With the bank holiday weekend coming up, some of us may be looking forward to having a lazy weekend. Thank God for bank holidays! For those of us who were lucky enough to be in the same situation, the time off is a perfect excuse to not just have a duvet day, but a duvet week. All you need after making that decision is to get the laptop charged up, stock up on some snacks – you cannot beat Kettle Crisps (cracked black pepper, of course), and your subscription to Netflix, with my list of Netflix picks, and you’re all ready to go.
I recently subscribed to Netflix after putting it off for so long – I didn’t really have much time for Eastenders let alone full on TV series’s. Now that I’m no longer studying for my exams, I have found that I have an endless amount of free time. Sometimes you just want to curl up on the sofa, or stay in bed, and binge watch a few TV shows. After-all, I had missed out on SO many shows. My Twitter feed was full of people tweeting about popular shows that I knew nothing about. It was finally time to catch up, and I spent a good few months binge watching whenever I had some free time at home.
If you’re looking for some great recommendations for shows that you just need to start watching, here are my top Netflix Picks for the Christmas break.
Pretty Little Liars – PLL has fast become my obsession over the past couple of months. If you follow me on Twitter, you will know that I have been hooked on this show recently. Now that I finally know who “A” is, which only took me about 5 seasons, I’m really looking forward to season 5b which is a “5 years forward” season. Much like the 5 years forward season Desperate Housewives had, this season follows the liars, as they are called, and their paths after “A” is finally taken down.
Pretty Little Liars follows 4 girls as they are somewhat stalked by “A” over the recent disappearance, and potential death of their friend Alison (also known, as Ali). . The show follows the four girls lives in Rosewood as their clique gets broken down. Each of the girls have their own personalities, and hidden secrets, which become uncovered over the course of the 5 seasons.
Whilst watching PLL I literally couldn’t trust any of the characters within the entire cast. The drama-mystery thriller show makes you question your own judgement, along with being thoroughly entertaining, and making you want to stay up late just to catch the next episode.
Suits – I have loved watching Suits since the first episode, and if you like legal dramas then this is a must watch for you. Follow the main character, Mike Ross, is the focal point for the show – he’s a college drop out, who is extraordinarily intelligent who stumbled across a dream job at a top law firm, even though he has never studied law. The show follows Mike doing everything he can to keep that a secret, alongside Harvey Spectre (so dreamy!) who hired him, from the partners, his friends and girlfriend.
There are some gripping cases that they work on, it’s more on the business side of legal dramas whereby they deal with more corporate law than anything. It’s interesting to see the development of the characters as Harvey is known as a cold and heartless boss.
Suits is a show that mixes humour and seriousness, with a touch of intelligence and it seems like they have the mix exactly right.
The Good Wife – This show is great for those who like a mix between a legal drama, politics and the usual drama you would come across if the husband of the main character is caught in an affair scandal. Humiliated Alicia Florrick is having to peace her life back together, and re-embark on a career, after her husband – the state’s attorney, not only has an affair but is caught up in a corruption scandal.
I found the cases in The Good Wife a lot more interesting than that of Suits, because they were based on cases that we come across on a day-to-day basis on the news i.e. murder cases, drugs charges and family law. It also adds a bit of excitement to the show that Alicia’s new boss is actually her ex who it is so evident she still has chemistry with.
I love shows that have a female character as a lead, and it’s a great representation of a working mother building up her career from scratch. It also gives a great insight into the amount of work, and the different levels within a law firm and how each level interacts with another.
Once Upon A Time – I literally cannot believe I had never heard of this show until only a week ago when it was a recommendation for me on Netflix. I have stayed up way past my bedtime just to watch the next episode of this show. At first I was a bit iffy about watching this show, as when I read the synopsis, I really didn’t think it was for me.
Once Upon A Time is a fairy-tale drama, set in a fictional town – Storybook. The residents of Storybook are actually fairy-tale characters, some none the wiser, who have been transported into the real world to live their lives in the present. We follow the Evil Queen Regina, who is now actually the town Mayor and has everyone at her beck-and-call, apart from Mary Margaret (Snow White) and Emma Swan.
Each episode focuses on a different character and their story in the real world and fairy-tale world. The show has it’s own spin on some of the fairy-tales, so it doesn’t follow the traditional stories behind each fairy-tale.
American Horror Story – This show isn’t for the faint hearted- it’s gory! Known as an anthology horror show, it has the same set of actors each season, who play completely different characters and roles. This just demonstrates how good the actors are within the show that they can play characters with different personalities and quirks – and pull it off so well.
The directors have stated that each series is based on true events and acted out as though they happened – i.e. the setting is in the era it happened, location etc. Each season is completely different to the previous, for example, freak show was based in a circus, coven was based in a school for witches.
Each episode of the show builds up the story even further, and can throw in twists at any point. It isn’t just a horror show, you really get to know the characters and why they do what they are doing, what has made them murder or commit the crimes, and what their aspirations in life really were.
What are you top picks for shows on Netflix?
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