The Best Shows To Binge Watch If You're Stuck At Home

When you're stuck at home for a long period of time, whether it's because you're sick or due to bigger circumstances beyond your control, you'll inevitably get bored eventually. Luckily, thanks to the advent of streaming platforms and the Golden Age of Television, there are plenty of available distractions to keep you occupied during long stretches stuck in your house. With so many streaming services available, from stalwarts like Netflix and Hulu to recent additions like Disney+ and Apple TV+, there's no shortage of entertainment to choose from.

Movies are a great distraction while you're living in confinement, but after a while, short two-hour bursts might not fill the time efficiently enough; that's when you might want to find a great television series to binge. Whether you're looking for escapist fantasy, a joke-packed comedy, or heartwarming stories from America's heartland, here are some great shows you can binge-watch if you're stuck at home for an extended period of time.

If you need a feel-good show to pick you up when you're feeling down, look no further than Schitt's Creek. This sweet show was created by comedy legend Eugene Levy, whom you might recognize from classics like American Pie and Best in Show, alongside his son Dan Levy; adorably, the real-life father and son play those same family roles on the show, as Johnny and David Rose, respectively. After the wealthy Rose family — which also includes Eugene Levy's longtime comedic collaborator Catherine O'Hara as the bombastic Moira Rose and Annie Murphy as the pampered Alexis Rose — loses their fortune, they're forced to move to a small rundown town they once purchased as a joke. In time, they realize their life in Schitt's Creek has the potential to be more fulfilling than they ever imagined.

Each member of the Rose family is hysterical and heartwarming in their own right, especially when the show drops the "fish out of water" thread and lets the family really find their place in Schitt's Creek. With a supporting cast that includes familiar faces (Chris Elliott as the town mayor Roland Schitt) and fresh ones as well (Emily Hampshire as the gruff but lovable Stevie Budd, proprietor of the Rosebud Motel), Schitt's Creek, which streams on Netflix and airs on CBC and PopTV, is absolutely worth a visit.

After her time on Saturday Night Live, Tina Fey struck out on her own with 30 Rock, and with comedy heavyweights like Alec Baldwin and Tracy Morgan by her side, success was inevitable. From 2006 to 2013, this quirky, incredibly weird series packed a truly insane amount of jokes into each half-hour episode while it told the story of Liz Lemon (Fey), a New York woman who runs a live sketch comedy series that airs on Saturday nights. Alongside her erratic and uber-wealthy star Tracy Jordan (Morgan), TGS' conceited and deeply narcissistic leading lady Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski), over-eager and potentially immortal NBC intern Kenneth Parcell (Jack McBrayer), and GE executive and mentor Jack Donaghy (Baldwin), Liz does her best to balance life, love, and work in the Big Apple.

Between Liz's constant struggle to keep TGS together, Tracy and Jenna's antics, Jack's wildly misguided advice, and Kenneth's weird backwoods wisdom, 30 Rock is one of the most wonderfully bizarre worlds on all of television; if you need a distraction that will keep you laughing all day long, this is the perfect option. 30 Rock is currently streaming in its entirety on Hulu.

If real-life American and international politics sometimes feels like too much to handle, you can always check out Veep, HBO's razor-sharp, scathing indictment of what it's really like to hold the second-highest office in the United States. Led by the brilliant Julia Louis-Dreyfus, this show — created by In the Loop's Armando Ianucci — expertly skewers the corrupt and cruel landscape of American politics, exposing politicians and aides as soulless, power-hungry monsters in the funniest possible fashion. Louis-Dreyfus plays Selina Meyer, who begins the show as the "veep" to a perpetually unseen male President, and though she rises and falls politically throughout the show's seven seasons, her insane machinations and attempts to claw her way to the top never fail to elicit huge laughs.

With a cast comprised of comedy royalty, including Tony Hale (as Selina's slavishly loyal "bag man" Gary), Matt Walsh (as the Vice President's bumbling speechwriter Mike), Gary Cole (as Selina's uptight numbers guy Kent), and more, Veep gets better and better throughout its seven-season run, letting its characters dig into their depravity with utter shamelessness. Even if you tend to avoid politics, Veep is sure to draw you in, no matter how awful the characters might behave in their quest for power. Veep is streaming in its entirety on HBO.

If you're feeling sorry for yourself because you're stuck inside, look on the bright side: at least you're not trapped in the troubled town of Hawkins, Indiana. As the setting of Netflix's hit sci-fi series Stranger Things, Hawkins is plagued by all sorts of supernatural happenings, including visits from a monstrous Demogorgon, insidious Russians, and even an entire literal underbelly known only as the "Upside Down," making it a pretty dangerous place to live; luckily, the inhabitants of Hawkins are up to the task. The series, which premiered to immediate acclaim in 2016, stars Millie Bobby Brown, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Natalia Dyer, Noah Schnapp, and Joe Keery; the junior members of the cast, alongside established names like Winona Ryder and David Harbour, have spent multiple seasons putting the town of Hawkins through literal hell.

Thanks to its cliffhanger endings, shocking twists, and extremely thorough world-building, Stranger Things has become one of Netflix's flagship shows, and every time a new season premieres, fans know they can settle in for a wild thrill ride like nothing else on television. Stranger Things is streaming on Netflix.

So, who really did kill Laura Palmer? If you don't already know, you'll have to watch Twin Peaks to find out. In 1990, America traveled to the small (fictional) town of Twin Peaks, Washington when a plastic-wrapped body washed up on its shores, with the audience immediately embroiled in figuring out who killed a popular young beauty queen. David Lynch's signature television series became one of the small screen's greatest shows over the course of just two short seasons. With Kyle MacLachlan as FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper serving as the audience's eyes and ears as he investigates Laura's murder, which is much more mysterious than he bargained for, fans delved deeply into the secrets of this seemingly peaceful town, which was home to some seriously sinister forces lurking just beneath the surface.

With just two short seasons of Twin Peaks available to stream, it might not seem like a great choice when you're stuck inside, but those two seasons are just the beginning. After the show ended, Lynch released a feature film — Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me — in 1992, and in 2017, the series made a triumphant comeback with Twin Peaks: The Return, including most of the original cast. The original run of Twin Peaks is streaming on Netflix and Hulu, and The Return is available on Showtime.

If you're stuck at home for a while, you might want to try a show with a seemingly endless number of episodes; in that case, look no further than ER. The medical show that set the standard for every genre entry to follow ran from 1994 to 2009 and spanned a whopping 15 seasons and 331 episodes, setting a primetime record that was only beaten by Grey's Anatomy in 2019. Throughout that incredible number of episodes, ER played host to an incredible number of famous faces at the beginning of their careers — most notably, stars like George Clooney and Julianna Margulies, who appeared together in the show's earlier seasons. With a creative team that included Jurassic Park's Michael Crichton working behind the scenes, ER set a lofty standard for shows to come.

Thanks to inventive, far-fetched medical cases and a cast that remained great no matter who entered and exited the hospital, ER remains one of the best long-running shows in television history, and it's perfect for a super-long binge. The entirety of ER is streaming on Netflix.

Animated shows from Family Guy to Bob's Burgers to BoJack Horseman have become increasingly popular over the last few decades, but without The Simpsons, it's safe to say none of them would exist. The brainchild of showrunner and creator Matt Groening, The Simpsons started out as a short on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987, and by the end of 1989, it earned its own primetime spot on Fox; from there, the rest is history.

Few shows have shaped pop culture as thoroughly as The Simpsons, and its yellow-hued characters, from Homer to Marge to Bart and Lisa to Krusty the Klown, are some of the most familiar in television history. With more than 30 seasons and 600 episodes to date, The Simpsons remains a seemingly endless source of entertainment, letting viewers rediscover their favorite episodes and newcomers see the origins of phrases like "D'oh!" and "eat my shorts!" Whether you've somehow never seen The Simpsons or just want to revisit your personal highlights, it's always a good time to head back to Springfield and hang out with America's favorite family. The Simpsons is streaming in its entirety on Disney+.