If you need a break from nerve-shredding thrillers and true crime documentaries, try switching to something a bit more comforting. From a big-hearted coming-of-age tale to a star-studded drama, these escapist TV shows are best enjoyed curled up on the sofa with a tub of ice cream. Enjoy.
Sterling Point
“If escapism is the brief, then ‘Sterling Point’ fulfils it expertly,” said Micha Frazer-Caroll in The Guardian. The perfect antidote to dark, gritty shows like “Euphoria”, the coming-of-age drama follows “highly strung” 17-year-old Annie who discovers she’s inherited a house on a “picturesque Canadian island” and embarks on a “secret trip in search of answers about her late mother’s life”. Warm and funny, the show “manages to transcend the limits of its YA niche” and turns out to be “quite juicy”. It doesn’t have the “intensity” or “existentialism” of darker teen shows – but I found myself wanting to “stay with these characters and inhabit their island bubble”. “I didn’t want to go home.”
Amazon
The Five-Star Weekend
This “sun-soaked” drama stars Jennifer Garner as a food blogger struggling to cope after a “devastating loss”, said Nathalie Whittle in Good Housekeeping. She invites old friends from “different stages of her life” to visit her Nantucket home – but what starts as a “soul-searching weekend” soon unfurls into something far harder when “secrets emerge and friendships are pushed to their limit”. The result is a fun, absorbing series that’s “the pinnacle of escapist TV”.
Sky
Imperfect Women
Bingeing this show is like being “jet propelled into the captivating, messy world of people with far more exciting lives than your own”, said Lucy Wigley in Woman & Home. Based on the novel of the same name by Araminta Hall, the glossy mystery follows a tight-knit group of women whose lives are shattered when one of their friends is murdered. “Lavish”, “polished” and “utterly absorbing” this is the type of show you can “lose yourself in”. “Add it to your watch list.”
Apple TV
Heated Rivalry
This hit series follows the “years-long romance” between promising rival hockey players Shane Hollander (Hudson Williams) and Ilya Rozonov (Connor Storrie), said Michael Arceneaux on HuffPost. Much like the book it’s based on, the show is “fun and escapist and as horny as it is heartfelt”. Season one secured a 96% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes – and the second instalment is “on the horizon”. Watch this space.
Apple TV
Gilmore Girls
This is “everything one could ever want or need in a comfort show,” said Andrea Park and Nicole Briese in Marie Claire. “Gilmore Girls” ran for seven seasons from 2000 to 2007 and follows single mother Lorelai and her precocious daughter Rory as they go about their lives. Set in the sleepy fictional town of Stars Hollow, Connecticut, where it’s “seemingly always autumn and wacky townspeople abound”. “Need we say more?”
Netflix
Gossip Girl
There’s something “uniquely comforting” about watching the “drama-fuelled escapades” of these “impossibly wealthy Upper East Side teens”, said Ranyechi Udemezue in Vogue. The show ran for six seasons between 2007 and 2012, reaching “a crescendo” as the friendship group enters adulthood. “If I’m ever stuck in a rut, ‘Gossip Girl’ will be sure to lift me out of it.”
Netflix