Coronavirus: Best TV shows to binge while stuck at home
Rather than go stir crazy, these are the bingeworthy television shows you can watch for a mental escape during the coronavirus self-isolation period.
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These are the bingeworthy television series you can watch for a mental escape during the self-isolation period.
LOCKED INSIDE AND NEED A LAUGH?
BREEDERS
Streaming, Foxtel On Demand
EVER considered suffocating your children with their own donnas? With most schools looking likely to lock down, this could be you in a matter of days. Sleep-deprived and frazzled parents, Paul (Martin Freeman) and Ally (Daisy Haggard) are all of us right now. If it’s not the kids driving them nuts, it’s parenting their parents who have an opinion on everything, particularly the planning of their deaths (sound familiar?) Enjoy this rib-tickling new British comedy with a glass of wine and maybe when the kids have gone to bed, so they don’t see you laughing just a little too heartily at the parts where the parents share their deepest, dark feelings about their beloved rug rats.
UPRIGHT
Streaming, Foxtel On Demand
Lucky (Tim Minchin) and Meg (Milly Alcock) are two misfits whose lives literally crash together, on the Nullarbor track from Melbourne to Perth. He’s a screw-up musician hauling more baggage than just the upright piano he’s got in the back of the ute. She’s a teen runaway with her own secrets but so much fight good luck getting close enough to find out what they are. It’s a buddy dramedy that falls somewhere happily between The Shiralee and Last Cab To Darwin.
BETTER THINGS
Streaming, Foxtel On Demand
This series follows Sam (Pamela Adlon), a single mother trying to raise her three
daughters – Max (Mikey Madison), Frankie (Hannah Alligood), and Duke (Olivia
Edward) – in Los Angeles. Whether she’s struggling to keep them close, or trying to push one out of the nest, the struggling actor approaches every challenge with love,
and lashings of humour. At the end of the day, she’s just trying to earn a living,
raise her daughters, and find the perfect partner in a sea of disappointment. Of course, that’s easier said than done when her mum (Celia Imrie) lives across the street.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED WITH CELESTE BARBER
Streaming, ABC iView
She’s been on your telly all summer as the super hero we never knew existed – raising millions with a single ‘Gram post and hosting the ultimate fundraiser, Fire Fight Australia. Now get to know what made Celeste Barber famous, in this short-format web series where she parodies fashion models and celebrities and shares her real woman comedy stylings and her ‘Hot Husband’ with the world.
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GOT TIME TO GO BACK TO THE CLASSICS?
THE SOPRANOS
Streaming, Foxtel on Demand
Late to The Sopranos party, I only recently binged this series for the first time and am now kicking myself for waiting so long. It’s regarded as the real turning point in the golden era of today’s TV dramas and with the late James Gandolfini in the lead, it’s an absolute must-watch.
THE WIRE
Streaming, Foxtel On Demand
While Idris Elba settles in at home recovering from coronavirus, catch his breakout performance as Stringer Bell, in this gritty, five season series. Exploring the Baltimore street drug trade and corruption at all levels above, it is one of the most perfectly crafted dramas in TV history – written by former journalist, David Simon, who used his professional smarts on The Baltimore Sun newspaper to inform his pioneering scripts.
GAME OF THRONES
Streaming, Foxtel On Demand
Confession: when everyone was going wild for GoT back in the day, I was watching re-runs of Will & Grace (Stan). I just couldn’t get past the early episodes where a dog is hurt, a child mistreated and women treated like sexual play things by brutish men. Then a friend urged me to persevere to episode 4 and I’d be hooked. I did and I was. Six seasons on and you will be too.
THE WEST WING
Streaming, Stan
Longing for a time when there was an adult in the White House? When creative genius Aaron Sorkin first scripted President Josiah Bartlett – played comfortingly by the great Martin Sheen – he could not have imagined how far from his creation the current commander-in-chief would be. This is whip smart and addresses political issues we’re still facing today.
PLAY CATCH UP ON THE HOTTEST SHOWS TODAY!
SUCCESSION
Streaming, Foxtel On Demand
This brilliant drama has had the world of media and Hollywood abuzz since it launched two seasons ago. It follows the lives of the fictional Roy family, who control one of the biggest media and entertainment conglomerates in the world. When 80-year-old patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox) refused to step down as CEO, a power struggle ensues. Who can, will or should succeed him? It’s devilish and delicious drama.
CHERNOBYL
Streaming, Foxtel On Demand
The idea of watching the story of one global crisis while another unfolds in real time may seem the act of a masochist. But we can always learn lessons from history, and this stunning mini-series captures the chaos and political manoeuvring that went on during the fallout from the nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986.
WENTWORTH
Streaming, Foxtel On Demand
This is your best opportunity yet to settle in and start at the beginning of this magnificent, thrilling, cutthroat and quality Australian drama before its final season airs later this year. It took inspiration from the original Prisoner series, but comes closer to shows like The Wire and Orange is the New Black; showcasing some of the best female actors in the world today.
THE TEST
Streaming, Amazon Prime Video
When the Australian cricket team was busted red-handed tampering with a cricket ball while on tour in South Africa in 2018, it was one of the darkest days this nation has faced. It’s not an exaggeration that the country went into mourning, outraged ‘our’ team had let us down so badly. From that moment to now, this access-all-areas doco tells Aussie cricket’s redemption tale and the men doing a great job in the rebuild.
BILLIONS
Streaming, Stan
There is no such thing as a ‘slow burn’ when it comes to the pace of action and plot twists in Billions. With season 5 about to roll, fans have been breathlessly following the ego explosions and ‘big d*ck energy’ of rivals (Paul Gametti and Damien Lewis) in a business battle that never gives an inch. Bonus: The Good Wife’s Juliana Marguiles joins the cast in the new episodes.
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BOOST YOUR MOOD
ZOEY’S EXTRAORDINARY PLAYLIST
Streaming, Stan
A few days into working from home in ‘isolation’ and I’ll admit, bursting into song at my desk was the best it got by way of entertainment. Need something a little more profesh, than your own warbling? Then this feel-good series, which follows a perky young woman who hears other people’s inner thoughts – only in song and dance – is just the thing to add.
CHEER
Streaming, Netflix
The competitive world of cheerleading is something else in the US of A, where it’s much more than just pom poms and cartwheels (it’s that, but extra). This fascinating documentary takes you inside an elite squad and tells their stories of triumph over adversity – from the coach, to the kids trying to use their one sporting chance in life.
BRENE BROWN: CALL TO COURAGE
Streaming, Netflix
When Oprah, Shaynna Blaze, even Sonny Bill Williams need some inspiration, this sassy Texan social researcher is their new go-to. Her TedTalks on the crippling effect of shame and the power of vulnerability saw her profile explode and a spiritual star was born. This is just the psychological reset button we should all take the time to push in this crazy time.
OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB
Streaming, Apple TV+
This is the perfect TV for combining your extra reading time with a side of Oprah Winfrey. It’s what it says on the box: the media maven, who made the careers of hundreds of authors when she anointed their books on her former talk show, is back doing just that for Apple TV+. Each six weeks she flags a new fave, then interviews the author with an audience of viewers/readers.
NEED TO GET ACROSS THE CV SCIENCE?
CORONAVIRUS: HOW TO SURVIVE THE CRISIS
7pm, Sky News [Ch 103 & 600] and Sky on WIN [Ch 53 and 83]
SKY anchor and investigative reporter Peter Stefanovic will explore how it started, how to avoid it and the crazy conspiracy theories spreading as quickly as the virus itself.
With more than 100,000 cases of coronavirus across the globe and the rapidly rising death toll, Sky News investigates the origins of COVID-19, debunks the myths and explores the impact it’s having across the world.