The Best Shows to Watch While Staying Home

Take Time for Your Favorite Shows

Things are rough out there. The news is pretty doom and gloom all the time in light of coronavirus, so it’s important to take some time for levity. What better way to unwind and let our minds relax than with some entertaining tv? If you’re looking for shows to watch while staying home, I hope you enjoy this list of some of my favorites.

Shows to Watch While Staying Home

Parks and Recreation

Parks and Rec is one of my favorite comedy shows ever. I’ve written before about how it’s one of my favorite go-to shows to watch, and that remains true. There’s something so whimsical about it all — we could all use a little of Leslie’s optimism right now — that always makes me smile. So, take a little trip to Pawnee, and enjoy some time with Li’l Sebastian and the Parks and Rec gang.

The Try Guys

While the other suggestions here are tv shows that can be found on Netflix, the Try Guys are YouTubers with a vast library of mostly-20 to 30 minute long videos. They’re basically tv shows. Anyway, I’ve written about them before (both the YouTube channel and their book) and here I am again: you should watch the Try Guys. The episodes are all about four guys who try things, basically. You can pretty much watch any of them without seeing previous episodes and still find them entertaining, but it definitely is worth starting from the beginning of their channel so you get to know their personalities. To make it easier, I’m going to list a few of my favorite episodes. The first two are from when they were still with Buzzfeed; the rest are since they started their own business and channel.

P.S. Not truly related, but the Try Guys shared a photo of my cat, Louis, and it got over 40,000 likes. The fame is going to Louis’ head.

Lucifer

While it has its dramatic points, Lucifer is largely a comedy that is worth revisiting during this time of social distancing. It’s especially opportune to watch this one because they’re working on wrapping the new season for Netflix soon. Plus, I’ve heard tell of a possible sixth season, which is a welcome surprise since they had planned to end it with season five. I don’t know about you, but I’m more than happy to spend more time with Lucy, the Detective, Maze, and Trixy.

Read more about Lucifer here!

Arrested Development

A classic comedy about a dysfunctional family in the housing development business, Arrested Development mixes lighthearted quips with ongoing subtext that makes me laugh every time. We recently started rewatching the show, actually, and I’m still catching new things, and I’ve seen it countless times! The original seasons are the best, but the reboot episodes are definitely worth watching again, especially if you binge them in a relatively short period of time. There are so many Easter eggs in those that are sure to make you laugh.

New Girl

It’s hard to be upset when Schmidt is ranting about the youths or Nick’s clothing in New Girl. Like Parks and Rec, New Girl is the perfect mixture of whimsy and sarcasm that will cheer you up without being too sickly sweet. If you’re like me and dropped off watching towards the end of the series, I highly recommend checking out the last season again. I recently rewatched it and really enjoyed it. I found Cece and Schmidt’s house renovations to be especially funny, like when they realize that there are so many more points of entry for people to break in with. Pretty relatable humor all the way through.

The IT Crowd

The IT Crowd is a British show that first aired in 2006, with all the early 2000’s style glory. It’s a riot from the start, following two IT technicians, Moss (Richard Ayoade) and Roy (Chris O’Dowd), and their new department head, Jen (Katherine Parkinson), who lied on her CV about her computer proficiency to get the job. Some of the show is incredibly bizarre — IE: Richmond — but it is so entertaining you basically suspend disbelief for it.

For the record, my all time favorite episode of the IT Crowd is Season 4 Episode 3 (“Something Happened” or “Italian for Beginners”). Watch it and enjoy.

Queer Eye

While not exactly comedy, Queer Eye fills the need for sweet, optimistic television. It’s a super bingeable show — probably the most bingeable of the shows to watch here. So, fair warning, if you haven’t started it already, you might want to pace yourself and savor it. There are four seasons available on Netflix, along with a mini season in Japan and some other features, and it is really easy to blow through them. Oh, and it’s going to make you want to simultaneously redecorate everything with Bobby and make all the delicious food with Antoni. In the case of the latter, I recommend his cookbook, which I mentioned here.