More streaming shows not to miss
One of, no, scrap that, the only advantage of being confined to quarters with an infected wisdom tooth is the extended opportunity to binge on all those streaming shows you haven’t managed to catch up with yet.
It’s also a pretty good guage of the quality of a programme if it manages to take your mind off the ridiculous pain. So for that reason alone, I feel confident in recommending this mixed-bag batch of binge-worthy shows
Succession, Netflix
Logan Roy (centre) played by Brian Cox, surrounded by his four children
If you haven’t seen any of Succession yet, then clear your schedule, get yourself settled on to your sofa and immerse yourself in the machinations of the mesmerisingly appalling (and I mean that in the most outrageously entertaining way) Roy family.
Headed by self-made billionaire media mogul and master machiavellian Logan (played brilliantly by Brian Cox) who manipulates and controls the lives and emotions of not only his four, predictably entirely screwed up, adult children (two of whom work for the company when the first series opens), but the rest of his extended family and the senior members of his company as well.
If the twists and turns of the endlessly brain-boggling plot don’t hold your attention (really?) then oggling the way the super-rich live their lives (think helicopters on call and homes and boats to die for) is definitely an added attraction.
The second series has just finished and there’s not a single devotee in its huge following that isn’t already eagerly anticipating the third (apparently due to air in summer 2020). Make sure you catch up before that comes along.
All episodes of both series are available to watch now
Modern Love, Amazon Prime
The cast of the self-contained episodes of Modern Love includes Anne Hathaway (bottom right) and Dev Pate (top second from right)
At the other end of the emotional scale is this delightful anthology rom-com series. Each of the eight, 30 minute episodes is a self-contained story about love in all its complicated, messy, heart-warming, heart-breaking forms.
Because the stories are based on real-life personal essays written in the New York Times column of the same name, there are rarely any neat, or predictable, endings, which makes each captivating episode all the more engaging.
New York itself is as much a star of the stories as the stellar cast who bring them to life. They include Anne Hathaway, Tina Fey, Dev Patel, Andrew Scott and John Slattery. You will laugh, you will cry and you will quickly find yourself caring deeply for all the myriad characters you’re introduced to.
All episodes available to watch now
Tell Me Who I Am, Netflix
Identical twin brothers Marcus (left) and Alex Lewis
No need to commit to multiple episodes for this recommendation. But this one-off, hour and a half long documentary will require your fortitude for its shocking denouement.
It’s the story of identical twins Alex and Marcus Lewis and what happened when, following a motor bike accident when he was 18, Alex woke up with no memory of anything or anyone. The only person he recognised was his brother.
Completely reliant on Marcus to reconstruct his life and his past for him, Alex trusted everything his twin told him about his family, his childhood and his experiences for the past 18 years.
But as slowly becomes clear, Marcus was hiding a devastating family secret.
This powerfully compelling story of sibling devotion challenges you to question how far you would go to protect the people you love the most.
Schitt’s Creek, Netflix
Formerly filthy rich, the Rose family are reduced to living in a run-down hotel in a one-hole town they bought as a joke
I’m seriously late to the party with this one (it launched in 2015), but I stumbled across it whilst looking for something not too taxing, not too miserable and not too long to watch whilst I waited for the numbing injections to wear off after my wretched wisdom tooth was removed. And it was the perfect discovery.
A Canadian-made comedy series about a formerly filthy-rich family who are reduced to living in the run down motel in a town they once bought as a joke, it was created by, and stars, real-life father and son actors Eugene and Daniel Levy.
The show has become a cult hit and is the perfect way to while away an amusing, occasionally slightly bonkers, delightfully entertaining time in the company of a collection of affectionately sharply observed characters thrown together by comical circumstance.
All 5 series (I told you I was late to the party) available to watch now. The final series will launch next year
What are you watching at the moment that you’d recommend?
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