Five bingeworthy TV shows

With a third of the planet currently in enforced lockdown, just about everyone has a lot more time on their hands than they did a few months ago. While in an ideal world, we'd spend that time learning to speak French or becoming coding geniuses, sometimes there's just nothing better than hitting the sofa with a pack of hobnobs and a good boxset. Here are my top tips for some cracking quarantine viewing.

NORMAL PEOPLE

You. must. watch. this.

The stakes are always high when adapting a beloved book for film or television, but for a novel as big as Normal People, the expectations were immense. Dubbed 'the great millennial love story', we follow on-off lovers Marianne and Connell through school and university in Ireland. One of the rare adaptations that's actually better than the book, Normal People deserves all the praise it's getting and more. Excruciatingly intimate and devastatingly poetic, it's television at its finest. Give it all the awards!

All twelve episodes are available on BBC iPlayer.

ONE TREE HILL

Okay, so no one's claiming One Tree Hill is exactly ground breaking programming, but it's definitely great entertainment. With its notoriously bonkers storylines - like when a stoned dog literally ate supervillain Dan's heart - and more car crashes/stalkers/affairs than you can shake a stick at, this teen drama is a ride from start to finish. Realistic portrayal of American youth, it certainly is not (or at least, I hope it's not) but it's so full of heart you'll be gripped by episode two.

All nine seasons are available on Amazon Prime.

BUZZFEED UNSOLVED: SUPERNATURAL

This internet hit has garnered a huge following, having been buoyed by the infamous 'hey there demons' meme that's been circulating for the past few years. It follows two friends as they hunt for ghosts in some of America's most haunted locations. Interest in the supernatural is not a viewing requirement; the draw of the show is watching hardcore sceptic Shane and believer Ryan bicker, dispute evidence and generally do stupid stuff in creepy houses. As much a comedy as it is a ghosthunting show, this has been one of my favourite discoveries of the year.

All six seasons are on both YouTube and Amazon Prime.


LUTHER

Okay, so I was massively late to the party with this one. Pretty much everyone has seen this already, but I'm giving it a shout out just in case you missed it. DCI John Luther investigates some of the most evil crimes in London with the occasional help of Alice, a psychotic killer he failed to convict. In the meantime, he finds himself pursued by the law for his sometimes unorthodox methods of catching a criminal. At times terrifying, this is one of the darkest police dramas on television - and it's utterly captivating.

All five seasons are available on Sky, and the first four are available on Netflix.


THE O.C.

I was an obsessive O.C. fan in my early teens, but I didn't think I'd enjoy re-watching it as much as I have. It's definitely aged a lot since it premiered in 2003 and some of the performances aren't quite as #Emmyworthy as I thought they were first time round, but it's still a lot of fun. Whether it's the nostalgia value or the voyeuristic opportunity to see how the other half live (although why the Cohens' huge McMansion doesn't seem to have a third bedroom for Ryan baffles me to this day), a cheeky O.C. rewatch is the perfect escapism we all need right now.

All four seasons are available on Amazon Prime.