Staff Picks – Sarah’s Netflix Binge Watching Recommendations

Tis the season for Netflix binge watching. It’s dark early, it’s cold, and it’s nearly holiday break time. If you’re looking for something to watch, then look no further than this totally rad blast from the past. Pop your collar, fire up the DeLorean, and get ready to experience some quality 80s TV. It’s awesome to the max.

 

Binge: 80s Shows on Netflix

 

Murder, She Wrote

It’s my not so secret ambition to be Jessica Fletcher someday. She rides a bicycle around her seaside town, writes novels, wears cardigans, travels the world, and solves crimes. It’s a dream life, to be sure. Though how Jessica kept getting invited places is beyond me since someone always DIED everywhere she went. At any rate, enjoy the totally 80s fashions, the parade of “hey, it’s that guy!” guest stars, and the wacky antics of the denizens of Cabot Cove, which was basically the original Stars Hollow.

 

MacGyver

What’s not to love about a show where the hero gets out of dangerous situations by using the power of science and engineering and brains? Watch the amazing Richard Dean Anderson, and his 80s mullet, use ingenuity, a paperclip, and some gum to escape evil doers and/or build a nuclear reactor. MacGyver got a lot done, you guys.

 

Magnum, PI

Tom Selleck and his mustache zip around Hawaii in a Ferrari and occasionally solves crimes. Yet another dream life! 80s TV was so aspirational. Enjoy the chase scenes, scenic shots of Hawaii, and Tom Selleck’s ‘stache in this 80s staple.

 

Star Trek: The Next Generation

This show continued into the 90s, but it premiered in 1987, so I’m including it here. You might enjoy the JJ Abrams Trek reboot which features 70% more time travel shenanigans and 100% more lens flare. But nothing will ever top Next Generation for me. The cast is great, the stories are fun, and the parade of fashions are truly a sight to behold, including the Borg and their cutting-edge appreciation for wearable tech.

 

Black Adder

This hilarious and historically minded British comedy features a young Hugh Laurie, who would go on to play House, and the always delightful Stephen Fry. If you’re an Anglophile, a history nerd, or both, you’ll like this one.

 

Knight Rider

No 80s list would be complete without the Hoff, who is practically the epitome of the 80s. David Hasselhoff cruises around in his Google Driverless Car, er, I mean his Trans Am, named K.I.T. The Netflix official description pretty much sums it up: “Together they form a crime unit no crook can outrace.”  Perfection.

 

Bonus show: Jem and the Holograms

If you enjoyed the dual identity antics of Hannah Montana, you’ll like this amazingly 80s cartoon about a woman using cutting edge Hologram technology (80s science!) to live a double life as both a successful 80s businesswoman and the lead singer of a rocking 80s girl band, where all the members sport pastel colored hair. The Wikipedia plot summary for the show is also one of the best things ever written.

 

Binge: 90s shows on Netflix

Turn that baseball cap to the side, straighten that scrunchie, and get ready to re-live the 90s.

 

Quantum Leap

Join Dr. Sam Beckett as he leaps around various iconic periods of American history and works to right past wrongs with the aid of his suspenders-wearing holographic friend, Al.

 

X-Files

This is probably my favorite show of all time. Join intrepid FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully and their trusty trenchcoats as they investigate monsters, aliens, and government conspiracies in the dark and rainy woods of Vancouver various parts of the United States that just happen to look like the woods of Vancouver. This show is incredibly smart, often funny, and quite relevant today, given the fact that one of its overarching themes was government surveillance.

 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Buffy chronicles the adventures of high school student and vampire slayer Buffy Summers, her trusty band of Scooby Gang friends, and her librarian mentor (shameless plug) as they battle vampires and other supernatural antics. It’s smart, funny, and Joss Whedon’s use of the supernatural to explore the dramas of teen years is nothing short of inspired. After all, who hasn’t thought that there high school was sitting on top of the Hellmouth at one point?

 

Twin Peaks

Catch up on this cult classic about an FBI agent who travels to an extremely weird town to investigate the murder of Laura Palmer. Twin Peaks is incredibly bizarre and is also incredibly trendy thanks to Showtime’s decision to resurrect the show in 2016.

 

Xena: Warrior Princess

Get your fix of an early 90s interpretation of some approximation of Ancient Greece. Xena is a hardcore upholder of justice who takes care of business on a weekly basis.

 

Saved by the Bell

The most 90s of all 90s shows, Saved by the Bell chronicles the early 90s high school experience of six friends (which has subsequently become the mandatory number for all sitcoms about groups of friends). Prepare to have your eyeballs overwhelmed with neon, bizarre prints, perms, and Zack Morris’s brick-sized telephone.

 

Freaks and Geeks

For a more serious take on high school life, check out this cult classic and cancelled-too-soon show, which launched the careers of a large number of now-famous people, including James Franco and Seth Rogen.

 

 

Binge: Shows of the Early 2000s

Re-live the recent past with these hits from the first decade of the 21st century.

 

Alias

Alias follows the spy-tastic adventures of Sydney Bristow, a super secret spy who pretends to work at a bank while also attending graduate school. I was miffed at the time that my AP classes seemed to require more work than Sydney’s grad school program, but that’s neither here nor there. This show features incredible wigs and spy disguises, exotic locations, and Sydney delivering at least one round-house kick to a villain’s head per episode. Though let’s be real, the true star of the show is stone-cold spy dad Jack Bristow, who basically anticipated Liam Neeson’s performance in Taken.

 

24 and MI-5

24 is one of the best bing-watch shows. The early years of the show are an interesting look at American views on national security in the early 2000s…. okay it’s just a hardcore action show featuring Kiefer Sutherland yelling that there’s never enough time, borderline lunatic plot developments, and the iconic countdown clock. If you’d like to see a 24-style show from across the pond, check out MI-5, which focuses on the adventures of incredibly photogenic MI-5 agents as they work to save London from some sort of dangerous plot on a weekly basis.

 

30 Rock

This hilarious show that became a pop culture phenomenon is well worth a re-watch, if only to remind yourself of all the ridiculous jokes (and guest stars) you’ve forgotten. And if you haven’t seen it, you must have been living under a rock. Get it? Rock… just go watch the show.

 

Arrested Development

One of the greatest and most quotable comedies of all time, and the show that launched a 1000 memes and became a cornerstone of internet culture, Arrested Development is perfect for a holiday binge-watch.

 

Battlestar Galactica

Get your fix of sci-fi, action, space battles, and social commentary with this sleeper hit show about a rag-tag group of humans trying to avoid being wiped out by a group of good-looking and sneaky robots.

 

West Wing

Fast-paced, witty, intelligent, and idealistic to a fault, The West Wing is addictive television and is entirely to blame for the brief period of my life where I thought I wanted to go to law school and become the female version of Sam Seaborn. This show will also inspire you to power-walk everywhere, so be prepared.