Hi, I'm Paula Sanderson

It’s day three of my social isolation and I hate it. However thanks to good friends who share passwords – I have access to Prime and Prime has some really good stuff.

Perhaps it’s because I’m not often on Prime, but there are a few shows/movies that I’ve been wanting to watch that will have me on Prime quite a bit during this quarantine.

Like the last two days, I’ve organized content by Vibe/Basic Plot/Why it’s great for Quarantine. But I’ve grouped things by TV shows and by Movies. Let me know what you end up watching 🙂

Prime:

TV Shows: 

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Vibe: Gilmore Girls’ big sister
Basic Plot: Mrs. Maisel is a perfect housewife in the 1950s on the upper east side, until she finds her true calling – stand up comedy. As she jumps into becoming a comedian, her life changes in unexpected ways.
Why it’s great for Quarantine: You’ve seen Gilmore Girls at least 7 times and are now refusing to rewatch the revival but still want more. Created by Amy Sherman-Palladino – you’ll get the same wit, speed and general coziness but with a more grown-up vibe.

The Mindy Project
Vibe: Workplace Comedy
Basic Plot: Mindy plays Dr Mindy, an OBGYN who has a complicated love life. Things get good when Danny gets involved.
Why it’s great for Quarantine: At this difficult time, we should be focused on our health care providers – and it is very funny to think about how much Dr. Mindy would be freaking out about covid-19. Also we all need more Mindy in our lives.

The Good Wife/ The Good Fight
Vibe: Power women in power suits.
Basic Plot: The Good Wife focuses on Alicia Florrick after her husband, the State’s Attorney is imprisoned for a sex and corruption scandal. To support her kids, she goes back to work as a lawyer. Each episode focuses on a different case, but also feeds into the larger family and law firm drama. The Good Fight is a spin-off based on Diane Lockhart and is often seen as a sequel to The Good Wife.
Why it’s great for Quarantine: The Good Wife was one of the best shows ever made. I cannot rave enough about it. But really you’re going to watch it because you love Gilmore Girls and Logan is in this as a hot lawyer. Plus – if you watched The Good Wife, now is time to catch up on The Good Fight (which is what I’m currently doing!).

Dawson’s Creek
Vibe: Teenagers being angsty.
Basic Plot: Will baby Katie Holms aka Joey end up with Pacey (Joshua Jackson) or Dawson (James Van Der Beek). There is a lot of melodrama but it’s a gem of a teen show.
Why it’s great for Quarantine: We all need pure trash in our lives and we all could use some Pacey screen time. If you have a teen in your life who hasn’t seen this yet – sit them down and force them to watch this because it is “historically important” in the teen tv timeline.

Fleabag
Vibe: Quirky – wiki calls it a “Tragicomedy”
Basic Plot: Queen Phoebe Waller-Bridge is Fleabag. Her life is complicated.
Why it’s great for Quarantine: This show is ‘the show’ right now. It won a bunch of Emmy’s and PWB is ‘the’ person right now. If you haven’t’ watched it yet, now is the time.

Downton Abbey
Vibe: Historical British Society Drama
Basic Plot: We follow the lives of the Upstairs residents and downstairs servants at Downton Abbey from 1912 and the sinking of the Titanic all the way through to 1926.
Why it’s great for Quarantine: Two reasons. First, series 2 deals with the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic which is relatable right now. Secondly, Brene Brown watches Downton Abbey with peanut butter when she’s stressed out and that sounds perfect. If it’s good enough for Brene it’s good enough for us.

Movies:

Booksmart
Vibe: My life in high school
Basic Plot: Two very smart/accomplished/incredible/perfect high school seniors realize that while their hard work and focus paid off to get them into Ivy League schools, the party kids also got into those same schools. Determined to ‘have it all’ they have one last night to make up for all the parties they missed before graduation.
Why it’s great for Quarantine: You need a laugh and this delivers.

Read the full blog post here.

She’s the Man
Vibe: Peak Amanda Bynes ‘based on shakespeare’ teen comedy
Basic Plot: Based on ‘Twelfth Night’ – Amanda Bynes is Viola who pretends to be her twin brother Sebastian to prove girls can play soccer just as well as boys. Her roommate at boarding school is conveniently Channing Tatum aka Duke and a lovely little rom-com love hexagon develops with them and Monique, Olivia and Justin. Hilarity ensues.
Why it’s great for Quarantine: Did you hear that ‘Shakespear wrote King Lear during quarantine from the plague’ – sure this isn’t King Lear, but you know we’re going to be locked inside for at least twelve nights… really though, watch this for Eunice Bates.

17 Again
Vibe: High school time travel
Basic Plot: Mike O’Donnell (Chandler Bing, Matthew Perry) is very unhappy with his life married to Leslie Mann. He ends up on a spiritual journey, becoming 17 Again. As a 17 year old Mike (Zac Efron) learns how his life went very wrong and figures out how to fix it.
Why it’s great for Quarantine: Come for Zefron, stay for Thomas Lennon. This is just such a classic and if this pandemic is going to take us all out, might as well spend some time with hot Zefron.

Five Feet Apart
Vibe: Our lives currently/ sick kid rom-com
Basic Plot: Two teens with CF meet and fall in love. They need to stay five feet apart but obviously they really don’t want to.
Why it’s great for Quarantine: We all need to stay at least five feet apart. This will remind you to do that.

Spotlight
Vibe: Journalists crushing it
Basic Plot: Based on a true story, the investigative team at the Boston Globe reports on a scandal and cover up with the local Catholic Archdiocese. Winner of the 2016 Best Picture Oscar.
Why it’s great for Quarantine: Like The Newsroom, you’ll be inspired by journalists and perhaps have a bit of respect for the work the media is doing for covid-19. Also we love Rachel McAdams and Mark Ruffalow so this is a great way to spend your time.

After
Vibe: Pure Trash
Basic Plot: Originally a Harry Styles Fan-Fiction, it’s all about Tessa’s life ‘after’ meeting ‘Harry Styles’ aka Hardin.
Why it’s great for Quarantine: You want trash – this is PEAK trash.

Troop Zero
Vibe: A Girl Scouts being #stemists
Basic Plot: When the snobby ‘birdies’ don’t let outcast Christmas into their troop, she decides to start her own ‘birdie’ troop. Her goal: to go to the Jamboree and be a part of a NASA initiative.
Why it’s great for Quarantine: All Girl Guide meetings are canceled for the next little while so might as well hang out with Troop Zero.

Come back tomorrow for my list of the best Canadian Content to watch during social isolation!