@arisamp I loved both Parenthood and Friday Night Lights, and while they’re family-oriented and very well done, they’re not all that light. For something more fun, I’d go for The Middle if you haven’t seen it. I also find Grace and Frankie pretty funny. For foreign fairly light family shows try Offspring from Australia and Rita, a Danish show.
Haven’t seen the Midsomer Murders or Endeavor or Inspector Lewis. We did love Foyle’s War. We never watched Inspector Morse either - as we are generally looking for things that don’t last more than an hour.
I enjoyed watching Midsomer Murders for the scenery. It shows some beautiful home gardens.
@mathmom I don’t know about Bosch, but I stopped watching Jessica Jones halfway through the first season because it was too dark for me. Babylon Berlin certainly has its moments – especially given that we know the clock is ticking on the reign of the high-minded Social Democrats – but I didn’t think it was half as dark as Jessica Jones. My wife wouldn’t watch either of them, though.
Have you seen Trapped, on Amazon Prime? It’s an Icelandic noir police procedural, but a somewhat lighter shade of noir than some. The central pair of mismatched investigators are both really good people, they don’t have sex with one another, they are not illustrating any DSM diagnosis, and they honestly try to be good parents. In fact, most of the characters are trying to be good people. There’s sexual exploitation and violence in the plot, of course, but with very limited exceptions you don’t have to watch any of it happening. It’s very beautiful, well written and well acted.
Other non-dark (mostly) Amazon series I have loved include Good Girls Revolt and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Light-hearted family fare- try Heartland or When Calls the Heart. Or Hart of Dixie.
Oops - I meant that I had been watching River – not The River. We really, really enjoyed it.
River is a 6-episode British crime drama (not as dark as Bosch). It is exceedingly well-written, brilliantly acted, and totally binge-worthy; The River is an American series taking place in the Amazon that I know nothing about.
Now watching the Detectorists --fun!
I second the shout-out to Halt and Catch Fire, esp. for anyone that came of age during the birth of home computing in the late 70s through the early 80s when the two Steves – Jobs and Wozniak – were still tinkering in a garage in before Silicon Valley became Silicon Valley.
(Speaking of Silicon Valley, my D enjoyed binge watching that series. I haven’t had the pleasure yet).
Murdoch Mysteries is lighthearted with happy endings(Amazon)
. And …hear me out …I zombie (Netflix) is in many ways a light hearted cop show. The main character “Liv Moore” a young dr has been turned into a zombie so she goes to work in the medical examiners office to be able to get access to what she needs…brains. When she consumes the brains of the victims she takes on their characteristics ( and has visions of their demise). So one week she’s a hopekess romantic, another a grumpy old man…another a “bro culture” sports nut. She helps a dective solve the murders. Theres also a sweet friendship/romance with her former fiancée who she broke up with in order to protect him from becoming a zombie too. Watch the first 10-15 min and you’ll know if it hits you right. I had ZERO interest in zombie stuff. Still don’t. It’s not really about zombies. It’s often laugh out loud funny but can be serious about how difficult life can be for her having to be apart from the man she still loves.
Halt and catch fire is awesome.
Netflix hits & misses: Really enjoyed “The Break” Belgian production, in French with subtitles; murder who-done-it
https://www.netflix.com/title/80142550 terrific acting
Thumbs down: “Witnesses” French. Ridiculous story lines, hard to stay awake
“Deep Water”, Australian. Terrible acting, boring plodding and predictable. Nice scenery though…
@momsquad, in the past year or so, I’ve watched several movies set in Australia, and all of them get at least one star for the scenery. I love the Australian landscape.
Another thumbs down: “The Rain.” I like sci fi, but this just wasn’t good.
@4mummy and others. I couldn’t get to the BBC presented version of Hidden, that’s only available to the UK.
But Acorn Tv, which is available through Amazon, has many BBC productions and I’m just starting Hidden. Only thing is it seems to be only the English version, I kind of miss hearing the Welsh.
@lookingforward contemplating getting Acorn. Do you find that you watch a lot shows from there?
@amom2girls It seems to have enough to keep me busy binging this winter. And has Keeping Faith, which 4mummy also recommended and reviews seem to say is great. The Guardian calls it a brilliant Welsh answer to Broadchurch.
I haven’t binged as much in a while. Will share my reaction to Hidden.
Many years behind the times, but I’m watching Suits (Amazon Prime). The story lines are unrealistic (the whole premise is unrealistic) but I’m able to ignore that. It’s okay, but I’m not feeling the need to binge at a fast pace.
@MaineLonghorn Yes- “The Rain” was a hot mess. I really wanted to like it but gave up after a few episodes.
I watched most of the first season of i-Zombie back in the days of broadcast TV. It definitely had some attractive elements, but I got tired of it pretty quickly.
If you have a tolerance for zombie-based dark comedy, The Santa Clarita Diet is very good, and not over-long. Suburban mom/realtor becomes a zombie, putting a great deal of stress on her family, but giving her a kind of go-for-the-jugular business instinct and sex drive she lacked before her undeath. Everyone tries to keep her from killing people (at least not too many of them, and not the wrong ones), channel her new energy into something productive, stop her from decomposing, figure out what turned her into a zombie, and keep her marriage somewhat more alive than she is. Drew Barrymore is pretty much perfect in it, Tim Olyphant is decent as her husband, and Liv Hewson a great deadpan teenage daughter. Fans of Buffy and Firefly will enjoy a substantial continuing role for Nathan Fillion.
Currently watching El Ministerio del Tiempo (The Ministry of Time) on Netflix. Not really binge watching it in the sense that I’ll sit and watch for hours on end, but I’ll watch one episode every a day or two. It’s a three-season series from Spain about people who go back in time to prevent history from changing. I usually hate the overused time travel genre, but this is pretty good. Reminds me of Bob Mayer’s “Time Patrol” book series, and in fact some of the things in the show, such as a descending series of steps with doors to different time periods along the way, are almost exactly as described in the books… Makes me wonder if both the show and books lifted the descending staircase idea from an earlier source.
The only things I’ve really binge-watched within the last year are GLOW, Stranger Things, and Last Chance U.
I truly despise Netflix’s recommendation system, since it keeps suggesting the same three dozen shows over and over in every category. Many of the shows mentioned by others, I had no clue were available.
BOSCH BOSCH BOSCH!
I’m about halfway through 10 episodes of “Dark”. It’s a German Netflix original that you can watch either with subtitles or dubbed into English. It took me a couple of episodes to get into it but I’ve gotten caught up in the plot now and can’t wait to finish it. This article compares it to a David Lynch movie but it’s much more than that. https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/1/16724852/netflix-dark-review-first-german-streaming-series