I swear there should be a special name for the kind of decision paralysis that hits when I finally have time to myself and full control of the TV. Windows like this do not come around often when I am in mom mode, so I want to make them count. But with endless streaming options, I can scroll so long that I lose the will to watch anything at all. My fix is simple: I keep a short list of shows I can actually finish in one weekend.
When I ask friends or family what to watch, someone almost always recommends a series that is seven seasons deep. That is more emotional commitment than I usually have available. I cannot promise that the version of me next weekend will want to come back and finish what I started.
So every show on this list lands somewhere between “one ambitious Saturday” and a neat full-weekend binge. Even better, these picks are genuinely underrated, and in a few cases, criminally so. The algorithm may not have shoved them in front of me yet, but that is exactly why I love recommending them. Start on Friday, finish by Sunday, bing bang boom.
Colin From Accounts (Paramount+)
I love how quickly this Australian rom-com commits to being weird in the best way. It follows two strangers whose lives collide after an incident involving a flashed boob and a stray dog getting hit. Yes, it is wacky, but it is also warm, charming, and surprisingly easy to fall for. If you love Aussie humor, I think you will be all in. The show was created by and stars real-life husband-and-wife Patrick Brammall and Harriet Dyer, which makes their chemistry feel effortless.
The commitment: 2 seasons (with a third dropping July 27), 8 episodes each, ~3.5 hours per season
Somebody Somewhere (HBO Max)
Bridget Everett is so good in this dramedy that I still cannot believe more people did not talk about it nonstop. She plays a cynical woman who returns to her Kansas hometown after her sister dies. She has always felt like an outsider there, but little by little, she finds community in places she never expected. It is a heartfelt, beautifully lived-in show, and the fact that it was canceled after its third season still feels unfair, especially with that 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.
The commitment: 3 seasons, 7 episodes each, ~3.5 hours per season
Deadloch (Prime Video)
I needed a minute to settle into this Aussie crime comedy, but once it clicked, I was hooked. Set in a small Tasmanian town, it follows two wildly mismatched female detectives investigating a string of murders. A crime show this funny should not work as well as it does, but somehow it absolutely does. Kate Box and Madeleine Sami make Dulcie and Eddie such a sharp odd-couple pairing, and Season 2 even brings in “the other Hemsworth brother,” Luke.
The commitment: 2 seasons (so far), 8 episodes + 6 episodes, ~13 hours total
We Are Lady Parts (Peacock)
I honestly do not even remember how I first stumbled onto this show, because I almost never hear people talk about it. That is a shame, because it is such a sharp comedy. Amina, a geeky Gen Z biochemical engineering Ph.D. student, reluctantly becomes the lead guitarist for an all-women Muslim punk band in London. It is riotous, joyful, and packed with personality. The songs alone, including “Voldemore Under My Headscarf,” make it worth pressing play.
The commitment: 2 seasons, 6 episodes each, ~25 min
Deli Boys (Hulu)
I am always here for a good crime comedy, and this one delivers. Two pampered Pakistani-American brothers discover after their father dies that the family convenience-store empire was actually part of a massive drug-smuggling operation. Watching them try to find their footing in that criminal underworld is ridiculous in the best way. I am especially obsessed with Poorna Jagannathan as the family’s terrifying auntie-consigliere. People have described the show as Schitt’s Creek meets Breaking Bad, and honestly, that tracks.
The commitment: 2 seasons, 10 episodes + 6 episodes, ~8 hours total
Extraordinary (Hulu)
I need to start with a warning: this series ends on a huge cliffhanger because it was canceled far too soon. If that kind of thing ruins the experience for you, I understand skipping ahead. Still, I hope you do not, because Extraordinary deserves more love. In this world, everyone gets a superpower at 18. Jen is 25 and still waiting for hers, making her the only person on earth without one. It is a clever spin on superhero tropes, and it manages to be fun, raunchy, and unexpectedly poignant all at once.
The commitment: 2 seasons, 8 episodes each, ~3.5 hours per season
Godless (Netflix)
I am not turning down anything with Merritt Wever in it, and she is one of the leads in this excellent neo-Western miniseries. Set in an 1880s New Mexico mining town run almost entirely by women after a disaster kills most of the men, Godless gives me a frontier story with real bite. Michelle Dockery is fantastic as a tough frontier mom, and Jeff Daniels plays one of the most unlikable characters I have ever seen him take on.
The commitment: 1 season, 7 episodes, ~7.5 hours total
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (Prime Video)
I suspect the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie movie connection may have kept some people from giving this series a fair shot. If that is you, I would change that now. Donald Glover and Maya Erskine step into the title roles as two lonely strangers assigned to pose as a married couple while carrying out spy missions. They are both incredible, the action is genuinely impressive, and the whole thing is just a solid, satisfying watch.
The commitment: 1 season, 8 episodes, ~6.5 hours total
The Change (BritBox)
I know you know I know that nobody really wants to pay for another streaming service, but hear me out: BritBox has some gems. This hilarious series is one of them. It follows Linda, a menopausal woman who decides she is done carrying all the invisible labor at home and rides off into the forest on a motorcycle to reclaim her life. It is smart, funny, full of heart, and threaded with excellent feminist social commentary.
The commitment: 2 seasons, 6 episodes each, ~3 hours per season
Platonic (Apple TV+)
With Rose Byrne and Seth Rogen leading the cast, I expected this to be funny, and it absolutely is. They play former best friends who reconnect in midlife and proceed to make each other’s lives gloriously messier before things get better. I love that it focuses so fully on adult friendship between men and women, which still feels surprisingly rare on TV. Catching up on the first two seasons now is a good move, especially since Season 3 will take a while.
The commitment: 2 seasons, 10 episodes each, ~5 hours per season
Girls5Eva (Netflix)
I am still a little bummed that this nostalgic, female-forward series got orphaned twice. We only got three seasons, but they are genuinely good ones. Sara Bareilles, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Busy Philipps, and Paula Pell are perfect as a one-hit-wonder ’90s girl group reuniting in their 40s. The original songs are fire, the jokes come fast, and the whole thing leaves me wanting more in the best possible way.
The commitment: 3 seasons, 6-8 episodes each, ~11 hours total
Now, when someone asks me if I got anything done this weekend, I can say, “I finished a whole series,” and honestly, that counts as an accomplishment.
Inspired by this post on Scary Mom.
