The birds are chirping, the trees are thawing, and we can finally see a single patch of grass again. We did it. We survived winter (sort of)! Insert a celebratory sound effect of your choice in place of this sentence. There was one thing that helped me drag myself through the (truly) cold months this year, and considering the thawing theme that March tends to bring with it, what better time to share my current fixation with you: old(er) TV shows (well, one in particular, but that’s semantics and we don’t do that here).

Time to dust off that collection of DVD boxes and take them off the shelves for some early Spring cleaning- or better yet, binge watching. Hey, I’m not going to judge. After this winter, you deserve it, and our staff agrees. After doing extensive, totally scientific research (aka, a fun, library-wide poll), I’ve gathered the top television shows and movies that we’ve watched over and over again, so that you can give a proper, fully de-iced salute to Spring when it finally arrives or get a head start on hibernating for next year. Get your remotes and comfy clothes ready, and let’s dive in.

I did mention that there was one show in particular that helped carry me through my most disliked time of the year. It’s a five-season quirky, modern fantasy romp through a class of dysfunctional, magically adept college students who have a PhD in sarcasm, pop culture, and world-saving Band-Aid slaps that often just… make things worse? When I put it that way, The Magicians doesn’t seem like it would have the makings of a good comfort show, but trust me. When it was airing, it had a bit of a cult following, which never fully went away. Though it’s par for the course if you’re a Syfy show, I guess (I see you, Killjoys and Wynonna Earp enjoyers). The ensemble cast, led by the nerdy, anxious, and magic obsessed (like every kid who desperately wanted a letter to a wizarding school) Quentin Coldwater, make the halls of Brakebills come to life (sometimes literally) as they try to get through their studies without a) blowing themselves up, b) sending themselves to a completely different world which should have just been the contents of a series of popular children’s novels (ala The Chronicles of Narnia) or c) inviting something from that world into theirs to wreak havoc and do other Very Evil Things. As you might have guessed, magic in the world of The Magicians isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but that’s what makes it fun, in a way. Going back to the series now after having watched it before and reading the books it’s based on, the show just has a je ne sais quoi where I can’t help but recommend watching it first before you pick up the book (gasp, sacrilege, I know). Maybe it feels like the world finally found its footing after aging up the characters and reworking some of the original plot points, with the dialogue snappy and a little more true to the real world (well, as real as talk about a fictional land from a popular kids’ book, talking animals, and spells that turn everything into musical numbers can be. But hey, what comfort show isn’t complete without a musical episode?). But enough about my silly, bingeable fantasy show, let’s see what the rest of our staff had to say about what they’re rewatching.    

If you have a soft place in your heart for crime drama shows, Ruthanne’s favourite is sure to find a home in your DVD player again and again. Criminal Minds spans a whopping fifteen seasons of serial murder solving goodness (plus a revival sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth season) with a lively team of FBI profilers looking to make their corner of the world just a bit safer through the tools of behavioral analysis. Whether you’re stuck doing the dishes, need company on long nights of finishing last-minute homework assignments (speaking from experience), or want something to sit down with for an intense snacking session, this show has you covered with every flavor of casefile, from the dark and premeditated to deep revenge plots, to wild, out-of-the-ordinary surprises. Keep an eye out for the colorful, adorkable, and may I say fashion-forward (?) heart of the squad, Penelope Garcia. The fan-favourite character is the standout of Ruthanne’s full Criminal Minds rewatch, with murder coming in at a close second place. Of course.

For crime with a side of comedy, though, look no further than Rhea’s TV companion, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. This eight-season internet meme factory is set in, unsurprisingly, Brooklyn, New York’s ninety-ninth precinct, a chaotic office of detectives who range from good at their job to terrible. Or in between, in the case of Jake Peralta, a boy-who-never-grew-up type with a near spotless arrest record and a penchant for keeping gummy bears, old food, a rubber band ball, a mouse named Algernon, and more in the confines of his desk. Until the no-nonsense, always deadpan Raymond Holt takes over as Captain of the department. The way these two butt heads on screen is a riot, and with how many of Peralta’s co-workers that get roped into their daily disagreements, it just adds more fire to the ever-growing flame of hilarity. But the thing that keeps Rhea coming back for more, like for so many other classic sitcoms, is the growth of the characters. Though I won’t spoil all that fun for you here. You’ll just have to watch it for yourselves. Still, if we haven’t yet sold you on Brooklyn’s finest and funniest precinct, it is also the only show with a yearly Halloween Heist episode (but it’s a good watch at any time of year). Though it might only make you wish you could have a Halloween Heist at your own office… oh well.

Moving a little away from the land of crime, let’s take things over to the courtroom with Justin’s favorite TV familiar, Suits. Did this make the list just because it has Duchess Meghan Markle in it before she was royalty, or that it was all filmed in our great downtown core? Maybe. But if you’re like Justin and can’t help but put yourself in the shoes of powerful lawyers who at least sound like they know what they’re talking about, the nine season law office drama will have you binge watching into the early hours of the morning, “wanting to buy thousand-dollar suits and yell out cool lawyer phrases for absolutely no good reason.” Or so I’m told. Maybe it will also cause you to start looking up random, tough-to-crack court cases on your phone at 3 AM. It’s hard to say. Who knows (Justin knows). Harvey Specter and his team of sharp-witted associates are pretty infectious like that. Until, like so many dramas, a wrench is thrown into their well-oiled machine in the form of Mike Ross, a university dropout who somehow has enough law knowledge to impress Specter enough to let the newbie into his inner work circle of courtroom magnates. The only thing is, no one actually knows Mike doesn’t have his license to practice. Suits really put “evading the eye of the law” into this one.

I can’t end a blog post about rewatchable television without the show that spawned an entire GIF-slinging, Magic: the Gathering card posting side quest on our staff poll. If you clicked on those two links and are in the know, you may have guessed that Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender is our final DVD player BFF. Now, I know I may have some naysayers giving me a very confused eyebrow raise right now. “Isn’t that an animated show?” you may ask. Yes, it is. “Didn’t that come out in 2005?” you may wonder. Yes, it did. “Isn’t it, you know, for kids?” you may think, and to that I say, no, it’s not “just for kids” and hey, what’s wrong with a little animated kid fun every once in a while, anyway? Not that this adventure show is all fun and games either. It’s tough to laugh when you’ve been encased in ice for as long as twelve-year-old Aang has, only to discover that you’ve been flung into the future, your clan of Airbenders has been destroyed, and now as the inheritor of the Avatar title you must master all four elements (only tangentially related to Earth, Wind, and Fire) if you have any hope of stopping the increasingly powerful and ever more violent and controlling Firebending nation. Talk about the literal fate of the world on your shoulders. At least you’ve got some quirky but good friends on your side. But, as this is Adam’s pick, he did say it best. Avatar: The Last Airbender “has that hard-to-come-by quality of being able to have goofy fun, then switch to deeper themes and issues and back again at the drop of a hat without breaking immersion. It handles those deeper themes with more aplomb than you might expect from what is, at its heart, a kids’ show (also it has a Momo. Also, it has an Uncle Iroh.)”. No wonder it still has that coveted 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes after all these years.

With that, I’m sure you’ve got a DVD player that’s calling your name (or that you need to dust off, which I hope we’ve given you a good reason to). I won’t interrupt your date any longer, so enjoy the whirring of well-loved discs and old television resolutions. If you’ve managed to binge-watch yourself through all of our picks in this blog, go check out our companion list on our catalog, where even more of us have chimed in with our rewatchable favorites.

That might tide you over, at least until next month. See you then (unless, of course, you’ve been consumed by your couch).