So you sat down at midnight on Friday evening and power watched the new season of House Of Cards until Saturday afternoon. Now you’re done. No more to watch until it comes back in an unknown amount of time. What will you possibly do to pass the time?

Winter seems to be holding on for dear life and still making it miserable to enjoy any outdoor activities (unless you are a big fan of half frozen rain that burns as it slices open your face). My suggestion is that you get the most out of your Netflix membership, squeeze every penny of worth out of the 8 bucks you spend each month and dive into another show. Whether its drama, comedy, or suspense that keeps you glued to the tube, here are some series worth checking out.

Dramady Series

They make you think, they make you cry, they make you laugh, someone will die.

Weeds

Take a trip down hemp hawking lane with Nancy Botwin, the pot pushing mom from Cali who takes to selling and growing weed to support her family after the sudden death of her husband. Nancy almost makes it look easy breezy to get rid of that greeny, but if you want to follow in her footsteps, be prepared to kill a few people and screw (sometimes over) the rest.

Friday Night Lights

Coach Eric Taylor and his wife Tami had as perfect a marriage as a couple can have. She supported him through his highs and lows of coaching high school football in the town of Dillon, TX, where their lives aren’t the only ones put through the ringer. No one is safe from cheating, poverty, even the possibility of becoming paralyzed in this series set in a world that revolves around the football game each Friday Night. You don’t have to love football to get into this show, but if you do, it’ll be a touchdown.

Doctor Who

I myself have never watched this show, but I feel I would be remiss not to include as it is one of my Tommy’s (and the UK’s) favorites. This British Science-Fition series has been running since 1963 and depicts the adventures of the Doctor (Time Lord) who explores the universe in his TARDIS, a time-travelling space ship that looks like a phone booth. Every few seasons the actor who plays the Doctor changes, seemingly getting younger and hotter each time. Not only a huge part of British pop-culture, the show has influenced generations of British television professionals, many of whom grew up watching the series. After all, it’s been on for 52 years!

White Collar

Neal Caffrey isn’t out of prison for 24 hours and he finds himself living on the top floor of a famous mansion in NYC and wearing suits straight from Savile Row. It isn’t all luxury for him though, as he is a (reformed?) criminal being tracked by the FBI via ankle monitor. Scoring a deal with the feds that he will assist with white collar (I said it!) crimes in return of not being thrown in prison for the rest of eternity, Neal works along side Agent Burke, who’s marriage with Elizabeth (Tiffani Thiessen) rivals that of the Taylor’s from Friday Night Lights. As case after case is solved with the help of Caffrey, he also has his own motivations and mysteries to solve. My only gripe with this show is that in every single episode they threaten Neal with going back to jail if he betrays them. When you are 4 seasons in and he’s helped you retrieve millions of dollars and stopped dozens of thieves, you can stop with the threats. We get it. He’s a criminal. But he looks so damn good in a suit, you’ll hardly remember that part. Which is exactly what he is counting on.

Netflix Loyal

These shows are exclusively on Netflix, and trust, that company knows what they are doing. Hell, they made this entire list available to you! Bow Down.

Arrested Development

Three seasons of this show were not enough, which is why when Netflix announced they would be creating a fourth, loyal fans rejoiced. This series has that unique problem where you can’t tell who is more genius, the writers or the actors. Filled with brilliant comedy actors (Jason Bateman, Portia de Rossi, Will Arnett, Michael Cera, Alia Shawkat, Tony Hale, David Cross, Jeffrey Tambor, Jessica Walter) you cannot watch each season just once. In fact, I found the series even funnier when I went back to watch the seasons for a second, third, or even fourth time. That fact is really a testament to the writing that has sprinkled jokes throughout the entire series, some only landing when you already know what will happen in future episodes, even future seasons. The newest season created by Netflix does not disappoint. Each episode focuses on a different character and where their journey has led them. Creator Mitchell Hurwitz said that you could watch them in any order you wanted, but not trusting myself enough to make such important decisions, I just watched them straight through as they played via the Netflix player.

Orange Is The New Black

What is is about women in prison that makes us sit up, take notice, and make us want to watch? Is it because prison is a place that those who know about it, know everything about it, and those who don’t, are completely clueless? Orange is the New Black take us behind the barbed wire fences for a look at inmate life we haven’t since the day of OZ, just as scary but a little less Rape-y. Egos clash, pregnancies happen, and life moves forward, day by day. The first season put most of the focus on Piper Chapman, a woman paying for a crime she committed years before with her then international drug-dealing girlfriend (Donna from That 70’s Show!), whom also wrote a book which the series is inspired by. In the second season, we get to learn a little more about the other woman around her and what paths their lives took that led them to lockup. It’s also filmed right here in NYC, down the hall from Sesame Street at Kaufman Astoria Studios. Talk about a diverse lunchroom!

Drama Series

The edge of your seat has literally worn away from you sitting on it

Alias

Traveling all over the world by way of a green screen, this powerhouse female-led action drama starring Jennifer Garner had more action sequences than Gladiator. Garner play Sydney Bristow, a super duper secret double agent while going to college and trying to get revenge for the death of her fiance. Also starring a young(er) Bradley Cooper, Sydney begins working for a secret government agency called SD-6 only to discover that she is actually working for the enemy. Now in cahoots with the real FBI, she continues missions for SD-6 while sometimes purposefully sabotaging or hindering her own efforts for the good of the FBI. Honestly, watching her dress up as a range of character and kick butt make this show worth a watch. She is like the female American James Bond, but much better at going undercover.

Doll House

The plot for this thriller drama was very unique and starred the kick-ass Eliza Dushku (Bring it On). For one reason or another (usually crime related), individuals were offered the option to sign away years of their life to erase their transgressions from public record. During those years, their minds were kept in childlike states and their bodies are rented out to wealthy clients for a variety of reasons, ranging from romantic to more high risk endeavors. One important thing to note (so as to make it slightly less creepy) is that they were not rented out with their childlike personalities, but were programmed with new memories and personalities, many times from people who had been alive before. Has a child been kidnapped? Echo (Dushku) could be programmed to think like a master negotiator in order to set up the trade for ransom. Need a woman who can ride a motorcycle to allow a man to celebrate an anniversary each year with a race off against his dead wife, she was your girl. Ok, so a couple were out there. With a whole Dollhouse full of “actives” both male and female, the shows has many plot lines, including an escaped active who threatened to bring down the entire organization. Only lasting two seasons, this show was cancelled far too soon.

Damages

This legal thriller revolves around the powerhouse attorney Patty Hewes played by the equal powerhouse Glenn Close and her new hire, Ellen (Rose Byrne pre Bridesmaids). Each season covers a large case that Patty’s firm is covering and she will go to any lengths to be victorious. Not always sitting well with Ellen, she begins to question her loyalty, her morality, and sometimes her safety. Set in NYC, the cases that they cover are not that unfamiliar to real life, such as an Energy corporation corruption cover up or a wall street Ponzi Scheme costing innocent people their fortunes. Giving you previews of the end of the season through “flash forwards” (confusing enough?), you will be sitting in suspense to figure out “what the hell happened to her?!”

Breaking Bad

What more can I say about this show that hasn’t already been said? If you don’t know about Breaking Bad already, I can’t help you. Nobody can.

American Horror Story

Just wrapping up its 4th season (not yet available on Netflix but the first 3 seasons are) each stand alone season offers different story lines that are more screwed up (in a good way) than the one before. From a house of horrors to a witches school to a Catholic Chu….I mean Asylum, the creator of Glee, Ryan Murphy, has shown he isn’t just about musical numbers and teeny-bopper audiences. The two brightest starts of a stellar bunch are Jessica Lange and Sarah Paulson, who season after season pour themselves into new characters, some you cheer for and some you hope will meet their fate sooner rather than later.

The Walking Dead

Still pumping out new season after new season, catch up with the gang (or whats left of them) as they try and survive the coming of the Zombie apocalypse. When the show first started I thought to myself, “how are they going to make a TV series out an event that can barely fill up a 2 hour movie?” but they have gone above and beyond expectations. Some characters you will love and some you’ll hate, but in a world where everything is out to eat you, your only chance is to stick close with those you trust.

Comedy Series

If you don’t like laughing, you’ll hate these shows. Not judging. OK, maybe a little.

Drop Dead Diva

Rising from the ashes of cancellation to last two more seasons, this unique series tells the story of Deb, a slim, beautiful, and slightly narcissistic model who upon death, has her soul put into the body of a smart and fuller figured lawyer name Jane. Now living Jane’s life, Deb gets to keep her personality but also inherits the intelligence from her body’s predecessor. Now, I will admit that there are parts of this plot that are a little wonky, and surprisingly it isn’t the part about the reincarnation. The fact that the only people that can know her “secret” are her guardian angel (yea, exactly) and her best friend, but has to leave her parents and her fiance in the dark to think that she has died, is a little gut wrenching. Oh, and did I mention that her “ex”-fiance is also a lawyer at the same firm she now works at as Jane? Awkaaaaaard. What keeps this show fun is that each episodes comes with a new lawsuit to pursue or defend and each needs the special balance of brains and thinking outside the box that only Jane can provide. Brooke Elliott as Jane is simply superb handing the challenging multi-personality role and its great to see Margaret Cho back on television as her assistant. We need more Margaret Cho!!!

30 Rock

Is there anything that Tina Fey can’t do? This show is sort of like the comedy equivalent to Breaking Bad. If you haven’t heard of it or have not seen it, I can’t really help you. All you need for motivation are 4 words: Tina, Baldwin, Fey, and Alec. If you’ve seen them all, it doesn’t hurt to revisit and the best part is you can literally russian roulette pick which one you want to watch.

My Name is Earl

If toilet humor wrapped in a good message is what you are looking for, My Name Is Earl is right up your alley! Earl is a man that has spent most of his life screwing people over and being pretty much a downright d-bag. When he wins the lottery, his celebration is cut short when he is hit by a car and loses the winning ticket. Convinced that his bad luck is karma kicking him when he’s down, he sets out to right all the wrongs that he has committed and each episode covers a person that he hopes to make amends with. With a colorful cast of characters around him including the side-splitting hilarious Jaime Pressly, this show mixes together two of my favorite topics: Karma and Jerry Springer.

Parks and Recreation

After a slightly slow first season, I gave up on this show for a brief period. Years later, after encouragement from my better half, I gave the folks in Pawnee another try and man am I glad I did. Set in a fake (!!) town in Indiana, the antics coming out of this show are plentiful and aggressively hilarious. Along the same comedy (and genius) as Tina Fey and 30 rock, you can’t help but look past this completely random band of misfits and see that deep down, they are just like you and me.

Give it a try and you will be FLUUUUSH WITH LAAAAUUUUGHS!

American Dad

Here it is. The mother load. If you only watch one series on this list it has to be American Dad. FBI agent Stan Smith and his ex-partying still wild-child wife Francine run a household the includes 2 teenagers (relatively), an alien, and a talking fish. While they each have provide their own story-line and comedic relief, Roger is the star of this show. This alcoholic alien crashed down onto earth and at some point saved Stan’s life, making Stan for ever in debt to him (Life-Debt). He lives in the attack, dresses in costumes, and delivers one zinger after another that will literally make you wet your pants. Most people are familiar with the brother series Family Guy, but I think this far surpasses it on the funny and outrageous scale. Lets just put it this way, I introduced this show to my fiancé when we first started dating and I’m pretty sure it’s the only reason he asked me to marry him. It wasn’t for my looks that’s for sure!

Archer

If has Jessica Walter (Arrested Development) in it, watch it. Actually a lot of the characters from Arrested Development are in this adult cartoon about secret agents and the organization they work for (Ex-nay on the ISIS ay). Archer is sort of like Alias, except the characters are total disasters. From nymphomaniac Carol to the horribly gossipy Pam to the main character, a womanizing and completely self involved Archer himself, the only person that they are not making fun of is….um……no one. They make fun of everyone, including themselves! They fact that the are successful at any mission is usually by sheer luck alone. The comedy really comes from the writers, who aren’t afraid to get controversial and remain anti-PC, all for the sake of a joke and to the benefit of the viewer.

Dont Trust the B– in Apt 23

Like Dollhouse, this show was given the ax far too soon. Sure it was a little cheeky, but when ABC pulled the plug they did it fast and viciously, not even airing the final episodes of the season. Thank goodness Netflix is giving it a little life after death…all of it. What it lacked in editing skills (some new episodes were played out of order, tisk tisk), it more than made up for in comedic ones. Krysten Ritter was at the top of her game as the bad bitch Chloe. Her comedic timing is so good, its scary. In one scene she had an argument with herself at the bar and it’s one of the best 5 seconds in television. James Van Der Beek plays a fictional (?) version of himself and falls into every trap that aging stars fall into as they try and hold on to their fame. His general dis-concern with the world around him make him and Chloe perfect partners in crime. Poor Jane, she should have known not all dreams come true in NYC.

Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia

IASIP follows “The Gang”, a group of five nitwits that run a bar called Paddy’s Pub in, you guessed it, Philadelphia, which stays in business but never seems to have any customers except themselves. Danny DeVito plays the father to two of the characters, but is probably just as, if not more irresponsible than the rest of them. Greedy, self involved, ignorant and lazy are just some of the nicest things you can say about them, but that is what makes this comedy gold. While it may seem like there are alliances forming within the group at times, one would easily backstab the other for say, access to the private country club pool, or a ham. They often choose the worst possible solution to an existing problem, like the time they decided to start smoking crack cocaine in order to qualify for welfare. Luckily, that is only the beginning!

So there you have it! The list of all lists to help you pass the time until the next season of House of Cards and avoid the last of this winter weather. Don’t say I never gave you anything!

Live for Fun, Spread Joy!

One of the best compliments I have ever received was when a stranger at a party told me that I was the “Brooklyn version of Andy Cohen”, because Andy seemed to be everything that I aspired to be. Well, I probably should have read this book before I took that as a high compliment.

I kid! I kid!

After his first book Most Talkative: Stories From The Front Lines Of Pop Culture, Cohen set out to record and share his daily activities over the course of a year. Full disclosure: I did not read his first book. In fact, and this is both honest and embarrassing (at least for my friends who work in publishing), I don’t ready many books at all. Trust me, I know I am missing out, but I also know that I most likely have gone my entire life without being diagnosed with dyslexia, making reading unenjoyable. I’d read a sentence, thinking it said one thing, only to re-read it and realized it said something completely different. I was able to find reading success in books like the Harry Potter series, which were obviously written for a children’s reading level, but stayed away from those written works that had more “meat and potatoes” to them. AKA: intellectual books, literary books, and autobiographies. Audio books were my best friend for a while, but lately I found my daily commute was spent listening to the Taylor Swift album for the umpteenth time (that Out Of The Woods song is my jam!).

Sometimes I think I am a masochist. I know that I don’t like something, but I will try and try again to change my opinion. Blue cheese is one of those things. No matter how much I know I hate it, I’ll stand in line at Chop’t and say “Ah, why don’t you throw some blue cheese in there”. Every. Single. Time. I don’t know if it’s the anxiety (which is another problem of mine) of having to choose add-ins on the spot, but I instantly regret it the moment I take that first bite. Unfortunately, reading is on that list with Blue Cheese. I try it, I hate it, and its a few months before I foolishly try it again. On one of my most recent attempts I decided to give the book Bossy Pants by Tina Fey a try. Eureka! Tina brought me back from the dark side of illiteracy. I could read adult books and actually enjoy them!

So this past Christmas when Tommy (an avid reader) gave me the gift of Andy’s new book, I was eager to dive in and learn more about this man who had worked his way up in the television industry (an industry I would love to work in) and became a talk show host (a job I had always dreamed of). In hindsight (which is always 20/20) I maybe should have read his first book to learn a little more of the back story of the man who’s daily journal I was about to read. Alas, I cracked open the beautifully illustrated cover and started my literary voyerism into Andy’s life.

Right off the bat in the book’s introduction, Andy tells us that he almost called the book “The Diary of a Name-Dropper”, and name drop he does. In fact, Andy drops celebrity names so often and effortlessly, I created an imaginary clown in my head to follow behind and pick them up, much like the ones that march in parades to clean up after horses. I didn’t get through the first page, hell, the first paragraph before Diane Von Furstenburg came up. Send in the clowns and cue my jealousy, I’m in for a bumpy ride!

Day after day I relived his life bouncing from New York, to Utah, to St. Louis (his hometown), back to New York, only to jaunt to LA and then back before a trip to Sag Harbor. The only similar events events from day to day are his live talk show and his massages. This man gets more rub downs than a classic car! Doesn’t matter where in the world he is, he has a masseuse on call. This is the first of many times during reading this book that I realize I’m a basic bitch. I have never had a professional massage although I have been a strong advocate that they should be a weekly perk of being an Equity member. I have however, gifted massages to those I love, but never did it cross my mind that people would actually come to your house to deliver such services. Is it cheaper because they don’t have to pay rent on a storefront? He never discloses costs of his escapades which is probably better for my sanity.

One of the great things about this book is when it takes place within the story of this life. He is about to transition from his “day job” at Bravo and embark on new projects both on and off screen and he is seriously thinking about getting a dog (a single gay man’s best friend). So many times people in this city want things to come fast and easy (like their dinner, or their dates), but you can tell through the pages of this book that Andy has worked his ass off for all of the success that he now is getting to enjoy.

So I read. Day after day. Season after season. Hearing bits of backstage drama from different housewives franchises (who knew the husbands were so demanding?!), traveling with him on vacation with mega celeb friends like Kelli Rippa and Anderson Cooper, and learning about his love (and skill) for baseball. There are moments you feel you can relate to him completely, like when he feels guilty about a weekend of binge eating on vacation or not being invited to a party (granted it is the Vanity Fair Oscar party but still). Then there are moments your two worlds couldn’t feel any further apart, like when he can’t get his motivation up to design his new super duplex apartment and you live in a studio apartment you have to cross two rivers to get to. I’m also pretty sure celebrities just live outside the front of his building. Ahh, to live in the West Village!

When he starts to talk about his close friendship with the late Natasha Richardson, you feel the pain of her loss through his words. He also talks about a future project with Joan Rivers, who by this point had passed. How would he takes the news? I read on. I flipped ahead to the end of the book just to see what the last dated entry would be. Would the book end before she passed?

As I continued through the book, I have to admit that about 3/4 through I started to become exhausted by it. Day after day, city after city, party after party, it all seemed to get to be a little too much and blur together. I’m sure that as he was living it, it was absolutely amazing, and if it was my life I would bathe in every moment and in every body of clear blue water that crossed my path, but as a reader, I found that my attention span was starting to wane. I wouldn’t dare put it down without finishing, but I realized that my reading environment was a stark contrast to what was happening in his life and that I was starting to feel slightly resentful. Daily I would read on the M train from Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn where I lived, into Manhattan for work and then back in the evening. While I read about his fabulous times in Sag Harbor complete with private helicopter rides that he had received in one of his many “gift bags” (along with hundreds of pairs of Beats by Dre headphones I can’t begin to afford), there were people right in front of me begging for money and food for their family while I was squeezed into an overcrowded subway car. Of course, it is not fair to hold him accountable for the plight of poor New York, but still, it was hard to read one experience and witness another. I’m sure he does, but I don’t believe he ever once mentioned taking the subway.

All in all, I found this book to be somewhat of an inspiration. After six years in this town, I have had my ups and downs, made strong friendships, and have worked my tail off just to make ends meet. He showed me that hard work and dedication do pay off, that sense of humor can be one of the most attractive qualities of a person, and even a famous person like Andy can “fan girl” out at the sight of Madonna and then text Cher from vacation. So I take what I learned from his honesty and story telling and I move forward down my own path. As his friend Diane von Furstenburg said “I didn’t always know what I wanted to do, but I knew who I wanted to be” and I want to be the Brooklyn version of Matt Karr, but I wouldn’t mind borrowing a couple of chapters from Andy’s life.

Live for fun, Spread Joy, and follow Wacha the dog on Twitter! @therealwacha

Matt About It

Tina Fey

The House Of Cards (Season 3) Has Fallen. What Now?