Friday, January 22

#5FandomFriday - January 22nd - Favorite Ways to Netflix and Chill

5 Fandom Friday is a weekly prompt challenge hosted by The Nerdy Girlie and Super Space ChickThis week's #5FandomFriday topic is 5 Favorite Ways to Netflix and Chill. My middle schoolers would be having a field day with that topic, but I'm going to keep it simple with my favorite shows to stream and binge watch - usually while lesson planning or writing blog posts, thank you very much. 



Once Upon a Time (Netflix and Hulu) - ABC hasn't done the greatest job of marketing OUAT, in my opinion - I had always assumed it was a silly show because, well, wasn't it just something about grown-up Disney princesses? How exciting could a Disney show for adults be, and who was the target audience anyway? Well, apparently the target audience is actually me, because Netflix kept recommending the show to me based on other things I'd watched until finally I got bored enough to check it out. Before I knew it, I had watched four seasons and gone from being obsessed with Mary Margaret and Charming to being obsessed with Emma and Hook. OF COURSE IT'S A SILLY SHOW, A SILLY AWESOME BEAUTIFUL SHOW ABOUT TRUE LOVE AND MAGIC.


Buffy the Vampire Slayer - A while back, I decided that the best way for me to become a better YA writer was to watch every single episode of Buffy ever, because obviously Joss Whedon is the master. This decision was probably a combination of procrastination and depression talking, but I completed my goal and relived the questionable fashion choices of the early 2000's. I may or may not have watched "Once More with Feeling" multiple times.


The Mindy Project (Hulu) - I am so glad Hulu picked up Mindy after FOX cancelled the show - Mindy Kaling is flipping the script on the traditional romantic comedy while still managing to get goofy jokes and physical slapstick into every episode. Comedy writing goddess.


Orange is the New Black (Netflix) - I'm not sure why I was so late to the game with this one, but I just started watching OITNB last summer and ended up binge-watching the whole series and reading the book it's based on. Now that I've read the book, I wish the show would directly address some of the more serious issues Kernan brings up a bit more, such as minimum mandatory sentences for drug-related offenses.


Jessica Jones (Netflix) - I had no doubt Marvel's newest project with Netflix would be amazing because everything they've touched so far has turned to gold, and with Agent Carter they've shown that they can build a show around a strong female character. I didn't know much about the plot of Jessica Jones going in, never having read the Alias series of comics, other than the bare bones fact that she was a former superhero turned private investigator and that the main villain was known as the Purple Man. I'd loved Krysten Ritter in Don't Trust the B and was pretty confident she could play a kick-ass action hero. The whole cast is fantastic - the show brings major star power with David Tennant as the twisted and truly scary Kilgrave and Carrie-Anne Moss (one of my original action girl crushes) as corrupt lawyer Jeri Hogarth. I loved the messed-up but fierce relationship between Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, the reluctant humanity she shows to her drug addict neighbor Malcolm, and her unbreakable friendship with Trish Walker, which is the real heart of the show and one of the best depictions of what having a best friend really means that I've ever seen on screen. Every Marvel Cinematic Universe and Marvel Studios production has been a slightly different genre - Thor is an epic fantasy romance, the Captain America films have featured Spielbergian action and political intrigue a la All The President's MenAnt-Man was a heist film, Agents of SHIELD is structured like a police procedural, Agent Carter is basically a female James Bond, and Daredevil is film noir. Jessica Jones is the darkest, most adult thing Marvel has given us so far, the characters' powers are the most believable, and its genre is straight-up psychological thriller. I quickly became addicted and yes, ended up binge-watching.

What are your favorite shows to stream (and binge)?


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