While it’s far from the most important problem of the current pandemic (and its accompanying prolonged global shut-down), one of the side-effects will be that pretty soon (especially by the time the fall TV season is regularly scheduled to begin) TV networks and streaming services will run out of new content. That is a trivial issue, but it’s even less of a problem for viewers these days because the availability of programming has become an embarrassment of riches. For several years I’ve been lamenting that there’s too much TV, so now I should just shut up and be grateful. Let me instead tell you about some of the things I’ve been enjoying over the past few months, and maybe you’ll find something to add to your viewing list for the coming months.

Upload

One of my surprising favourites during quarantine is an Amazon original series that takes place completely in the afterlife (but it’s not The Good Place). From Greg Daniels, the writer-producer who brought us The Office, and Parks and Recreation, Upload imagines a not-too-distant future where virtual reality has advanced to the point where human beings could upload their personae into these simulations and live the rest of eternity (pending sufficient funds) in the digital heaven of their choosing. The concept alone is intriguing and it provides fertile ground for all kinds of winking humour, speculating on what kinds of social and culture quirks will continue in such a universe. However, the added twist of this show is that the uploaded folks (through many other semi-plausible technical explanations) are able to interact with the living. Against that backdrop, this show follows the story of Nathan Brown (played by Robbie Amell), who not only has to adjust to his “uploaded” situation, but also has to deal with his relationship and engagement to his wealthy girlfriend. There are also mysterious circumstances around his final living days, and a burgeoning more-than-flirtation with his digital-afterlife handler, Nora. Upload was a very bingeable 10-episode season one, and an enjoyable blend of comedy, drama, romance, mystery, adventure, all blended together nicely in a sci-fi stew.

The English Game

On a very different note, a Netflix show that probably crept below the radar for most people, The English Game caught my eye, being produced and written by Julian Fellowes (the hallowed creator of Downton Abbey). Though mildly reminiscent of Downton, this show is set earlier (in the late 19th century) and focuses on a couple of working-class football (aka soccer) stars at a time when the sport was transitioning from being exclusively upper-class to being something for the masses. The idea of class division is a big part of the show, and the struggles faced by Fergus Suter and Jimmy Love (who were big players in real life) is contrasted with that of Arthur Kinnaird, their rival on the upper-class team. The show is only six episodes long, and I’m not a sports fan, but it’s fascinating to see this side of English history dramatized. Fellowes does a great job of bringing a kind of social history lesson to life. Also, compared to the relatively tidy world of Downton, this show leaned heavier on the working-class side and the tone was a wee bit grittier as a result.

Never Have I Ever

Another Netflix show, this one comes from former The Office ditz, Mindy Kaling (who actually has quite a knack for creating sitcoms). This one is a heartwarming, funny show about a teenager named Devi, who navigates the typical struggles of growing up: friends, boys, school, family, etc. It only adds to the story that Devi’s family are Indian immigrants and her father died suddenly not long before the show begins. Newcomer Maitreyi Ramakrishnan is wonderful as the energetic, semi-confident Devi, who has a tendency to plunge headlong into the wrong decisions. The cast of characters is a great mix, both ethnically and in the types of personalities. Stereotypes are shattered, not in a obviously politically-correct way, but a sincere, totally normal way. It’s delightful how Kaling and the show’s creators have managed to showcase diversity while making it “no big thing”. The dialogue on the show is smart (especially for a high-school show) but also a bit wacky and genuine as well. Plus, I promise that you will be choked up by the climactic confrontation between Devi and her mom.

Insatiable

Insatiable is not a brand new show, having already ended its two-season run on Netflix before quarantine began. I had never checked it out, thinking that it might be an off-network CW teen melodrama, but after watching all 10 episodes of Never Have I Ever, I must have been on a teen-show kick because I decided to watch what turned out to be an over-the-top dark comedy reminiscent of Heathers (the 1989 movie featuring a young Winona Ryder, and possibly also similar to the recent reboot TV series that I never watched). Insatiable is about a formerly-overweight teenager who teams up with a lawyer-turned-pageant-coach to seek revenge on all the people who bullied and mistreated her, all the while seeking to win a coveted beauty-queen prize. There was a lot of controversy when this show came out, especially with regard to fat-shaming, but that’s really missing the point. This show is full of caricatures and crazy characters, and that’s part of the fun. Many of them are meant to be hated and the others make such bad decisions that it just drives you crazy, but the show is such a rollercoaster ride that it’s jaw-droppingly fun. It’s full of murder, mayhem, back-stabbing, cat-fights, table-turning, cliffhangers and insanity, but it also has a central theme of acceptance and loving yourself. You need to watch it to get it.

Solar Opposites

This is not the first sitcom about aliens coming to live in the suburban US. In fact, it’s not even the second or third, but it might be the first to air on Hulu. This new project from the creators of that other irreverent sci-fi animated show, Rick and Morty, brings a lot of the same humour and social commentary through a super-nerdy lens. Thankfully, none of the characters are as selfish or arrogant as super-genius Rick Sanchez (not even the team leader Korvo, who is also voiced by Justin Roiland so therefore sounds a lot like Rick). Solar Opposites has a lot of fun playing with the idea that this team is a family, and acts like an Earth family, with Korvo and Terry playing the parents, and Jesse and Yumyulack as the kids (who go to school). A lot of the humour comes from crazy sci-fi circumstance that the characters have to deal with within the context of their trying to fit into a human context. However, there are also some awesome running gags and storylines, including the biggest, which is that Yumyulak likes to shrink humans who get on his wrong side. He keeps them in a giant wall of pet habitats, which eventually start to spawn their own stories as more people are added to the wall populace. If you like Rick and Morty, Solar Opposites is a must-watch. It’s a light-yet-clever, super-fun family sitcom for nerds.

One Day At A Time

Speaking of shows that don’t air in Canada, this Cuban-flavoured reboot of the 1975 family sitcom was cancelled by Netflix last year after three seasons, despite great critical reviews and probably a pretty good audience base as well. Thankfully the show was saved by CBS and given a fourth season, that aired on Pop network in the US earlier this year, right at the beginning of the pandemic. Only six regular episodes aired, plus an animated episode which cleverly allowed the actors to voice their characters despite quarantine. While I was excited to see the Alvarez family again, I did not find this season particularly memorable so far. Many of the typical sitcom situations have started to come up, with the kids getting older and dating, along with mother Penelope also continuing to date. There’s one episode about a mysterious pregnancy test, that made me wonder how plausible it is that someone would leave a pregnancy test in someone else’s bathroom. The animated mid-season finale was a bit heavy-handed for this left-leaning show, but it was nice to get an extra episode in. While its second life has been lacklustre, I still think it’s great that this well-written, well-acted family sitcom gets to continue for a little while longer.

Fuller House

This family sitcom reboot is also on its last season, but it was not cut from Netflix. Fuller House wrapped up the rose-coloured misadventures of the Fuller (nee Tanner) clan with the big triple wedding of DJ & Steve, Kimmy & Fernando, and Stephanie & Jimmy. The last half-season aired this year, and while the completist in me decided to watch it, I cared very little about the fates of these characters. I had already lost track of what was happening with the kid characters, so it was just a matter of waiting to see how the wedding arrangements came off. Though I never much cared for middle-son Max in previous seasons, I actually enjoyed watching him as a slightly more grown-up character this year. Everyone else was essentially unchanged to me (including the youngest son Tommy, who went from being an infant to a toddler). I was not one of the carryover fans from the original series, but as one of the earlier Netflix sitcoms, I was caught up in the success of this show despite its silly and saccharin tone. For better or worse, it still made for a nice light-hearted distraction during quarantine.

Patriot Act

Another Netflix original that I never miss is Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj. The latest volume of episodes came smack dab in the middle of quarantine, so Minhaj was without his studio audience (and of course he comments on that). This batch of episodes is very much aware of what’s going on right now in the US and globally (which makes sense, since it’s a news commentary comedy show). Minhaj still has his trademark graphical backdrop, but without the physical platform that he regularly stands on. Episodes covered current topics such as COVID-19 and the resulting political and economic crisis, George Floyd’s death and the systemic racism and police brutality around it, along with US elections, college tuitions, problems with TurboTax, and more. Of course, what’s going on in the world now has led me to read more news than ever, but I still find that this show is the best at helping me understand and care more about it.

Castle & How I Met Your Mother

These last two are not new shows or even current shows. Both ended their run of new episodes a few years ago. However, I have been watching them both a lot during quarantine. For How I Met Your Mother, there was a good deal for the the complete season on iTunes, so I picked it up. I have already watched the whole series a couple of times, but now I decided to watch it again. I still really enjoyed the highly-constructed episodes, where the story arc is either full of flashbacks, or events being retold from different angles, or situations calling back to other parts of the story. This show has a lot of fun playing with storytelling and sitcom conventions. This time around I noticed more how this show compares to Friends, which has a frighteningly similar premise, including many plot points that were identical, but the storytelling aspect of this show is a nice distinction.

Castle has been one of my favourite shows in the last decade, but it was just never available for streaming (or for sale on iTunes as a complete series deal) so I’ve been waiting for a chance to rewatch it. When it came to Amazon Prime Video, I wouldn’t even have known about it if not for Just Watch (a free service that anyone who wants to know what’s coming to streaming TV should definitely use) notifying me when it was added. Castle features Nathan Fillion as a celebrity mystery writer who teams up with Detective Kate Beckett (played by Stana Katic) to solve murders. The Rick Castle character is a lot of fun because he’s puckish and likes to speculate wildly on the clues in these cases. One of the best things about the show is that a lot of times you kind of go along for the ride and wonder whether the crazy explanations might be true. Was that man really killed by aliens? Was the killer actually a vampire? There are some very nerdy episodes — which I loved — but also all kinds of episodes that tailor to whatever your genre tastes might be. To top it off, the chemistry with the other characters in the precinct and team is awesome, and that also makes the show fun to watch. I’ve still not reached the last two seasons, where the show went seriously downhill in my opinion, but this was a really bright spot in my quarantine (re)watching.

So, there you have some of the shows that I’ve been watching in quarantine. I would gladly recommend any of them (even Fuller House) to help you pass the time or take you away from some of the grimmer realities outside your door. Enjoy!