Recommended: Only Murders in the Building - Hulu

I wasn’t sure where I stood on nostalgia when I saw Steve Martin and Martin Short together on the small screen again. And then there’s Selena Gomez who I haven’t seen in anything but I know far too much about thanks to the pervasiveness of celebrity gossip.

Not knowing how I felt about any of it, I decided to click play because I needed something to “watch” while making dinner one night. I figured since I didn’t dislike anyone inherently and the story revolved around murder and true crime podcasts, I was bound to find something to sink my teeth into. And for once, I was right.

Charles (Steve Martin), Oliver (Martin Short) and Mabel (Selena Gomez) are neighbors. They live in the same building and are obsessed with the same podcast. They meet one day on the elevator. I guess “meet” would be a stretching it. They talk to one another and remark on how weird the other guy who got on was, mild neighbor bonding stuff. Then they meet again when the fire alarm in their building goes off and they’re stuck outside. Mabel and Oliver find Charles at a nearby restaurant and that’s when they realize they’re all fans of the same true crime podcast. Having just found other members of their tribe—something that doesn’t appear to happen often for them—they immediately settle in for dinner and the latest episode.

When their paths cross again, the three of them realize that true crime has found its way into their building. The other guy they’d all been on the elevator with yesterday is dead. The cops don’t know who did it, and as far as the three of them are concerned: everyone’s a suspect. Thrilled to be able to solve an actual crime, the thought of doing their own podcast isn’t far behind.

Even if you’re not into true crime or podcasts, Steve Martin is still incredibly charming and witty, Martin Short is still hilarious and Selena Gomez, it turns out, is pretty great. I got hooked immediately and burned through the available episodes way too quickly. And yes, I said available. They didn’t release the entire season in one shot, so be prepared to wait once you’re all caught up.

Recommended: Killing Eve (BBC America) - Hulu

Admittedly I am incredibly late to the Killing Eve party, but I made it and I’m glad I did.

Eve (Sandra Oh) is a security operative and she’s been pulled in to work on apprehending an elusive and extremely effective assassin. Eve’s excited to be working with MI6, hunting a famed assassin, but that initial excitement quickly morphs into an obsession which ultimately deeply affects her job, marriage and even her sanity. Eve fixates not only on helping to apprehend Villanelle (the world famous assassin) she’s obsessed with the woman herself. The extent of that obsession makes up the first couple of seasons and it’s easy to see what pulled Eve in to begin with.

Villanelle (Jodie Comer) isn’t just a killer. She’s cultured, speaks all the languages, is incredibly agile, strong as an ox and as beautiful as a Disney princess. She likes a good chase and makes the job fun. She’ll let Eve get close but always manages to slip through her fingers in the end. Fortunately for Eve, Villanelle underestimates her at first. Eve responds by doing what she knows best and she leans in to get the job done. Unfortunately for her, this unleashes a deadly chain of events that soon spins way out of everyone’s control.

My friend recommended this show to me early on and while I thought the plot interesting, never clicked play. Then the pandemic set in and I started burning through everything on my watch list. Now that I’m fully invested in the story, I can’t believe I was stupid enough to wait so long. If spies, assassins, drama and good laughs do it for you then this show likely will too.

Recommended: Valeria - Netflix

Valeria (Diana Gómez) is something of a failed writer. She’s working random jobs to make ends meet while trying to write something, anything. She’s also feeling disillusioned with life and drifting farther away from her husband with every passing day. Valeria’s lost and unsure in which direction to head. Fortunately, her friends are a riot and always around to help her sort through missteps and next steps.

There’s some solid character development here so it’s easy to get lost in the story. Each of these ladies is fun and flawed in equal measure, which gets them into all sorts of melodramatic and comedic situations. It’s with fun, relatable and well executed performances that these women make it easy to invest in their individual storylines and so getting sucked into the plot is inevitable. The Sex and the City vibes are strong early on but fade relatively quickly. Valeria has more to offer than the sock value of uncensored female friendship and that dramatic aspect is what’ll hook you.

Season 2 is out today (13 August) on Netflix!

Recommended: Rita - Netflix

Rita (Mille Dinesen) is a bit of a mess. She’s a great teacher but she’s also sleeping with her boss, the principal. Rita’s the irreverent type, smoking cigarettes in the girl’s bathroom and telling everyone (students, parents, family, friends & colleagues) exactly what she thinks the moment the thought pops into her head. Essentially, she’s unfiltered and unbothered with a good heart. Rita’s had to roll with the punches for a long time as a single mom to three kids, and she’ll be damned if anyone tells her how to live her life now. While she might make a lot of questionable decisions, more often than not she’s doing so with good intentions. However, as anyone who’s ever had to live life as a human being on this planet knows, intentions don’t count for much without that follow through.

Rita’s living a life that’s unconventional at best but she’s OK with that, so long as every aspect of it is on her terms. This belief gets her into interesting and explosive situations regularly. Fortunately, she’s witty and strong-willed so she manages her way through life just fine until she doesn’t.

Recommended: Dark - Netflix

A few things before you dig into this one:

1. Dark is in German so you’ll either have to deal with the English dubbed version or English subtitles. As always, I recommend you watch the original language version with subtitles. I’m dyslexic. Sometimes I still need to read slowly and I managed just fine. If I can do it, you can do it. However, if you don’t speak German and don’t often watch German TV and / or movies, it’s going to take a while to adjust to the language change. Don’t be impatient. It will take a second, but once your brain gets familiar with it, the sounds will begin to fall into place. Trust me. Actually, no. Trust your brain.

2. You’re probably not going to be able to multitask while watching this. Dark takes place in several different timelines. You jump around a lot throughout. This isn’t the kind of show you can “watch” while you scroll through your phone. No sir, you’re going to have to fully focus your attention to understand what the hell is going on at any given time.

3. Stick with it. This is one of my favorite time travel series ever and there are quite a few floating around the streaming services right now. Dark is head and shoulders above the rest and well worth the extra effort.

Jumping around from era to era and figuring out which character is which in the different timelines is involved but still lots of fun. Everyone’s story is so salacious, intriguing or shocking that it’s exciting to sort through their respective details. Plus, that moody German vibe was fun to hang out in for a while. If time travel is interesting to you then this will be too.

Recommended: You're the Worst - Hulu

Jimmy and Gretchen are assholes. They know they’re the “worst” but they don’t care to be anything less. These two live moment to moment at work, with their friends, with each other and while that makes for lots of adventure, it also makes for plenty of stress. At some point you have to settle down, right? Well Jimmy (Chris Geere) and Gretchen (Aya Cash) aren’t so sure.

At first I thought these two were supposed to be a wacky kind of “worst” but they’re not. They’re the real deal, each of them awful in their own special way, so much so that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stick with the series. Two episodes in and I was beginning to wonder if this show was actually about normalizing / glorifying toxic behavior. Fortunately, I hung in there and got the full story on how Jimmy and Gretchen became so dysfunctional. It’s clear these two need to grow up despite already having been full-fledged adults for some time. They’re resistant, but life has a way of creeping up on all of us no matter how hard we cling to who we thought we needed to be.

You’re The Worst is a comedy at its core but you’ll be pleasantly surprised how often you find yourself in the middle of some intense drama wondering why you’re on the cusp of tears over a character you literally wanted to stab in the face during the first couple of episodes. It’s great.

Recommended: Diablero - Netflix

Diablero is a Mexican Netflix series (best viewed with subtitles in the original language). If you’re open to paranormal antics, dark humor, colorful language, quick-paced storytelling, and excellent music then this one’s for you. While Diablero has an original approach, the story is familiar. You see it all the time in American series like Grimm, Haven or even Supernatural. If you were into those, there’s a good chance you’ll get into this series too.

Elvis (Horacio Garcia Rojas) is a demon hunter for hire and he works with his sister Keta (Fátima Molina). Together with the help of Nancy (Giselle Kuri) “the vessel” who manipulates her demonic possessions for the good of mankind, they fight to keep order in the world by keeping evil at bay for a nominal fee. Along the way the trio meets an ex priest, a bunch of gangsters, and plenty of demons. The show’s campy, heavy on the dark comedy and even handed on the visual effects, all of which serve to amplify the excellent performances from the cast.

Recommended: Dead to Me - Netflix

Jen (Christina Applegate) and Judy (Linda Cardellini) meet at group grief counseling. Judy clicks with Jen instantly but that’s mostly a one-way street at first. Jen can be a little abrasive and Judy’s the free spirit type. Aside from having just lost their partners they don’t seem to have too much in common. Despite all that, Judy makes it her business to become Jen’s friend. The pair grow incredibly close and life inevitably ends up getting complicated. Judy bringing the cops into Jen’s life while Jen’s busy obsessively trying to track down the driver of the car that hit her husband and left him for dead. In the end these ladies have much more in common than they ever thought possible. Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini are great as this pair of mismatched best friends and the story is outrageous, which is suits the lead characters well.

Recommended: Love Death + Robots - Netflix

Love Death + Robots is an animated anthology of 18 stories about, you guessed it: love, death and robots. If you’re old like me, you’ll remember Liquid Television on MTV. This anthology is a lot like that. Granted the animation is much more sophisticated and the stories are more gorey, racy and scary. So if you enjoyed the irreverent line-stepping that made Liquid Television great, then you’re likely going to understand what Love Death + Robots is about. The different animation styles are cool to get into and each episode stands alone so there’s no long-term investment here. What I’m saying is you’ve got nothing to lose, check it out.

Recommended: Undone - Hulu

I’m not sure how to describe this one. If you watch it, you’ll understand why by the end of the first episode. Alma (Rosa Salazar) is the main character and she’s stuck in a rut. Her life feels like it’s out of her control and stuck in a loop of uninspired routine. She’s got no direction and so she feels lost. She’s kind of a mess and to top it all off she’s been in a serious accident. She’s recovering but she’s not even sure what she’s working with since her dead father (Bob Odenkirk) keeps popping by. He’s trying to convince her to let him train her to manipulate time so she can travel back in time and stop him from being killed. So is this a story about time travel, ghosts, or time traveling ghosts? Or is this about something else entirely? Your guess is as good as mine. The animation makes for a cool visual element that conveys Alma’s story with a surreal but familiar tone. Essentially Undone is fun to look at, the story will hook you in super quickly and you probably won’t be sure where all of this is going, but you’ll likely feel like it’s going to be a fun ride regardless. Why not give it a shot?

Recommended: High Fidelity (Series) - Hulu

The (John Cusack) movie version of this story is one of my favorites, so I was quick to want to dislike this. Then I binged it in one weekend, got sad it was over and anxiously awaited news of a second season. High Fidelity is fantastic. Zoë Kravitz is perfection as Rob. It’s interesting to see how this story plays out with a female lead. Don’t let that role reversal scare you away. The resulting antics are hilarious and impactful. Either way, it connects and makes for great fun through exceptional character development and quick-paced storytelling.

And then there’s the music. Every song was perfect and I’m grateful someone put this list together, so I could download all the songs I didn’t already have.

Here's Every Song on High Fidelity, So You Don't Have to Shazam Every Scene

HOWEVER

I’ll need a moment of silence for that second season because Hulu decided not to renew this fantastic series. What a cold-hearted and frankly stupid decision. I’m still mad at Hulu. Can you tell?

Recommended: The House of Flowers (La Casa de las Flores) - Netflix

The House of Flowers / La Casa de las Flores is at its core a novela. It’s melodramatic, hilarious, fun and easy to watch. Verónica Castro leads a charismatic and convincing group of actors, each with sufficiently fleshed out story lines of their own. It’s a great Mexican telenovela and we all know Mexican novelas are the crème de la crème of that genre. If a dramedy with soap opera vibes sounds like something that might grab your attention, give this one a shot. It’s dubbed if subtitles aren’t your thing. I say go with the original language & subtitles combo, it’s my favorite.