Answering the eternal question... WHAT TO WATCH NEXT? Looking for a box set to get your adrenaline racing or to escape to a different era? In need of a good laugh to lift your spirits? Hunting for a TV show that the whole family can watch together?If youre feeling indecisive about your next bingewatching session, weve done the hard work for you. Featuring 1,000 carefully curated reviews written by a panel of TV connoisseurs, What To Watch When offers up the best show suggestions for every mood and moment.
W H AT TO W AT C H WHEN 1,000 TV shows for every mood and moment Written by Christian Blauvelt, Laura Buller, Andrew Frisicano, Stacey Grant, Mark Morris, Eddie Robson, Maggie Serota, Drew Toal, Matthew Turner, Laurie Ulster CONTENTS What to watch when… you want to get your pulse racing 10 11 16 28 29 32 38 46 Game of Thrones Breaking Bad The Mandalorian The Boys True Detective Battlestar Galactica Watchmen Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan Bodyguard 54 What to watch when… you have three generations on one sofa 56 58 65 71 78 83 88 94 97 The Simpsons Doctor Who (2005–) The Muppet Show Bewitched The Addams Family The Golden Girls Star Trek Quantum Leap Wallace & Gromit’s World of Invention 100 What to watch when… you want to escape to a different time 102 106 107 110 114 122 123 140 145 Mad Men The Avengers The Singing Detective Brideshead Revisited Westworld Blackadder The Witcher Peaky Blinders The Prisoner 146 What to watch when… you want a cosy night in 148 154 159 165 169 170 176 179 188 Dawson’s Creek The Office Gavin & Stacey Queer as Folk My So-Called Life Sex and the City Thirtysomething This Is Us Ugly Betty 192 What to watch when… you need a feel-good moment 194 196 198 204 212 221 226 230 233 Friends One Day at a Time Boy Meets World Shameless Community American Vandal Young Sheldon The Goldbergs The Great British Bake Off 238 What to watch when… you need a really good laugh 240 244 247 250 258 262 265 268 278 Absolutely Fabulous 30 Rock Grace and Frankie Derry Girls Cheers Monty Python’s Flying Circus M*A*S*H The Big Bang Theory Seinfeld 286 What to watch when… you want to learn something new 288 290 296 300 The Crown Chernobyl Roots Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown 305 306 316 317 320 Planet Earth When They See Us QI Jeopardy! The Wire 394 404 410 420 421 UnREAL Batman Billions Zoo Spartacus 332 What to watch when… you feel like wallowing 426 What to watch when… you want to be scared witless 334 340 341 346 354 360 361 368 374 Succession Fleabag The Sopranos The Handmaid’s Tale Peep Show Curb Your Enthusiasm Veep Killing Eve BoJack Horseman 428 434 436 442 446 452 456 464 470 Buffy the Vampire Slayer The Walking Dead The Twilight Zone The X-Files Stranger Things Doctor Who (1963–1989) Twin Peaks Quatermass Quadrilogy Black Mirror 378 What to watch when… you just want to switch off 474 480 Index Acknowledgements 380 384 390 391 Downton Abbey Dynasty Gossip Girl You A NOTE ON AGE RATINGS The certification given for each TV programme indicates the highest UK rating given to an episode across the whole of each TV series Sometimes the rating is the exception, but it’s always good to know if there’s a risk of much more mature content than you would otherwise be expecting Where no UK rating is available, we’ve provided the US rating, with “(US)” following it In a few cases there are TV shows with no age rating in either the UK or the US In situations like this, you will see “NR” – no rating UK ratings used in this book E: Exempt Programmes designed to inform, educate or instruct U: Universal Suitable for all PG: Parental guidance General viewing, but some scenes might be unsuitable for young children 12: Video release suitable for 12 years and over 15: Suitable only for 15 years and over 18: Suitable only for adults US ratings used in this book TV-G: General audience Most parents would find this programme suitable for all ages TV-PG: Parental guidance suggested This programme contains material that parents may find unsuitable for younger children TV-Y7: Directed to older children This programme is designed for children aged and above TV-14: Parents strongly cautioned This programme contains some material that many parents would find unsuitable for children under 14 TV-MA: Mature audience only This programme is specifically designed to be viewed by adults and may be unsuitable for children under 17 YOU WANT TO GET YOUR PULSE RACING Written by Drew Toal Whether it’s a modern crime drama or an impossibly bloody fight for the Iron Throne, the best of these shows push your heart into your throat and leave you white-knuckling the television remote They thrill with tense standoffs, daring heists, killer robots, flawed heroes (super-powered or otherwise), and sometimes just good, old-fashioned detective work If it’s adrenaline you crave, these are the shows for you GAME OF THRONES FANTASY • 2011 • RATED: 18 • 57 MINS • SEASONS: PETER DINKLAGE, LENA HEADEY, EMILIA CLARKE HBO’s award-winning adaptation of George R.R Martin’s epic fantasy opus is known for its swords, sex, dragons, and ice zombies In an era of streaming on demand, Game of Thrones quickly became appointment television across the globe “Winter is coming.” Before the game of thrones ends, these fateful words will be uttered dozens of times, by a huge cast of characters For Eddard “Ned” Stark (Sean Bean) and his family – the primary protagonists of the series – the motto serves not just as an ominous weather forecast, but also as a warning and a promise “ If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.” Ramsay Bolton (S3 E6) The Starks are a noble family hailing from Winterfell, a kingdom situated in the north of Westeros One day, King Robert Baratheon comes to town and recruits his old friend, Ned, to help him run the fractured government from the capital, King’s Landing Against his better judgement, Ned agrees, a fateful decision that will have far-reaching consequences for the entire world Ned’s family, including his wife Catelyn, sons Robb, Bran, and Rickon, daughters Sansa and Arya, and wards Jon Snow and Theon Greyjoy, are soon swept from their relatively idyllic existence into a maelstrom of medieval realpolitik King’s Landing is a snake pit, with duelling factions that make our own political divides look extremely quaint in comparison In Game of Thrones, conspiracies, intrigues, and murder are the true currency of the realm – you win or you die While a creeping existential threat emerges in the wilderness “beyond the Wall” in the form of an undead army-slash-heavy-handed climate change allegory, warlords across the land ignore the real danger and instead use every tool at their disposal to settle scores and WHAT TO WATCH WHEN YOU WANT TO GET YOUR PULSE RACING DEATHS PER SEASON IN GAME OF THRONES S8 3,523 S7 1,096 S6 540 S5 246 S4 182 S3 87 S2 130 S1 Number of deaths 59 500 1000 1500 squabble over the crown More often than not, these sadistic machinations leave a trail of bodies that occasionally leads one to wonder whether or not there will be any subjects left to rule by the time the show ends This is no run-of-the-mill swords-and-sorcery TV project Showrunners David Benioff and D.B Weiss took George R.R Martin’s beloved books and gave them the true big-screen treatment Along the way, they even create the longest battle sequence in both TV and film history! Throughout eight seasons, you meet iconic characters and watch them grow – the lucky ones who survive, anyhow – and see allegiances shift You meet dragons and their “mother”, the exiled Daenerys Stormborn of House Targaryen, played by Emilia Clarke You also meet a rogues’ gallery of vicious villains, including the scheming Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen), the brutally sadistic Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon), and, of course, 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 power-hungry Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) Characters who are at one time mortal enemies become allies of necessity, and then something close to friends This is not the kind of story in which the good guys always win Indeed, in Game of Thrones, it’s not always clear who the good guys even are If the show does have a conscience, it comes in the person of Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion Lannister, a hard-drinking, melancholic dwarf who also happens to hail from one of the most powerful families in the Seven Kingdoms Tyrion has a powerful intellect and a biting wit – and also something of a wine dependency He is a captive witness, as we all are, to a singular adventure, and one of the grandest productions in TV history Even in an era of “prestige TV”, Game of Thrones pushed the limits of the medium and cemented its place in pop-culture history CREATORS: David Benioff, D.B Weiss PRODUCTION CO: HBO,Television 360, Grok! Studio, Generator Entertainment, Bighead Littlehead BREAKING BAD CRIME DRAMA • 2008 • RATED: 18 • 49 MINS • SEASONS: BRYAN CRANSTON, AARON PAUL, BOB ODENKIRK To pay mounting medical bills, a high-school chemistry teacher named Walter White starts “cooking” and selling crystal meth in secret Walter soon learns he has a talent for the drug game as drug kingpins, learning what to – and, more often, what not to – as they go along Walter makes money, but his noble intentions to support his family quickly give way to his long-suppressed ambition to something big with his life When we first meet Walter (Bryan Cranston), he’s not much to look at Considered a brilliant mind in his younger days, he’s now a sad 50-year-old high school chemistry teacher in New Mexico After learning he has terminal lung cancer, Walter puts his skills to more unsavoury – albeit more lucrative – use He hooks up with crystal meth enthusiast Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), and the pair form an unlikely, uneasy alliance, and a new business Throughout Breaking Bad’s five seasons we meet some memorable characters as Walter builds up his empire, including dour fixer Mike Ehrmantraut, businessman Gus Fring, and seedy lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), whose character was so popular it spawned the spin-off, Better Call Saul (see p349) Walter’s initial goal is to financially set up his son, unborn daughter, and wife Skyler for when he’s gone He understands the chemistry involved in the drug’s production intimately, perhaps better than anyone, but in all other respects he is in over his head Jesse and Walter nevertheless dive into their new career 10 Walter White is no hero, but much of Breaking Bad’s appeal lies in the actualization of his particular mid-life crisis He’s just this guy, living an unremarkable life in the American Southwest, who latches on to a piece of bad news, and uses it to get some agency back in his life He takes his frustrations over his imminent death and channels them into something that reminds him what it’s like to feel alive We can all relate to that CREATOR:Vince Gilligan PRODUCTION CO: High Bridge Productions, Gran Via Productions, Sony Pictures Television, AMC