British Shows to Binge-Watch
Drop What You're Doing and Start Binge-Watching These British Shows
I'm not saying television is my religion or anything, but it is a persistent and omnipresent force in my life. I mean, there's nothing better than wasting my time eating Chinese food and watching a variety of random episodes of random shows. I've been doing this for years and years now, and we don't need to get into specifics or anything, but trust me: I've had a lot of time on my hands, and I've watched a lot of shows. Because of this, I've discovered a bunch of gems.
One of my favorite things to look out for are British TV shows, both old and new. They always stand out — British television seasons are shorter and therefore all the more easier to binge; they're not shy about profanity, nudity, and all that other stuff I like; and, they're often wonderfully diverse. There are the old standards of British telly — Downton Abbey, The Office, and The IT Crowd — but there is so, so much more out there. Ready to waste away your nights and weekends yet? Here's my guide to the best British shows to binge-watch on Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon.
—Additional reporting by Quinn Keaney
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Lovesick (formerly Scrotal Recall) is a whole lot of fun. After Dylan (indie singer Johnny Flynn) receives news from his doctor that he has an STD, he writes out a list of every woman he's ever slept with. Each half-hour episode onward focuses on his attempts to reach out to his ex-flames in the present day as he makes his way down the list and gives us flashbacks to what their past courtship was like (and more often than not, why it was a failure). It's reliable and formulaic, and Dylan's best friend is hot, funny, and basically the fictional man of my dreams.
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Phoebe Waller-Bridge writes and stars in this incredibly inventive series about a woman coming to terms with the death of her best friend as she struggles with running a business, awkward hook-ups, and handling her Type A sister and deranged stepmother. It's a little bit of a downer, sure, but for every scene that makes you want to cry, there's a scene that will have you crying laughing (like when she breaks up with her boyfriend after he catches her masturbating to a video of President Obama, for instance).
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