Autumn might just be my favourite season (how basic could I be?!).
It’s not because of pumpkin spiced lattes but rather the dark evenings and cold mornings. One of my favourite feelings is to walk out of the house in the morning, wrapped in a wooly jumper, big coat and boots, to a street filled with frozen cars, blue skies and fresh cool air.
Granted it isn’t so lovely and idyllic when the rain falls horizontally and your hood or hat flies off your head as a result of the blustering winds but let’s not think about those days!
Autumn is also the best time for plonking yourself down in front of the television.
As the nights draw closer, new television dramas pop up left, right and centre.
What could be better after a day in the office than turning the heating on, making some delicious dinner, changing into your warmest PJs before sitting down to watch some tv.
Like most people these days, I don’t get a chance to watch much television. I might watch an episode of something in the evening before getting myself ready for the next day and heading to bed. Despite this, I did get a chance to finish watching two gripping BBC dramas that have been on everybody’s Sky+ boxes over the last few weeks - The Bodyguard + Killing Eve. Both of these managed to do what very few dramas have been able to do since the rise of streaming sites such as Netflix and Amazon Prime - they managed to unite a nation in one conversation. Almost everybody I have met over the last few weeks have asked if I have watched these dramas. There's something lovely about sharing a conversation like this, especially during a time of such fractures in our society. Don't get me wrong, I know that a BBC drama about a psycho assassin who wears really cool dresses isn't going to fix the mess that is Brexit but it's a bit of light relief. Other then sport, I'm not too sure what else can unite a nation in this way.
I don’t know about you but when I am tired (which, let’s face it is most of the time) I like to watch things that I know for certain that I’m going to enjoy and most of the time this means re-watching some of my favourite programmes.
So here are some of my most loved programmes - some of which I have rewatched more times than I would care to admit.
- The US Office (Amazon Prime)
- Gilmore Girls (Netflix)
- Parks and Recreation (Amazon Prime)
The warm familiarity of the characters and the already knowing what’s going to happen bring me ridiculous amounts of reassurance.
Michael Scott, Jim + Pam and Dwight of The US Office got me through my finals at university; Gilmore Girls is a series I return to again and again and again - from the first few years of secondary school to the present day, it’s a series I never tire of and hopefully never will; Parks and Recreation has some of the best characters in television and is guaranteed to make me laugh whatever. The tenacity of Leslie Knopp and Ron Swanson's attitude makes for comedy gold (another great comedy by Michael Schur).
Here are a few series that I am currently watching and loving -
- The Good Place (Netflix)
- Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix)
- Great News (Netflix)
- A Typical (Netflix)
- Louis Theroux: Altered States (BBC iPlayer)
- No Activity (BBC iPlayer)
As well as those listed above I spend a lot of time watching clips on youtube. Most of which are clips from American talk shows and Saturday Night Live. Since my late teens I have loved American late night talk shows and comedies. During university I would spend time watching interview after interview with these comedians, their show writers and producers just to try and begin to understand the process of writing and producing content that to me was so clever. I read books by B. J. Novak, Mindy Kaling, The Harvard Lampoon; I'd watch Will Ferrel and Steve Martin's highlights from their SNL sketches on DVD; and I spent a lot of my time during those dark dissertation writing days with The Daily Show With John Stewart and Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on in the background. During this tumultuous political time, Stephen Colbert is my go to. His monologues at the top of the show are filled with passion and concern but still manages to make his audience laugh. Colbert is one of my ultimate comedians.
I’m looking forward to discovering more great television over the next few weeks as the evenings get darker and leaving the house after work becomes less appealing!
L x
