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We are in the Golden Age of Television. Or the New Golden Age of Television. Or the Second Golden Age of Television. And while the era’s name might change depending on who you ask, there is no question that in recent history there has been an abundance of extremely interesting, incredibly produced, brilliantly acted, and wonderfully different television shows. “How many television shows?” You may ask. Well, in 2002, there were one hundred and eighty two scripted series. In 2019, that number rose to five hundred and thirty two! This increase is largely due to your favorite streaming services investing in original content.
With so many options out there it can sometimes be challenging to settle on something to watch. To narrow down your search, I rounded up five original streaming series that are truly worth a watch.
Imagine going on a health and wellness retreat and being met with a beautiful landscape, gorgeous accommodations, and secrets, lots of secrets. Based on the New York Times best selling book by author Liane Moriarty, Nine Perfect Strangers unfolds so that the guests, the staff, and the audience slowly find out all of the many secrets over the strangers’ 10-day retreat. The limited series features Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Michael Shannon, Luke Evans, Bobby Canavale and many more. It’s the perfect cold weather binge.
Mare Sheehan is a police detective in a Philadelphia suburb, the same suburb she grew up in, played basketball in, got married in, raised a family in, and got divorced in. So to say the community knows her would be an understatement. Mare is tasked with solving Easttown’s latest crime, the brutal murder of a teenage mother. Her personal troubles creep up and intertwin themselves with her ongoing case that leaves her and her community with serious doubts about whether or not she can do her job.
If I had to describe The Queen’s Gambit in one word it would be persistence. During the Cold War era, chess prodigy Elizabeth Harmon endeavors to become the greatest chess player in the world. Her road to greatness is not smooth, but rather filled with bumps and detours that include the death of her parents, life in an orphanage, and the abuse of drugs and alcohol. It is not only the main character who embodies persistence, but also the show's writer and producer Allan Scott. After being met with rejections from every studio he pitched to, Allan never faltered, rewriting the story nine times, and finally getting the brilliant limited series produced after nearly thirty years.
You can’t help but laugh as these two best friends flip flop between making fun of each other to supporting each other and everything in between. Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin star in this comedy that highlights the juxtaposition of the youth and vitality of Los Angeles with the age and wisdom of Sandy Kominsky and Norman Newlander. This Netflix comedy tackles the age of question of what to do when you're no longer wanted in a society that only values the young and the beautiful and why does it have to be that way.
Your once in a lifetime trip is someone else’s workweek. The first season of The White Lotus follows the lives of the staff and guests of a luxury hotel in beautiful Hawaii. Both the staff and the guests create, find, and search for trouble over the six episodes The comedy-drama features an ensemble cast of Murray Bartlett, Connie Britton, Jennifer Colleges, and many more. Good news, the show was renewed as an anthology series!
And, if you’re interested in the transformation of television give Difficult Men: Behind the Scenes of a Creative Revolution a read.
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