes where a Google expy is brought to court, legal ramifications of NSA wire taps, etc.) > The soap opera-ness is toned down a lot, and only serve as a background for the lawsuits. > > I highly recommend it, but some friends that I recommended it to said they had trouble getting into it. I came late to The Good Wife, and I think I still haven’t seen the earliest episodes. But it’s great. I was put off by the idea that it was a domestic drama about a cheated-upon politician’s wife, but it’s so much more than that. And it has a great cast. It’s mostly episodic, but there are some storylines that take a season or two to play out. ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/47 "2014-03-19T21:56:52Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > I’ve watched early episodes of these shows, but they didn’t grab me at the time… Person of Interest Starting with the final episode of season 1, and especially in the current season 3, the show has been getting deeper into science fiction territory, as the Machine becomes more self-aware–and self-motivated. > [@Omniscient](#): > > I probably won’t watch a show that was prematurely canceled, again unless it’s truly must-see. Then I’d suggest crossing off– > [@Ethilrist](#): > > Flash Forward > New Amsterdam > Journeyman –and possibly– > [@Ethilrist](#): > > Dollhouse –although Joss Whedon did a marvelous job of bringing everything to a conclusion rather than leaving us hanging. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/48 "2014-03-19T22:00:32Z")
> [@Andiethewestie](#): > > My other favorite series is **Shameless** about a poor dysfunctional family in Chicago. William H Macy, Joan Cusack and Emmy Rossum are stand outs. And the Showtime version of Shameless is good, but I absolutely loved the original UK program. Oddly for a UK program, it was long-lived, with eleven seasons/series of 7-22 episodes each. There were a lot of cast changes, though, over that time. Someone else recommended the UK original program Being Human, which was great. (Tag line (paraphrased): A vampire, a werewolf and a ghost share a house and try to live like normal people.) There is a US version, which is currently airing. Another UK program I liked was Skins, which was about teenagers at a sixth-form college (think high school, more or less). There were seven series/seasons; the first two focused on one group of kids, and then the cast changed entirely for the next two and the two after that. I think the seventh series/season features one or two kids from each of the generations. ---
**Author:** ![that\_darn\_cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/59ef9b/32.png) [@that\_darn\_cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/that_darn_cat)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/49 "2014-03-19T22:06:04Z")
Beware that Flash Forward ends after a single season and nothing is resolved, very disapointing because it was promising. It’s based on a novel with the same name, but the plot is very different. ---
**Author:** ![tesseract](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@tesseract](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tesseract)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/50 "2014-03-19T22:17:51Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > It’s consistently amazing. If you didn’t like the first two seasons, your opinion is unlikely to change. Jesse gets less dumb once he mostly sobers up, but the first 2 seasons are great in spite of him. The rest of the series is more of the same with higher stakes. Unless the show is just not your thing, I think the problem you are having and are going to have is high expectations. No show could possibly live up to how people talk about Breaking Bad. I also loved it. But then again, I started watching it without any expectations. Try to adjust and watch it with that in mind. If that is possible. Expectations is key. Yes, it’s a great show. But because it’s so loved and so hyped, it may be hard for it to live up to that. ---
**Author:** ![pricciar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@pricciar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pricciar)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/51 "2014-03-19T22:19:29Z")
Justified This is up there with Jackie Brown as the best on screen depiction of Elmore Leonard. His expertise at creating memorable characters with interesting dialog is not lessened by the change in formats. Really fun show with fantastic acting, both the main cast and some guest stars. Plus, it’s current. It’s last season will be next year. Arrow You might laugh and say you’re not a teenage girl. But, it’s a well done comic book TV show. They took a comic book character that I didn’t care that much about it and made a show that I really enjoyed watching. Unfortunately, I watched the first season on Netflix recently, so I can’t say if the quality has remained so high for the second season. I’d advise against Scandal. I don’t think it is bad, but it’s not especially meaty. Perhaps it changes after the first season, but it seemed like a procedural with lawyers instead of cops to me. I second these: Veronica Mars House of Cards Orange is the New Black The Good Wife ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/52 "2014-03-20T00:31:35Z")
I recently finished Six Feet Under and would put it in my personal top tier, though the recommendation would have these caveats: 1. It’s basically a well executed soap opera sprinkled with philosophy. 2. What little humor exists is gallows or absurdist. 3. Takes place in a mortuary, some people are grossed out by the embalming and restoration scenes. I didn’t think this was too bad overall, but there are a couple stomach churning ones. 4. There’s a lot of intimacy between gay men and old people. ---
**Author:** ![Omniscient](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omniscient/32/3290_2.png) [@Omniscient](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omniscient)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/53 "2014-03-20T00:42:45Z")
> [@woodstockbirdybird](#): > > I’d recommend _The Shield_, especially since you liked _Breaking Bad_. Very similar arc, though even more intense than BB, IMO. > > Also second _Orphan Black_ and _Veronica Mars_. And definitely _Deadwood_ (not sure from your OP why you decided to exclude that one). I excluded _Deadwood_ primarily because I watched the first few episodes back in the day and wasn’t particularly engrossed by it. It fits the mold of what I should like, basically any HBO drama, but the frustration people have over it’s early ending is pretty discouraging for a newb. That said, I didn’t regret _Firefly_ so we’ll see. I go back and forth on _The Shield_. People love it and it’s basically _The Wire_ crossed with _Breaking Bad_, so yay, but after watching the first couple episodes I found that the main actor kind of annoyed me. 5’4" “tough guys” are tough for me to swallow. I’ll probably give it another chance at some point. > [@that\_darn\_cat](#): > > Beware that Flash Forward ends after a single season and nothing is resolved, very disapointing because it was promising. It’s based on a novel with the same name, but the plot is very different. Watched it in the post-_Lost_ whirlwind. Started really strong and tailed off towards the end, found that I wasn’t very disappointed with it was canceled. ---
**Author:** ![pricciar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@pricciar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pricciar)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/54 "2014-03-20T03:58:00Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > I go back and forth on _The Shield_. People love it and it’s basically _The Wire_ crossed with _Breaking Bad_, so yay, but after watching the first couple episodes I found that the main actor kind of annoyed me. 5’4" “tough guys” are tough for me to swallow. I’ll probably give it another chance at some point. Come on! Clearly, Michael Chiklis proved his tough guy chops after the many episodes of cracking skulls as The Commish. ---
**Author:** ![Washoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ecae2f/32.png) [@Washoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Washoe)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/55 "2014-03-20T04:37:56Z")
I’m sure the answer to this is a no-brainer, but have you ever seen _Weeds_? ---
**Author:** ![tesseract](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@tesseract](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tesseract)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/56 "2014-03-20T04:49:00Z")
Did anyone say Damages yet? I liked it at first, but I get annoyed by people being evil backstabbers all the time, so it got old for me. For people who can handle that, I think it’s well-done, if extremely unrealistic. ---
**Author:** ![Garula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ea666f/32.png) [@Garula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garula)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/57 "2014-03-20T04:57:33Z")
Another vote for **Breaking Bad**. It really does deserve the accolades. I would also throw another vote in for **Orphan Black**. It’s not perfect, but it’s quite engaging. Just know that it gets weirder than you might expect from the first couple episodes. **Buffy the Vampire Slayer** is a classic, but if it’s not your cup of tea no worries. If you’re willing to consider it, I would suggesting finding and watching the fourth season episode “Hush”. If you don’t enjoy that episode the series isn’t for you. **Battlestar Galactica** is a tricky one. There is some really, really fantastic TV in there. BUT, I am of the ending is truly, truly awful camp. It’s clear Ron Moore did not plan out nearly as much of the series as he claimed, and the answers to the mysteries are not satisfying at all. If you can put that aside, though, a lot of the character work is really fantastic and enthralling. \*\*Sherlock \*\*is a no brainer. It’s not perfect, I think there are frustratingly many plot holes, but the two leads are great and it has a flashy and imaginative style. The middle episodes of the first two seasons are weak, but the show is just consistently entertaining even when making mistakes. To throw something else out there, I just binged watched and caught up on **Arrow** , which despite being full of CW style melodrama and groan inducingly bad TV science I found better than it has any right to be. Another option might be **Fringe**. I seem to recall it was pretty popular on this board, sort of an X-Files successor. **Orange is the New Black** is another recent good one. When choosing a new TV show to watch, I like to go to the Onion AVClub and check the episode reviews. I don’t put a lot of stock in exactly what grade each episode gets, but I find it helps a lot to compare the grades of the first few episodes to the rest, so I have an idea of how long the show takes to reach its potential. Seeing that for example episodes 6 & 7 represent the show at it’s best gives me a lot more incentive to watch up to that point than vague assertions that it “starts slow, but give it time.” ---
**Author:** ![woodstockbirdybird](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/woodstockbirdybird/32/7905_2.png) [@woodstockbirdybird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woodstockbirdybird)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/58 "2014-03-20T05:08:44Z")
> [@Omniscient](#): > > I go back and forth on _The Shield_. People love it and it’s basically _The Wire_ crossed with _Breaking Bad_, so yay, but after watching the first couple episodes I found that the main actor kind of annoyed me. 5’4" “tough guys” are tough for me to swallow. I’ll probably give it another chance at some point. I felt the same way at first, but from season 3 on I was hooked anyway. ---
**Author:** ![2sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/2/e47774/32.png) [@2sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2sense)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/59 "2014-03-20T08:30:31Z")
Another vote for **Orphan Black**. It starts slow but becomes more interesting. I also like **Luther** from BBC. In fact, John Luther and his psycho girlfriend would be just the people to investigate the “orphans”. I’m watching Boardwalk Empire right now and it’s not bad. ---
**Author:** ![RobDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f07891/32.png) [@RobDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobDog)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058/60 "2014-03-20T08:41:16Z")
I’ve just suggested this in another thread, so I feel like I should be getting a commision or something. See if you can get hold of the original Swedish version of The Killing. There are three seasons anf they’re totally compelling. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-pick-my-next-binge-watch/684058.md?page=4)