It is the middle of the night.  You are eating Hot Cheetos and watching Netflix.  Suddenly, you have an existential crisis and realize that you are tired of watching relatively run-of-the-mill shows such as The Office and Friends.  While these are certainly classics, there are many underrated shows that have yet to be discovered.  If you are looking for a unique and mildly obscure show to get hooked on, this is the comprehensive list.

Comedy

• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (Hulu): my personal favorite show of all time, It’s Always Sunny follows the lives of five morally-questionable friends who own a bar and get up to lots of tom-foolery.  It also has Danny DeVito in it, so what more could you want?
• Psych (Netflix): a novice detective scams the police into thinking he can solve crimes with psychic powers.
• Atypical (Netflix): a teenager on the autism-spectrum decides it’s time to find romance.
• Community (Hulu): a lawyer is suspended and forced to enroll in a community college.
• The Good Place (Netflix): The Good Place is where people who have been good throughout their lives go when they die.  When the main character gets there she realizes that she’s been mistaken for someone else.
• Daria (Hulu): a cartoon depicting a sarcastic, unpopular teenager in high school.
• Bojack Horseman (Netflix): an edgy cartoon depicting an alcoholic horse.
• Trailer Park Boys (Netflix): a Canadian sitcom in which three friends get up to many shenanigans in their trailer park.
• Freaks and Geeks (Netflix): two groups, the Freaks and the Geeks, work their way through high school.
• Brooklyn 99 (Hulu): this series revolves around an immature but talented NYPD detective.
• The Wonder Years (Hulu): a wholesome, coming-of-age comedy from the 80s.
• Big Mouth (Netflix): a “perfectly legal” comedy depicting horny middle schoolers.

Drama

• House of Cards (Netflix): an American political thriller highlighting corruption in politics.
• Mindhunter (Netflix): two FBI agents are tasked with interviewing serial killers.
• Mad Men (Netflix): set in the 1960s, depicts the lives of characters in business agencies.
• Blue Bloods (Netflix): revolves around a group of New York cops.
• Skins (Netflix): a British comedy-drama that follows the lives of teenagers with little adult supervision.
• The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu): based off the dystopian novel by Margaret Atwood, a thriller set in a future in which individual rights are restricted and oppression runs rampant.
• Peaky Blinders (Netflix): a gangster family epic set at the end of World War I.
• Ozark (Netflix): a crime drama in which a family gets mixed up with local criminals in the Ozarks.

Horror

• The Haunting of Hill House (Netflix): follows the lives and past of a family who has been traumatized and even killed by a haunted house they lived in for years.

Historic

• The Crown (Netflix): centered around a young Queen Elizabeth who comes to the throne.
• The Borgias (Netflix): a juicy historical fiction show following the corrupt lives of the Borgias from the Middle Ages.
• The Last Kingdom (Netflix): set in the year 872, England has fallen to a Danish invasion.

Spanish

• Money Heist (Netflix): details the elaborate heist by 8 robbers of the Royal Mint of Spain in Madrid.  Speaking from personal experience, this show is also good practice for the AP Spanish exam.
• Elite (Netflix): an enticing Spanish teen drama series.

Fantasy

• The Magicians (Netflix): follows the life of a main character who felt like he never really fit in, due to his magical powers.
• Merlin (Netflix): the story of King Arthur told from the perspective of Merlin.
• Lucifer (Netflix): Lucifer becomes bored with being the King of Hell and retires to Los Angeles.

Reality

• Queer Eye (Netflix): a group of flamboyant men help “straight men refine their wardrobes, grooming, and diet.”
• Worst Cooks in America (Netflix): recruits with very poor culinary skills go to a cooking boot camp.
• Beyond Scared Straight (Hulu): throws at-risk kids in prison for a day or two to set them straight.

You’re welcome – just by reading this article you have become intensely more cultured.