QUARANT-BINGE
FACT’s Elanur Sengel picks 20 couch-calling series on Netflix and Apple TV to make sure you’re living your best quarantine life!
1. THE IRISHMAN
Run Time: 209 min
IMDb: 8.6/10
If you have watched and love Goodfellas or Casino, there’s no doubt you’ll love The Irishman, too. This fictionalised crime thriller, based on true events, follows Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a former labor union high official and hitman who was working for the Bufalino crime family. Now as he looks back on his life, he considers his involvement with his good friend Jimmy Hoffa’s disappearance in 1975
2. ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK
Run Time: 59 min (per episode)
IMDb: 8.1/10
Orange Is the New Black has become Netflix’s most-watched original series, and for good reason. It will make you laugh and think, and sometimes, it will break your heart, too. The story takes place in a women’s prison and is based around Piper Chapman, a woman whose past with a drug dealer causes her to be sentenced to 15 months behind bars. Piper faces the reality of how life-changing prison can really be, surrounded by many hard-hitting home truths.
3. MASTER OF NONE
Run Time: 30-60 min (per episode)
IMDb: 8.3/10
This award-winning post-modern romantic comedy follows the
dreamy exploits of Dev (Aziz Ansari), an easy-going commercial
actor living in New York City, who tries to jump-start his acting
career and elevate his dating game with help from his eclectic
group of friends. A truly fun sitcom and some kind of a roadmap
to dating for a new generation.
4 THE PLATFORM
Run Time: 94 min
IMDb: 7.0/10
The Spanish science fiction horror-thriller is set in a large, vertical-style prison that has only one cell per level and two people per cell. The inmates are fed by means of a food platform that gradually descends the levels of the tower — a system that is an absolute nightmare if you are in the bottom levels where the food barely arrives and where you can’t trust anyone except your guts. The Platform delivers its moral message brilliantly with the mechanics of a lean thriller.
5. THE UMBRELLA ACADEMY
Run Time: 60 min (per episode)
IMDb: 8.0/10
The Umbrella Academy is an American superhero show based on the comic book series of the same name. The show follows the story of seven kids, all born on the same day to mothers who didn’t even know they were pregnant. They’re adopted by a mysterious billionaire and trained to use their supernatural abilities to fight evil in the world, but when they grow up, their dysfunctional upbringing catches up with them, and they’re left struggling to live normal lives.
6. BATES MOTEL
Run Time: 45 min (per episode)
IMDb: 8.2/10
If you’ve ever watched and loved Hitchcock’s iconic movie Psycho, then you will want to see the contemporary prequel to how Norman Bates became the serial killer that he was. Set in modern times, Bates Motel travels through the psyche of a teenager who moves into a Motel with his mother in a rural town after escaping from a suspicious event that left his father dead. With a fresh start, Norman’s mother struggles to find normalcy as she constantly must hide her son away from speculation that is a result of mysterious deaths occurring in the town.
7. DYNASTY
Run-Time: 40 min (per episode)
IMDb: 7.3/10
This modern-day Dynasty begins with billionaire heiress Fallon Carrington who is unhappy about her right to the throne being threatened. Her father’s engagement to Cristal, a rival employee at the family company proves to be the obstacle. While things at the dysfunctional family’s mansion have a way of remaining harmonious, the Carrington’s quickly find themselves involved in the suspicious murder of Cristal’s former lover, Matthew. Don’t miss out on this hilarious drama to see what kind of bizarre family relationships a crisis can uncover.
8. GRACE AND FRANKIE
Run Time: 30 min (per episode)
IMDb: 8.3/10
This Netflix original re-teams Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as Grace and Frankie, two ladies that actually are rivals for as long as they can recall. However, when they learn that their husbands have fallen in love with each other and want to get married, everything around the ladies is coming apart. Realising that the only people they can really rely on is each other, they move in together to start a new chapter.
9. SEE
RunTime: 60 min (per episode)
IMDb: 7.6/10
Curtain up for Apple TV’s brilliant original See. Hundreds of years on in a dystopian future, a fraction of humanity has survived a deadly virus that caused everyone to lose their eyesight. Tribes and kingdoms have found new ways to interact, build, and hunt for survival. The concept of eyesight has become a heretic topic, which all changes when a set of twins are born which have the power to see. You will be on the edge of your seat while joining the Alcan Race in their evasive journey from the Payan Kingdom who seek to eradicate all heretics who claim to acknowledge the gift of eyesight.
10. BOJACK HORSEMAN
Run Time: 30 min
IMDb: 8.7/10
BoJack Horseman has sharp writing and many layered jokes that will give you good time on your couch, guaranteed. The show takes place in an animated world where anthropomorphic animals and humans live side by side. Bojack Horseman (Ben Affleck) is a washed-up star of an old sitcom called “Horsin’ Around”. After the show’s cancellation BoJack has become depressive and narcissistic, spending his days lounging around his luxurious Hollywood bachelor pad drinking heavily, complaining about everything, and watching episodes of his old show. Now he tries to resurrect his celebrity relevance, with decidedly mixed results.
11. FRACTURED
Run Time: 99 min
IMDb: 6.3/10
Driving home after a weekend with his in-laws, Ray Monroe (Sam Worthington) takes a break at a rest stop with his wife Joanne and daughter Peri. This takes a turn for the worse when Peri is hurt in an accident and the family rushes to a nearby hospital. After being sent away for further testing, Peri and Joanne vanish and all records of their visit disappear. Ray’s dark assumption turns into a desperate race to find his family and discover the truth of what happened to them. A movie with a turn that gives you goosebumps.
12. THE MORNING SHOW
Run Time: 60 min (per episode)
IMDb: 8.4/10
Nominated for three Golden Globes, The Morning Show on Apple TV is a must-watch. It doesn’t only have an exciting cast, but a strong focus on power dynamics in the media industry. Inspired by Brian Stelter’s book Top of the Morning, The Morning Show gives you a glimpse into the behind-the-camera workings of morning TV. Jennifer Aniston plays a morning anchor who’s paired with a new co-host (Reese Witherspoon) after a scandal sends her co-worker packing
13. MARVEL’S DAREDEVIL
Run Time: 50 min (per episode)
IMDb: 8.6/10
Based on the iconic Marvel Comics character of the same name, Charlie Cox stars as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, a blind lawyer-byday who fights crime as a masked vigilante by night. Although the Netflix series nails the tone of the comic, it is completely distinct from the film franchise, since it is much darker, more brutal and grittier, even though there is enough light and humor to make its characters sympathetic.
14. THE ELEPHANT QUEEN
Run Time: 96 min
IMDb: 8.0/10
Filmed over the course of four years, The Elephant Queen is a nature documentary that follows mother Athena and the herd she shepherds across the unforgiving terrain in search of food and water, after they are forced to leave their waterhole. Taking you across the African savannah and into the heart of an elephant family, The Elephant Queen is a warm tale of love, loss and coming home.
15. GAME NIGHT
Run Time: 100 min
IMDb: 7.8/10
This dark comedy on Apple TV stars Jason Bateman and Rachel Mc Adams, and follows a group of friends who meet regularly for game nights. One game night turns into a real-life mystery after one of them is kidnapped by apparent burglars. A comedy that guarantees plenty of laugh-out- loud moments.
16. SERVANT
Run Time: 30 min (per episode)
IMDB: 8.2/10
This Apple TV+ show has enough creep factor to drive you to each new episode. Servant is about a grieving couple named Dorothy and Sean who lost their newborn baby and then bought a “reborn doll”— which is totally lifelike— to help Dorothy cope with her loss. They hire a young nanny to take care of the doll, but something seems to be wrong with this nanny. Sean feels that there is something bad about to happen.
17. MARRIAGE STORY
Run Time: 137 min
IMDB: 8.0/10
A stage director (Adam Driver) and his actor wife (Scarlett Johansson) struggle through a grueling, coast-to-coast divorce that pushes them to their personal and creative extremes. Marriage Story portrays divorce as a death without a body and shows that divorce doesn’t necessarily mean you stop caring. A heartfelt comedy-drama that might give you a different perspective on the sanctity of marriage in modern times.
18. YOU
RunTime: 45 min (per episode)
IMDB: 7.8/10
When settling down to watch this Netflix show, be ready for plenty of OMG moments. YOU follows a dangerously-charming, intensely-obsessive young man who falls in love with a girl named Guinevere Beck and quickly develops an extreme, toxic, and delusional obsession with her. What happens next and how the story unfolds will leave you on the edge of your seat, wanting more.
19. BLACK MIRROR
Run Time: 60 min (per episode)
IMDB: 8.8/10
Netflix’s Black Mirror explores how technology influences us and our lives – for the better and for the worse. The anthology series taps into our love for the digital world, giving us something to think about with each stand-alone episode. A new mindbending saga and super relevant depictions of things that are happening now – and could easily happen in the future – will keep you glued to the screen.
20. MONEY HEIST
Run Time: 70min (per episode)
IMDB: 8.5/10
And last but not least, Money Heist – with a new season coming out very soon. The Netflix original tells the story of a criminal mastermind. A group of unique robbers who have nothing to lose assault the Factory of Moneda and Timbre to carry out the most perfect heist in the history of robberies in Spain and, possibly, Europe, to take home 2.4 billion euros. Hostage relationships, unexpected twists and a plan that has a new obstacle at every turn – this is one to really pay attention to!
