I just finished The Big Family Cooking Showdown, if you like The Great British Bake-Off you might like this one.

I'm waiting for season 4 of Peaky Blinders on 12/21. I'm going to watch Godless this weekend. Broadchurch, all three seasons are on Netflix. Chewing Gum is a riot, but it is very very racy.

I can also recommend foreign language crime dramas, I'm obsessed.

We started watching Happy Valley and love it...but it is dark. Same with Top Of The Lake.

Last season of Longmire.

On Amazon Prime, Scott & Bailey, Waking the Dead.

If you haven't already seen them on TV:

Season 1 of The Good Place

First 2 seasons of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

Both are really well written and fun.

Mtn-I watched the first episode of that Amazing Hotels show last week when I was bored. It was the one in Singapore. I thought it was interesting-the number of restaurants, staff, and the amount of laundry-wowza! I will be watching more episodes.

A friend highly recommended Frontier. We watched one episode. It was interesting, but violent and gory (IMO). I'm not sure if I will watch any more episodes, but others might enjoy it.

runninginplace,

Grace and Frankie does get funnier. I have watched the first two seasons. At one point I wished I had started to write down all of the funny lines. I think I felt the same as you after a couple of episodes. It does get better and more hopeful!

Recent ones: Alias Grace was refreshingly good. I even bought a book..waiting for its turn for me to read it. yes it's dark, but not pointlessly so. I like whatever leaves me with questions..with some light in the end of the tunnel. The best artworks will have it even the darkest ones. With some exceptions.

Ozark. Amazingly done. can't wait for Season 2

Amazon Prime-I found Sopranos..at last..yes if you haven't watched it yet-do. It's much more than a mob story. Well as every good book or movie is-it's always more than just the story itself. I do have some beef with it(as heroes say lol)-but it is what overturned the whole concept of series and brought it to different level..one of them

Waiting for season 4 on Peaky Blinders as well (Netflix)

I do prefer darker series..for whatever reasons..so The Fall, the Killing..I like the understadedness, good filming, good play, deep characters, dynamics..in short everything that makes series good, sometimes good movie-level good. Breaking Bad obviously, as it's one of the best

Broadchurch and Happy Valley ..yeah, dark too

Better Call Saul-very good. it's an earlier spin on Breaking Bad and I wasn't expecting much of it but they do a great job. Waiting for season 3

Rectify..good. They kinda cut it earlier than they should or so my feeling is. It's not an easy watching.

I don't like sci fi and I don't like most comedies

Not a fan of supernatural..

French "Returned" (Les Revenants") I still watched..very well done but so chilling I didn't watch Season 2.

"Salem" is more mindless and even though evil it's not as well shot thus you perceive it less personal, and kinda care less)) Lots of dark magic, crows, all the shebang. Was even funny to a degree))

What else. "Mad Men" of course. If you haven't seen them yet. There are very strong seasons and seasons that are weaker but overall, great show. Can't say it's dark..not light either. Very lifelike. Most of what I consider good series are..

Top of the Lake-I saw only season one. yes to it. but. again. definitely not light.

Ah ok. Very dark but extremely funny at times, but everybody watched it I'm sure..that's me who found it so late.."Twin Peaks"

If you haven't seen the first season of The Crown, you need to do that now since Season Two starts this weekend. I have been sitting on the couch with a cold, blowing my nose and watching the latest season of Broadchurch. Definitely dark but riveting as is Happy Valley. I love the term "sweater mysteries". Another pretty good one is Shetland. How about Last Tango in Halifax? Loved that. Gilmore Girls if you somehow have managed not to watch that series.

Just finished Godless last night, it was good. I like that it was only a mini series, I get impatient waiting for my favorite series to start up again. I started Grace & Frankie, I too am getting a bit bored after the 3 episode. Last night, I started watching Shameless, not sure what I think yest but I will say that Daddy Frank is one hell of an actor, I am impressed with that alone. I also watched a couple episodes of Peaky Blinders, it hasn't grabbed me yet.

On Showtime, I am anxiously waiting for The Affair & Ray Donovans next season. They are my favorites!

lisaw, I am also waiting for The Affair! I have heard early 2018.

Agree with many mentioned here, I'll try not to repeat, but have to say, Alias Grace was excellent, and it has Paul Gross, I'm sure you know him, robo, he's one of your national treasures.

For lighter fare, older series:

Shameless, lots of sex and adult situations, no violence or real darkness to speak of.

Six Feet Under, ditto (even tho it's about death, it's neither dark nor depressing IMO).

Weeds, funny as hell, great cast and acting, a little dark, but not too bad.

Slings and Arrows, speaking of Paul Gross, one of the few series I have rewatched, excellent all around.

Newer series:

American Vandal, great, contemporary story, not violent or dark at all, but adult themed.

Master of None, Aziz Ansari, one of the most talented actors and writers around.

Catastrophe, written, produced and acted in by two friends, really good.

Fleabag, starring and written by Phoebe Bridge-Walker, a true talent and a pleasure to watch.

Love the good place.

loved the fosters

just recently watched parenthood. Loved it.

gilmore girls is awesome

I recently watched friends and frasier (i had never really watched them before)

glitch

penny dreadful (dark but great)

Jessica Jones (dark but great)

Quantico was pretty good

Cedar Cove

dick van dyke show

scandal is ridiculous but good

person of interest

nurse jackie

burn notice

Paul Gross, I'm sure you know him, robo, he's one of your national treasures.

What a gorgeous specimen! Had never heard of him until Alias Grace.

I loooved Six Feet Under!

National treasure indeed...

And Paul Gross can act too, he's not just eye candy, though he surely is that! Check out Slings and Arrows, where Paul is in every episode (not just a tease like Alias Grace), an excellent CBC mini-series starring Paul and his real life wife, Martha Burns.

Edited for spelling and clarity.

Amy, I just watched one episode of The Patriot last night and also thought it was funny in a farcical way.

I read thrillers, so I tend to watch suspenseful, mysteries, crime, dark, but not horror. I also love quirky British and Australian shows (and subscribe to Acorn TV, too).

Longmire

Mudbound -- this one may be one of the best movies of the year.

Ozark

Mindhunter

Shetland

Deep Water

Medici

The Crown

Broadchurch

The Five

Offspring -- if you liked Gilmore Girls, you'll find this quirky Australian family series addictive.

Doctor Foster

River

Doc Martin

dyhgarden, DD and I started watching Mudbound and had to stop because it got too disturbing (won't give away any spoilers). I'm curious to know why you rated it so highly.

I have Prime & just found out about the shows!!! I literally watched the first season of Veep in one sitting and laughed so hard I gave myself stomach cramps!!

Fleabag, starring and written by Phoebe Bridge-Walker, a true talent and a pleasure to watch.

I loved Fleabag. It can be pretty raunchy, but it has a big emotional payoff if you stick with it.

Dyhgarden,

I am so glad you posted your list. I have seen many series you mentioned but there are some I have not. They look great! I am going to give them a watch. Looks like we have the same taste!

Bloodline (but, it got stranger and stranger, and the first season started slower than a turtle until the end of ep 3); Narcos; The Missing; Fargo (the newish TV series); Luther; River; Ripper Street; Wallander; American Crime; Call the Midwife (lots of crying, even for jaded old me); Shetland; The OA (really strange); The Fall; The Killing; Paranoid (it was just OK); The Tunnel (Prime); The Young Pope (Prime; totally outrageous, Jude Law is great).

Other non-English language police/crime: Suburra (Blood on Rome); The Break; Witnesses; Spiral (this is on Amazon Prime); Bordertown; Monster (Prime).

Delilah, I am glad you liked it. It is definitely not your average show. Some find it slow. I loved the character and humor so much it kept me interested.

right..forgot about Suburra..it develops well..only season 1 is there for now

Narcos was great

Fargo, I wanted to see, but haven't. Where is it? I also have just Netflix and Amazon Prime

aprilneverends, Fargo is on Amazon Prime.

Texanjana, I'm really enjoying Amazing Hotels. They essentially cover the travel aspects of the hotel, but also the economic and social and environmental impacts. Slice of life in some very interesting spots. So far I've seen one on Singapore, Ecuador, Kenya, Morocco and Newfoundland, Canada.

Mtn-I watched the Ecuador one today. Amazing. I would love to visit that one. Have you stayed in any of the hotels featured?

tackykat - I was really disappointed in the last season, I am pretty sick of Noah's mental health issues. I hope next season is more focused on Helen, Allison & the Lockharts. If this season doesn't step up a notch, I will probably stop following, there are just so many good options available. I don't watch a whole lot of TV so I want to truly enjoy the time I do.

If you liked Fleabag, Phoebe Waller-Bridge also has another show on Netflix called "Crashing" that is really great. I think there are actually a couple of shows out with the same name, strangely, but this one is about a bunch of young people living in an old closed-down hospital in London. Not the new show with the same name starting on HBO about standup comics. It is really very funny. (sorry if this has already been mentioned, didn't read entire thread) I also like Lovesick, another British show, it's very sweet and funny. We loved Bored to Death, if you like Jason Schwartzman and Zac Galifianakis, but it was HBO. Ted Danson was also in it, his best role ever, IMO.

We loved the first two seasons of Fargo and just got the third season on DVD from Netflix. We've watched the first episode. We both thought it lacked the Coen brothers' magic.

Lisa, I found Helen's story line really compelling this past season. I also got tired of Noah.

DD and I LOVED The Affair-but last season was unwatchable. Really jumped the shark with implausible story lines and out-of-character antics.

Even though I adore Dominic West (alum of the best TV show ever, The Wire)I could never get into The Affair, not sure why, adult fare is of interest to me, but not that one. Same with Transparent, Jeffrey Tambor was so excellent in Arrested Development, but I didn't love Transparent. We got through season 1, but the needy and spoiled adult children, ugh, we quit a few epis into season 2 and never went back.

Gail618, we will check out Crashing with Phoebe, thank you for the rec.

Gail, YES Bored to Death was the best comedy show. It was so clever and Ted Danson was at his best in this series.

aktillery- so bummed when they stopped making that show, wish they'd do another season!

We love dark, British shows like the ones mentioned. Another one is Marcella. Happy Valley is coming back in late 2018 and we can't wait.

If you like comedies, Coupling is a hilarious British one. Two of the cast members are on other shows, the brunette is in Leverage, a show about a team who makes things right, by stealing back from crooked people/corporations who screwed over other people. Love it.

Also The Collection is an 8-part series about high fashion design in the 40's. The lead is one of the characters from Coupling.

If you haven't seen White Collar it's good, just for eye-candy Matt Bomer asie from the story-lines. Also Tiffani Thiessen is in it, and she's so gorgeous.

For outrageous comedy, Devious Maids which is along the line of Desperate Housewives, and has Susan Lucci in it. (she brings thin to a whole new level).

We were probably the only ones who didn't watch This is Us last year. We started it a couple of months ago, and were hooked with the first show. We seldom watch just one episode, we want to get to the next one right away.

A good feel-good cop show is Rizzoli and Isles with Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander.

I know Gail. Not many people watched it or heard of it. It is a shame.

Have you seen Patriot? I find it to be a sort of similar humor. However, it is a bit slow.

I did start watching The Patriot when it first came out, and watched maybe four episodes, I think. I'll have to check it out again, I remember that it was very funny, thanks for reminding me of it!

Amazing hotels seems interesting. Looking for things to watch over the holidays. Is it just Netflix or is it also BBC on demand?

We liked "Transparent" but yeah, pretty much most of the characters are totally unlikeable!

Late to the discussion as usual...

My sister was recently raving about Mrs. Maizel to me, but I have yet to check it out.

I have recently discovered Documentary Now! on Netflix & really enjoy its escapist silly-ness. It's from a couple of years ago & I don't know how I missed it, but there is truly such a wealth of good entertainment nowadays, I don't know how anyone can keep up.

Helen Mirren introduces every episode, Bill Hader & Fred Armisen star & executive producer is Lorne Michaels.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4677934/

I prefer comedy to drama, so I really don't follow the dark & sober stuff, tho hubby does.

I like Documentary Now too Carol. The episode "Juan Likes Rice and Chicken" was a riot!

Watched Godless over the weekend. Starts slowly, and there were a couple of predictable plot points. Quite entertaining, good performances. Michelle Dockery is one of the leads.

I love Michelle Dockery.

I really enjoyed the first several episodes of Good Behavior but can’t remember what channel it was on (regular tv, not Netflix).

Sueb20, TNT. It is also available on Amazon Prime.

We started watching the wire and find it kinda slow compared with Narcos. Then again Breaking Bad started slow and it was fabulous.

We recently started watching The Gifted Man - DH came up with this one on Amazon Prime I believe. It's entertaining in a feel good kind of way - refreshing change from all the dark shows we have been watching (The Americans, Halt and Catch Fire, Mr Robot, etc.)

I am really enjoying Sense8. Not sure if it is still there, but Rescue me was great too.

Loved Rescue Me. In a similar vein, I was going to suggest searching for shows by Nick Kroll if you are in the mood for crude humor with heart.