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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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