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“Please return your tray tables to their upright and locked position…” I love hearing this little announcement throughout the plane because it means I’m about to arrive at my destination! See, I love travel, but I hate the ‘getting there’ part. Being cooped up in a skinny metal cigar? What a pain! Whoever said, ‘it isn’t the destination that’s important, it’s the journey’ was clearly insane! Or hadn’t recently been put through the ringer having their bags pulled apart by the TSA! Heck, they probably didn’t even have air travel back when they made that stupid statement! (Then again, bumping along on a horse in the heat doesn’t really sound like a relaxing journey either!) Anyhoo…! If you’ve been following along with the Party Goddess escapades this month, you know we’ve been talking about travel. So far, we’ve covered 2018 travel trends and travel hacks to make summer vacationing easier. This week we’re going to cover what might be the most important topic of all, and that’s how to pass the time on your next painfully long flight! Here are 11 TV shows to binge…!

GLOW

This Netflix original starring Alison Brie (Community and Mad Men) and Marc Maron (a pee in your pants funny comedian who makes my snark look tame) takes you back to the neon leotards, blue eyeshadow, and big feathered Aqua Net hairdos of the 80’s. GLOW, which stands for the Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling, revolves around a struggling actress, a washed up B-movie producer (who steals every scene he’s in!) and a ragtag team of desperate women with no athletic ability whatsoever as they attempt to make a homemade television show about ladies wrestling. It’s funny and surprisingly smart given the subject matter. There are ten 30-minute episodes, making it the perfect binge for an east coast-west coast jaunt!

The Tunnel

Traveling to Europe? This show lets you practice your French! Oo la la! But it’s not entirely in subtitles because the other half of this detective duo is English. Available with Amazon Prime, this suspenseful cop drama begins with a murder (no big surprise there!) that takes place inside the EuroTunnel. The thing is, the dead body is found directly on the border between England and France, which makes it a joint investigation between the two countries. The twists are as plentiful as the suspects and our dynamic detective duo has more than a few personal issues that stand in the way of solving the crime. If you like cop shows and crime solving, this is a well-done bit of entertainment!

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

If you liked Gilmore Girls, you’ll probably love this show too. It’s created by the irrepressible Amy Sherman-Palladino, the producer of both shows. (Amy, you’re hysterical! If you want to host a party, let’s talk!) Available on Amazon Prime, the show begins with the title character, Mrs. Maisel, doing everything right in her 1950’s era marriage but getting dumped by her whiny insecure husband anyways! For years he’s been working the comic circuit, plagiarising other people’s jokes. Turns out, the joke’s on him. Mrs. Maisel is the far superior comedian and now that she’s single, she’s got plenty of material! (Don’t I know it!!)

Jane The Virgin

Okay, this show’s been around for a few years. But if you haven’t seen it yet, it will be new to you! While still airing on The CW, you can find the first four seasons available on Netflix. Styled like a telenovela, the conceit of this comedic parody is that a devout Catholic college student who has vowed to remain a virgin until she is married (who DOES that?!) is artificially inseminated by accident at the doctor’s office, finding herself pregnant without ever having had sex. It’s a show about love and family with a lot of heart and just as many laughs. Speaking of laughs, parties are good for that too! If you haven’t already downloaded our Super Secret Party Tips Guide, you should do it right now!

Ozark

If you liked Breaking Bad or Bloodline, you’ll enjoy this dark crime drama, which features Jason Bateman and Laura Linney as a suburban couple with two kids who find themselves in hot water with a Mexican drug cartel. Forced to move to the Lakes of the Ozark to launder money or be, well… brutally murdered and dissolved in acid (no bueno!), the family sets up shop but gets more than they bargained for when they meet hillbilly heroin dealers and two-bit junkies as well! A perfect plane pairing with peanuts and a baby bottle of vodka!

Black Mirror

I’ll admit, some of the episodes in this anthology are rather bleak. And I kind of have a rule about not watching anything that’s heavy and depressing when I’m supposed to be hot on my way to fun and adventure! That being said, these incredibly clever stories, all of which explore the dark side of our technological future, offer moments of television that once you see, you’ll never be able to unsee! (If you haven’t heard about the infamous pig episode by now, I’ll be surprised!) Each are self-contained, stand alone stories and many feature big name actors and actresses. Check out episodes entitled ‘Arkangel’ or ‘Hang the DJ’ and if you like those, you’ll definitely want to bust open those airline pretzels and watch more.

The Night Manager

Based on a John Le Carre novel, this limited-series show (6 episodes available on Amazon) sees Tom Hiddleston as Jonathan Pine, the manager of a hotel in Egypt where he’s trying to create a new life for himself after fighting in the Iraq war. When a local mobster is killed, Pine is recruited by British intelligence to work undercover to take down the world’s biggest arms dealer played by House (err… Hugh Laurie). The story pits a humble decent man against a villainous sociopath and does ‘bad’ soooo good with polished British panache.

Humans

If there’s anything we know about technology at this point it’s that ANY device can be hacked! Including AIs! (That’s artificial intelligence if you don’t do geek speak!) Humans (the TV show!) envisions a future where Alexa and Siri now have bodies to go along with their computing power, creating synthetic human servants to cook our food, water our lawns… have sex with when we aren’t having success on Match! This show is creepy but brilliant! There are only 16 episodes so far and it’s easier to follow than HBO’s Westworld, which similarly explores what happens when artificial intelligence becomes self-aware of its existence. (Hint: actual humans go bye-bye!)

Sneaky Pete

Another Amazon original, this show features the always wonderful Giovanni Ribisi as a con man who assumes a fake identity to infiltrate an unassuming family so that he can hide from a group of mobsters, only to find that Grandma and the clan are involved in some pretty shady sh*t themselves. If you like your family crime dramas “light”, this fits the bill. There’s a little bang, bang but nobody’s getting decapitated or hacked in two, which is always a plus at 30,000 feet!

The Good Place

This airs on NBC and is kind of one of those under the radar “dramedy” shows that stars Ted Danson and Kristen Bell. If you ever wanted to see what the afterlife might be like (probably not a good thing to think about while in the air!) then you’ll love the whimsical interpretation in this story about a not-so-nice woman who dies and ends up in heaven accidentally. In making everyone’s peaceful eternity miserable, she resolves to change her ways… which is easier said than done. This show could have been cheesy and ridiculous but it turns out that it’s clever and thought-provoking instead. Check it out!

Stranger Things

Yeah, yeah, okay, this has been soooo talked about BUT I’m adding it to the list of tv shows to binge in the unlikely (and rather foolish!) event you haven’t yet watched this series! There’s more awesome 80’s nostalgia in the form of Trans Ams, Pintos, frilly shirts, banana bike seats, autumn gold linoleum, and Levi’s cords! If you like eighties music, movies and fashion, watch this show! It stars Winona Ryder (doesn’t get more 80s than that!) and a fantastic cast of child actors who bring this story of friendship to life. Charming and unique, the series offers humor, suspense, spooks, intrigue, government cover-ups, creepy alien monsters, and teenage angst. Love it!

No vacay in your future? If you aren’t going away this summer, why not throw a party?! We’ll help you do it with our FREE amazing Party Tips Guide!