10 Shows to Love on Netflix

Snow day? Sick day? Introvert-post-social-function-recovery day? Wanting a show to watch, episode after episode? Or maybe you're just looking for a new show to enjoy a little at a time, not something to binge on in one day.

Whatever your reason, if you're looking for some good television viewing here my top ten picks, all of which are available for streaming from Netflix.

(Disclaimer: Some of the shows have mild language, some scantily clad women, some guns. I don't know what will offend you or be fine by you but I am definitely not encouraging you to sit down with the whole family and a bowl of popcorn before you preview them for your kids.)

Life

Detective Charlie Crews was framed for murder, spent several years in jail, and was then exonerated. After prison Charlie gets a whole lot of money and his job back, where he begins to investigate who framed him and why. The show is told a bit like a documentary, especially in the beginning as they are establishing Crews' back story. The things I love about this show: how quirky and funny it is. While in prison Charlie missed some advancements in technology (like phones have cameras), he really missed fresh fruit, and he picked up Zen thinking to help him cope. I'm not sure why this show was cancelled - it's so good! - but the writers saw it coming and were able to wrap the show up nicely by the end of the second season.

White Collar

Smart, witty, beautiful: this show is really different than a lot of television. White Collar follows Neal Caffrey, a con artist who does white collar crimes like art and bond forgery, as he works off the remainder of his prison sentence by serving as a consultant to Peter Burke, the head of the FBI's white collar division in New York City. Things I like about this show: the characters are all smart and are pursuing important pieces of art, history, and culture. (I know that sounds snooty but you'll like it too.) Peter and his wife have a really great marriage. Also, Tiffani Thiesen stars in it and that makes me happy to see "Kelly Kapowski" again. The best part about the show: MOZZIE! 

The Walking Dead

Zombie apocylpse, at it's best. The Walking Dead is based on the graphic novels by the same name. It follows police officer Rick Grimes and the band of survivors as they try to find a safe place to live and try to thrive in a world filled with the living dead. The show is gory, scary, and gruesome and, speaking as a parent, the premise is 100% horrifying. The first time I watched the show I literally watched through my fingers as I covered my eyes with my hands. The show is interesting and really well done. It's scary but it's worth the lack of sleep.

Friday Night Lights

"Clear eyes, full hearts can't lose." Okay, really I never know what Coach Taylor is talking about when he says that but I was never an athlete. Yet I still love this show. Despite the fact that it's about high schoolers and some of the characters are just annoying (Jason, Lyla, Julie). Reasons to love it: Coach and Tammi Taylor's relationship, Tammi Taylor, Landry, Seracen, Seracen's grandma, football. It's a sweet show about relationships, small town life, and how sports can build community.

Lost

A plane crashes on a mysterious island and the survivors try to figure out what the heck is going on. You try to figure out what is going on. And then it ends and you're still trying to figure it out. But just enjoy the ride. There's so many interesting, likeable characters and I found myself really invested in what happened to them. The other nice thing about Lost is that so many of its actors have gone on to star in other shows. I love flipping on the tv and bumping in to an old friend from the island.

Sherlock

A modern retelling of Sir Arthur Connan Doyle's classics, which I've never read so I have no idea if they "get it right" and quite frankly I don't care. Sherlock is brilliant. Each episode is movie length and those 90 minutes are filled with excellent writing, clever characters, fantastic dialogue, and British accents. What is not to love?! And please allow me to go on record and state that I love Molly Hooper.

Jericho

If you're looking for a more family friendly end of the world type show this is it. Jericho isn't a very slick show, it's simple and sweet, though, and a nice watch. It takes place in a small town that remained safe from a series of nuclear bombs that took out all major US cities. It's borders on cheesy from time to time but, quite frankly, I'd prefer some more cheesy, sentimental, "we'll-pull-through-it-together" type shows. Some books are "light reading" - this is "light viewing."

Freaks and Geeks

Freaks and Geeks just might have been the perfect show about teenagers ever. It's the most real account of high school and adolescence I've ever seen and watching it is like looking at old pictures from my family album. I appreciated Lindsey and Millie's friendship, Mr. and Mrs. Wier's marriage, how the show talks about sex, and Bill's peanut allergies. It's funny, sweet, and really well done. The only problem with the show is that there just one season. And how it ends (What the heck, Lindsey?!?). So two. There's two problems. But that's not bad for tv!

Doctor Who

The Doctor is an alien, of the Time Lord race, who travels through all of space and time in his Tardis - a spaceship that is disguised as a blue, British police box. He travels with companions and they go about saving the day. Also, he can regenerate so start with the 9th Doctor (I know, living mannequins, but it gets so much better.) and hold on to your hat. The show is a little silly, a little goofy, a little sentimental, and a lot of fun. Watch it and finally get all the jokes about Whovians, bow ties being cool, things being fantastic, and not blinking. Allons-y!

The Chicago Code

The Chicago Code follows a small group of police officers as they work to bring down the most powerful and corrupt city alderman. Good writing, good acting, and a really good story - my husband and I are still unsure why this show was cancelled. If you usually like cop shows then you should definitely watch it. If you don't usually "do" cop shows you should still give it a try, especially if you love Chicago.



So there you go. My ten favorite series, all available for streaming on Netflix.
Did I pick your favorites? Did I overlook any? I'd love to hear about your faves in the comment box.

And happy viewing!

Eight Images That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About This Blog

Jennifer Fulwiler posted a hilarious list of the ten images that best represent her blog and what she writes about. She encouraged other bloggers to do the same. 

Challenge happily accepted.

I went through the pictures from ye olde blog and found the ones I thought were the best representations of what I write about. So here goes...

{ a good example of this sentimentality }

{ read this }

{ this and this are my two faves on this topic }

{ Not necessarily the ones above, but I do get geeky about things. Like Lost, Doctor Who, and Sherlock.}

{ Peter Mark }

 { Most related post }

{ zombies in general }

{ and I love it and hate it }

Jen was right, it was a lot of fun to do this post. Let me know in the combox if you wrote one too.

things I don't understand

1 - People who are ambivalent towards the US at best and mock 4th of July celebrations but will still gather for a 4th of July bbq with their like-minded friends. Is it just an attempt at irony or an excuse for beer?

2 - People who need an excuse to gather with friends and drink beer.

3 - What Linkedin is.

4 - Why my husband ever liked the band Nightwish. It's embarrassing.

5 - Why the US isn't set up like Spain with built-in siestas. If there's one thing I've learned as an adult it's that   everyone could use a good nap in the middle of the day.

6 - How professional bloggers have time to professionally blog.

7 - Why a pedicure is not covered by insurance in the 9th month of pregnancy.

8 - Why our insurance decided they would not pay for JF's epi pen.

9 - Using explicit language in songs that are obviously intended to be top 40 music. Especially the f bomb. Not that Mariah's "Beautiful" is all that great lyrically but the frequent "f---ing beautiful"s make the song pretty family un-friendly when it otherwise has a great feel. (Which I don't care what Marc Barnes says - he's a male college student for pete's sake and is not raising small children who inhale music and lyrics like air - it does matter that music is "family friendly" because I don't want my five year old daughter saying, "If your girl acts up I'm smackin' the ho" (House of Pain) or "everybody on my d---, please no homos" (JayZ feat Kanye) or "I really f---ed it up this time" (Marc's beloved Mumford & Sons). It's bad enough that my kids say "Oh damnit!" because they have a near-heathen for a mother. One bad influence is enough in their lives.

10 - Why I feel like I should have ten things in this list. Lame. I'm gonna buck the system... and have eleven

11 - How I cannot go back and re-watch Lost. I loved it the first time through but now I just don't care.

7 quick takes

1 - This song is a tribute to what I had wanted to happen.

2 - I am on Pinterest.  Are you?  It's true what everyone says about - a great way to have hours of your life sucked away from you.  But it did teach me about the sock bun.

I look cute with a sock bun.  Not gonna lie.

3 - It's also how I learned how to do a simple Gibson Tuck.

I was hoping I'd look really cute with my hair like this.  But I got 0 compliments and my husband told me I looked like an AC.  (That's Apostolic Christian.  I was told once, by an AC, that there are more AC churches in Central Illinois than in the rest of the world combined.  So you may not know what an AC is.  Think strict Baptist meets strict Mennonite.  They're good people.  The women wear skirts, and always have their hair up with a little croqueted covering.)  It's not an insult to be told I look AC, but I would have preferred "pretty", "classy", or even "nice".

4 - Of course I was not trying to look like an AC.  I was a little more inspired by this:

It is true.  The void in my life created once I finished Lost has now been filled by Downton Abbey.  Simply put: I am in love.

5 - Here's a little post I wrote over at the Behold blog.  It's all about how I got involved with Behold in the first place.  Check it out!

6 - There is a youtube video all over the place called "I hate religion, but love Jesus".  It's really well done and you may have seen it.  If you have, I encourage you to read this commentary, written by Marc Barnes. 

7 - We still have our Christmas lights on the front porch and I still turn them on.  Especially now that there's snow I like having them glowing in the night.

Winter is so dark and I love coming home to a dark street with our cheery lights welcoming me.  But I do promise to you all that they won't stay up all year long.

7 quick takes

1 -
3
Okay, so I love this song, but after watching this version of it I want to follow my dream of learning to play the accordian and write the percussionist a fan letter.

2 - I actually don't have a dream of playing the accordion but the other day I was thinking about how it'd be cool if I could.

3 - Last night I had my consultation with Bloom Personal Shopping's Hallie Lord.  It was a wonderful experience!  Hallie gave me all kinds of tips on what I can wear as stay at home, overweight mom.  A lot of her suggestions for me were reasonably priced (though for me that still requires saving money or waiting until after Christmas) and I'm excited to get things to smooth out my spillage, hide my flaws, and play up my own personal style. 

4- In fact when I woke up this morning I had this great feeling of empowerment.  It felt a little like, "watch out I'm gonna look smokin' today!"  That feeling diminished though, when I remembered I still had my old wardrobe.  Boo.

5 - My new post at Virtuous Planet is up.  Travis suggested I write something lighthearted so I did a list of songs L and I both love.  You can check it out here:  Music to Make You Happy.

6 - The only thing that frustrates me each week as I work on my VP post is that they want at least one picture in each post.  I spend stupid amounts of time looking for a good picture and then just settling for something that's good enough.  I understand why they want a picture but for whatever reason any time I try to upload one of my personal ones it says the file is too big.  I'm not tech savvy enough to figure that one out so I'm left searching the creative commons on flickr.  If you know Wordpress and can help me out (and you live close by) I'll bake you cookies and deliver them to your door.

7 - I finished Lost.  There is now a void in my life.  When I come to terms with things I will write a post that will be a major spoiler.

Serious.

That's what I am, people.  I'm serious.  Serious about Lost.

I have become a lame version of the person I once was because I am so consumed by this show.  And I was pretty far from cool in the first place so this is bad news.

Take, for example, the following song.

I've been listening to it on a regular basis ever since the episode where Hurley gets the Dharma van filled with beer and Roger's corpse started.  Do you even remember that episode?  Or this song?  Someone please say YES!

I'm in Season 6.  And let me tell you when it's over I'm going to be sad.  Maybe I will drown my sorrows in beer.  Probably not. 

And here's my other problem:  I cannot watch Dexter.  I tried watching it before at the encouragement of others and realized that the American public and many of my close friends are sick, twisted, dark people.

Let me leave you with one last piece of Lost loveliness.  A quote from the episode I watched today during nap time / picking up the kitchen.

Miles to Linus:
Why would I need your money when there are a couple of jabonies under there named Nikki and Paulo who got buried alive with $8 million in diamonds on top of them.