We are in peak TV watching season.
Sometimes people think the best time to catch up on TV is in the summer when they have some time off. Or the dead of winter when it’s too cold to go outside. No. The time is now. It’s that liminal part of the year when you feel energized to do so many things, but also it feels so cozy to do nothing. The weather is good enough that you feel like you could go do a speed walking loop around the park in your light jacket, but it’s crisp enough that you can’t imagine ever leaving life underneath your comforter.
There are few things as snug or as gratifying as knowing you’re going to do something productive, but procrastinating an hour or two because it feels oh-so-nice to just pull up the blanket to your chin and press “play next episode” on whatever you’re watching. Whatever “fall TV season” used to mean on a corporate and advertising level, this is what it now means to me on a “making life as comfy as possible” level.
To mark the shift to this ideal TV-watching season, I wanted to recommend some recent series to watch, some of which have just premiered, some that have a full season available to binge, and some that are starting new seasons. Happy curling up and watching TV time to one and all!
English Teacher: The finale of this just aired, so the full season is available on Hulu. It’s a perfect season of TV. About a gay high school teacher in Austin trying to figure out how to interact with a new generation of students while also figuring out what he wants from his life in a changing world, it’s funny with just the right amount of thought-provoking.
Agatha All Along: I vowed never to care about Marvel again, and then they made Kathryn Hahn, Aubrey Plaza, and Patti LuPone witches and sent them on an adventure together, so now I’m obsessed. If you’ve been watching, you’ll probably share my opinion that Hahn and Joe Locke have the most fascinating dynamic of any two characters on TV. I swear this makes sense when you watch the show, but I feel like they’re very much a gay teen and his favorite aunt.
