What to Watch When: 1,000 TV Shows for Every Mood and Moment PDF
Preview What to Watch When: 1,000 TV Shows for Every Mood and Moment
002-003_TITLEPAGE.indd 2 15/06/2020 14:17 W H A T T O W A T C H W H E N 1,000 TV shows for every mood and moment Written by Christian Blauvelt, Laura Buller, Andrew Frisicano, Stacey Grant, Mark Morris, Eddie Robson, Maggie Serota, Drew Toal, Matthew Turner, Laurie Ulster 002-003_TITLEPAGE.indd 3 15/06/2020 14:17 CONTENTS 146 What to watch when… you want a cosy night in 148 Dawson’s Creek 6 What to watch when… you 154 The Office want to get your pulse racing 159 Gavin & Stacey 8 Game of Thrones 165 Queer as Folk 10 Breaking Bad 169 My So-Called Life 11 The Mandalorian 170 Sex and the City 16 The Boys 176 Thirtysomething 28 True Detective 179 This Is Us 29 Battlestar Galactica 188 Ugly Betty 32 Watchmen 192 What to watch when… you 38 Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan need a feel-good moment 46 Bodyguard 194 Friends 54 What to watch when… 196 One Day at a Time you have three generations 198 Boy Meets World on one sofa 204 Shameless 56 The Simpsons 212 Community 58 Doctor Who (2005–) 221 American Vandal 65 The Muppet Show 226 Young Sheldon 71 Bewitched 230 The Goldbergs 78 The Addams Family 233 The Great British Bake Off 83 The Golden Girls 238 W hat to watch when… 88 Star Trek you need a really good laugh 94 Quantum Leap 97 Wallace & Gromit’s World 240 Absolutely Fabulous of Invention 244 30 Rock 247 Grace and Frankie 100 What to watch when… 250 Derry Girls you want to escape to 258 Cheers a different time 262 Monty Python’s Flying Circus 102 Mad Men 265 M*A*S*H 106 The Avengers 268 The Big Bang Theory 107 The Singing Detective 278 Seinfeld 110 Brideshead Revisited 286 What to watch when… you 114 Westworld want to learn something new 122 Blackadder 123 The Witcher 288 The Crown 140 Peaky Blinders 290 Chernobyl 145 The Prisoner 296 Roots 300 Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown 4 004-005_CONTENTS.indd 4 15/06/2020 14:17 305 Planet Earth 394 UnREAL 306 When They See Us 404 Batman 316 QI 410 Billions 317 Jeopardy! 420 Zoo 320 The Wire 421 Spartacus 332 What to watch when… 426 What to watch when… you you feel like wallowing want to be scared witless 334 Succession 428 Buffy the Vampire Slayer 340 Fleabag 434 The Walking Dead 341 The Sopranos 436 The Twilight Zone 346 The Handmaid’s Tale 442 The X-Files 354 Peep Show 446 Stranger Things 360 Curb Your Enthusiasm 452 Doctor Who (1963–1989) 361 Veep 456 Twin Peaks 368 Killing Eve 464 Quatermass Quadrilogy 374 BoJack Horseman 470 Black Mirror 378 What to watch when… 474 Index you just want to switch off 480 Acknowledgements 380 Downton Abbey 384 Dynasty 390 Gossip Girl 391 You A NOTE ON AGE RATINGS The certification given for each TV programme 12: Video release suitable for 12 years and over. indicates the highest UK rating given to an episode 15: Suitable only for 15 years and over. across the whole of each TV series. Sometimes 18: Suitable only for adults. the rating is the exception, but it’s always good US ratings used in this book to know if there’s a risk of much more mature TV-G: General audience. Most parents would find content than you would otherwise be expecting. this programme suitable for all ages. Where no UK rating is available, we’ve provided TV-PG: Parental guidance suggested. This programme the US rating, with “(US)” following it. In a few contains material that parents may find unsuitable cases there are TV shows with no age rating in for younger children. either the UK or the US. In situations like this, TV-Y7: Directed to older children. This programme you will see “NR” – no rating. is designed for children aged 7 and above. TV-14: Parents strongly cautioned. This programme UK ratings used in this book contains some material that many parents would find E: Exempt. Programmes designed to inform, educate unsuitable for children under 14. or instruct. TV-MA: Mature audience only. This programme is U: Universal. Suitable for all. specifically designed to be viewed by adults and PG: Parental guidance. General viewing, but some may be unsuitable for children under 17. scenes might be unsuitable for young children. 5 004-005_CONTENTS.indd 5 15/06/2020 14:17 6 006_007_C1_Opener.indd 6 15/06/2020 14:17 YOU WANT TO GET YOUR PULSE R ACING Written by Drew Toal Whether it’s a modern crime drama or an impossibly bloody fight for the Iron Throne, the best of these shows push your heart into your throat and leave you white-knuckling the television remote. They thrill with tense standoffs, daring heists, killer robots, flawed heroes (super-powered or otherwise), and sometimes just good, old-fashioned detective work. If it’s adrenaline you crave, these are the shows for you. 7 006_007_C1_Opener.indd 7 15/06/2020 14:17 GAME OF THRONES FANTASY • 2011 • RATED: 18 • 57 MINS • SEASONS: 8 PETER DINKLAGE, LENA HEADEY, EMILIA CLARKE HBO’s award-winning adaptation of The Starks are a noble family hailing from George R.R. Martin’s epic fantasy opus Winterfell, a kingdom situated in the north is known for its swords, sex, dragons, of Westeros. One day, King Robert Baratheon and ice zombies. In an era of streaming comes to town and recruits his old friend, on demand, Game of Thrones quickly Ned, to help him run the fractured became appointment television government from the capital, King’s Landing. across the globe. Against his better judgement, Ned agrees, a fateful decision that will have far-reaching “Winter is coming.” Before the game of consequences for the entire world. Ned’s thrones ends, these fateful words will be family, including his wife Catelyn, sons Robb, uttered dozens of times, by a huge cast Bran, and Rickon, daughters Sansa and Arya, of characters. For Eddard “Ned” Stark and wards Jon Snow and Theon Greyjoy, are (Sean Bean) and his family – the primary soon swept from their relatively idyllic protagonists of the series – the motto serves existence into a maelstrom of medieval not just as an ominous weather forecast, but realpolitik. King’s Landing is a snake pit, with also as a warning and a promise. duelling factions that make our own political divides look extremely quaint in comparison. In Game of Thrones, conspiracies, intrigues, “If you think this has a and murder are the true currency of the realm – you win or you die. happy ending, you haven’t While a creeping existential threat emerges in been paying attention.” the wilderness “beyond the Wall” in the form of an undead army-slash-heavy-handed climate Ramsay Bolton (S3 E6) change allegory, warlords across the land ignore the real danger and instead use every tool at their disposal to settle scores and 8 008-009_C1_GameOfThrones_A.indd 8 15/06/2020 14:17 WHAT TO WATCH WHEN... YOU WANT TO GET YOUR PULSE RACING DEATHS PER SEASON IN GAME OF THRONES S8 3,523 S7 1,096 S6 540 S5 246 S4 182 S3 87 S2 130 Number of deaths S1 59 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 squabble over the crown. More often than power-hungry Cersei Lannister (Lena not, these sadistic machinations leave a trail of Headey). Characters who are at one time bodies that occasionally leads one to wonder mortal enemies become allies of necessity, whether or not there will be any subjects left and then something close to friends. This is to rule by the time the show ends. not the kind of story in which the good guys always win. This is no run-of-the-mill swords-and-sorcery TV project. Showrunners David Benioff and Indeed, in Game of Thrones, it’s not always D.B. Weiss took George R.R. Martin’s beloved clear who the good guys even are. If the books and gave them the true big-screen show does have a conscience, it comes in the treatment. Along the way, they even create the person of Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion Lannister, longest battle sequence in both TV and film a hard-drinking, melancholic dwarf who also history! Throughout eight seasons, you meet happens to hail from one of the most powerful iconic characters and watch them grow – the families in the Seven Kingdoms. Tyrion has a lucky ones who survive, anyhow – and see powerful intellect and a biting wit – and also allegiances shift. You meet dragons and their something of a wine dependency. He is a “mother”, the exiled Daenerys Stormborn of captive witness, as we all are, to a singular House Targaryen, played by Emilia Clarke. adventure, and one of the grandest You also meet a rogues’ gallery of vicious productions in TV history. Even in an era villains, including the scheming Littlefinger of “prestige TV”, Game of Thrones pushed (Aidan Gillen), the brutally sadistic Ramsay the limits of the medium and cemented its Bolton (Iwan Rheon), and, of course, place in pop-culture history. CREATORS: David Benioff, D.B. Weiss PRODUCTION CO: HBO, Television 360, Grok! Studio, Generator Entertainment, Bighead Littlehead 9 008-009_C1_GameOfThrones_A.indd 9 15/06/2020 14:17 BREAKING BAD CRIME DRAMA • 2008 • RATED: 18 • 49 MINS • SEASONS: 5 BRYAN CRANSTON, AARON PAUL, BOB ODENKIRK To pay mounting medical bills, as drug kingpins, learning what to do – and, a high-school chemistry teacher more often, what not to do – as they go along. named Walter White starts “cooking” Walter makes money, but his noble intentions and selling crystal meth in secret. to support his family quickly give way to his Walter soon learns he has a talent long-suppressed ambition to do something for the drug game. big with his life. When we first meet Walter (Bryan Cranston), Throughout Breaking Bad’s five seasons we he’s not much to look at. Considered a brilliant meet some memorable characters as Walter mind in his younger days, he’s now a sad builds up his empire, including dour fixer Mike 50-year-old high school chemistry teacher in Ehrmantraut, businessman Gus Fring, and New Mexico. After learning he has terminal seedy lawyer Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk), lung cancer, Walter puts his skills to more whose character was so popular it spawned unsavoury – albeit more lucrative – use. He the spin-off, Better Call Saul (see p349). hooks up with crystal meth enthusiast Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), and the pair form an Walter White is no hero, but much of unlikely, uneasy alliance, and a new business. Breaking Bad’s appeal lies in the actualization of his particular mid-life crisis. He’s just this Walter’s initial goal is to financially set up guy, living an unremarkable life in the American his son, unborn daughter, and wife Skyler for Southwest, who latches on to a piece of bad when he’s gone. He understands the chemistry news, and uses it to get some agency back in involved in the drug’s production intimately, his life. He takes his frustrations over his perhaps better than anyone, but in all other imminent death and channels them into respects he is in over his head. Jesse and something that reminds him what it’s like Walter nevertheless dive into their new career to feel alive. We can all relate to that. CREATOR: Vince Gilligan PRODUCTION CO: High Bridge Productions, 10 Gran Via Productions, Sony Pictures Television, AMC 010-011_C1_BreakingBad_Mandalorian_BB.indd 10 15/06/2020 14:17
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