Imagine this: it’s freezing cold outside, you’re all cuddled up in your thick blanket with your favorite fuzzy socks, you have a hot drink in your hand — but you’re struggling to find the perfect show. Be honest, we’ve all been there.
But fear no more, I’m here to make sure your drink stays hot as you watch the best Netflix series.
Dash and Lily
The holiday season is right around the corner, and if you don’t live under a rock, you know it’s the time for cheesy, lovey-dovey Netflix movies and series. But Dash and Lily is anything but cheesy (well okay, maybe a little bit cheesy?) Based on the book, Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares (a trilogy) by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn, this series will put you in the right mood for Christmas!
The show is set in New York City during Christmas time, and the story starts at one of my favorite places – Strand Bookstore. There, hidden in the treasure of books, is a single red diary that Dash finds, the insides of it crawling with dares to do around the Strand. This starts the games of dares between Dash and Lily, taking them all over New York City. This was one of the most heartwarming, sweet, and honest portrayals of teenagers I have seen in a while. Get cozy and binge-watch the ten episodes to kick off your holiday vibes!
Haikyuu!
This is for all of the anime fans out there. This series might be one of the best shounen anime I have ever watched. Even if you aren’t an anime watcher, I would recommend you to start your anime journey with this show. This series is about high-school volleyball teams (sports anime), our main team being Karasuno High School, fighting with other high-schools for the national championship.
It’s my guarantee that you will love every single one of the Karasuno’s volleyball team members, especially the protagonist Shoyo Hinata (he’s a ball of sunshine!). This show is intense and will keep you on edge — and if you get invested into shows like me, it will make you scream and laugh out loud so hard that your mom might come into your room to ask you to keep it down. This would be one of the best shows to watch during this pandemic – it will fill you with passion and make you want to Fly (you’ll get this reference, once you watch the show).
Short Stories By Rabindranath Tagore
Going a different route, let’s dig deep into Bengali literature with this series. This show is a combination of 20 (different) amazing stories by Rabindranath Tagore, the most famous poet, writer, composer, and painter in the Bengali Renaissance period. His stories are almost always centered around strong, progressive independent women fighting the societal and cultural norms. Before this, I hadn’t read a book by Tagore, but I was definitely missing out. These stories were challenging and questioned so many cultural cracks in India, and to think this was written back in the early 1900’s, just wow!
My favorite stories are Chokher Bali, Kabuliwala, Mrinal Ki Chitthi, The Story of a Muslim Girl, Dhai Aakhar Perm Ka, and Dalia. The whole show is in Hindi, but you can find subtitles in English. The music, the filmography and the stories themselves are so amazing, you’ll find yourself clicking “Next Episode” until you finish them all!
Love, Death + Robots (Warning: NSFW, 18+)
Love, Death + Robots is a five-time Emmy winning series, and is unlike anything you’ve ever watched! It’s a combination of 18 different short animated stories in science fiction, comedy, horror, gore etc. Make sure you are okay with some pretty intense violence (even I couldn’t watch it at a point), and some really mind-blowing stuff. I live for science-fiction animation, and this show really fulfilled that thirst for me!
Personally, the best story was Beyond the Aqua Rift, it was intense and peak sci-fi, and had me on the edge of my seat. If you love robots and animation, you should definitely go for this action-packed series and spend your holidays in amazement of what creators can create!
That’s it from me this time. Hope you enjoy these series as much as I did. Do comment which ones do you like the most. Happy Holidays!