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A Criminal Element

Binge-Worthy TV Streams

By FPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Photo Credit NYTimes.

If you’re like me, then you have a hard time getting into those trendy binge watch shows like The Office, Game of Thrones, or Stranger Things while they’re trendy. Naturally, there’s a lot more shows than these that are trendy, but that’s what comes to mind. I only watch shows that I’ve already had a long running loyalty to (Supernatural), re-watch for background noise, or are somewhat compelling. I find a lot of the detective, action, and crime shows interesting. I don’t mean the horror porn that some find appealing, but prison documentaries or law and order type shows.

Even Supernatural had an element of illegality – the Winchester brothers constantly pretended to be other people, law enforcement even. My favorite sentiment from the show, although I can’t remember the exact quote by Dean Winchester, was him telling Sam that nothing heals bad times like good times.

Here’s my suggestion list (avoiding prison documentaries, but if you enjoy those, check these out):

1. Supernatural

Supernatural is a 15 season show that can either lead to burn out or keep someone occupied for months. There are many moments through the seasons where the show could’ve been stopped, but that final episode was a heart wrencher. I’d been watching this since it aired in 2005. The initial season is full of episodes like those in Law and Order – episodes that can stand alone as Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean (Jensen Ackles) hunt an individual creature in each – but you’d need to watch the entire season in order to get the backstory about the boys, their family, upbringing, and goals. Unlike some other shows, they do a decent job with keeping the series on track with the actors’ ages – no one is in their late 20s pretending to be a teenager here. Over time, the beasts get bigger and badder, as do the boys’ goals, impersonations, losses, and wins.

2. Nikita

Nikita (Maggie Q) surrounds a secret government agency gone criminal which operates using criminals kidnapped from prisons. They are trained underground to commit any number of international and domestic espionage events – let the crime pile on. This is a good show for the philosophical question of whether doing the right thing the wrong way is still acceptable – are intentions or actions more important? Nikita and her partner Alex are on a mission to dismantle and destroy this organization, only to find that there’s an organization behind that one, and another to take down. The show runs for 4 seasons (3.5 as the fourth is rather short) and has a very happy ending for most of the main characters.

3. Prison Break

Prison Break falls somewhere between Supernatural and Nikita for me. One brother (Michael) breaks into prison by tattooing the blueprints and gathering an entire set of prisoners with certain assets just to break his brother Lincoln out. The show evolves beyond this to discover that Lincoln was framed by a shadowy government organization that the brothers and their unlikely friends continue to resist and work to take down.

4. Law and Order Special Victims Unit

This is a great show for anyone who is tapped into current events. While the show never calls out current events, they’re fairly on-point about specific events and sensitive climates surrounding things like how universities handle reports of sexual exploitation, misconduct, and assault; how different cultures and groups view those who are assaulted and raped; lack of rape reporting; and much more. They’ve currently combined COVID into the show. I live in a mask-mandate state so their shows kind of freak me out with the way masks are taken off around just anyone. Aside from that, all episodes can stand alone, but there’s a much more interesting story about the lawyers and detectives in the background that you’d need to watch the entire show in order to catch onto. Like Supernatural, I’ve been watching this one for over a decade.

5. Breakout Kings

Breakout Kings is amusing. A pair of US Marshalls (one current, one trying to earn his badge back) are in charge of a group of criminals that they selected to chase criminals that break out of prison. The prisoners earn time off their sentences for each catch and grow personally through the process. Not much else to say about this one as it was a total of 2 seasons – not sure if it got cut off early due to low ratings or what.

6. In The Dark

In the Dark is about a blind girl named Murphy in Chicago who gets tangled up in a mess of drug rings and government simply because she won’t give up the quest to find out who killed her friend. She drags her roommate and colleague into the mess over time as well. Her friend is a young boy who is related to someone high up in the drug ring. Over time, Murphy ends up employed to launder money for the drug ring. The show is good about having a number of surprises associated with it.

7. Designated Survivor

Designated Survivor is about the line of succession to the presidency in the event of death. The show is quite surprising in that most of the people in that line of succession die en masse and a mild-mannered government official in charge of housing ends up leading the country. He makes mistakes, and works to fix them.

I’ll end by saying that Breaking Bad did not make the list due to its sheer predictability. But if you liked it or didn’t, the shows above may be of some interest to you.

Happy binge watching!

XOXO,

Felicia

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