Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica.

Summer goes by so slowly and so quickly all at the same time, it’s so strange. But, term is starting so soon and I’m just buzzing to get final year finished with!

Before I wanted to get into the heavier blog posts about uni, student life, finding your life’s calling, etc., I wanted to remind you to plan for time off from your studies. It’s so important to both your physical and mental wellbeing to plan for breaks and allot time for yourself to relax. You can’t be on your toes the entire academic year! If you plan for breaks, you’ll be more productive and efficient when you’re revising or prepping for tutorials.

And so, in the spirit of TIFF, the film festival in Toronto I’m currently volunteering for, here’s a list of stand-out movies and TV series currently on Netflix UK (as of September 2017) to watch in your down time.

Something to think about

These are films/series that are quite heavy and require you to really think about what you’re watching. This is not for the absent-minded watch-while-you-cook time of day.

• Sherlock – one of my favourite TV series ever (1h28m per episode | crime, drama)
• Black Mirror – you can only watch one in one sitting; they’re heavy (1h | drama, sci-fi, thriller)
• The People vs OJ Simpson (documentary TV series)
• The OA  – I’ve read that you’ll either love it or hate it (1h per episode | sci-fi, mystery)
• American Horror Story (1h | horror, thriller)
• The Imposter (1h39 | documentary, crime)
• Nightcrawler (1h58 | drama, thriller)
• Memento – one of my favourite films of all time!! (1h53 | thriller)
• We Need to Talk About Kevin (1h52 | drama, thriller)
• The Big Short (2h10 | biography, drama)
• The Shining – SO classic!!! (2h25 | horror)

Something to mindlessly enjoy

Pretty self-explanatory! These are for an end-of-the-day wind down and the you’re-ready-for-bed-but-not-quite-ready-to-go-to-sleep-yet time of day.

• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (22m per episode | comedy)
• Freaks and Geeks – a short-lived classic, which I absolutely adore (44m per episode | comedy, drama)
• The IT Crowd (25m per episode | comedy)
• Rick and Morty (22m per episode | cartoon, comedy)
• RuPaul’s Drag Race – I’m a HUGE fan and it’s helped me to uncover the crazy, wonderful world of drag (45m per episode | reality)
• Arrested Development (on-again, off-again TV series | comedy)
• Zootropolis / Zootopia – I love animated movies, The Lego Movie, being my favourite one; this one is a feel-good film for all ages (1h48 | animation)
• Exit Through the Gift Shop / That Banksy Movie (1h27 | documentary)
• Inglourious Basterds (2h33 | adventure, drama, war)
• ET the Extra-Terrestrial (1h55 | sci-fi)
• Hot Fuzz (2h1 | action, comedy)
• Grease – the one and only!! (1h50 | musical)

Something in between

These are not too heavy and not so light-hearted – just perfect for those days when you’re not sure how you’re feeling.

• Stranger Things (55m per episode | horror, drama)
• Luther – who doesn’t love themselves some Idris Elba?! (1h per episode | crime, drama)
• Mad Men (47m per episode | drama)
• Magic Mike (1h50 | comedy, drama)
• Man Up – *cue eye roll* as I am not a fan of romantic comedies at all, but I’m trying to be accommodating for all my lovely readers!! (Thank you for reading!!) (1h28 | rom-com)
• Moonrise Kingdom (1h34 | adventure, comedy, drama)
• The Trip – based on the TV series (1h52 | comedy)
• Amélie  – disclaimer: it’s in French, but it’s a classic for a reason! (2h2 | comedy, romance)

Naturally, this is far from an exhaustive list and you can watch whatever tickles your fancy. I highly, highly recommend the US version of The Office (please see title), another one of my favourite TV series of all time, but they took it off the UK Netflix a few years ago. So, you’ll have to find another way to enjoy the 9 seasons! In any case, I hope you end up watching at least one suggestion! I’m more than happy to have chats about anything on this list that I’ve watched.