5 TV Shows you need to watch!

I know, it has been 2 years since i last posted (has it been that long?!) - when I got back from exchange I had to sell my body and soul back to NUS. As the semester (and my university life) draws to an end, I'm beginning to have a little more free time, which means being able to catch up on my fave tv shows and write about it! Inspiration hit me one night as I lay in bed at 2am after watching the latest episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine so here I am writing about 5 TV shows I would really recommend.

Disclaimer: I mainly watch light-hearted comedy/drama shows, so please don't expect to read about any psychological thrillers/documentary/non-fictional type of genres in this post.

1. Santa Clarita Diet

Santa Clarita Diet, referred to as SCD from here on, is an American horror-comedy TV series. Season 1 premiered in 2017 and Season 2 was out on Netflix this year and I'm absolutely hooked! SCD isn't your typical TV show about the undead and zombies and brains etc, but it gives a refreshing take on it.

The show follows a couple, Sheila and Joel Hammond (played by Drew Barrymore and Timothy Olyphant) who are realtors in Santa Clarita, and their teenage daughter, Abby. When Sheila gets turned into a zombie-undead-human thing (reason to be revealed when you watch the show) and needs to start eating / killing people for food, their family faces many challenges dealing with this and getting to the bottom of finding out what happened to Sheila. With Sheila's transition, the family's normal life is totally turned upside down where their everyday issues literally deals with life and death problems like whom Sheila should eat, how to kill etcetera - and not to mention they have cop neighbours as well which makes it a whole lot more complicated.

What I really loved about this show is that Sheila and Joel are seriously couple goals?!?

Even though Joel is totally human and normal, he supports his wife like a 110% and even goes along to help Sheila with her hunt for people/food. You know he's a keeper when he accepts you when you're undead AND kills with/for you. #truelove

Also, the side storyline of their daughter Abby and the cop neighbour's super-smart step-son, Eric, also keeps things interesting.

SCD is SOOO HILARIOUS and I would really recommend it because it isn't your typical zombie show - although there is definitely some gory scenes (she eats humans after all). Not for the faint of heart, but if I can handle it means the goriness-level is pretty much manageable! Anyhoo (because Carl thinks it's cute when girls say it), without further revealing anymore details, SCD is a definitely must-watch on my list and can't wait to sink my teeth into and devour Season 3!

2. Brooklyn Nine-Nine

I love this show as much as Terry loves yogurt, or maybe even more. So B99 is about a team of detectives in Brooklyn's 99th precinct, mainly revolving around Jake Peralta, a childish and immature but brilliant detective.

The first season was mainly about Jake and his conflict with the new commanding officer, the stoic and stern Captain Raymond Holt.

As the seasons progress, the series will focus more on developing the stories and characters of the other cops in the precinct who have such hilarious distinct personalities that it's too difficult to choose my favourite.

Captain Raymond Holt - He's stoic, stern, robot-ish, a grammar-nazi and gay. And the way he delivers punchlines with that stoic expression of his makes the show even more hilarious.

Amy Santiago - Nerdy, smart, uptight, by-the-book and super competitive detective who becomes Jake's love interest

Charles Boyle - Jake's best friend / sidekick who is insanely loyal, jealous and clingy to Jake. He's also a foodie and has weird fetishes like, I don't know, being obsessed with shampooing his lovers' hair and eating exotic food. He's probably my favourite character on the show if I had to choose.

Sergeant Terry Jeffords - Terry loves yogurt, Terry loves to gym, Terry loves his muscles, and Terry loves love. A super buff family-man sergeant who also likes to refer to himself in third person.

Rosa Diaz - Scary, intimidating, mysterious and superrrrr cool. She's so mysterious that nobody knows anything about her. She also loves anything dangerous like motorbikes, weapons and dangerous men.

Gina Linetti - Super bitchy, cunning and smart administrator with a sarcasm level as whose gives zero shit about her job and gets a way with it. Cuz she can.

Scully - Useless detective who loves to sit on the chair and slack and eat. Also can make a heart attack happen when he wants to - which serves as a good distraction when the team needs it. He also farts a lot.

Hitchcock - Another incompetent detective who loves to sit on the chair and slack and eat. Together with Scully, they have been in the precinct the longest. He farts a lot too.

The really diverse characters and the humour of the show makes it a hilarious light-hearted sitcom. And also, I'm really attached to the characters (as evident from the dedicated gifs to each of them). Definitely a show I would recommend after a long day or for weekends you just want to stay in and binge-watch.

3. Riverdale

I was sooo excited when I heard that my fave childhood Archie comics was going to become a TV show! It's more of a spinoff from the comic as it takes on a darker murder-solving storyline - which is very different from the original frivolousness of the comic.

The first season starts off with the murder of Jason Blossom and the series unravels how the characters and their families are somewhat implicated in one way or another. This series really is the epitome of drama - filled with lies, affair, murder, drugs, reckless teenagers, corruption, mystery, illegal/gang activities, suicide, sex, pregnancy. You name it, Riverdale has it. I'm beginning to think that the scriptwriters just throw in every single element of drama in it to keep things interesting. To the point where it gets a bit too dramatic and confusing.

Thoughts about season 1: Can Archie be anymore stupid??

Thoughts about season 2: Can Jughead and Betty (respectively) be anymore annoying??

The characters in the show also get increasingly more annoying e.g. Archie's stupidity and reckless decisions, Jughead's annoying obsession with the Serpents in Season 2, Cheryl's weird hot-cold character portrayal. I shall leave it at that before it turns into a rant.

Although not very successful in terms of their shaky storyline, the casting of the 4 main characters (Archie, Jughead, Betty and Veronica) are pretty spot-on. Also, I really liked the development of romance in the series. Even though the show mainly revolves around murder and mystery, it is not without sweet tender moments too. Like this Bughead scene.

Or this Varchie scene.

The show is a tad too dark and intense than I would have liked but I guess the producers wanted a different spin as compared to the light-hearted comic. The storyline, plot and character development in the series definitely has gaps and inconsistencies but if you look past that, I think it's still worth watching mainly because everyone in the show is really hot and gorgeous and you get to see your childhood comic book characters come to life. Who can blame me? I mean there is substantial screen time of KJ Apa's abs - definitely worth staring at.

TLDR: watch because everyone in the show is hot, can sing and ABS!!

4. Younger

This show is so underrated! And did I mention it stars our favourite childhood celebrity, Hilary Duff? (Bet you didn't know she was still acting) Younger premiered in 2015, so it's not exactly a new series, and I'm currently waiting for Season 5 to be released this year!

Younger follows a recently divorced 40 year old mother, Liza Miller, who pretends to be a 20-something to get a job after years of being a housewife and full-time mom, and her daughter, Caitlin, is studying abroad in India. She accepts a job as a Marketing Assistant to polished, stern, no-nonsense Diana Trout at a publishing company, Empirical, and everyone in the office thinks that Liza is a 20-something year old millennial. Liza then befriends Kelsey (Hilary Duff) who works at Empirical as well. Liza also meets super hot tattoo-artist Josh, who thinks she is about the same age, and they actually date.

Long story short, the series revolves around Liza living a double life as a 20-something and struggles to keep up with her lies and double life, especially when her 40 year old world and 20 year old world collide.

I really love the storyline and while watching, I'm always sort of half expecting and waiting for Liza's world to implode. Because a 40 year old mom passing off as a 20-something is pretty hilarious. Especially when she is sooo clueless about millennial slangs and trends. Liza is a very relatable character and I can really empathise with her dilemma and struggle. Kind of makes you think about our ageist society.

Younger is a show I'd really recommend because it is witty, funny and really has great insights about today's culture. It is also reallyyyy addictive and binge-worthy!

5. The Good Place

Last but not least, The Good Place is one of the most unique TV series I've ever encountered that brings you to another world. The Good Place premiered in 2016 and it is renewed for its third season, which hopefully comes out this year, because I can't get enough of this show! It's quirky, it's funny, it's educational (I learnt so much about ethics and moral relativism from this show lol). I don't think there is ever a show quite like it.

I can't really divulge much about the plot without giving spoilers, so in summary, it follows the afterlife of Eleanor Shellstrop (Kristen Bell) who finds herself in the 'Good Place'. She is greeted by Michael, the immortal architect of this Good Place neighbourhood, and he shows her around the neighbourhood of her afterlife - consisting of free-flow frozen yogurt, and custom-made houses based on what they liked in their previous life and an assigned soulmate. However, when Eleanor was alive, she was a terrible person which made her realize that she must have been in the Good Place by mistake. In order to feel like she has earned her place there, she gets the help of an ethics professor, Chidi, who is also her assigned soulmate, to teach her ethics lessons for her to be a better person.

Apart from Chidi, Eleanor also befriends Jianyu, a Buddhist monk, and his assigned soulmate, Tahani, who was a socialite in her previous life. Also, this neighbourhood is equipped with an Artificial Intelligence women called Janet, who is the programmed guide and source of information in The Good Place and attends to you at your beck and call whenever you need/ask anything at all - like a shrimp cocktail vending machine.

The show is also capable of mind-blowing plot-twists so kudos to the screenwriters for thinking of such a creative and unique storyline and plot. The Good Place is really a quirky, light-hearted and funny show and is really out of this world.

So that's it for the 5 TV shows I would recommend! Happy binge-watching!