I’ve always spent more time with my mom than anyone else when I’m at home, and I value that girl time when I can get it. For that reason, I spend a lot of time watching some of my favorite shows and movies with my mom. Here are some of our favorites:
1. Gilmore Girls
A classic show for watching with your mom, Gilmore Girls centers around a dynamic mother-daughter duo, Lorelai and Rory Gilmore. I started watching the show with my mom this past summer and absolutely fell in love with it. I am currently in the middle of season three, since I will only watch it with my mom so that we can share the show. Still, thank god for Netflix!
2. Pride and Prejudice
This movie… Okay, so the Keira Knightley version suffices, I suppose, but I’m talking about the six-hour BBC version with Colin Firth. It’s a classic, and it is a must.
3. The West Wing
My mom and I both love Aaron Sorkin, and The West Wing was a show I wanted to watch once I was old enough to understand, knowing that my parents watched it when it originally aired. The banter, the intelligence, and the characters are astounding, and now I just want to watch the entire series.
4. Brave
I saw this movie with my mom, and I was so glad to have done so. The mother-daughter love in this movie is incredible, especially as you see Merida and her mom starting to work together and understand one another. My favorite scene is when Merida walks into the room of celebrating men and gives a speech to the entire room, completely paralleling her mom doing the same in the beginning of the movie. Like mother, like daughter. And her mom looked so proud!
5. Basically anything Disney
What better way to throwback than by curling up with popcorn under a blanket, and watch your Disney favorites with your family? *pops Cinderella into the DVD player*
6. Mona Lisa Smile
My mom introduced me to this film a few years ago, and now it’s one of my favorite movies. Set at Wellesley College over the course of the 1953-1954 school year, the interactions between the women are astounding. It’s an analysis of the immense standards women are held to, while it also explores the relationships between the central women (played by Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Ginnifer Goodwin), the new art history professor (played by Julia Roberts), and the numerous other characters coming and going in their lives over their last year of college. Is there anything better than girl power, art, and finding yourself along the way? I think not.
7. The Sound of Music
You can never go wrong with Julie Andrews. Never.
8. Pretty much any musical.
It used to be tradition to watch Glee together, but we all know how that came and went. But really, if you aren’t watching and singing along dramatically with your friends, my mom and I totally rock out to fun musicals. Belting out Mamma Mia, laughing over Singing in the Rain, bopping along to “Bend and Snap” from Legally Blonde the Musical, and crying over Les Mis. Whether they’re on the stage or on the screen, we love them all.
9. Downton Abbey
My mom and I may have a bit of a thing for period dramas (see #2), but Downton Abbey is the current BBC mini-drama that everyone is talking about, including me. Set around an aristocratic family with three daughters and their servants during the early twentieth century, drama stirs from who the family heir will be to whether or not the ancient house should be wired with electricity. It sounds ridiculous (and sometimes is a bit ridiculous), but that is part of the enjoyment. It’s another world to us as viewers, the first episode set right after the Titanic sinks. Also, the fashion is incredible, and watching it evolve with the characters over the seasons is one of my favorite things. Plus, Maggie Smith as a sassy grandmother is golden.
10. Sweet Home, Alabama
Reese Witherspoon is amazing, and so is this movie. Also, this is one of my mom’s favorite films, so I added it here just for her. (Love you, Mom!)
Honorable Mentions: 10 Things I Hate About You, Clueless, Legally Blonde, The Princess Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada
Images: tumblr.com, tvtropes.org, fanpop.com, pbs.org