Binge-watching for Beginners

The best box-sets/seasons/series ever

Big Love - Binge-watching value 8/10

On paper, as they say, this shouldn't be any good. In fact it should even be a little tacky. A businessman with 3 wives. They are Mormons living "The Principle" or polygamy, as we know it better. I've seen the first 3 seasons and these are the best of the 5, I've read.

The second season is a peak for me and I had to ration myself to an episode a night to avoid binge-watching. It is good because the acting is so good and dead-pan and the story line is the DVD equivalent of a page-turner and if all that wasn't enough it has Chloë Sevigny.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000S6UZM4?ref_=pd_ys_iyr23

The Americans - Binge-watching value 8/10

 

Russian agents living in deep cover in the USA. It inverts all your instincts about rooting for the good guys. Hooray, the KGB did it; they killed the FBI agent. Wait. What am I saying?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CUJNP92?ref_=pd_ys_iyr8 

Weeds - Binge-watching value 7/10

I saw the first 3 seasons, the best by reputation. Hockey mum selling marijuana. The 3rd season is the best - a kind of poor man's Breaking Bad. The plot gets better as it gets darker.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B000Z63YWA?ref_=pd_ys_iyr22

Masters of Sex - Binge-watching value 8/10

Michael Sheen becomes a convincing sexologist. It's a slow-burning Mad Men style plot lovingly referencing 1950s mores.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00HVAK6YW?ref_=pd_ys_iyr26

Breaking Bad - Binge-watching value 10/10

If classical music has the great 3 of Bach, Beethoven and Mozart then this is the telly equivalent as it is one of the big three (the other two will be reviewed further down.) The DVD cover is from the 4th season, for me the best. If you haven't seen this yet, you're very, very lucky because you've got it all to come.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007TH0ZO8?ref_=pd_ys_iyr36

Mad Men - Binge-watching value 9/10

A slick and stylish deconstruction of the consumerist world of the 1950s and 60s.

I really hate the description I've just written but refuse to slay it.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0014XVTIY?keywords=Mad%20men&qid=1441203900&ref_=sr_1_5&sr=8-5

More later