It’s time to watch all the TV shows you’ve been putting off forever

If you’re any type of TV fan, you’ve probably had some version of this conversation.

Person A: WHAT?! You haven’t seen [insert name of show here]?? But it’s a classic!
Person B: I know, I know! I’ve been meaning to get to it.

Whether you’re Person A, Person B, or the dialogue-free third party merely witnessing this exchange and hoping they won’t be called out for their own TV shortcomings, you’ve probably missed the boat on some big name TV shows — and now is the time to catch up.

The worldwide spread of coronavirus has resulted in a period of social distancing that leaves many of us looking for ways to fill time while staying home. Mashable has a wonderful master list of streaming guides to get you started, but this one poses a specific challenge: Watch the show you always said you would.

Here are some of ours.

Mad Men 

The age of the antihero dawned with Don Draper and his ilk of smooth-talking, well-dressed ad men on Madison Avenue (the layers to this title!). Behind Don’s sleek exterior is a tortured past, and he pours himself into work and women to leave it behind. The show speaks to a specific and unshakeable American nostalgia for the 1960s, or at least to the part of them that focused on big skirts and chainsmoking and not, you know, civil unrest. — Proma Khosla, Entertainment Reporter

Where to watch: Netflix

Sex and the City

You’ve spent years — nay, decades — dodging the question of whether you’re a Carrie, a Samantha, a Charlotte, or a Miranda, and the time has come to dodge no longer. Though Sex and the City aired on HBO, most of the seasons are around 18 episodes instead of the premium cable giant’s current standard of 10. But at 30 minutes and six seasons, it’s nothing you can’t knock out in a couple weekends — faster if you binge on weekdays too. Did the show age well? Was its depiction of New York realistic? Which of Carrie’s love interests is your favorite? The answers are at your fingertips. — P.K.

Where to watch: HBO

The Wire

The Wire stands as one of those early must-see drama and series, digging into the complicated world of crime in Baltimore for a shockingly realistic view of how the illicit drug world and the city institutions designed to deal with them interact. It’s one of those shows that will force you into a rapt attention, which is perfect for these days inside that seem to be dragging on and on. The Wire is also one of those rare shows that stays consistently great throughout its run, with fantastic characters and unceasingly great writing. — Kellen Beck, Entertainment Reporter

Where to watch: HBO

Enlightened

You probably didn’t see Enlightened when it was originally on. That’s not a judgment; it’s just an educated guess based on its dismal ratings from the time. Fortunately for you, it’s not too late to dig in. Enlightened feels every bit as fresh and relevant today as it did then — maybe even more so, considering it was ahead of the curve on conversations about complicated female characters, workplace harassment, corporate irresponsibility, and the unimpeachable brilliance of Laura Dern.

Dern plays Amy Jellicoe, a woman who returns from work after a nervous breakdown and subsequent rehab stint with a less prestigious job position, a sunnier outlook on life, and a newfound determination to change the world for the better — starting with her own corrupt employer. You’ll love her, you’ll hate her, and above all else, you won’t be able to look away from her. (Plus, at just 18 half-hour episodes, this is a journey you can complete in a weekend or two.) —Angie Han, Deputy Entertainment Editor

Where to watch: HBO

The Leftovers

It might be extra bleak at the current time to dive into a show whose premise is that two percent of the Earth’s population is gone. But if you think you’re mentally and emotionally up to it, you’re in for a singular television experience. The Leftovers is nothing short of a TV opera, the bridge between Damon Lindelof’s constrained final seasons of LOST and the visual poetry of 2019’s Watchmen. Rarely will it answer your questions or soothe your pain, but it explores loss and trauma with the same intimate abstraction that defines those feelings — feelings with which we are now all-too familiar. — P.K.

Where to watch: HBO

Frasier

Chances are you’re at least aware of Frasier. Perhaps you’ve even caught it on reruns at some point during the 27 years(!) since it premiered. But if you’ve never binge-watched the show in earnest, now is the time.

The beauty of Frasier is its reliability. Once you’re keyed into its characters and rhythms, the episodes tend to fall into patterns familiar enough to feel comforting, but executed with enough wit and specificity to feel fresh. You can generally count on it not to tilt too far toward rowdiness, which is a plus when the world feels hectic enough as it is, or too far toward heavy emotionality, which can be nice when there’s no shortage of IRL problems to stress you out.

Frasier‘s the friend you turn to because you trust them to get your mind off of things without asking too much of you — and with 264 episodes over 11 seasons, it will always be there for you. — A.H.

Where to watch: Hulu

The Sopranos 

The Sopranos amassed awards and critical acclaim during its six-season run. But over 10 years since that ended, it remains hallowed in the pantheon of great television, regularly mentioned in every conversation on the subject. Crime dramas are a dime a dozen in Hollywood, but the unique relationship between Tony’s work, family, and therapy made this one endlessly compelling as we got to know a legendary character. At least watch it so you can finally debate about the ending. — P.K.

Where to watch: HBO

Friday Night Lights

One part sports excitement, one part teen drama, and two parts Texas, Friday Night Lights is a fantastic series that feels at times like a documentary about football’s heartland. Every character in Dillon, Texas is endearing in their own ways, with their collective accents and love of Texas and football. The first episode is one of the most emotional and enthralling episodes of television ever made, if you start with the intention of just watching one episode to try it, you’ll find yourself breezing through the whole first season quickly. — K.B.

Where to watch: Hulu

The Americans

In another time, perhaps a few years earlier, The Americans — a drama about two Russian spies living in plain sight as American citizens — would have dominated discourse and Emmys much the way Mad Men or Breaking Bad did in their time. 

But The Americans wasn’t just competing with usual suspects like Game of Thrones and Homeland; it was competing with streaming and bingeing — it was competing for our attention, a problem every television show is now born with. Its disadvantage became so glaring that other shows have commented, including Superstore and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (“You know we’re living in a Golden Age of television when we take a show like The Americans for granted”). Still, the best part of TV’s Golden Age is that the shows will never leave us. — P.K.

Where to watch: Amazon

Twin Peaks

Image: courtesy of twin peaks: from z to a

For decades, Twin Peaks has served as a critical reference point in elite TV. David Lynch and Mark Frost’s mesmeric world of humor, dreams, and mystery represented such a tectonic shift in the medium’s possibilities — the cinematic stylings, the genre-blending narrative, the unique character creation, that score — that few other shows on this list have escaped comparisons to it. So, if you’ve long wondered who killed Laura Palmer, now is the time to get your “answers.” I’m putting answers in quotes because in Twin Peaks those can be few, far between, and alarmingly subjective. Best served with donuts, cherry pie, and a damn fine cup of coffee. — Alison Foreman, Entertainment Reporter

Where to watch: Hulu, Netflix, and CBS All Access (Seasons 1 and 2); iTunes and Amazon Prime (Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me); Showtime (Twin Peaks: The Return)

Breaking Bad

AMC’s legendary drama about a high school chemistry teacher who starts cooking meth is so revered that it made multiple Best TV of the Decade lists despite ending in 2013 (it was for exactly this reason that we disqualified it from ours). Walter White’s transformation is disquieting in how it sneaks up on both him and us, breeding tension even in the quietest scenes of this expertly paced series. Binge with caution, but even if you spread it out it’s necessary, incomparable viewing. — P.K.

Where to watch: Netflix

Homeland

Image: courtesy of Showtime

Showtime’s Homeland is wrapping up its eighth and final season, so if you start now you can finish it almost alongside everyone. Homeland, which premiered in 2011, had its ups and downs — you can mostly skip Season 3, save for the finale — but the twisty, loopy spy saga took fans from Washington, D.C. to Germany and Islamabad, among many others faraway locales. Starring an excellent Claire Danes and Mandy Patinkin, it’s a thoughtful, tense, high-stakes drama about the front lines in the war on terror. It’ll make you think long after the credits roll. — Erin Strecker, Entertainment Editor 

Where to watch: Amazon, Showtime

Deadwood

This HBO drama could have been a hokey attempt at a Western, but instead instead became an intoxicating piece of period television that even inspired a 2019 revival. The show ended in 2006 but is still guaranteed to come up in discussion about Timothy Olyphant or Ian McShane as one of their preeminent credentials. It’s a particularly appropriate choice if you’ve been soured on another HBO western that shall not be named, and just want that Southern drama and intrigue without the robot stuff. — P.K.

Where to watch: HBO

Shameless

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to recapture the magic of watching Shameless unfold over the past nine years. Seeing the Gallagher family grow up season to season was a particularly special experience that binging just can’t recreate. But as with an old family scrapbook, it’s never too late to reminisce on the sum of life’s experiences. Set in Chicago’s South Side, this family dramedy delivers the full array of emotions that growing up and growing old can provide. Side-splittingly funny and unapologetically painful, Shameless is the family you’ll always be welcome to join. It just takes some catching up. — A.F.

Where to watch: Netflix, Showtime

Justified

Image: prashant gupta / fx

One of the great joys of television in the 2020s has been watching Timothy Olyphant stay steadily employed. Before a glorious comedy turn with Santa Clarita Diet (and guest spots on The Office, The Mindy Project, and The Grinder), most of those roles involved a cowboy hat — like this one as trigger-happy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, who ends up back in his Kentucky hometown. The gun culture reads differently now in a nation ravaged by mass shootings, as does Raylan’s unlikely partnership with a Nazi (Walton Goggins, magnetic in the role) when that ideology is inexplicably trending again, but Justified is a time capsule like any other show. It’s less a political allegory than a trip into a snow globe that will totally engross you as you watch. — P.K.

Where to watch: Hulu

The West Wing

Sure, you meant to catch it when it was still on the air and racking up Emmys, and yeah, you could’ve caught up on Netflix several years later but it wasn’t priority. You toyed with bingeing the series after the 2016 election, but it didn’t feel healthy, and now your excuses are running out. American politics may never again reach the walk-and-talk idealism of Aaron Sorkin’s political drama, but The West Wing had an eerie eye for what policies and issues would matter in the 21st century. At the very least, you can put it on as a break from the news. — P.K.

Where to watch: Netflix