The streaming revolution has made it easier than ever to catch up on your favorite TV shows. But sometimes you don't want a novel. Sometimes you want a short story, a series you can finish in a weekend, or a day, or even a lazy afternoon.
That's where we come in. We've combed the major streaming services to compile the following list of 31 terrific TV shows you can easily finish in a single day, even with breaks for eating, napping, or paying attention to your children. (We hear this is important.) Get watching.
Jump right to comedy, drama, or reality and documentary.
Comedy
Getting On
Adapted from the British series of the same name, Getting On is a workplace comedy set in a not-so-typical workplace, at least as far as most TV series are concerned: the geriatric ward of an underfunded hospital in Southern California. The series chronicles the daily travails of three health care professionals — the ambitious but socially inept Dr. Jenna James (Roseanne's Laurie Metcalf), the emotionally desperate head nurse Dawn (Alex Borstein, who's best known for voicing Lois on Family Guy), and the more level-headed rookie nurse Didi (Reno 911!'s Niecy Nash) — as they deal with everything from dying patients to dwindling budgets to bureaucratic red tape. Though the series is often quite poignant in its depiction of their thankless work, Getting On still manages to temper its heavier subject matter with bedpans upon bedpans full of Office-style awkwardness, a revolving door of eccentric patients, and more discussion of bodily functions than you could possibly imagine. The result is a unique celebration of life, happiness, and compassion in a place where you'd least expect to find it.
Genre: Dark workplace comedy
Commitment: Three seasons, with 18 half-hour-long episodes in total.
Streaming on: HBO Go
The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
Would you like to watch a TV show on YouTube? Alternate question: Are you a Jane Austen fan who wishes to see her works updated for modern times, complete with vlogging? Alternate, alternate question: Do you like a good, timeless love story? Those who've answered yes to any or all of the above should give The Lizzie Bennet Diaries a shot. An adaptation of Pride & Prejudice told entirely via the titular character's web series, the show briskly and amusingly brings Austen into the YouTube era.
Genre: Comedy of social manners (with a healthy dollop of romance)
Commitment: 100 episodes, but only a handful of them are more than 6 minutes long.
Streaming on: YouTube
Other Space
TV doesn't have the best track record when it comes to sci-fi comedies. There's the long-running, classic British series Red Dwarf, and then there's ... Spaced? That's sort of sci-fi-adjacent, right? Maybe? In any event, Other Space, while not perfect, should satisfy anyone who's looking for a show that simultaneously parodies and pays homage to schlocky TV science fiction. The latest series from Freaks and Geeks creator and Bridesmaids director Paul Feig, it follows the crew of a spaceship as they're tossed into an unknown universe and must attempt to find a way home. And if you're a fan of Mystery Science Theater 3000, it frequently features that show's first host, Joel Hodgson, as well as Trace Beaulieu, the longest-running voice of Crow T. Robot.
Genre: Science fiction comedy
Commitment: One season of eight half-hour-long episodes.
Streaming on: Yahoo
Playing House
Strong female friendships are hard to find on television, which is exactly why the bond between Playing House's lead BFFs, Maggie and Emma (played by real-life BFFs and writing partners Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair, who also created the series), is so appealing. As the series begins, the pair is reunited in their tiny hometown through an odd set of sitcom-approved circumstances — a pregnant Maggie kicks her husband to the curb after she realizes he's cheating on her, and Emma quits her high-powered job in China to move back home and help Maggie raise the kid — and plenty of hijinks ensue. Between its sharp writing and a solid supporting cast that features Zach Woods (Silicon Valley, The Office), Keegan-Michael Key (Key & Peele), and Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle), Playing House is equal parts silly, sarcastic, and sweet. But above all, it's seriously funny, and a great viewing option for anyone who might be missing a faraway pal.
Genre: Buddy comedy
Commitment: Two seasons, with 18 half-hour-long episodes total, though only season two is currently available to stream. That shouldn't matter too much, however; you should be able to dive right into the story.
Streaming on: Hulu (season two only; season one is available for paid download on Amazon and iTunes)
Review
Forrest MacNeil is a critic. But he's not a critic of film or TV or music. No, Forrest MacNeil reviews life. He wants to examine each and every experience possible, then rank it on a five-star scale, in this ingenious, loopy Comedy Central series. Review begins its life as a sketch comedy, then sneakily evolves into something more, thanks to the terrific performance of its star, Andy Daly. In two seasons, the show has become one of TV's foremost examinations of the human condition, and Forrest has become a tremendous, if unlikely, hero.
Genre: Sketch comedy, sort of
Commitment: Two season, with 19 episodes total.
Streaming on: Hulu
Transparent
Transparent has earned tons of attention from the press and awards bodies, even winning the Golden Globe for Best Comedy Series at the 2015 awards. But it remains a series that not many people have actually watched, making it a perfect show to sample on a weekend afternoon. Transparent is the story of Maura Pfefferman, a transgender woman who's transitioning late in life, and her three unruly (adult) children and ex-wife. It starts out as another tale about people with too much money who whine a lot, but then slowly draws you in as it unravels all of the lies the family members have been telling themselves over the years. Plus, Jeffrey Tambor is stellar as Maura, anchoring an incredible ensemble cast. The show's second season yielded some of the best TV of 2015.
Genre: Dramedy
Commitment: Two seasons, with 20 half-hour-long episodes total.
Streaming on: Amazon Prime
Alphas
TV is enjoying a superhero renaissance with the rise of good-to-great shows like The Flash and Marvel's Daredevil. But it would be a shame to forget this earlier, low-rated entry in the genre that aired in relative obscurity for two seasons on the Syfy network. Set in a world where people with advanced mental abilities are called "alphas," the series charts a team of agents with special abilities (don't call them superpowers!), led by a psychiatrist played by the great David Strathairn. Though its action scenes might pale in comparison to those on programs with larger budgets, Alphas' core concept makes for one of TV's best shows ever about the damages of mental illness.
Genre: Superhero drama
Commitment: Two seasons, with 24 hour-long episodes split between them.
Streaming on: Netflix
The Booth at the End
So there's a diner, see? And there's a man who sits in that diner, and if you go up to him and tell him what you want, he'll assign you a task to perform. And if you perform that task, you'll get what you want. Or so he says. That's the premise of this Twilight Zone–esque series, which unfolds entirely in the diner as the people the Man has asked to perform tasks seek him out, more and more desperate for what they want, while being unable (or unwilling) to perform what's requested of them. Add in Xander Berkeley as the Man, and you have a recipe for a coolly intriguing little show.
Genre: Fantastical morality play
Commitment: Two seasons of five half-hour-long episodes each. In the US, each season is currently available to rent as a single movie.
The Fall
The problem with most serial killer dramas is that they frequently fetishize, however inadvertently, the crimes their killers commit — especially if the victims are women. The excellent British series The Fall combats this trend by exposing the utter degeneracy of its killer's worldview, then contrasting it against the razor-sharp moral compass of its detective hero, Stella Gibson (the always terrific Gillian Anderson). If you're seeking a serial killer show that also serves as a treatise against society's ingrown sexism, The Fall is for you.
Genre: Serial killer drama
Commitment: Two seasons, with 11 hour-long episodes in total. Season three arrives later this year.
Streaming on: Netflix
The Knick
Yeah, you're probably tired of hospital dramas. But what about a hospital drama set in the early 1900s, at the very birth of modern medicine, when surgeons were figuring out how to save people's lives on the fly — and killing just as many patients in the process? Gruesome, gorgeous, and often brilliant, The Knick turns its central hospital into an ecosystem for its version of New York City, with race, gender, and health care policy all ricocheting around its surprisingly exciting edges. Plus, it boasts two pretty big names in star Clive Owen and Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh, who helmed all of its season one episodes. And Cliff Martinez's burbling electronic score sounds like nothing else on TV.
Genre: Period medical drama
Commitment: Two seasons of 10 hour-long episodes each.
Streaming on: Max Go
Marvel's Daredevil
Daredevil is a triumph for Marvel. The series is bloodier, more gruesome, and more sinister than anything else the company has created, thanks to its real sense of consequence; it truly feels like the violence that haunts its Hell's Kitchen setting is inescapable. Even when the good guys win, the sacrifices they must make to get that "win" are something they can never get away from. Daredevil doesn't shy away from the fact that violence changes people — a much darker message than you'll find in Marvel's blockbusters, but one that's just as necessary.
Genre: Noir action crime drama
Commitment: One season of 13 hour-long episodes. Season two premieres March 18.
Streaming on: Netflix
Rectify
There simply isn't another show like Rectify. There just isn't. This beautiful, ruminative family drama focuses on a man convicted of the murder of his high school girlfriend who is released after 19 years on death row when new DNA evidence appears to exonerate him. The series never pushes too far when it can simply sit back and observe its characters in their milieu, but it's also a surprisingly rich, deeply complex series about how families define themselves when one of their members is absent, and about the limits of compassion. Plus, Aden Young is turning in one of TV's best performances — possibly in the history of the medium.
Genre: Family drama
Commitment: Three seasons, with 22 hour-long episodes in total. Only seasons one and two are currently available to stream. A fourth and final season will air later this year.
Streaming on: Netflix (seasons one and two only; season three is available for paid download on Amazon and iTunes)
Terriers
Terriers is basically a grown-up version of Veronica Mars. The series is about private investigators living in southern California (Ocean Beach, San Diego, to be exact), and balances case-of-the-week stories that are resolved in the span of an episode with an overarching plot that gradually unfolds and eventually dominates the end of the show's one and only season. But it also features the finest crime-solving duo since The Wire's McNulty and Bunk. Hank Dolworth, a disgraced alcoholic ex-cop who's still pining for his ex-wife, would be a lazy stock character in the hands of a lesser actor, but Donal Logue nails the part, making Hank effortlessly charming, surprisingly competent, and very, very funny. And as Britt Pollack, a reformed burglar who teams up with Dolworth, Michael Raymond-James is able to balance a generally affable, goofy persona with real pathos. It's an absolute tragedy that viewers only got to hang out with the pair for a single season, but the 13 episodes we do have are treasures.
Genre: Crime dramedy
Commitment: One season of 13 hour-long episodes.
Streaming on: Netflix
Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey
The sheer unlikelihood of the existence of Cosmos is perhaps the chief reason to recommend it. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane was instrumental in convincing a major broadcast network (Fox) to turn over 13 weeks of its schedule to a documentary miniseries about astronomy? In 2014? Networks aren't supposed to put things like this on the air anymore, but Cosmos made it to the air nonetheless, happily sending viewers into the farthest reaches of outer space and then bringing us right back home to Earth. That the world's most popular scientist, Neil deGrasse Tyson, hosts is just icing on the cake.
Genre: Educational documentary
Commitment: One season of 13 hour-long episodes.
Streaming on: Netflix