I was in a bit of a nostalgic mood (I have a lot of those lately) and decided to compile a massive list (spread over a few weeks) of series to watch during the December holidays, stretching into January. The plan was to rewatch some classics, but what I’ve realised is that from the list of 9 series that I came across below, I have only watched two of them(?!), which means that I actually have some “brand new” series to look forward to!

The Xmas list is coming next week, so hang to your stockings because its going to be super large, but in the meantime, have a look at these classics (as well as a bonus round) and see which ones tickle your toggos:

True Detective (2014) – 3 seasons
Over the past two decades, HBO has turned out some of the most impressive shows of which quite a few made it to our list today, including Nic Pizzolatto’s True Detective – a seasonal anthology series in which police investigations unearth the personal and professional secrets of people within and outside the law. Each season has a different plot, always focusing on detectives investigating a case and having to sort through all manner of sleazy elements. This is not like any cop show that you’ve ever seen! The grisly murder scenes and disturbing plotlines are not for the faint-hearted. In the first season, Matthew McConaughey plays an Atheist, while Woody Harrelson plays a Christian. In real life, their world views are actually reversed.
Rating: 8.9
From the peanut gallery:
“You’re gonna watch it again. And again. And again. Not necessarily because time is a flat circle, but because it’s so goddamn good that you can’t stay away from it!”

Enlightened (2011) – 2 seasons
This sounds like someone who works in Eskom’s IT department… you lose your shit at work, you go away to namasté the fuck out of everything. Then you return all  refreshed and inspired and  you think you have everything  under control, ready to change the world. Enlightened is the story of  a self-destructive woman who has a spiritual awakening becomes determined to live an enlightened life. In the process  she creates kak at home and work.
Creator Mike White wrote all the episodes by himself and without a writers’ room. Both seasons were fully written before shooting commenced.
Rating: 7.5
From the peanut gallery:
“A series that looks good at anger, doubt, uncertainty, and the fight for love and spiritual meaning.”

Game of Thrones (2011) – 8 seasons
This is totally worth re-watching all 8 seasons this December holiday. Game Of Thrones is one of the biggest shows in TV history, if not the biggest! It is certainly the most ambitious to date!  An epic award-winning fantasy series with desperate characters who join forces unite to fight a common enemy. In the mythical continent of Westeros, nine families of higher nobility  scramble to gain power over the seven kingdoms and the Iron throne and fuck each other up.  According to Kit Harington (Jon Snow), his performance in the rejected pilot episode was so kak that the creators often jokingly threaten to release scenes of it on the interweb if he moans too much.
Rating: 9.2
From the peanut gallery:
“Season 1 – 4: The greatest thing to grace our television screens!
Season 5 & 6: Still great!
Season 7: Is this Fast and Furious?
Season 8: Die D&D Die!”

House (2011) – 8 seasons
Get your fix of witty wisecracks and baffling cases with all eight seasons of this smash-hit show starring Hugh Laurie as Dr Gregory House. He might be a doos, but he’s also a medical genius as Head of Diagnostic Medicine at Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital in New Jersey. Together with his team, they solve extreme cases where the cause of the patient’s symptoms has eluded other doctors.
After Hugh Laurie’s audition, executive producer Bryan Singer said: “See, this is what I want! An American guy!”,  completely unaware that Hugh Laurie is in fact, British.
Rating: 8.7
From the peanut gallery:
“Imagine if Hugh Laurie didn’t apply for this part, and imagine if the producers didn’t choose him. People say perfection doesn’t exist, but the casting of house literally is”

Teen Wolf (2011) – 6 seasons
Want to feel like a teenager again? Watch this show! Scott McCall (Tyler Posey) is no ordinary teenager. After being bitten by a werewolf, his life is transfors when he discovers he has super-human strength. Turning him from awkward nerd to star of the lacrosse team, his new powers makes him freak for normal people, prey for werewolf hunters and enemy to some of his own kind. With his normal tjommie, Stiles and werewolf pal, Derek they protect their loved ones from menace created by his own kind.
Many of the supposed wolf howls heard on the show are actually gorillas!
Rating: 7.6
From the peanut gallery:
“IT WAS JUST SUPPOSED TO BE A SAPPY HIGH SCHOOL ROMANCE SHOW ABOUT TEEN WEREWOLVES HOW DID IT BECOME THIS AMAZING AND HEARTBREAKING AAKDKEKRKRLLEWFGH!”

Strike Back (2010) – 7 seasons
A team of special ops peeps conduct several high risk missions across the globe. It is a British spy adventure which follows the military operatives in Section 20, a covert branch of the Defense Intelligence service. This series was based on the novel by real-life former SAS soldier Chris Ryan. All the actors had extensive training with British SAS and SBS instructors.
Rating: 8.2
From the peanut gallery:
“What Homeland SHOULD have been!”

True Blood (2008) – 7 seasons
Set in modern times, vampires roam the Earth and are humans’ mortal enemies. Luckily for us normies, a substitute has been found for human blood, which vams can consume with the same effect as human blood. It are called ‘True Blood’ and now humans and vampires can live together happily ever after and even pomp each other. But there is always that one doos on both sides…
The intro sequence avoided using any of the actors and actresses, because the creator dislikes other television shows that do that. He reckons that we’re watching these people for the next hour anyway, so why start off with them on screen every fokken time? Man has a point…

Rating: 7.8
From the peanut gallery:
“I wish I could erase all the feelings I got the first time I watched True Blood, only so I can watch it again and feel it all over again!”


Six Feet Under (2005) – 5 seasons
A darkly comic series about a koekoes Los Angeles family. A funeral director gets hit by a bus and leaves his funeral business to his two sons. Nate Jr and David. How does a family who helps others deal with grief deal with its own? I guess you have to watch all 5 seasons.
The series creator, Alan Ball,  decided to set the story in Los Angeles because, according to him, LA is the “world capital of the denial of death”.
Rating: 8.7
From the peanut gallery:
“I finally bit the bullet and started this show for the first time during quarantine- watched all 5 seasons in two weeks and now I feel empty
It really is a special show.”

Sex and the City (1998) – 6 seasons
I never watched this series and I probably never will, but I know it had/has an enormous fan base. It was also the first cable series to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series. Based on the novel by Candace Bushnell, Sex and the City follows sex columnist Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) and Charlotte York (Kristin Davis), These four are friends, all  single and independent New Yorkers in their thirties. Carrie is a social columnist,  Miranda is successful lawyer and has no interest in getting married, Charlotte manages a gallery and seems to be the romantic of the group and Samantha works in public relations and a bit of a shallow flirt. Even when she was being shot from the waist up, Kim Cattrall insisted on wearing heels. She said it made her feel more like Samantha. Have a go at it, girls! (and the odd guy)
Rating: 7.2
From the peanut gallery:
“An absolutely fantastic series that is fun to watch, never boring and above all does not seem to age!”

Honorable mentions:
There’s not enough time to talk about all the shows, so here are a few that you might have missed out on or should revisit. For those keeping count  – we’re on a total of 15 shows adding up to 87 seasons!

• Ray Donovan – (2013) – 7 seasons, rating of 8.3
• Banshee (2013) – 4 seasons, rating of 8.4
• Dexter – (2006) – 8 seasons, rating of 8.6
• The Wire – (2002) – 5 seasons, rating of 9.3
• The Sopranos (1999) – 6 seasons, rating of 9.2
• Boardwalk Empire (2010) – 5 seasons, rating of 8.5
  

For more ideas on what to stream in South Africa – head on over to Showmax Stories.
Local is fokken lekker!