netflix tv shows you should be watching

PSA - In this day and age, I just assume that everyone has Netflix (or has someone they're close enough to that they can borrow their password and fill their suggestions up with things they don't care about). If you don't..sorry. (Who am I kidding, you can watch literally everything online nowadays.)

Sense8

I cannot recommend this show enough! To attempt to put it simply, it's about eight people from different places around the world who become psychically connected, and begin to experience each others' lives. Sounds really complicated, right? Well, it is, but once you get past the impossibility of the situation, what's really special about this show is the characters; their individual struggles; their emotions; their lives. The range is incredibly diverse, from an Indian woman studying medicine who is unsure about her upcoming marriage, a famous Mexican actor trying to hide his sexuality, to a Korean businesswoman who ends up falsely imprisoned. They've also got a trans actor playing a trans character! Seriously, if you're tired with the lack of LGBT/multi-racial representation on TV, sense8 will restore your faith in humanity. And without giving too much away, there's not many shows that could make me sympathise (and fall a little bit in love) with a character who's intent on destroying his own family. Here's my favourite scene from the show to give you a taster of what's so great about it.

Orange is the New Black

If you've not watched this show, where have you been??? I feel like there's practically no point in mentioning it. You've seen it already. This is like, Netflix's not-so-secret favourite child. The first season mainly focuses on spoilt and conventional Piper Chapman having to deal with the many trials and tribulations of prison life. But over the course of all the episodes, you gradually get to know everyone else inside Litchfield. Discovering all the characters' backstories and childhoods is so interesting. OITNB does an incredible job of humanising female prison inmates and encouraging you to empathise with those you would likely condemn or turn your nose up at if you read about them in the newspaper. And again, an amazing and diverse representation of women - you go Netflix. When so many popular films don't even pass the Bechdel test, Orange is the New Black is a breath of fresh air. 

Daredevil

incentive enough for ya?

If you have seen the 2003 movie with Ben Affleck, please don't judge this show by it. If you've not seen the movie...just don't. This TV show does the character justice far better - and yes maybe that was a play on words. The protagonist Matt Murdock is blind but has trained his other four senses to go into overdrive so he can practise law during the day and fight crime at night. It sounds cheesy, but this show is dark and gritty yet simultaneously smart and witty (I made that rhyme completely by accident I swear.) And Charlie Cox proves himself to be an actor of great range and promise - you may know him from Stardust or The Theory of Everything, but he's practically unrecognisable in the title role. This show has so much potential and I can't wait for the next season!

I thought I would stick to ongoing shows, but if you're sure you can go through the emotional turmoil of getting obsessed with a show you already know has been cancelled or completed, here's some more of my favourites on Netflix:

• Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Firefly
• Gossip Girl
• Skins
• The Mighty Boosh
• Community (continued on Yahoo screen but with only half the original cast)

One final word of advice - even if you originally intend it to be ironic, on no accounts should you start watching 90210. You will laugh at how bad it is, keep watching to see how ridiculous the storylines and plot twists get, then you will get sucked in and never escape. You have been warned.