TV Show Recommendations

I’ve been recommending television shows to friends over the past few weeks and the reception has been positive enough for me to make my recommendations available to you (yes, you).

Somehow the television stars have aligned and all of my favorite current television shows are on The CW. Yep, the network that used to be UPN. Turns out they have straight up incredible programming now. Most of them are available on Netflix, but you’ll have to look on Hulu or The CW’s site for current seasons.

• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: When you look past the title, you’ll discover a literally unbelievable show: a prime-time comedy with two original songs per episode (!), some seriously dark jokes, and a recurring joke about a butter commercial. Oh, and they have a Triangle Shirtwaist fire reference. The New Yorker loves it! Please watch it. (Available on Netflix and iTunes.)

  Here’s a representative (wildly NSFW) song from the show:

• Jane the Virgin: A telenovela (with an actual real-life telenovela star!) that is totally aware that it’s a telenovela and delights in it. Jane the Virgin is the heartwarming story of young Jane, who is accidentally artificially inseminated by her ex-boyfriend and must figure out what to do with the help of her mother, grandmother, ex-boyfriend, current boyfriend, and about 40 other characters. (There’s a deep bench.) The narrator frequently breaks the fourth wall and writes snarky notes about what’s happening directly onto the screen. In the words of Vulture: “So you’re finally watching Jane the Virgin”. (Available on Netflix.)

• iZombie: A medical student gets bitten by a zombie, craves brains, takes a job in the morgue in order to eat said brains, discovers that she gets flashbacks of their life after eating their brains, and – twist! – uses those flashbacks to solve murders. Yep, it’s a campy (so campy) police procedural, but one written by the creator of Veronica Mars and with a surprisingly good cast. By the end of the first season, things get Extremely Real. (Available on Netflix.)