Turn Your Movie into a Binge

A great movie can leave you on a high that lasts for a couple of days. Rewatch the movie, and you feel it again, but to a lesser degree. But find a new series and you can experience the high over a longer period of time--if you're patient, it can even last over a period of months or maybe even years! The challenge is finding the right formula for the perfect choice. I've taken a sampling of movies from different genres and tried to pair them with a show and a snack of the same "formula" that will give the same type of chemical reaction when you watch it.

The ROM-COM movie is the classic "You've Got Mail" with Meg Ryan's sweetness and Tom Hanks' goofiness. A formula to make up a rom-com is to mix up a little sweet, a little sour, and a little salty. Lemonheads and pretzels are the perfect snack for your rom-com needs. Another possibility is a margarita and some tortilla chips with guacamole. Sweet, sour and salty in a television series is a little hard to find. To spread out your rom-com feels, jump onto the "This is Us" train. The series is a fantastic spin of yesterday, today, and the future of a family's love and hate relationships. It's relatively new and still filming, so you can still get a new high each week.

For the ACTION genre think of "The Bourne Identity." Yes, the original, not one of the successors. Good, clean suspense and action. It will keep you on the edge of your seat, and you need to stay involved to keep up with the plot. For the snack I recommend trail mix. High energy and won't mess things up if you're startled. Keep your mind working on the same trail and even in the same plot for the follow-up series--"Treadstone." Enjoy watching all the movies, and the Hulu series immediately picks up where they left off, with the awakening of the "cicadas"--sleeping assassins scattered around the world.

For a CRIME DRAMA, "Sherlock Holmes"--the version with Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law, of course--is the movie to pick, with its cerebral clues and quick wit. With a nod toward the English fish and chips, I choose potato chips as a crime drama snack. It also works well, since jump scares and gooey gore do not mix when you're watching and eating. To keep your cerebral crime solving spree going, try "Prodigal Son," following the exploits of a serial killer's son whose father helps solve the mysteries of murder.

COMEDY comes in all shapes and sizes, and "Coming to America" includes a lot of them! An Eddie Murphy classic that gives him the versatility of playing a handful of roles, it's simple and fun. Joining the mix, M&Ms are a great comedy snack, because you can pick what colors you like, or just grab a handful and toss them in your mouth. The series that fits with the diversity of humor that keeps on giving is "Superstore." You can take what you like and leave the rest!

To go to SCI FI, think of the classic "Total Recall." Former governor Arnold Schwartzenegger swaggering his way around space gives you quite a thrill (and the remake isn't bad either). The cold, clinical methods of science lead me to a cold snack--ice cream. The ice also led me to the perfect series pair--"Altered Carbon." It starts out with a frozen convict in a new body who finds out he's been resurrected to discover who murdered a powerful executive.

So now you have the formula, either think of a classic movie (FANTASY-"Pan's Labyrinth") or a snack (S'mores) and then you can search your service or Google for similar titles or key words or find a connection yourself ("The Winx Saga").