Netflix Binge!

I love every Netflix original series, because they're so creative and different, and they really believe in trusting the creators of these shows and in their vision and passion.

Colleen Ballinger

Let’s be honest, with pubs, restaurants and gym’s all still closed we’ve all had the opportunity to catch up or even start some of those, “yeah, that sounds really good”, series’ on Netflix but never really found the time to get into a twenty six episode series – well, now’s your time! I’ve watched a few things over the past few months I’d been promising myself, here’s a few of my favourites!

The Crown

We’re now on series three but don’t skip the first two, they’re brilliant! This series focuses on Queen Elizabeth II as a twenty-five-year-old newlywed faced with the daunting prospect of leading the world's most famous monarchy while forging a relationship with legendary Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill. The British Empire is in decline, the political world is in disarray, and a young woman takes the throne, a new era is dawning. The story reveals the Queen's private journey behind the public façade with daring frankness. Prepare to be welcomed into the coveted world of power and privilege and behind locked doors in Westminster and Buckingham Palace. Best ever performance of Clare Foy!

Pose

Inspired by New York's ballroom scene, the underground LGBTQ+ subculture that laid the foundation for the drag world as we know it today. It's this scene that serves as the premise for Ryan Murphy's series Pose, which takes a fictional deep dive into the lives of those involved in the scene during the 1980s, tackling tough themes such as aids, prejudice and race. With drag culture now common place in mainstream culture, Pose is a timely reminder of its origins and the sacrifices that were made to build it into the global phenomenon that it is today.

Madmen

What do you mean you didn’t watch it first time around?! Despite all of the terrible things Don Draper and his colleagues do over the course of seven series, there’s no end to the allure of Mad Men’s New York City. Somehow it makes pounding whiskeys and smoking cigarettes in a high-rise Manhattan office at ten in the morning look incredibly appealing. It’s real escapism to a time when that kind of behaviour wasn’t so obviously a sign of physical and moral decline. Aesthetics aside, Mad Men is a near-perfect binge: once you’re willing to put up with its languid pacing, it pays dividends.

Unorthodox

A moving new series about a 19-year-old Jewish woman named Esty who packs up her life and moves to Berlin in order to escape her ultra-Orthodox community and an unhappy arranged marriage in Brooklyn. It’s based on the autobiography of Deborah Feldman and is very much grounded in reality, exploring the impact oppression has had on Esty, while maintaining a balanced portrayal of the Orthodox community, whose reluctance to assimilate in society stems back to the fallout of the Second World War.

Breaking Bad

The classic, “I will get around to this at some point”! With five series and a spin-off film on Netflix to gorge on, now is not a bad time to get into Breaking Bad in a big way. For the uninitiated, it follows Walter White, a high-school teacher who is diagnosed with lung cancer and starts making crystal meth to pay his medical bills. It begins as a necessary side hustle, but grows into an obsession, and then an empire, in what is probably one of the most critically acclaimed television shows of all time.

Cheer

If you’ve put off watching Cheer because it’s about cheerleaders, then, please, put your preconceived notions about the sport aside and prepare to be amazed. The action takes place at Navarro College in Texas, where its renowned cheer team is preparing for the National Cheerleading Championship. The stakes are high – this is a team that is not used to losing – and its cheerleaders’ dedication to taking home another title is nothing short of exceptional, particularly once you learn their individual, heart breaking backstories.

I’ve really enjoyed all of these, plus a few I’ve watched on Amazon Prime but if you watch only one of them, either the Crown or Breaking bad would be my ultimate choice – enjoy!

What’s on this week?