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: 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.