TV Shows You HAVE To Watch

All you have to do is follow me on Twitter for 5 minutes to realise that I have a problem. A massive TV series related problem. I am addicted. I have an addictive personality anyway, so all it takes is for the first episode to hook me in and I'm trapped. Thinking back, I've had a thing for TV series for years but it got bad (like real bad) when I fell into The Vampire Diaries about 2 years ago. Is it wrong that binge-watching TV series is possibly my biggest passion and hobby? 

Therefore, I have decided to share with you my top 6 favourite shows. I couldn't cut it down to a nice round 5 because that would be like choosing a favourite child and that's not fair to anyone.

(Also, I have decided to illustrate this blog post with gifs from my favourite scenes from each show. You're welcome.)

Glee

In no particular order, my first TV show love is Glee. I know a lot of people said it went bad after series 3 but those people are wrong and you shouldn't have to have that kind of negativity in your life. Okay I admit, series 4 wasn't the best and didn't include anywhere near enough Santana/Brittana but if I can get over that, so can you. 

Out of all of these shows, Glee is the one show I could write an entire blog post about (anyone interested? ...no?) so I am going to summarise my love for it in as few words as possible: singing, musical theatre, Santana Lopez, Naya Rivera, Brittana.

Naya's voice gives me goosebumps every single time I hear her sing ('Songbird' is my all time favourite Glee song), Brittana was my first ship before I even knew what shipping was and Santana Lopez was the first character I ever fell head over heels for, she made me realise a hell of a lot of things about myself. Glee can make me laugh so much that it hurts, but it also makes me cry more than any other show. The episode where Finn takes Rachel to the train station so she can go to New York? You have never seen such ugly crying in your life.

The Vampire Diaries

I was never drawn in to that whole Twilight vampire thing, so I didn't think for a second I would enjoy this show. I was wrong. It starts off as a love story between Stefan and Elena, then inevitably Damon gets drawn in and a love triangle is formed (if you're not totally team Delena then I'm judging you). The first season is a bit naff and Twilight-esque, but it's so much more than that. Wait for series 2 and all the action starts; people die, werewolves appear, witches do witchy stuff, doppelgängers confuse the hell out of everyone, it's amazing. The main character Elena is a bit dull and I don't understand for a second why everyone loves her, but then Katherine appears, her badass 500 year old doppelgänger, and you realise what an amazing actress Nina Dobrev is. 

Side note: you may notice a running theme throughout all my shows in that I always love a bad guy (I use 'guy' here loosely), but Damon Salvatore is everything I want in a man. Vampirism included.

Pretty Little Liars

Ever since PLL has appeared on Netflix, I'm pretty sure the entire world has been sucked into it so I'm not going to rattle on about it for too long. I've watched it for nearly 2 years now and a large portion of those two years has been spend scrolling through Tumblr searching for all the latest clues and theories, and I don't regret a moment of it. If you like mystery, detective-style shows then you will love this. I know a lot of people are getting frustrated at not properly knowing who A is yet, but come on, that's the fun of the show. Personally I hope we never find out because the day PLL ends will be a sad day for all. Also, I have to quickly mention that Toby is hella suspicious, as is Hanna, Ashley Marrin knows something, Emily is my favourite liar and I ship Emison a lot. 

Also also, Shay Mitchell, along with my babe Naya Rivera, is my one true love in this world. I'm just waiting for her to realise and love me back.

Orange Is The New Black

Technically OITNB is not a TV series, but it's on Netflix so that counts. I binge watched both series is less than 4 days and to date, it's one of my biggest accomplishments. I regularly rewatch my favourite episodes, and I have a countdown on my phone to when series 3 starts (for which I genuinely considered booking a day off work). OITNB is about a woman's prison with lots of lesbians. If that doesn't take your fancy then I don't know what will. It's also one of the few shows where I really really dislike the main protagonist, but I've fallen so in love with the rest of the characters that that doesn't even matter. On a deeper level, OITNB shows that everyone has a history, everyone has a story - something which I think is easy to forget. Just because these woman are in prison, it doesn't make them fundamentally bad people. Everyone makes mistakes, some are just bigger than others. On the surface level though, Alex Vause *heart eyes emoji*.

Gossip Girl

Oh Gossip Girl. I fell head over heels in love with everything about this show, but in particular, Manhattan. Never has a show made me fall in love with a place so much. Again, I could do an entire blog post on Manhattan but I'll save that for another time. Gossip Girl is such a decadent show, based on characters who live the life of luxury on the Upper East Side, with a mysterious blogger, aka Gossip Girl, spreading rumours about them left right and centre. I think part of the reason I love Gossip Girl so much is because it has such an escapism factor to it, it's so far fetched and so far from everything I know, but it's everything I want in life.

Whenever I sit down to watch an episode (something I do on an almost daily basis), I find myself wishing I was Blair Waldorf; a strong, powerful woman who has Chuck Bass totally wrapped around her little finger. You may notice I have a thing for strong women. 

Orphan Black

Out of all the shows I have mentioned, Orphan Black is by far the most underrated and the most unheard of of the lot. A quick synopsis: Sarah Manning witnesses a girl who looks identical to her commit suicide at the train station. So naturally she steals this woman's identity and finds out that not only is she a clone, but there is an assassin out to kill them all. If that doesn't draw you in, I don't know what will. Tatiana Maslany plays all seven (so far) clones, and she is probably the best, most underrated actress of our time. It can't be easy to play so many characters, especially when there's so many scenes of just some of the clones conversing, but she does it flawlessly. There's only two series so far, but Orphan Black is definitely worth a good binge watch.

And finally, other notable TV shows which you should probably watch: The L Word, Secret Diary of a Call Girl, Ugly Betty, Skins, Breaking Bad, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and RuPaul's Drag Race.

Have you got any TV series recommendations for me?

Georgia

xxx