What to do with those last golden weeks of summer?
Sure, we could go back-to-school shopping — that “Star Wars” Trapper Keeper is a want — but it’s just so much hassle. We’ll do it later. Instead, why not binge some quality TV you may have missed along the way? Here’s a list of favorites.
Consider it your back-to-school binge:
Grey’s Anatomy
The first of the epic “Shondaland” series, “Grey’s Anatomy,” is an absolute classic. The soap opera follows the life of Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo), the daughter of a talented surgeon who started at Seattle Grace Hospital as an intern. Grey creates a life for herself with people inside the walls of the hospital giving her a semblance of the family that she never really had.
Now heading into its 12th season, fans of “Grey’s” have even more to look forward to as they see how Dr. Grey showcases her grit without her “person” and husband by her side.
(Watch on ABC app, Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, iTunes, Google Play)
Orange is the New Black
Jenji Kohan’s original series for Netflix is based on Piper Kerman’s memoir of the same name. Set in a women’s correctional institution, the series tackles issues of privilege, the cycle of poverty, race relations, LGBT rights and abuse of power while frequently reaching into characters’ pasts to examine what circumstances led them to prison. Despite these weighty issues, “OITNB” manages an excellent mix of poignancy and humor, and the characters — both prisoners and guards — can be sympathetic and relatable.
(Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, Google Play)
Doctor Who
BBC’s reboot of its original sci-fi adventure series comes with the same quirky Doctor we’ve come to know and love over the past 50 years but with much better special effects. The show’s main character, The Doctor, travels through space and time — which he explains is not linear, but rather “wibbly wobbly timey wimey … stuff” — with his human companion to foil the plots of nefarious creatures.
Thanks to his ability to regenerate, The Doctor is portrayed by an ever-changing list of talented actors including David Tennant, Peter Capaldi and Matt Smith.
(Netflix, BBC online, Amazon, Doctor Who, iTunes, Google Play)
Empire
Let’s be honest, here: Anything Lee Daniels creates is bound to be worth watching. But if you mix in the fabulous Taraji P. Henson and the iconic Terrence Howard as the show’s two main leads, you have the ingredients for dramatic genius.
The story starts with Lucious Lyon (Howard) running his music business with his two youngest children, Jamaal and Hakeem, working as the leads in his music company, Empire, and his eldest son, Andre, helping his father with the everyday operations of the company.
The story is only further complicated when Lucious’ ex-wife, Cookie (Henson), is released from prison after serving 17 years for selling drugs to fund her husband’s music industry dreams and then demands half of the company’s profits. “Empire” has been lauded for its willingness to go for the crazy.
(Hulu, Fox Now app, Amazon, Hulu, iTunes, Google Play)
How I Met Your Mother
Five friends navigate work, adult responsibility and the trials and tribulations of love all while simultaneously spending unreasonable amounts of time in MacLaren’s Pub. Oh, and it takes place in New York.
The show is portrayed as one giant flashback: Ted Mosby’s story, as it were, involves years’ worth of antics with Marshall (Jason Segel) and Lily (Alyson Hannigan), the “meant to be” couple with whom he’s been friends since college; Barney (Neil Patrick Harris), the womanizer who loves a good suit; and Robin (Cobie Smulders), the no-nonsense woman with whom Ted (Josh Radnor) would appear to fall hopelessly in love.
(Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, iTunes, Google Play)
The IT Crowd
This four-season British show stars Katherine Parkinson as Jen, a social butterfly who is condemned to the basement IT office after claiming in an interview she is “great with computers.” There she meets Roy (Chris O’Dowd), a laid-back and lazy IT worker from Ireland, and Maurice (Richard Ayoade), Roy’s socially inept counterpart. The three must learn to work together as Jen agrees to help Roy and Moss out socially in exchange for their silence about her lack of computer skills.
This witty goofy show is the perfect length for a week of binge-watching, but the plot allows for watching a show here and there without pesky cliffhanger endings.
(Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, iTunes)
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt” tells the story of Kimmy’s (Ellie Kemper) efforts to create a life for herself in New York City after spending several years of her life trapped in a bunker with a crazed “preacher” who told her and the other three women the world had sustained an apocalypse.
Yet, it’s a comedy: With an infectiously positive attitude, Kimmy takes on the world. It’s a perfect Netflix binge, one to rival ABC’s “Modern Family.”
(Netflix)
The Walking Dead
After being shot on the job, Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) wakes from a coma to find the hospital — and his town — abandoned and his wife and child missing. It doesn’t take long for him to realize he has awakened in the middle of a zombie apocalypse — though they are never actually referred to as zombies in the show. Over the next several seasons, the once-benevolent sheriff’s mission becomes to protect his family and friends, at all costs.
Even if you’re not typically into zombie shows, don’t be too quick to judge this book by its cover — or this show by its genre, as the case may be.
(Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, Google Play)
Daredevil
For those new to the comic scene, “Daredevil” follows Hell’s Kitchen attorney Matthew Murdock (Charlie Cox), blinded as a child by toxic chemicals. He dons an eye-covering mask at night and uses his heightened senses to fight crime as the Daredevil.
Murdock’s vigilantism is juxtaposed with the rise of Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), aka The Kingpin, a rich, calculating, behind-the-scenes crime lord who claims to want to make Hell’s Kitchen a better place, but whose techniques are very different from Murdock’s.
(Netflix)
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