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Winter break can be the perfect time to pick up a new binge watch, and many of us have a few cold months ahead to fill as well. We know quality television at the Peabody Awards, so we’re here to play matchmaker: We’ve paired big shows with lesser-known shows to direct you toward what you might like based on your previous viewing—a recommendation engine with actual humans behind it. Happy holiday viewing and beyond!
If you like ‘Abbott Elementary,’ watch ‘Reservation Dogs’
Abbott Elementary melts hearts with its group of well-intentioned, hard-working teachers at an underfunded public school in Philadelphia. While Reservation Dogs takes many more storytelling and format-breaking risks, at its heart is a similarly beleaguered group, four indigenous teens in Oklahoma. As they grieve the death by suicide of one of their friends, they work (often committing petty crimes) to save enough money to get to California, just as the teachers of Abbott scrimp and save to give their kids the best education that they can. But in both cases, it’s the characters at the center that matter, and the determined Elora (Devery Jacobs), sensitive Bear (D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), laid-back Cheese (Lane Factor), and tomboy Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis) are eminently watchable as a group of friends you’ll wish you were a part of.
Where to Watch Abbott Elementary: Hulu
Where to Watch Reservation Dogs: Hulu
If you like ‘Baby Reindeer,’ watch ‘I May Destroy You’
Netflix’s Baby Reindeer, about a moderately successful comedian navigating his relationship with an obsessive fan, became a sensation earlier this year by combining a stalker-thriller with a harrowing tale of recovery from sexual assault trauma—and, somehow, also some humor and genuine human connection. In 2020, HBO’s I May Destroy You beautifully wove together disparate genres to create something totally new of its own: Creator Michaela Coel stars as Arabella, a writer in her 20s who has achieved fame on social media and as a novelist but is struggling to write the follow-up to her breakthrough. While taking a break from her writing, she goes out with friends to a London club, where she is raped. The series follows her attempts to piece together what happened to her on that hazy night and deal with the psychological damage. Like Baby Reindeer, the result is a surprising combination of relatable, wrenching, and funny.
Where to Watch Baby Reindeer: Netflix
Where to Watch I May Destroy You: Max
If you like ‘Hacks,’ watch ‘Somebody Somewhere’
At its core, Hacks comes down to one thing: the friendship at its center, between legendary Boomer comic Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and her Gen Z writer Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder). The series’ gripping dramatic tension stems from their conflicts and rifts, their fights and their makeups, their insults and betrayals—and it all works because we care about their relationship. The world of Somebody Somewhere may be gentler, given its setting in small-town Kansas, but it, too, runs on one duo: Sam (Bridget Everett), who has come back home to grieve her sister’s death and her abandoned singing career; and Joel (Jeff Hiller), her soulmate best friend who reveres her, encourages her to sing again, introduces her to a supportive community full of outcasts, and devastates her by starting a serious relationship with a new boyfriend. Both shows demonstrate the ways intimacy can hurt and heal.
Where to Watch Hacks: Max
Where to Watch Somebody Somewhere: Max
If you like ‘Nobody Wants This,’ watch ‘Unorthodox’
Nobody Wants This hooked millions of viewers by bringing pure romantic comedy to the streaming-series format, giving us two attractive and charismatic actors, Adam Brody and Kristen Bell, with massive chemistry and expert banter, and placing one major roadblock in their way: He’s a rabbi, she’s a shiksa (with a sex podcast). While it took some criticism for its problematic depiction of Jews, Nobody Wants This also gave us a shabbat grand gesture and the rare main character who makes religion the center of his life. Unorthodox similarly foregrounds Judaism, this time following a young woman, Esther Shapiro (Shira Haas), as she leaves her marriage and Hasidic life in Brooklyn, escaping to Berlin. She falls in with a group of conservatory students and discovers her love of music, resulting in another feel-good form of narrative, complete with a climactic audition scene. For bonus viewing, check out Shtisel, the riveting drama series (also featuring the extraordinary Haas) about an ultra-Orthodox family in Jerusalem struggling with their relationships and chafing, at times, against the strictures of their religion, but never considering leaving.
Where to Watch Nobody Wants This: Netflix
Where to Watch Unorthodox: Netflix
If you like ‘Ted Lasso,’ watch ‘We Are Lady Parts’
Ted Lasso burst onto screens during the pandemic, dropping a confetti-bomb of optimism into our locked-down lives with an earnest coach who was a model of positive masculinity, and a team and staff who became a supportive community guided by his guileless spirit. We Are Lady Parts also brings together an unlikely group of singular spirits working together toward a common goal: This time, they’re five very different Muslim women working together to make their punk band, Lady Parts, a success, all the while pursuing love and their own individual dreams. There’s Amina (Anjana Vasan), a romantic microbiology PhD student who’s great at the guitar but battles stage fright; Saira (Sarah Kameela Impey), the outspoken lead singer who works as a halal butcher; Ayesha (Juliette Motamed), an Uber driver and drummer; Bisma (Faith Omole), a married mother, comic artist, and bass player; and Momtaz (Lucie Shorthouse), their manager, who sells cheap lingerie at her day job. Like Ted Lasso, We Are Lady Parts is pure uplift and high romantic comedy, with just enough grit to make for satisfying triumphs.
Where to Watch Ted Lasso: Apple TV+
Where to Watch We Are Lady Parts: Peacock