I have never been so grateful to have Netflix at my fingertips. It’s been about 3 and a half months that I have been social distancing and staying at home. Some days are worse than others as far as boredom goes, but since I am still working 50 hours most weeks, I don’t have as much free time as others might. Even though more things are beginning to open up, because there are still over 200 new COVID-19 cases in Michigan every day, I am reluctant to go to public places still. Which means more time for Netflix!

BUT that isn’t to say I am busy at all hours of the day. On the weekends, and the rare occasion during the week in which I am off due to being furloughed and have nothing to do the whole day, it makes it a little bit easier to social distance when I have found something new or interesting to watch. Once I am drawn into the plot, all I want to do with my free time is watch to know what happens next.

Here is what I recently watched that I found to be binge-worthy:

(*Disclaimer* – Some of these shows are Korean. As in, Korean with English subtitles. I like to keep up with practicing the language and TV shows help a lot with my listening skills. Plus Korean shows are just really good.)

13th is a documentary, and something I firmly believe every person should watch. It features many people, from representatives in politics, both Republican and Democrat, professors, social activists and more. The whole documentary provides an argument, with much research done to provide facts to the audience, of why black Americans are to this day not treated the same as white Americans. The name is drawn from the 13th amendment, which freed slaves in 1863, and the time period of the documentary begins here and finishes in 2016. But even though the documentary was made four years ago, it is still relevant today. This definitely opened my eyes to many things about this country.

Itaewon Class is a new show that came out toward the beginning of 2020. I believe new episodes were released each week, so I made sure to wait until it had finished airing before starting the show. There’s nothing worse than getting addicted to a show and then having to wait for new episodes, at least in my opinion. This TV show has a little bit for everyone, I think. It consists of psychopaths, themes of suspense, revenge, friendships and romance. I think the main question of the show is the difference between right and wrong and sticking to your ideals in the face of achieving your dreams. I was definitely on the edge of my seat for this show. 10/10. Plus the music definitely adds to the atmosphere of the show. This show also takes place in Itaewon, which is a neighborhood in Seoul. I went there on a weekend trip with some friends when I was living in South Korea, so it was really cool to be able to recognize landmarks of places I visited.

While I was watching Itaewon Class, this show continued to be placed on my suggested shows list, and I ended up watching the trailer every time I turned Netflix on. They definitely know what they are doing, because I was intrigued and ended up watching it right after I finished Itaewon Class. I typically don’t watch shows like this, but man I was addicted within the first few minutes. It does contain graphic images in terms of violence, and the themes of the show are definitely dark, but I like that it was different and discussed topics that are normally glossed over, especially in South Korean society. I watched this with a friend (but in our own houses, of course), and we had a lot to discuss when we both finished the show. 10/10.

A few of my friends had watched this show and said it was surprisingly good, so I decided to give it a try. I usually don’t watch documentaries, so this was a change. In my opinion, Cheer does a good job in refuting the stereotypes that surround cheerleading. As a previous marching band member, I can understand the idea that people had about us. Our job was to provide music for the real athletes on the field, and our competitions and practices weren’t given consideration. While this show did not have me on the edge of my seat, it was interesting! 8/10

This show is a flashback to middle school for me. I remember watching episodes after school and trying to figure out how to record the ones I missed. When I was a sophomore or junior in high school, after it finished airing, I found all of the seasons on DVD and watched it all the way through and enjoyed it as much, or even more, than the first time I watched it. Watching it again as an adult brought back feelings of nostalgia of when I first watched the season as a kid. Some of it seemed a little cheesy, or young (I mean it was made for kids, so what can you expect?), but I also appreciated the subtleties and references and similarities to the world around us more. The show definitely teaches philosophies that we should all live by. Of course, the animation was a bit outdated, and I wish the episodes were longer than 20 minutes, but I still give it a 10/10.

Most of these are all relatively new, or new to Netflix, released in the past year, but feel free to comment with your favorite binge-worthy recommendations that will keep people intrigued!