Wow, we’re impressed! We cannot believe that you watched ALL the movies that we recommended in our first article. Give yourself a pat on the back. However, it’s understandable to be craving something longer and more substantial. Well, let us introduce you to our new list of the best TV shows to watch during your time in quarantine.

Just like the previous article, because of the variety of age groups that read this, we will be doing three separate lists for children, teens and adults. However, feel free to check out any of the TV shows we list here, so long as you feel they are appropriate.

Children:

Grades K-3:

5. Lego Friends (Netflix) 

You may have heard of Lego Friends, a fresh take on the traditional Legos, a billion-dollar plastic toy brand. The group of friends have hundreds of sets to build, ranging from bakeries to cruise ships and horse stables. Behind every set, of course, is a story. You can experience Stephanie, Mia, Andrea, Emma and Olivia’s adventures and builds through all the episodes on Netflix.

4. Phineas and Ferb (Disney Plus, Amazon Prime Video)

Phineas Flynn (Vincent Martella) and Ferb Fletcher (Thomas Brodie-Sangster) are stepbrothers and have decided that they are going to make their summer the best one yet! They try every job, build roller coasters, go back in time and turn their house upside down. However, their older sister Candace (Ashley Tisdale) is determined to catch them red-handed and tattle to their parents, but they always seem to escape being caught just in time! This show is one of the most iconic cartoons to be produced and brings the fun of summer into every day! 

Grades 3-6:

3. Liv and Maddie (Netflix, Amazon Prime Video) 

Liv and Maddie (Dove Cameron) are polar opposite identical twins (ironic, right?) and have gotten used to being apart. Liv, a Hollywood star had spent the last four years working on a hit show. Maddie, an amazing basketball player, and a great student was just trying to get through high school. However, when Liv returns home to Wisconsin, the two have to put aside their differences and work together to navigate high school, solve their family problems, and annoy their brothers.

2. Some Assembly Required (Netflix) 

Some Assembly Required is about a tween named Jarvis (Kolton Stewart) who’s house is burned down by one of the Knickknack Toys he got for Christmas. His family then sued the company and won the entire business. To help run Knickknack toys Jarvis turns to his friends and other people they meet along the way. You’ll come to love the twists and turns in Assembly Required as if it were a roller coaster. Literally, they have a roller coaster in their HQ.

1. Total Drama Island (Netflix) 

Cartoon Network’s Total Drama Island is an animated comedy recounting the adventures and tricks of 22 teens. They are all fighting for a chance to win a cash prize. Each week, you see the hilarious battles and disgusting food eaten while they are at Camp Wawanakwa. At the end of the week, one player is thrown off the island to walk home in shame. You’d think a cartoon reality show wouldn’t be that great, but Total Drama Island is a funny show for any age. 

Teens: 

Please be advised: This list for teens consists of TV shows that may be rated TV-14. Keep this in mind before viewing these shows.

5. The Office (Netflix) + Parks and Recreation (Netflix, Hulu) 

This addition to the list is a two for one combo. Granted, these two shows are significantly different in plot setup and, ultimately, character development. However, both shows were created by Greg Daniels and follow a pretty similar concept. They both are mockumentaries, satirical documentaries that are essentially just shows that feature the characters talking into the camera directly to simulate a documentary sort of feel. The Office, starring Steve Carell, Rainn Wilson, John Krasinski, Jenna Fischer, and many more, is a mockumentary of the American workplace. Originally based on a UK mockumentary of the same title, it features the life of Michael Scott (Carell), a cluelessly blunt, but kind-hearted boss who runs a workplace filled with eccentric employees including Dwight Schrute (Wilson), Jim Halpert (Krasinski), Andy Bernard (Ed Helms), and Pam Beesly (Jenna Fischer) among others. Parks and Recreation, starring Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, Aziz Ansari, Chris Pratt, and Rashida Jones, is a mockumentary of bureaucracy and government. It follows Leslie Knope (Poehler), a mid-level bureaucrat in the Parks Department of Pawnee, Indiana as she tries to build a name for herself. However, she finds herself in comical situations featuring Ron Swanson (Offerman), her boss that hate the government even though he himself is a bureaucrat, Tom Haverford (Ansari), Leslie’s colleague who seems to exploit his political position for personal gain, along with a slew of other bureaucrats and civilians of Pawnee, Indiana. The Office and Parks and Recreation are both sure to keep you chuckling till their final episodes.

4. All American (Netflix, The CW)

All American follows high school football star Spencer James (Daniel Ezra) through both his highs and lows. Living in a crime-ridden neighborhood named Crenshaw, he is noticed by Coach Billy Baker (Taye Diggs) who gives Spencer an opportunity to play with the Beverly High Eagles. In Beverly Hills, California, Spencer faces many spoiled and rich white families that seem to never accept him. Even then, he is only able to attend Beverly High if he stayed in the area part-time, so Spencer decided to stay with the Bakers during the week. While Spencer continues to move back and forth between what seemed like different lives, the Bakers face their own problems. Can Spencer continue to contribute to the team while not forgetting where he came from?

3. The Good Place (Netflix, final season on Amazon Prime Video)

The Good Place attacks a question that has been asked since the dawn of time: what happens when we die? This comedy stars Kristen Bell and Ted Danson along with D’Arcy Carden, William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil, and Manny Jacinto. In the show, Eleanor Shellstrop (Bell) dies unexpectedly and is sent to The Good Place (think heaven, but without any religion), which as it turns out, is run by a friendly old man named Michael (Danson). Everything is great! Right? Well, as it turns out, there’s a major problem: Eleanor’s not supposed to be in the Good Place. In fact, she was kind of a terrible person on Earth. When things begin to go awry in the Good Place, Eleanor grows concerned that she may be the root of the problems and confides in her “assigned soulmate”, Chidi (Jackson Harper). This decision to let her secret out sparks a long, complex adventure full of unexpected twists, comedic moments, and thrilling cliffhangers which keep the show moving forward. As a whole, the series, created by Michael Schur (co-creator of Parks and Recreation and Brooklyn Nine-Nine) offers a brilliantly unconventional mix of fast-paced comedy with (unlike other shows of its type) multi-dimensional character relationships and a genuinely captivating storyline — and for all our fellow nerds out there, the show boasts its fair share of lessons in moral philosophy.

2. Criminal Minds (Netflix Seasons 1-12, Amazon Prime Video Seasons 13-14, CBS Season 15) 

Starring Mandy Patinkin, Thomas Gibson, Shemar Moore, Matthew Grey Gubler, and Lola Glaudini, Criminal Minds follows the exploits of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, the B.A.U., of the FBI. Their job is to create a psychological profile of each unique criminal in order to better understand, and therefore capture their target with the help of the local police. Be forewarned that this creates a pretty intense and, at times, disturbing story. With the passing of each episode, the plots and characters become more and more varied, fascinating, and above all, entertaining. The first twelve seasons are available on Netflix, with seasons 13 and 14 available for purchase on Amazon Prime, and the final season, which premiered earlier this year, on CBS and CBS All Access.

1. The Arrowverse: Arrow, Flash, Supergirl, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Batwoman (Netflix, The CW, Amazon Prime)

Okay I get it, that is an extremely overwhelming amount of shows to be introduced to. These shows are being lumped together because they all exist in the same universe, with the characters in one show making guest appearances on others. The shows follow the adventures of the Green Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Batwoman and more as they navigate their way through both their own enemies and enemies of the universe. While these shows may seem a bit childish on the surface being based off of comic book characters, each one is entertaining and unique in its own way and has dark elements to it that might not be advisable to children. 

Adults:

5. Designated Survivor (Netflix)

Imagine if the entire government disappeared and one man was left to be the leader of the United States. Designated Survivor, starring Kiefer Sutherland, Maggie Q, Italia Ricci, Adan Canto, and Kal Penn, delves into this scary hypothetical scenario. After a devastating attack kills nearly all of the government, Tom Kirkman (Sutherland), Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, is thrown into the role of president. Now, as the first independent president in U.S. history, he must navigate his way through both his personal life and the new professional life thrust upon him. Meanwhile, an FBI agent (Q) tries to uncover the source of the attack on the Capital, stumbling upon a plot much bigger than she could’ve imagined.

4. Tiger King (Netflix)

Based on its viral success just weeks after its release, we wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve binged this one already. However, if you just haven’t got around to it yet, we’ll catch you up to speed. The show is a docu-series about the life and career of Joe Exotic, whose status as a gay, polygamist, big cat breeder from Texas only begins to sum up his various eccentricities. Life in the big cat breeding industry is intense, as it turns out, as Joe has been accused of hiring a hitman to kill his business rival, Carole Baskin (who is far from innocent herself, having been accused of murdering her own husband). And somehow, the show only gets stranger from here on out. Every character we meet in this first season seems like exactly that — a character — as opposed to a real person. Note: Netflix added an 8th and final episode of the first season on April 12th, 2020, so if you finished the show before then, be sure to watch that as well!

3. Westworld (Hulu, HBO Now, Amazon Prime Video)

In this bizarre dystopian-meets-Western series, Westworld is a futuristic, Wild West-themed amusement park populated by fully functional, even human-like, robots (known as “hosts”). These hosts are programmed to cater to “guests” of the park: (actual) humans willing to spend lavishly in order to indulge in whatever they desire. When a new update to the technology causes some of the hosts to gain memory and self-awareness, Westworld becomes a battleground between the hosts, human guests, and employees of the park. As the show progresses, the plot becomes more and more complex, as characters become unsure who is host and who is human. This show raises the interesting yet scary question: what does it mean to be an autonomous person?

2. Ozark (Netflix)

Ozark, starring Jason Bateman and Laura Linney, follows the lives of the Byrde family. Marty Byrde, a financial planner, is caught in the middle of a money laundering scheme gone wrong. Now on the run, he relocates his family from Chicago to the Ozark mountains. He must pay a large debt to a Mexican drug lord in order to keep his family hidden from the troubles that he created. In order to survive, the family must put aside their differences and find a way to connect with each other. This drama will have you hooked on the lives of the Byrde family till the end.

1. Master of None (Netflix)

Master of None, which was created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang and features Ansari in the lead role of struggling New York actor Dev Shah, last released an episode back in 2017, but we felt it was so good that it had to be on this list. Here’s why: the show is, first and foremost, a love letter to places such as New York and Italy. The cinematography, which is film-caliber, cleverly uses different types of shots in order to convey feelings at times of the intimacy and quaintness, and at other times, of the grandeur of living in a big city. In addition, the show explores relationships — parental, romantic, platonic, and work-related — and the difficulties we all face in juggling them, which, as Dev and his friends realize, only becomes harder with age. The characters themselves are so diverse — not just in background, but in experiences — that aspects of each are sure to resonate with audiences. The series shies away from flashiness and quippy dialogue; instead, it loves to delve into the awkward. For example, there are minute-long stretches of silence, divisive dinner table conversations, and wedding party interactions with distant relatives and acquaintances on more than one occasion. While these moments are uncomfortable for the characters, they are what make the show so realistic and so entertaining to watch.