Usually this is the time of year where I would take a look back on my best and worst films of the last twelve months but with the craziness of 2020 and my complete lack of motivation, I’ve only watched a handful of new releases, and in all honesty I think I’ve already forgotten half of them. Although there have been plenty of new content across the many streaming services, instead of jumping into the great unknown of new cinema, I’ve been self-soothing by snuggling up on the sofa and binge watching boxsets, including revisiting some old shows that I just never got around to checking out or finishing.

So instead of a rank of my favourite films, here’s a round up of the shows I watched this year.

The Office – UK (2001-03) and US (2005-13) versions

First time viewing

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I know, I know… How the hell did I manage to get all the way to 2020 without having ever watching a single episode of either version of The Office !?!

I love how they managed to take something so banal and everyday as working in an office and turn it into something brilliant, light hearted and hilarious with characters that toy with the line between ‘I know someone like that’ realism and total caricature.

While I enjoyed both iterations of the show, my personal favourite is the American version something which, as a Brit, I probably shouldn’t admit.

Gotham (2014-19)

We all know the story of Bruce Wayne’s journey into the masked vigilante Batman but Gotham takes a slightly different route by focusing on the rise of future Police Commissioner Jim Gordon, and the evolution of some of our favourite DC villains including Catwoman, Penguin and, my personal favourite, The Riddler.

Although there was a bit of a quality dip part way through the show, overall I found it to be well done with enough easter eggs and references to the comics to add an intriguing and fun depth to the viewing experience.

Bones (2005-17)

I was a massive and avid Bones fan until, for some reason, I just stopped watching around about season 8 but I started again way back at the beginning and saw it through. Although Mark could never get into it – “every episode is the same” – but as someone who is a sucker for character development, I loved that the repetitive nature allowed for me to focus on the characters rather than the story.

Marvel’s Agents of Shield (2013-20)

I recently saw a quote that said something along the lines of “I started watching Agents of Shield hoping to see characters from the Marvel films, now I watch Marvel films hoping to see characters from Agents of Shield”, and honestly this couldn’t be closer to the truth.

As I’ve already stated, I’m a sucker for character development and if you’ve read my top ten MCU superheroes post then you’ll already know that I, along with thousands of others, love Agent Coulson so them bringing him back for his own series was a stroke of genius. The fact that the series tied into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, featured some kick ass characters and was genuinely hilarious at times makes this series a great watch.

Although technically the series ended back in August, Disney+ is drip feeding it to me and I’m waiting for the final five episodes to become available before I can finally finish it, so no spoilers please.

Glee (2009-15)

First time viewing

Despite being chock full of rather problematic themes, characters and storylines, Glee was something of a guilty pleasure of mine. It touched upon some strong issues and embraced diversity, I couldn’t help singing along (albeit out of tune) and I loved the overall cheesiness of it all. And let’s be honest, whether we want to admit it or not, we all love an underdog story.

Criminal Minds (2005-20)

I finished off the year by jumping back into the world of criminal profiling in Criminal Minds, having only made it to season 11 before. I love psychology and if I could ‘go back and do it all again’, studying forensic psychology would definitely be high up on my list of things to do.

So there you have it, a little round up of some of my 2020 binge watches. What did you watch last year?