The leaves are slowly turning to yellow and red, wood stoves and hearths are fired up again, and the crisp air outside is just cold enough to put steaming mugs of hot chocolate on the mind. It’s the time to get cosy, or, as it’s so popularly called this year: for hygge. And although you should definitely go outside every now and then to check out the beautiful colors and work up an appetite for all the indulgent foods that are so abundant now, ’tis also the season for …curling up on the couch, piling on the throws and watching endless hours of good old fashioned quality tv.

 

Here’s my list of tv shows to watch this fall!

 

Black Mirror

This show is haunting and very unsettling. It paints a bleak picture of what the near future might look like, based on what’s already happening today. Each episode is a standalone story with different actors (quite some well-known faces among them!), but the recurring theme is that the combination of technology and the darker bits of human nature do not make for a happy place.

After two seasons on British Channel 4 Black Mirror has now been picked up by Netflix, and season 3 has just aired last week. Watch it, and be rewarded with what is probably be the most original thing you’ve seen in years. It’s not a ‘love it’ kind of show, but each episode will stick with you and keep you thinking for a long time afterwards. Definitely highly recommended.

 

The Crown

A new Netflix original that tells the story of the current British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, starting when she is a 25 year old newlywed about to take the throne. It’s one of the most expensive tv shows ever made and has already been affirmed for two seasons of ten episodes each, although in fact six full seasons are planned. Season one will be released on November 4, so I obviously haven’t seen this show yet, but the trailers and sneak peaks look absolutely stellar. I’m a huge fan of historic drama, and this promises to be another great one. Another big plus: former Doctor Who Matt Smith portrays Prince Philip. I love Doctor Who, Matt will forever be my favorite Doctor, and I’m excited to see him in another big role. I cannot wait until November 4 is finally here.

 

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life

Another show I’ve been eagerly awaiting is Gilmore Girls: a Year in the Life. Basically, I grew up with Rory and Lorelai, the mother-daughter duo living in the quirky town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut. I was fifteen when Rory celebrated her sixteenth birthday in the first season, and so pretty much everything that happened to her in the course of the following seven years was really, really (teenage drama emphasis here) relatable. The original series came to a stop in 2007, but recently Netflix has picked it up for another season.

The new season will only have four episodes, albeit feature-length ones. Each will focus on one season, hence ‘a year in the life’, and we’ll have to wait until the 25th of November to watch them. Yes, that’s a while, but it’s just enough time to catch up on the old episodes (all 154 of them) to refresh your memory and get your nostalgia on. And don’t forget to keep an eye out for all the now-big shots that got their first small acting parts on the show!

 

11.22.63

James Franco plays high school teacher Jake Epping, who is unwillingly set the task of travelling back in time to the sixties in order to avoid the assassination of JFK. Yup, that’s the premise of this show. It’s an eight episode series based on the Stephen King novel by the same title, and it’s gotten a lot of great reviews. I will definitely watch this show, I just first need to read the book. I loved the first half of it, then for some reason didn’t finish (I think I forgot to bring it on a trip or something and thus started something else) and now it’s gotten to the point that I have to reread the first half again, which is always a bit annoying. BUT. I will read and finish this book again soon. And then I’ll watch the show. In the meantime, let me know what you think of it if you’ve watched it, I’d love to hear!

 

Broadchurch

Another Doctor Who Alumnus, David Tennant, plays one of the main characters in Broadchurch, and that is literally the only reason I found out about this show. And that’s a shame! The show starts off with the murder of a young boy in a small British coastal town, where everyone knows each other. But in the heat of the media frenzy that closely follows the police investigation, it turns out that there’s more than meets the eye to everyone, and slowly the town starts to turn onto itself. And I know, you’re probably reading this thinking you’ve heard it before. And that’s true. But I promise you that Broadchurch is worth your time.

It is beautifully executed with its calm pace, broad landscapes and depth of characterization, all set off by a stunning soundtrack. Most of the people in this story could have easily become cardboard characters, but they’re not. Not one of them. There’s such an enormous range of emotions involved with the murder of a child, and Broadchurch takes its time to show them all. There are already two eight-episode seasons available to binge watch, and a third season is underway. Don’t miss out on this one.

 

Westworld

A dystopian sci-fi western action thriller that asks the question of what it is to be human. Overtly ambitious? Well, it’s HBO’s attempt to create a new Game of Thrones (as that show is drawing to a close), so yes, ambitious is probably exactly what they are going for. And I’m the first to admit that it seems as if they are succeeding. Westworld is now four episodes into its first season, and it’s getting rave reviews. Like, a 9.2 IMDB score kind of good. But don’t just trust over 30.000 people who agree that his is a must-watch. Check out the trailer and decide for yourself.