It’s Friday night. Even though you told your friends you were sick and couldn’t hang out, that’s definitely not the case. Or maybe it is. So, what to do with your time? Sure, you could start reading Dom Casmurro for English or doing that SR2QR for chem, but why bother? Instead, the thought of a familiar black-and-white logo and glowing red background is drawing you closer to your laptop. You open up Netflix and start browsing. The question is no longer of what to do with your time, but what TV show to waste it on.
Gossip Girl
Within the span of one episode, the show introduces Manhattan’s elite — a group of cunning teenagers with a penchant for drama. Throughout six seasons, the show’s characters stumble in and out of love and multiple mysteries, all narrated by the enigmatic Gossip Girl. Although the show begins to seem overly dramatic and becomes hard to watch at around season four, a good amount of suspense and eye candy (I’m looking at you, Chuck Bass) leaves “Gossip Girl” as one of the top choices to waste your bandwidth on.
Freaks and Geeks
Although nostalgia for the 90s is utterly rampant among teenagers today, Judd Apatow’s (“Knocked Up,” “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” and pretty much every Seth Rogen movie) “Freaks and Geeks” gives plenty of reasons to be enamored with the 80s. Throughout the entirety of a single season, the show chronicles the underbelly of high school cliques — the freaks and the geeks. If anything, the kick-ass characters (Kim Kelly in particular), great quotes (“I prefer to get high on life.”) and abundance of 80s references (“It’s John Bonham, man!”) are what make the show a cult classic.
Orange is the New Black
Perhaps the most raved-about Netflix Original Series, “Orange is the New Black” is no disappointment. As one of the most annoying (and yet, relatable) characters on TV right now, the show’s protagonist, Piper Chapman, is sent to prison for a year due to smuggling drugs 10 years earlier; thus, the series begins. What makes OITNB so addicting is that throughout its single season (not to worry, the second is premiering in a few months), gradually each side-character’s heartbreaking backstory is revealed, forcing you to care about each and every one. And you really do care.
Breaking Bad
What is probably the only TV show that would ever prompt me to wear a gold piece of bling emblazoned with the name “Heisenberg,” “Breaking Bad” is Netflix’s most-watched show, and for good reason. Drugs, violence, drama, humor, anything and everything you could ever want from a TV show. As I’m sure you’ve heard a million times over, “Breaking Bad” is about a chemistry-teacher-turned-meth-cook and his descent into evil. There really isn’t any reason to not watch “Breaking Bad,” unless six seasons full of some of the best writing and character development in the history of television isn’t really your thing. Why are you wasting your time reading this? Go watch it, now.
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